History Characters / TheAmazingRace19

Professional snowboarders, with Andy competing in the 2006 Winter Olympics. On the surface, they were a pair of goofy, fun-loving friends who dominated the season until they made one serious mistake followed by some bad luck getting them eliminated in 4th.

It has been said that their elimination was totally because of bad luck, but their story is not that clear cut. There were negative feelings against them from the beginning, first for being another blatant StuntCasting team, embodying everything fans hated about Seasons 15 and 16, and in particular, a not so subtle attempt to create another [[Characters/TheAmazingRace9 B.J. & Tyler]], [[Characters/TheAmazingRace15 Flight Time & Big Easy]] or [[Characters/TheAmazingRace16 Jet & Cord]]. Second, while visiting a Buddhist temple in Thailand they were, to say, a bit narrow-minded in their commentary, making a number of controversial statements about religion that turned a good portion of the fanbase against them. Third, half of their six leg wins came due to another team(s) in front of them incurring a penalty, and two others came from legs that seemed to be particularly geared towards their strengths. Then you have their elimination, which came after they flubbed their first attempt at finding the location of the Pit Stop, while the other teams' cab drivers worked together to get them to the Pit Stop first. Add all that up, and you have a team that's much more controversial than they were ever meant to be.

* BadLuckCharm: A man in Panama gave Marcus some magic rocks to give to Andy & Tommy to give them bad luck. Though he forgot to give the rocks to the boys, and he threw them out the window instead, his insistence that the bad luck would still affect Andy & Tommy turned out to be true, as they were eliminated at the end of the leg due to a streak of bad luck.

Professional snowboarders, with Andy competing in the 2006 Winter Olympics. On the surface, they were a pair of goofy, fun-loving friends who dominated the season until they hit a horrible streak of luck that eliminated them in 4th.

However, their story is not that clear cut. There were negative feelings against them from the beginning, first for being another blatant StuntCasting team, embodying everything fans hated about Seasons 15 and 16, and in particular, a not so subtle attempt to create another [[Characters/TheAmazingRace9 B.J. & Tyler]], [[Characters/TheAmazingRace15 Flight Time & Big Easy]] or [[Characters/TheAmazingRace16 Jet & Cord]]. Second, while visiting a Buddhist temple in Thailand they were, to say, a bit narrow-minded in their commentary, making a number of controversial statements about religion that turned a good portion of the fanbase against them. Third, half of their six leg wins came due to another team(s) in front of them incurring a penalty, and two others came from legs that seemed to be particularly geared towards their strengths. Then you have their elimination, which came after they flubbed their first attempt at finding the location of the Pit Stop, while the other teams' cab drivers worked together to get them to the Pit Stop first. Add all that up, and you have a team that's much more controversial than they were ever meant to be.

However, their story is not that clear cut. There were negative feelings against them from the beginning, first for being another blatant StuntCasting team, embodying everything fans hated about Seasons 15 and 16, and in particular, a not so subtle attempt to create another [[Characters/TheAmazingRace15 Flight Time & Big Easy]] or [[Characters/TheAmazingRace16 Jet & Cord]]. Second, while visiting a Buddhist temple in Thailand they were, to say, a bit narrow-minded in their commentary, making a number of controversial statements about religion that turned a good portion of the fanbase against them. Third, half of their six leg wins came due to another team(s) in front of them incurring a penalty, and two others came from legs that seemed to be particularly geared towards their strengths. Then you have their elimination, which came after they flubbed their first attempt at finding the location of the Pit Stop, while the other teams' cab drivers worked together to get them to the Pit Stop first. Add all that up, and you have a team that's much more controversial than they were ever meant to be.

---> '''Andy''': I don't feel like any weird vibes coming here. We know the one, true God and it's pretty straight forward when you read the bible. ---
---> '''Jennifer''': Doing this, while it may not be the same religion as mine it's so important to save an amount of respect. I wouldn't want somebody to coming into my church and disrespecting my crosses or anything like that.

* UnskilledButStrong: They were weak at the strategic aspect of the game, but were so much more physically fit than the other teams that they were able to blow through physical challenges that caused other teams major problems. Tommy, in particular, was this. Whenever he hit a mental task. He would get a blank, confused look on his face. Laurence essentially carried him through the Buddhist Statues Roadblock, and he nearly lost his temper during the Hans Christian Andersen poem Roadblock.

* DullSurprise: Sandy failed the Hans Christian Andersen Roadblock the first time because of his underwhelming dramatic performance.

* StuntCasting

* StuntCasting

* StuntCasting

* StuntCasting

After two straight successful seasons, the Race initially seemed to be reverting to old bad habits. With four StuntCasting teams, the comparisons to [[Characters/TheAmazingRace15 Seasons 15]] and [[Characters/TheAmazingRace16 16]] were not far behind. However, within the first few episodes it became abundantly clear that these teams were not going to have it east. The producers had obviously been paying attention, and put together a course that exploited the {{Metagame}} and the tendency for teams to overlook small details, coming up with one of the most mentally challenging courses the show had ever seen. However, this added challenge also led to teams making lots of mistakes. Several times a team survived a big mistake that normally would have eliminated them, simply because someone else made a bigger mistake. The teams were entertaining for the most part, with little inter-team drama. While the season had its moments, it was never great, nor was it ever exactly bad either. It's probably the closest the show has to an "average" season.

** When told to disassemble a spirit house in Thailand, they were smart enough to realize they'd have to put it back together later, but decided to take mental notes instead of physical ones. [[DumbMuscle Tommy]] naturally could not remember how the spirit house was put back together, so he had to take the taxi back to the store to reassemble it.

* DumbMuscle: Tommy would morph into this whenever he hit a mental task. He would get a blank, confused look on his face. Laurence essentially carried him through the Buddhist Statues Roadblock, and he nearly lost his temper during the Hans Christian Andersen poem Roadblock.

* UnskilledButStrong: They were weak at the strategic aspect of the game, but were so much more physically fit than the other teams that they were able to blow through physical challenges that caused other teams major problems.

* AsianAndNerdy: Cindy

* ChekhovsHobby: Subverted. Cindy mentioned taking seven years of Chinese school as a child, but it barely came into play in Taiwan (a Chinese speaking country) unlike previous Chinese racers, who were able to dominate Chinese legs due to their communication skills.

* DownToTheLastPlay: The seventh leg had a long run from the U-Turn mat to the Pit Stop which allowed Andy & Tommy to catch up to and pass the Express Pass using Ernie & Cindy just feet from the mat for their fifth leg win. Notable in the huge amount of {{Foreshadowing}} the scene contained pertaining to Ernie & Cindy's eventual victory over Andy & Tommy.
* DullSurprise: Tommy failed the Hans Christian Andersen Roadblock the first time because of his underwhelming dramatic performance.

* EveryYearTheyFizzleOut: Despite being more technically skilled at the game and having more knowledge of the {{Metagame}} than Andy & Tommy, their tendency to make late mistakes and fall behind was why they were never considered the best team on the season. They cost themselves at least three leg wins due to stupid mistakes, a fourth due to bad traffic causing them to ditch their cab, and a fifth due to the train equalizer late in leg 9, causing them to lose their huge lead on the other teams. Add to that the three legs they did win, and they could have been the six win team had they been able to get their act together. They even knew this, and Cindy kept pointing in out near the end of the season. However, when it counted, they pulled through and won it all.

** When they were taking a train from Hamburg to Brussels, with a stop at Cologne in between. Leaving the ticket office, they dropped their tickets from Cologne to Brussels, and did not have enough money to buy another pair. This led to them getting on the train anyway, and hoping a conductor didn't come around to check tickets. No conductor came by, and they made it to Brussels without incident.

* FreudianExcuse: Cindy's just full of them.
* GenreSavvy

* OppositesAttract: How did someone as laid back as Ernie ended up with someone as uptight as Cindy?
* OvershadowedByAwesome: A big theme of Season 19 was Ernie & Cindy running a successful, NoDamageRun race, yet constantly feeling like a second-tier team because they did not achieve many first place finishes, and constantly made late mistakes that allowed them to be overtaken and beaten by Andy & Tommy (who managed to build up the image of an unstoppable force heading into the Final Four). Once the snowboarders were gone, they were far above the remaining competition heading into the final leg, and they cruised to victory.
* ParentalMarriageVeto: Cindy's parents were not happy with her choice of spouse, and would have preferred her to be with a Chinese man.

* SatelliteCharacter: Ernie, compared to Cindy, just kind of floated in the background most of the time.

Dating Divorcees. Despite making the Final 3, they spent the majority of their time out of the spotlight, becoming probably the least focused on team to make it to the finale. They had a few fights, but never enough to become the fighting couple, they didn't really clash with any of the other teams aside from Laurence (and that only lasted one task. Overall, they were just kind of there. They were ultimately smoked by Ernie & Cindy in the final leg when they lost their lead after they went to the store called "The Dump" instead of the former residence known as "The Dump," and finished in 2nd.

** Early in the Legoland puzzle task, they dropped one of their pieces, and did not notice it until they had nearly completed the puzzle. They then had to start over with a new puzzle.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Instead of using their cab driver's phone to call for help to find "The Dump" in the finale like Ernie & Cindy did, they instead stopped and asked a random guy on the street, which got them sent in the wrong direction and lost them the Race.

* BadLuckCharm: A man in Panama gave Marcus some magic rocks to give to Andy & Tommy to give them bad luck. Though he forgot to give the rocks to them, and he threw them out the window instead, his insistence that the bad luck would still affect them turned out to be true, as they were eliminated at the end of the leg due to a streak of bad luck.
* BornLucky: The barely avoided elimination no less than five times, including in the penultimate leg, when their cab driver being in contact with Jeremy & Sandy's got them to the Pit Stop without ever figuring out the location for themselves. On the other hand, both of their leg wins came after late leg bunching points that vaulted them ahead of other teams.

* CallBack: On leg 2, upon getting out of a cab in Indonesia, Marcus said that he now knew how [[Characters/TheAmazingRace15 Big]] [[Characters/TheAmazingRace18 Easy]] felt having to ride in tiny vehicles on his two seasons.

* GentleGiant: This seems to be the trend amongst big, athletic black guys on the show.

* TheLoad: Luckily Averted in the third leg. They were in last place heading into the Buddhist Statues Roadblock, and while putting on their sarongs, they ran into Andy & Tommy, who had just completed the task. Tommy, without hesitation, gave them the answer to the very confusing task (one which he had already all but been handed by Laurence), with them explicitly stating afterwards that they were doing it because they had the ability to choose who they wanted to keep in the Race by giving them the answer. Now, as this was coming off the heels of [[Characters/TheAmazingRace18 Flight Time & Big Easy nearly winning Unfinished Business]] thanks to such unpopular answer sharing, this might not have gone over well. Fortunately, by the time they got to the top of the temple, and got their Roadblock clue, they had already forgotten the answer.

* RealityShowGenreBlindness: Marcus was happy relaxing at the Amsterdam airport, confident that all the teams would be on the same production arranged flight to Copenhagen in the morning. However, while they were taking their time, all the other teams were busy getting flight that got them in that evening. Cue the editors cutting between Marcus & Amani sleeping at the airport, while all the other teams arrived at the overnight equalizer that would give them an hour lead over Marcus & Amani in the morning.

Engaged couple. Out in the real world, Cindy's mom apparently was not very happy with her choice of husband, which caused her to go out of her way to prove her relationship to her family. However, none of that showed on the race. What the audience saw was a ControlFreak who pushed herself and her husband-to-be way too hard, freaked out at the drop of a hat, and annoyed them with her single-minded goal to win the race. They spent most of the season as second bananas to Andy & Tommy, but once they were free of the snowboarders in the finale, they put on the most dominating finale performance in Race history, not even seeing another team after the first task on their way to victory.

Dating Divorcees. Despite making the Final 3, they spent the majority of their time out of the spotlight, even with a first-place finish and three straight second-to-last finishes in elimination legs under their belt. They were ultimately smoked by Ernie & Cindy in the final leg when they went to the store called "The Dump" instead of the former residence known as "The Dump", and finished in 2nd.

An African-American married couple. If you talk to Marcus for more than two minutes you'll learn two things. First, he used to play football, specifically, tight end for the Indianapolis Colts. Second, he relates his entire life through the sport. They had a knack for falling way behind, then making last minute comebacks to survive. Nonetheless, they won two legs and made the Final 3, and were knocked out of the running on the first task when it took Marcus 12 tries to correctly land the plane in the flight simulator.

After two straight successful seasons, the Race initially seemed to be reverting to old bad habits. With four StuntCasting teams, the comparisons to [[Characters/TheAmazingRace15 Seasons 15]] and [[Characters/TheAmazingRace16 16]] were not far behind. However, within the first few episodes it became abundantly clear that the producers were not planning on going easy on these teams. The producers had obviously been paying attention, and put together a course that exploited the {{Metagame}} and the tendency for teams to overlook small details. The teams were entertaining for the most part, with little inter-team drama. While the season had its moments, it was never great, nor was it ever exactly bad either. It's probably the closest the show has to an "average" season.

-->'''Cindy''': It'd be like losing it to the C student when we're the A+ student.

* ControlFreak: Cindy.

Professional snowboarders, with Andy competing in the 2006 Winter Olympics. Though they started out as an attempt to create another potential fan favorite, almost being a carbon copy of [[Characters/TheAmazingRace9 BJ & Tyler]], they ended up becoming one of the most unintentionally controversial teams in the series. After four legs of goofy antics, they made some fairly closed-minded statements regarding their own religion and religion as a whole whilst in Thailand, which alienated themselves from a good portion of the audience. Whilst they raced strong, and would have a late lead in the penultimate leg of the season, they ended up getting edged out of the Final 3 thanks to flubbing their first attempt at finding the location of the Pit Stop, while the other teams' cab drivers worked together to get them to the Pit Stop.

Professional snowboarders, with Andy competing in the 2006 Winter Olympics. While they initially started out as an attempt to recreate teams such as [[Characters/TheAmazingRace9 BJ & Tyler]], they caused a lot of controversy when they made some fairly closed-minded statements regarding their own religion and religion as a whole whilst in Asia, which alienated themselves from a good portion of the audience. This, combined with a generous portrayal as the supposed fan favorites of the season, would lead to them being easily the most divisive and controversial team of the season. Whilst they raced strong, and would have a late lead in the penultimate leg of the season, they ended up getting edged out of the Final 3 thanks to flubbing their first attempt at finding the location of the Pit Stop, while the other teams' cab drivers worked together to get them to the Pit Stop.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: With a heavy dose of {{Foreshadowing}}. At the beginning of episode 5, they quotes the Bible verses they had written on their backpack straps. Andy's was Proverbs 19:2, Do not have zeal without knowledge, or be hasty and miss the way. This would become very significant in the penultimate leg.

* CrackDefeat: They were in first place in the penultimate leg, looking like a lock for the Final 3, when they messed up the clue that was supposed to lead them to the Pit Stop, their cab driver taking them first to the Panama Canal, than a statue looking for "Balboa". This should have been no big deal, as only one of the other teams figured it out on the first try, except that the cab drivers for all the other teams had been in contact all day, and the one who knew where he was going told the other two where the Pit Stop was. Since Andy & Tommy's driver was not in on this collusion, they missed out and were eliminated.

* DumbMuscle: Tommy would morph into this whenever he hit a mental task. He would get a blank, confused look on his face. Laurence essentially carried him through the Buddhist Statues Roadblock, he nearly lost his temper during the Hans Christian Andersen poem Roadblock.

* {{Expy}}: They're [[Characters/TheAmazingRace9 B.J. & Tyler]] with just a dash of Christianity.

* LargeHam: This was one of the tendencies that made them a BaseBreaker.

* RealMenLoveJesus: The fifth episode started with them talking about their faith as they left the Pit Start, and [[AsTheGoodBookSays quoting the bible verses they had written on the straps of the backpacks.]] Later, when Tommy was reassembling their spirit house for the Roadblock, they both made some very close minded comments about the Buddhist temple and other Buddhist related tasks they were asked to complete. In contrast, fellow Christian Jennifer was much more respectful of their surroundings.

** When told to disassemble a spirit house in Thailand, they were smart enough to realize they'd have to put it back together later, but decided to take mental notes instead of physical ones. Tommy naturally could not remember how the spirit house was put back together, so he had to take the taxi back to the store to reassemble it.
** When dressing up as the {{Franchise/Tintin}} characters Thomson & Thompson, Tommy thought they were CharlieChaplin. Now, there was nothing wrong with this initially, as they just did not run into anyone who recognized them. However, after doing the research, and finding out who Tintin was, he continued to think they were dressed as Charlie Chaplin, and didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with the fact that Charlie Chaplin and Tintin were not connected.

* ShockingElimination: Not only because of how well they had been doing, but because of how fast their elimination occured. They dropped from a comfortable first to last on the final clue of the leg.

* SpannerInTheWorks: The cab drivers in Panama. Throughout the penultimate leg, Ernie & Cindy, Marcus & Amani, and Jeremy & Sandy voiced their annoyance that their cab drivers were all discussing directions with each other, with Marcus & Amani getting taken to the wrong Detour as a result. However, they were all much happier when those same cab drivers talking to each other helped them get to the Pit Stop. Andy & Tommy, who were not with the pack and switched drivers after the Detour, did not benefit from this information sharing, and were therefore eliminated.
* SpotlightStealingSquad

* UnskilledButStrong: They were weak at the strategic aspect of the game, but were so much more physically fit than the other teams, that they were able to blow through physical challenges that caused other teams major problems.

* SpannerInTheWorks: The cab drivers in Panama. Throughout the penultimate leg, Ernie & Cindy, Marcus & Amani, and Jeremy & Sandy voiced their annoyance that their cab drivers were all discussing directions with each other, with Marcus & Amani getting taken to the wrong Detour as a result. However, they were all much happier when those same cab drivers talking to each other helped them get into the Final 3 over Andy & Tommy.

* RousingSpeech: Marcus gave one to his rabbit at the All Hopped Up Detour.

* ShockingElimination

* FailedASpotCheck: Constantly. Despite being more technically skilled at the game and having more knowledge of the {{Metagame}} than Andy & Tommy, their inability to notice small details was why they were never considered the best team on the season. They cost themselves at least three leg wins due to stupid mistakes (and a fourth due to bad traffic causing them to ditch their cab, and a fifth due to the train equalizer late in leg 9, causing them to lose their huge lead on the other teams). Add to that the three legs they did win, and they could have been the six win team had they been able to get their act together. They even knew this, and Cindy kept pointing in out near the end of the season.
** One specific example was when they were taking a train from Hamburg to Brussels, with a stop at Cologne in between. Leaving the ticket office, they dropped their tickets from Cologne to Brussels, and did not have enough money to buy another pair. This led to them getting on the train anyway, and hoping a conductor didn't come around to check tickets. No conductor came by, and they made it to Brussels without incident.

* DumbMuscle: Tommy would morph into this whenever he hit a mental task. He would get a blank, confused look on his face. Laurence essentially carried him through the Buddhist Statues Roadblock.

Older couple, they fell behind by four hours in leg 1 while unable to find the giant sign that was their next clue, but were saved by a rare first leg non-elimination. They would quickly improve, even pulling a pair of 2nd place finishes before they fell behind again in leg 10, finally getting eliminated in 5th.

* [[BadassGrandpa Badass]] [[NeverMessWithGranny Grandparents]]: Despite their ages, the had no issues with most of the physical tasks. Being a farmer, Bill blew through a Roadblock involving transporting 200 lb. bales of tobacco across a warehouse via handcart, easily beating former NFL tight end Marcus in the process. Cathi was no slouch either, carrying an entire bed frame on her back to the Pit Stop on that same leg, passing several other teams. Two legs later, they were U-Turned and shrugged off the additional task without dropping a spot, with their 2nd place finish being the best ever for a U-Turned team[[note]]No other team in the U.S. version has finished above 4th after being U-Turned[[/note]]. Not to mention, they both looked pretty damn good for their ages in those speedos during the body building task.
* CoolOldGuy[=/=]CoolOldLady: They were the fan favorites for a reason.

* HighSchoolSweethearts: Bill had this exchange with Cindy, about him and Cathi, in leg 8:

* NoSenseOfDirection: Cathi got lost looking for the theater in the Hans Christian Andersen Roadblock, losing their hour and a half lead over Jeremy & Sandy. They then got lost looking for Legoland.

* [[ReallyDeadMontage Elimination Montage]]

** They would have won leg 10 if they had just been able to navigate.

* [[BadassGrandpa Badass]] [[NeverMessWithGranny Grandparents]]: Despite their ages, the had no issues with most of the physical tasks. Being a farmer, Bill blew through a Roadblock involving transporting 200 lb. bales of tobacco across a warehouse via handcart, easily beating former NFL tight end Marcus in the process. Cathi was no slouch either, carrying an entire bed frame on her back to the Pit Stop on that same leg, passing several other teams. Two legs later, they were U-Turned and shrugged off the additional task without dropping a spot, with their 2nd place finish being the best ever for a U-Turned team[[note]]No other team in the U.S. version has finished above 4th after being U-Turned[[/note]].

* FailedASpotCheck: Constantly. Despite being more technically skilled at the game and having more knowledge of the {{Metagame}} than Andy & Tommy, their inability to notice small details was why they were never considered the best team on the season. They cost themselves at least three leg wins due to stupid mistakes (and a fourth due to bad traffic causing them to ditch their cab). Add to that the three legs they did win, and they could have been the six win team had they been able to get their act together. They even knew this, and Cindy kept pointing in out near the end of the season.

* FailedASpotCheck: They screwed up their first clue in Denmark, missing one of the flags that told them their destination. With only one half of the clue, they ended up going to the wrong castle, dropping them to a tie for last with Marcus & Amani, who hadn't even gotten into the country until an hour after the "operating hours" equalizer had opened for the other teams.

* NoSenseOfDirection: Tommy got lost looking for the theater in the Hans Christian Andersen Roadblock.

* NoSenseOfDirection: Cathi got lost looking for the theater in the Hans Christian Andersen Roadblock, losing their hour and a half lead over Jeremy & Sandy.

* RealityShowGenreBlindness: When told to disassemble their spirit house, Erine did not want to take notes, saying the clue said nothing about reassembling the spirit house. Of course, when Ernie had to do the Roadblock, he could not remember how it went, and had to go back and look at another spirit house.