At least they did the viewers a favour by knocking out C&A
“We got this!”
get lost running around town, start fighting, fall into last place
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I hope that they do. I mean, I never really care who wins reality shows because 30 seconds after the show ends I’ve usually moved on, but I hope these guys win
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What a complete shit show.
Firstly I’ve hated Aleisha since the get go. Yes hated. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a contestant shirk as much responsibility as she has and dumped so much on her partner. Had Aleisha not watched a season before hand. Yes you have to run, yes you have to do road blocks, yes you have to carry your own bag, yes most likely you will have to eat something feral. Princess indeed.
However, as much as I didn’t like Aleisha, I do have to respect them. They were the only team to run every leg at this point, never got a break from the race, never relied on an alliance and were public enemy number one for most of the race. I’m sure the stress alone would have put an enormous amount of pressure on them and their relationship. I hope they remained strong as a couple through the race and after.
Ideally I did think Chris & Aleisha deserved to be in the top 3 over the Sieks, just not win as Aleisha didn’t do enough road blocks and couldn’t catch up.
Seriously just giving the answer away yet again by an already strong dominating alliance. When is this getting corrected. It isn’t fun watching a dominant group demolish weaker teams and gang up. Just forbid teams from helping each other. I don’t understand why producers are so reluctant to do this outright. They toy with it on some challenges and legs but ignore it over all. Don’t they realise they would get more stress, frantic energy and drama from not allowing others to help. Plus more suspense for the audience and a better winner overall.
As for the season as a whole. Utter shit and so bloody inconstant.
Save and Sabotage. Yes only on the Amazing Race Australia would a team get rewarded for coming last and punished for not losing. Not only that they didn’t even bother with them on some non elimination legs. Fishy.
Stowaway teams. Seriously. Fucking seriously. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to dump teams in the middle of the race, fresh and alert, without having already competed for a week. It was unfair to everyone involved, including the stowaways themselves.
First class pass. No. Giving teams a break from the race because you’re too cheap to give away enough prizes because you extended the amount of episodes. Eff off.
My god the length of the race. I love the Amazing race, but seriously having 24 episodes was way too much. It’s never ending especially as it isn’t even enjoyable for most episodes with it being deliberately signposted that it’s a non elimination leg and have four teams left but four episodes remaining. Yeah total buzzkill.
I really liked the challenges for the most part, but by mid way through they were tedious. Most of the them were ridiculously easy and if they weren’t teams just gave up and took a penalty. WTF. Even some of teams said they were hoping for more skill based challenges.
Penalties. I don’t think i’ve ever watched a season where so many contestants quit and took a penalty or the race was so poorly designed that teams showed up late and had their challenge cancelled and just given a clue. Not only that the time penalties were pathetic and erratic. A fifteen minute time penalty and a twenty minute penalty just for saying the challenge was too hard. Yes Dwes & Katherine should have been brought back for that crap alone.
Not enough diversity in the locations. Seriously, how many boring desert episodes must we endure. At least show off the location to the fullest potential. Brisbane leg was a total bust. Subway, inside a hotel and Musgrave park. Fail. They even managed to make the Gold Coast look boring. You’re at a theme park and don’t even do a challenge there, just a pit stop. Lame. Not showing the main part of the Cataract Gorge. Also going back to a location twice. No thanks.
With the amount of episodes and massive episode lengths it always felt like they rushed their location and never fully immersed themselves or the viewer in the location. The location can be just as important and unique as the racers themselves.
Onto the episode lengths. Way too long and often killed the fast pace nature of the race.
Lastly onto the virtue signalling. Seriously Ten, please show me how woke you really are by shoving a five second card acknowledging traditional owners at the beginning and shoe horning in as many superfluous indigenous greeters as you can. Yet keep on employing those straight, middle aged white men to host your shows Ten. As an Indigenous person it just irked me beyond belief. It was nothing more than a PR gimmick to make themselves look good and feel better. I wish they hadn’t bothered, they don’t mean it.
The only positive I have is the casting. I liked all the teams, even the ones I loved to hate, and what they brought to the race. Favourites were definitely Dwes & Jess along with Skye/Jake and Jordan/Violetta.
I won’t be watching the finale, I’ll just read about it. Next episode is another waste of time non elimination leg (with three teams no less) or either a two person finale which would be really weird and crap. Either way I don’t care enough to watch. Congratulations to whoever wins.
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I thought acknowledging the traditional owners at the beginning of each episode was a nice gesture and fit with ViacomCBS ANZ’s Reconciliation Action Plan, which was launched in November last year just as this season began filming.
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Garlo’s Pies factory at Kingsgrove, which was the site of a task on tonight’s episode, also featured in season 5 of The Bachelorette in which chief pie tester Jackson Garlick had a pie eating date with Angie Kent.
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They also used to sponsor Studio 10 with pies for the studio audience lol.
Can’t remember if it has always been the case (given we’re past 30 seasons now), but a non-elimination in the penultimate episode has been standard for quite some time.
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Compared with Brooke from season 29 of TAR-US Aleisha looked like an absolute superhero. Brooke cried and complained all through the race and multiple teams helped her when she couldn’t complete challenges. Her frequent cry of ‘I can’t do it’ became the ultimate drinking game.
And worse…she won. 
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Completely agree with almost all of this, you’ve put into words all of my frustrations that I couldn’t be bothered writing about because I’m so done with this season. I get they had limitations to deal with, but honestly.
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I get that Ten were trying to get better bang for buck out of the show with a much more limited schedule due to COVID but they could have done that by filming two seasons back to back rather than have this season go on for this length. They could have easily filmed two 14 episode seasons with not a lot of extra effort. Then it could have aired twice a week (with the Cube also twice a week) and have another season up their sleeve for the second half of the year.
Doing it this way would have also meant that going back to locations again (like the return to Queensland) wouldn’t have felt like filler and they wouldn’t have needed to add stowaways either. It was a lot more exciting earlier on in the season but the second half has just dragged on for a ridiculous amount of time and completely lost my interest.
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Like I said for me I found it distasteful, political point scoring on the backs of minorities.
Yes gesture indeed. A tokenistic gesture that at they end of the day was a nice little PR nugget that they could pat themselves on the back with and jump on the politically correct zeitgeist without rocking the apple cart too much. If they had done this the first season, then it might have held more weight, but it just comes across as pandering and band wagon jumping. It rang hollow especially compared to how Ten otherwise operates.
Ah yes the reconciliation action plan. It talked a lot without actually addressing anything meaningful. Also any organisation that needs a protracted action plan for common sense and decency and inclusion is all talk no action and a lot of hot air. It will also cover a lot of what NITV and SBS is doing, so it all seems a bit redundant and trying to alleviate some misplaced white guilt.
Different circumstances. She was thrust into the competition with a complete stranger so knew nothing about each other. That’s incredibly stressful, coupled with completely different personalities and ways of doing things so I’ll cut her some slack. She also carried her weight in the roadblocks.
I found Aleisha far more draining. I mean bitching about the fundamentals of the race like teams helping each other. It sucks and can be unfair but you signed up for it and it wasn’t new. Moaning to Beau on the mat isn’t going to change anything.
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Agree with most of the points you’ve raised here - a very good assessment of the season.
I love TAR - have watched it since the beginning, following it around late nights on Seven, watching their fairly decent local version, and now this one.
Despite the faults, I’ll keep watching, but I do hope they take some of the feedback on board. I’m not against a longer season but there are better options than the constant “pre-determined” non eliminations, such as a double leg (you’re the sixth team to arrive…here’s your next clue).
As for Beau… I was skeptical when he was announced as host, but he hits it out of the park. He’s a perfect fit for the format. His humour and demonstration of many of the tasks adds something that Phil and the US version lack.
They’ve done an admirable job given COVID restrictions. I hope the show can return overseas next time around.
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I was skeptical of Beau as well but I’ve really warmed to him as host. I think he’s done a great job.
I have enjoyed the “local” season but agree with most point that others like @Bort & @Harriet have already spoken about.
Fingers crossed for the cowboys to win 
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Amazing Race winners
Ye-Ha. The Cowboys Win The Amazing Race Australia.
After a tough final race to the top of Mount Kosciuszko, The Cowboys Brendon Crawley and Jackson Dening, were first to cross the finish line, sensationally winning The Amazing Race Australia and the $250,000 cash prize.
With three fiercely strong teams starting the finale, every second of this last leg was crucial. The remaining three teams travelled from Sydney, to Canberra and then the Snowy Mountains in the last of this 24 leg race. They had one of the strongest three-way alliances ever, but now it was every team for themselves.
Their first challenge was a Roadblock in Canberra, ACT, where teams went to Lake Burleigh Griffin to ride a flight board for 10 seconds, before receiving their next clue. After many, many, many (did we mention, many?) attempts, Jackson managed to finish the challenge first.
Next up, it was off to the lawns of Parliament House, where teams assembled two giant puzzles of an Aboriginal Flag and the Australian National Flag.
The Cowboys finished their puzzles first, but after calling for a check, they were told they had the Australian Flag back to front, which allowed The Gold Coast Girls to get in front. But their lead didn’t last long when, Ashleigh and Amanda’s cab driver took a wrong turn and pushed them to last place.
Get to the chopper! In the next challenge, teams travelled via helicopter to Thredbo. One team member had to climb out of the chopper on a rope ladder, and grab the clue halfway down the ladder, before jumping into the freezing cold water below.
For the next challenge, teams took a gondola to Friday Flat. After disembarking the gondola seconds apart, The Cowboys and The Gold Coast Girls went head-to-head in a foot race to the start of the next challenge. Jackson had to stop several times for a not-so-sneaky vomit, allowing Ashleigh and Amanda to overtake and reach the top of a super-sized slip-and-slide first.
Here, the teams slid down the hill and collected several flags along the way. With an empty tummy and only two attempts under their belts, The Cowboys finished first.
Meanwhile, The Super Sikhs Jas and Anurag, couldn’t locate the gondola and walked up the steep hill to reach the challenge. When they arrived, it was a struggle to start the slip and slide.
For their final challenge of the race, and with a little help from some eliminated teams, they had to match an obscure law with a state or territory in Australia. For each state or territory law they matched, they received a bag of puzzle pieces. When they had received all eight bags, they began the puzzle, which was matching the Indigenous mobs on the map of Australia.
Once their puzzles were complete, teams raced up Mount Kosciuszko to Beau Ryan who was waiting at the finish line. With The Gold Coast Girls hot on their heels, The Cowboys dug deep to climb the mountain first, and were over the moon when Beau named them winners of The Amazing Race Australia.
In close second was The Gold Coast Girls, Ashleigh and Amanda, who raced valiantly and proved that women can do anything! In third place were The Super Sikhs, Jaskirat and Anurag, who showed Australia what the Sikh fighting spirit is all about.
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I’m sure the second & third place teams would also win a cash prize as well, just not $250,000.
climbing a mountain for the final leg is not very thrilling end where anyone could come first. Even if the editing is bullshitting at least when they run on flat ground they can make it look like all 3 are in with a chance but we watched them in order for the last 15 mins or so climb that hill and unless the cowboys died those girls weren’t passing them.
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I think Ashleigh and Amanda could have overtaken the cowboys if not for the girls being bogged down at the final puzzle. It was a thrilling conclusion.
The Sikhs basically lost their chance to win $250,000 after they got lost on their way to the gondola.
Apparently there was a task at Canberra which went unaired. The 3 teams had to go to Old Parliament House where one team member had to listen to the playing of Gough Whitlam’s 1975 Dismissal speech and memorise it by heart, then had to type the whole thing in full, before making that speech outside the building.
I will have more reactions to this season later on.
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Yeah it was a pretty dull way to end it. The editing was so predictable too - they kept showing the cowboys looking like they were struggling to try and make it look like the girls had a chance but it’s not like anyone could just zoom up that hill. They also got some perfectly angled shots from up on the hill to make it look like it was closer than it was but then there would be scenes where they weren’t even in sight. The editing was all over the shop. They were clearly still a fair way behind.
I also don’t know why they chose to have the eliminated contestants at the challenge rather than the finish line. It just felt a bit strange.
Horribly weak finale. That mountain challenge was ridiculously boring. I’ve always thought for the finale the final challenge should be a 3 way detour (rather than the usual 2 choices) - where teams all get split up doing different challenges and then have a long drive to the pitstop. That way you can really edit for drama and make things look really close.
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