Amazing Race season 36

[dcassetta]

I was so sad as I was really rooting for them. The teams with 2 young (youngish) men so often dominate the game, that seeing Angie persevere was wonderful. And, she and Danny had such a positive and supportive relationship.

I understand that the issue at the roundabout led to them getting separated from the film crew, but that should have been a delay of a few minutes not a "they never showed up". If Amazing Race cannot hire competent local guides and drivers, the contestants should not be penalized for that.

 

[The Mayor]

Not me When this season started and Danny cried in the 1st 5 minutes I told my husband that that boy was going to drive me crazy - ha. But I’ve grown to love him as the season has gone on - he’s so positive and so good to his mom!

I’m pretty sure every parent would like to be treated respectfully and lovingly like Danny was with his mom.

 

[Skywalker3]

That was such a disappointing ending. I was so upset for them to be eliminated, due to the crew messing up. Have read a few of the their interviews, and sure sounds like the crew were locally hired, and the producers didn't know what to do, and delayed allowing them to continue. In one article, Danny said the crew never showed up, but he was told to say that line that they did, on camera. ugh. Maybe they'll get some sort of second chance. I was surprised they made it so far, but several detour/roadblocks were not that physical, so that helped a lot. I enjoyed them.
Do think it was smart of the air force guys to do the more physical challenge, especially being the last to arrive, doubtful they'd catch up. Good strategy there.

 

[emmabelle]

I’m sad to see Danny and Angie go.

 

[Skippy918]

The penalty of losing your crew seems really unfair when the crew is supposed to be following them. I liked Angie and Danny and they were doing so well in the race. Bummed to see them go.

 

[Claudia1]

The penalty of losing your crew seems really unfair when the crew is supposed to be following them. I liked Angie and Danny and they were doing so well in the race. Bummed to see them go.

I agree! I wonder if we will see them again in another season as a way to make it up to them for the fumble.

 

[starvenger]

Finally managed to watch the ep. I am not sure what happened to the crew, but the rule, going all the way back to season one, is that you are a team of four (six in the season we do not talk about) - the contestants, and the crew.

So I get the time penalty at the detour. You lost part of your team, so the penalty is earned. And the producers are trying to figure this out on the fly. The chaos of all this ended up costing them.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Finally managed to watch the ep. I am not sure what happened to the crew, but the rule, going all the way back to season one, is that you are a team of four (six in the season we do not talk about) - the contestants, and the crew.

So I get the time penalty at the detour. You lost part of your team, so the penalty is earned. And the producers are trying to figure this out on the fly. The chaos of all this ended up costing them.

It wasn't a time penalty but it would have made sense if it had been that. They were just advised they had to wait for their crew to arrive but they actually never did arrive, Danny saying that they did arrive was a lie according to what has come out now, production told him to say they had arrived.

Another crew had offered to step in since they were there and production told them no. After some time that's when production allowed the other crew to film them. Appearantly this was the first time it happened shocking they didn't have some sort of plan like if your crew doesn't arrive for X amount of time you get Y time penalty or something of that sort. From what we know now their crew got lost and it wasn't the contestants fault.

 

[starvenger]

It wasn't a time penalty but it would have made sense if it had been that. They were just advised they had to wait for their crew to arrive but they actually never did arrive, Danny saying that they did arrive was a lie according to what has come out now, production told him to say they had arrived.

Another crew had offered to step in since they were there and production told them no. After some time that's when production allowed the other crew to film them. Appearantly this was the first time it happened shocking they didn't have some sort of plan like if your crew doesn't arrive for X amount of time you get Y time penalty or something of that sort. From what we know now their crew got lost and it wasn't the contestants fault.

It wasn't a time penalty but it was effectively a time penalty if you know what I mean. But I agree that the production team should have had a plan B. I guess that after all the years of not having an issue like this pop up, they got complacent.

However, I disagree with completely absolving the racers of blame here. Losing the crew WAS the Angie and Danny's fault, but the crew's subsequent inability to find their way back (especially if they are local) is not.

To me, what Danny is trying to do here - and remember he's a superfan and has had 2 years to reconcile this in his mind - is not accept any responsibility for what happened, and that does not sit well with me. Did production mess up? Yes, I think they did. But to try and pretend that you played no part in what happened? I can't accept that, sorry.

And is this story going to earn the team another chance? The weirdness of the situation would probably have done that anyway, but creating the controversy afterward almost guarantees it.

(Note: I didn't think I'd be this cynical about it when I first started typing this. Weird.)

 

[soccerdad72]

Let's face it, if this was Vinny and Amber, nobody would care about the mixup

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It wasn't a time penalty but it was effectively a time penalty if you know what I mean. But I agree that the production team should have had a plan B. I guess that after all the years of not having an issue like this pop up, they got complacent.

However, I disagree with completely absolving the racers of blame here. Losing the crew WAS the Angie and Danny's fault, but the crew's subsequent inability to find their way back (especially if they are local) is not.

To me, what Danny is trying to do here - and remember he's a superfan and has had 2 years to reconcile this in his mind - is not accept any responsibility for what happened, and that does not sit well with me. Did production mess up? Yes, I think they did. But to try and pretend that you played no part in what happened? I can't accept that, sorry.

And is this story going to earn the team another chance? The weirdness of the situation would probably have done that anyway, but creating the controversy afterward almost guarantees it.

(Note: I didn't think I'd be this cynical about it when I first started typing this. Weird.)

No I agree about the time penalty but what I was meaning is in the past there have been clear time penalties spelled out for each issue...pass on a detour= X time, don't follow detour rules or descriptions=X time. However in this case there was none even thought about. I believe from the story on the article it was estimated to be under 20 mins distance something like that from where they were driving so it shouldn't have taken long to hook back up with the contestants. So yes they lost their crew but the crew got lost because of a local tour guide that was driving them who got lost so when you look at it ultimately it was out of their hands.

Let's face it, if this was Vinny and Amber, nobody would care about the mixup

I actually care more that there wasn't something set up for a situation like this on a show running since 2001. I think people do feel more for the team going home but it doesn't look good for being told to lie nor find out they didn't have a process for if this happens. If you have the rule not to lose the crew (which makes sense) you need a process for what happens if that does occur.

 

[bluezy]

It wasn't a time penalty but it was effectively a time penalty if you know what I mean. But I agree that the production team should have had a plan B. I guess that after all the years of not having an issue like this pop up, they got complacent.

However, I disagree with completely absolving the racers of blame here. Losing the crew WAS the Angie and Danny's fault, but the crew's subsequent inability to find their way back (especially if they are local) is not.

To me, what Danny is trying to do here - and remember he's a superfan and has had 2 years to reconcile this in his mind - is not accept any responsibility for what happened, and that does not sit well with me. Did production mess up? Yes, I think they did. But to try and pretend that you played no part in what happened? I can't accept that, sorry.

And is this story going to earn the team another chance? The weirdness of the situation would probably have done that anyway, but creating the controversy afterward almost guarantees it.

(Note: I didn't think I'd be this cynical about it when I first started typing this. Weird.)

I think the thing that baffles me is how a "local" crew got so lost that it took them a long time to get to the end point (have we heard anything about how long it really took them?? The editing of the show always makes it difficult to tell if a delay is 15 minutes or 2 hours. ). Is the crew not allowed to have phones??? They must have some method of communicating with other crews so they can communicate expected arrival times, problems, etc. Why didn't they just map out the route on their phones so they could catch up to the team? Or stop and ask directions like the team does??? And what if that crew just simply didn't like Danny & Angie so they purposely took their time getting to the road block knowing they wouldn't be allowed to compete until they arrived? Or *maybe* the crew had no idea that Danny & Angie were going to have to wait for them to start their tasks so they weren't concerned about how long it took them to get there. I hope TAR has a plan in place for if/when this happens again.

 

[mjkacmom]

It wasn't a time penalty but it was effectively a time penalty if you know what I mean. But I agree that the production team should have had a plan B. I guess that after all the years of not having an issue like this pop up, they got complacent.

However, I disagree with completely absolving the racers of blame here. Losing the crew WAS the Angie and Danny's fault, but the crew's subsequent inability to find their way back (especially if they are local) is not.

To me, what Danny is trying to do here - and remember he's a superfan and has had 2 years to reconcile this in his mind - is not accept any responsibility for what happened, and that does not sit well with me. Did production mess up? Yes, I think they did. But to try and pretend that you played no part in what happened? I can't accept that, sorry.

And is this story going to earn the team another chance? The weirdness of the situation would probably have done that anyway, but creating the controversy afterward almost guarantees it.

(Note: I didn't think I'd be this cynical about it when I first started typing this. Weird.)

As far as I can tell, the only mistake they made was a wrong turn, every episode consists on wrong turns. The crew never made it, what could the team have done to fix it? The team could also not discuss what happened until the episode aired years later.

 

[starvenger]

I think the thing that baffles me is how a "local" crew got so lost that it took them a long time to get to the end point (have we heard anything about how long it really took them?? The editing of the show always makes it difficult to tell if a delay is 15 minutes or 2 hours. ). Is the crew not allowed to have phones??? They must have some method of communicating with other crews so they can communicate expected arrival times, problems, etc. Why didn't they just map out the route on their phones so they could catch up to the team? Or stop and ask directions like the team does??? And what if that crew just simply didn't like Danny & Angie so they purposely took their time getting to the road block knowing they wouldn't be allowed to compete until they arrived? Or *maybe* the crew had no idea that Danny & Angie were going to have to wait for them to start their tasks so they weren't concerned about how long it took them to get there. I hope TAR has a plan in place for if/when this happens again.

The crew is usually in communication with the producers about location, potential u-turnage, proximity to the pit stop etc, so there really shouldn't have been any situation where they simply did not turn back up.

Danny said they were sitting at the detour for 45 minutes or so before production got another crew together to film the rest of their leg. I've no reason to doubt that.

FWIW, having the racers and crew separate is not unheard of - they do this in South/Southeast Asia when teams get into tuk-tuks and the like. Could it be possible that the producers gave false equivalence in terms of assuming that crews in Barbados could follow the chaotic driving of Racers, like the Asian crews do in even more chaotic urban settings?

 

[starvenger]

The team could also not discuss what happened until the episode aired years later.

Sure, but that goes to what I was saying. Danny's story seems to have been well prepared, and overly defensive - almost as if he was expecting the edit to be much harsher than it was.

Just to reiterate, I don't disagree that the missing crew and the handling of the situation was done poorly. Just how Danny is reacting to this.

BTW, Reality Blurred has an excellent article on the first season of TAR where they talk about how the crew + racers are considered to be a team, and in his article this week, he says:

All of this connects back to a fundamental Amazing Race rule: teams must stay with their camera crews.

For my behind-the-scenes story about The Amazing Race season one, producer Brady Connell told me that when they were planning the race, this was a question. “It could have been the fatal flaw of the show. How do we keep the crews with them?” The answer, he said, was “they are part of your team. It was that simple.”

Season-one winner Brennan Swain told me that the crew “are like your kids. Every time you buy a ticket to do anything, you’ve got to buy a ticket for your kids that you got to keep them close.”

So, yes, Amazing Race teams have to treat their crew members like children: they always have to be with them and within sight.

And in the comments, he further clarifies:

Because that’s the way it works on Amazing Race: you are responsible for keeping track of your crew and staying with them. If you’re on foot, and one of them stops to tie their shoe, you wait. If they are filming you pulling out of a parking spot, you wait for them to get in your car. It’s not always perfect or fair—which is one reason why each team gets a different camera operator and sound engineer each leg of the race.

 

[dcassetta]

Sure, but that goes to what I was saying. Danny's story seems to have been well prepared, and overly defensive - almost as if he was expecting the edit to be much harsher than it was.

Just to reiterate, I don't disagree that the missing crew and the handling of the situation was done poorly. Just how Danny is reacting to this.

Perhaps he was well-prepared and a little defensive because the producers told him to lie on camera. They did not have to wait on their crew or take a penalty for leaving their crew. Their crew never showed up. I get that TAR had to scramble here, but it does seem unfair that they were penalized for someone that TAR hired to drive their crew.

Danny and Angie were well aware of time penalties, they had even discussed this in an earlier leg when Angie was concerned about completing a task.

 

[emmabelle]

It was so weird that the crew was so late to get to the beach especially if they are locals?

I didn't know this season was filmed in the fall of '22. I was wondering why they weren't showing how they were traveling from country to country.

 

[Kitty 34]

This is the first Amazing Race I've seen in years and years. Has there ever been another "crew" situation before to the extent of causing an elimination or any kind of long wait?

 

[starvenger]

I didn't know this season was filmed in the fall of '22. I was wondering why they weren't showing how they were traveling from country to country.

Yeah it was filmed before the previous season. Hence the Amazing Charter Jet, staggered starts and staying in the Americas.

But because of the strikes, CBS wanted longer episodes, and so a season was filmed with 90 minutes episodes in mind, and this one was pushed back so they could re-edit. It's a bit jarring to go back to this, even though I do like the staggered start concept versus the "rush to the airport only to find out you're bottlenecked with everyone else" thing we almost always see.

 

[starvenger]

This is the first Amazing Race I've seen in years and years. Has there ever been another "crew" situation before to the extent of causing an elimination or any kind of long wait?

I think crew members have been injured in the past, requiring a replacement. I think it may have happened on Boston Rob's season?

But things like this typically only get brought up if it impacts an elimination and such (obviously that is the case this season). Previous seasons have had unaired Roadblocks and Detours because they had zero impact on the leg (and presumably zero drama), and Fast Forwards have been ignored because no one did the task.