Amazing Race 24 - All Stars

[PirateLover]

Mel, sorry you'll be losing your tradition with your son. I'm a DVR everything person these days myself, so I'll be happy not to have to worry about the delays and taping for 2 hours after the scheduled air time!! The only things I watch love anymore are usually season finales because of high spoiler potential. Even if we are home, we let shows build up on the DVR for 15-20 mins to be able to skip commercials. Spoiled I guess!

[Melanie]

What is this "watching live" of which you speak?



Especially now, having 3 kids in elementary school, I don't watch any tv until after their bedtimes. Unless its Sunday football/golf or the news, I don't know when the last time I intentionally sat down and watched a show live.

LOL! It's literally 'our thing' for TAR and Survivor. My husband and my other son don't watch, so we've always plopped down on Sundays and Wednesdays to watch live together. I doubt I'll have him around much on Fridays anymore once he gets his license.

I do believe those are the only shows I watch live though.

[MNNHFLTX]

While I appreciate not having to worry about the show being delayed because of sports, I much prefer it to be on Sundays. It's also become a tradition for my husband and I to watch it together; our Sunday won't be the same without it. I doubt we'll watch it on Friday when it airs, we'll probably just watch the recording over the weekend.

BTW, I'm pulling for Brendan and Rachel to win at this point. I can't get behind Dave and Connor and I certainly don't think the country singers deserve to win. Besides, I was impressed with how quickly Brendan picked up on the Welsh pronunciation of the poem they were reciting. That is one hard language to learn.

[Melanie]

While I appreciate not having to worry about the show being delayed because of sports, I much prefer it to be on Sundays. It's also become a tradition for my husband and I to watch it together; our Sunday won't be the same without it. I doubt we'll watch it on Friday when it airs, we'll probably just watch the recording over the weekend.



BTW, I'm pulling for Brendan and Rachel to win at this point. I can't get behind Dave and Connor and I certainly don't think the country singers deserve to win. Besides, I was impressed with how quickly Brendan picked up on the Welsh pronunciation of the poem they were reciting. That is one hard language to learn.

Me too, Beth. Certainly don't want Conner and Dave to win, and blondes don't deserve it, no matter how they've convinced themselves that they do according to their tweets.

[TheDuckRocks]

BTW, I'm pulling for Brendan and Rachel to win at this point. I can't get behind Dave and Connor and I certainly don't think the country singers deserve to win. Besides, I was impressed with how quickly Brendan picked up on the Welsh pronunciation of the poem they were reciting. That is one hard language to learn.

I have been trying to put my feelings into words for days now. Thank you for expressing exactly how I feel.

My DH, who doesn't usually watch AR with me, has recently started stopping by the couch when the show is on for a few minutes here and there. His comment the other night was, "Who is that older man who is always whining?" Guesses anyone?

[JanetMegan]

Been out of town 10 days but finally watched last week's yesterday. I hate to say this but of the remaining teams now I have to root for Brenchel. I did crack up a bit when we lost it in the boot thing.

Not sure about the Friday move, we have a couple other shows that we often watch (record) on Fridays-thanks for the head's up though!

[MNNHFLTX]

<sigh> Oh well.

[PirateLover]

Kinda proud that I called it! While Dave in particular did start to annoy me with his whining, of the 3 left in the end I'm glad they won. I still don't think it's right that Dave didn't do an equal amount of roadblocks, but if that rule wasn't being enforced I guess I can't blame them. Country girls did not deserve to stumble into a win, and even though Brenchel (well, Rachel at least) seemed to have matured this go round, I found myself rolling my eyes and groaning at their comments and actions. All the talk of babies... As of they don't have any money to start a family. Please. I didn't like the set up of the final leg, though. The tasks were interesting and the grand finale was suspenseful but nothing was difficult! I hate it when they don't include some sort of memory challenge. Ah well. Another season comes and goes!

[tinkwest]

I thought that was a fairly boring finale.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Dave and Connor won 6 of 12 total legs and never finished lower than 4th place. Only a handful of teams in Race history have ever won more legs, so hard to deny that they weren't deserving.

Only pliable explanation I heard regarding the Roadblocks came from an apparent tweet from Phil that stated that thru 10 legs the most any one individual could perform was 6 and that in legs 11 & 12 there would be three roadblocks and they could be performed in any manner as long as it was 2-1 or 1-2. Thru leg 10 Connor had done 6 to Dave's 4 and then Connor did 2 of the last 3, making the final total 8-4 (the other two teams were 7-6). I don't know if this was the explanation for just this season or if its been in place for a while. Total # of legs and roadblocks can vary from season to season, sometimes totalling 13 or 14.

I was hoping for a bit more out of this final leg. The David Copperfield roadblock had a lot of build up, but as a challenge, it didn't deliver.

Going into the final leg I would have been fine with Daven and Connor or Brenchel winning. but after only a few minutes and a half dozen comments from Rachel that the only way she can have babies is if they win, then when they got obnoxious in the dessert and went running into the hotel like a chicken with their heads cut-off, I was so actively cheering against them. A disgusting performance.

Not the greatest of season, but none of the all-star ones have been. At least of the final 3, the right team won.

[NJDad]

Wish they could plan finales that didn't pivot on the randomness of which cabbie drove you around.

[Melanie]

Time to move on, thank goodness. Overall, a disappointing season for me. I found none of the tasks in the finale interesting, with too much emphasis on taxi drivers, a slow ascent and descent in that (very simple) light bulb challenge, and what seemed to be a very obvious clue for the finish line. Snore! I totally missed the memory challenge, and the need for the teams to show some physicality. None of that was required.

[TheDuckRocks]

Very boring end to a very disappointing season.
Connor and David did play well, but I still do not like them at all. Way too full of themselves.

[MNNHFLTX]

Dave and Connor won 6 of 12 total legs and never finished lower than 4th place. Only a handful of teams in Race history have ever won more legs, so hard to deny that they weren't deserving.

Only pliable explanation I heard regarding the Roadblocks came from an apparent tweet from Phil that stated that thru 10 legs the most any one individual could perform was 6 and that in legs 11 & 12 there would be three roadblocks and they could be performed in any manner as long as it was 2-1 or 1-2. Thru leg 10 Connor had done 6 to Dave's 4 and then Connor did 2 of the last 3, making the final total 8-4 (the other two teams were 7-6). I don't know if this was the explanation for just this season or if its been in place for a while. Total # of legs and roadblocks can vary from season to season, sometimes totalling 13 or 14.

I saw that tweet too. Color me skeptical. I don't think it's beyond reality that when the producers are looking at the teams for an upcoming race that they might "tweak" the rules in ways that level the playing field for a team that might be at a disadvantage, for the sake of ratings. Dave and Connor were clearly one of the favored teams coming into the All-stars, partly because of their background story and partly the way the last race ended for them. While I agree that they were not undeserving of the win, if Dave had had to do an equal number of roadblocks as Connor it is quite possible that they wouldn't have won so many times or may even have been eliminated. I think the same about the country singers. The fact that they made it through two non-elimination legs to get to the finale seems fishy to me. While we'd like to think that non-elimination legs are all set in place before the race begins, we saw one leg in a recent race where it clearly would have been a non-elimination leg but the last team was so far behind that it would have made no sense to enforce it. So these things certainly can be modified as the race goes along, for whatever reason. Until they announce rule changes ahead of time to the public (even prior to team selection), I will be skeptical.

I do agree that Brendan and Rachel went out with a whimper (literally). Wow, yeah--the "we need to win the race to have a baby" got very old and made little sense, except to try and gain sympathy from those around them. So in the end I was okay that Dave and Connor won, as long it wasn't the country singers!

For all the lights and glitz, I also found the finale to be boring. I might be the only one that feels this way, but the David Copperfield roadblock was the stupidest ever, IMO. I get that it was an illusion and a magician "never gives away the secret to his tricks", but to not even know what happened or how the team members got from the burning box into the the fireman's costumes just seemed anticlimactic and lame.

Hopefully no more All-star races for a while.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Wish they could plan finales that didn't pivot on the randomness of which cabbie drove you around.

I really didn't see that the cab drivers made that much of a difference. They played up the difficulties big time with Brenchel's cab driver, but the cab driver didn't tell Brenchel to not read the clue but to instead run inside the Mirage and waste valuable time. These hotels are huge and I'm sure the cabs are used to going to the main entrance, the confusion seem to come in finding the right entrance.

Dave and Connor and the Country Girls arrived at the final roadblock at the same time, so they were on equal footing, so I don't really think the cabs came into play that much.

[JanetMegan]

I prefer it when they have to do some kind of super complicated puzzle or challenge to finish it off.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

I prefer it when they have to do some kind of super complicated puzzle or challenge to finish it off.

Interestingly enough, each of the three all-star seasons (S11-18-24) none of them had a final memory challenge component.

S11 - Teams went to SF Mint, one person went into the vault, answered questions about other teams which created a combination, then the other teammate had to go in and try figure out how their partner answered the questions.

S18 - teams were at the mobile trailer park and had to assemble their trailer area to match the one in the photo.

S24 - change lightbulbs at the Mirage.


The memory challenges really didn't start until S9 where teams had to race back and forth into a field of flags and bring back the countries they visited and position them in order. I think most seasons since then have had a memory component of some type.

Problem is, every team expects it so they spend the entire race taking extensive notes. There isn't quite the surprise factor for them that it used to be. Probably harder and harder to get creative with new tasks.