The Amazing Race

Strong season for the most part. Sure, the Country Singers got out of an inordinate number of jams, but they were one of the better teams for personality and a majority of the Top 5 were teams that I would be quite cool with winning.

And, no, I am not revealing the winners. Not tonight anyway.

By the power of competition and in the name of Keoghan... REVIVE!!!

So, seriously, if there are still any Tropers watching, what did you think of the last challenge last week? Did you think that it should have been done before or was there a good reason to not do this until now?

I would've thought that it would've been good... for a non-elimination leg. Also for a standard leg in an All-Stars run. But not for a standard leg in a standard run.

Yes, this sort of thing does nullify Taxicab Roulette. But what if a team contracted a penalty? For a 30 minute penalty,^note which happened on Leg 1, I may have been okay with having a team wait the penalty out at the challenge's starting line. But for a 4-hour offense, not so much, as it also penalizes the team that came to the last challenge last.

While I ended up liking the Partner Swap idea, I would rather that they revived the old term of "Intersection" for it. Whether the teams were split or combined, the fact remained that the results were for the teams as a group, not each newly formed pair individually.

The way that the Democracy U-Turn this past week was handled could have deprived Chris & Brett of their vote. Maybe the Producers had an inkling that they would factor in a Kingmaker Scenario, but what if the other 3 teams that were not part of the Afghanimals' alliance decided to unite against that team or the Riley Sisters?

Personally, I would have rather they did it like Survivor, wherein each racer gets to enter a vote in the jar. I would have the voter's name be on the ballot, so that it still would not be "secret", but each racer would vote not knowing the vote of any other racer except possibly that of their Teammate. At least 1 team would have had a split vote in the scenario where they didn't know each other's preference, and could still have had a split vote if they did.

Also, instead of 2 teams being U-Turned, I would have had the team or teams with the most votes get U-Turned. And if each team got 2 votes? Then all 7 Teams get U-Turned.

Actually, what would have been just as exciting, but more positive, would be a Democracy Fast Forward, i.e. "Which Team do you want to compete against in the Finals?" I would have done it the same way as I would have suggested the Demo U-Turn, but only 1 team would be allowed to earn it; if there was a tie, the Fast Forward would have been forfeit.

Who knows... maybe we'll see that in the Final Four.

All I can say is, the curb stomping aside, if tonight's episode ends up being the Series Finale, at least it went out with a bang at the finish line.

We have to wait 2 years for season 32 to air and that's without Covid.

Sadly that means the wait for season 33 would be even longer, with the current situation in the world.

Any guess for when? I'd say probably 2023 at the earliest, if they return to shooting on late 2021 or early 2022. But looking at season 32, we might have to wait until 2024.

Even with the vaccines beginning deployment,^note and presuming that they're as effective as the lab results say and that the side effects aren't so bad that the vaccine becomes a net push or worse, it'll still take a good long while for the Anglosphere to get medical herd immunity, much less the rest of the world. So unless we're up for another "Family Edition", where travel is restricted to America and Canada, I'd be surprised to see the Race in 2025.

Call me a pessimist, but I think that we've seen, if not the last Race, then at least the last one that Phil will host. Yes, I believe that the Series Hiatus will last that long and that Season 32 is effectively a Postscript Season coming off the heels of the Reality Combination Season.

Of course, Covid would be a Genre-Killer only for the sub-genre of Reality Games that requires travel to multiple places throughout the world; even without a vaccine, series that take place in only one location, e.g. Survivor and Big Brother, can still go on so long as there are applicants who don't mind an extra month or 2 of quarantine prior to the actual competition.

Then again, I also saw Covid as a potential death knell for American Football, considering the massive rosters engaging in contact, though I also thought that the concussion scandal weakened the sport enough to make it vulnerable. When money and will are strong enough, anything can be possible.

Incidentally, if it wasn't for Covid, we probably would have seen Season 32 in March. Then again, IIRC, it was originally slated for Fall 2019.

Phil himself already confirmed Season 33 does exist, it already started production when Covid happens and production has to be halted.

Since it originally already started production, Phil is very likely still the host.

He also confirmed it will continue production as soon as it's safe to do so, but....well, who knows when that is.

Edited by ShiningStardust on Dec 17th 2020 at 5:10:58 PM

Which is the point: By the time that enough of the world has been vaccinated or Covid is otherwise neutered, the remaining 16 racers will likely have changed a good bit. Some of them may no longer be race-worthy (e.g. Christie's pregnancy delaying her and Colin's return for 20 Seasons). Others may have their partnership severed for various reasons. Some racers may even become disqualified.

I'm thinking that Season 33 will be remembered as "the Missing Season" and the racers thereof will only likely make it to air as "New Racers" to compete with All-Star teams that went (at least) twice as far as they did. If it wasn't for Deangelo's Elimination Statement, I'd pick him and Gary as a potential headliner team for that Season.

Well, maybe. It depends on how soon they can continue shooting.

If it takes more than a year....they probably will just restart the whole thing, probably as Season 34.

Did anyone notice that there were 5 teams at the Season 33 Finish Line, even though there were only 7 teams at the restart? Given their reason for missing said restart, I expected Taylor and Isaiah at said Finish Line, and I believe that they were the team in the blue & white Tie-Dye shirts. It's just too bad that they didn't have an aired comment.