Now that the episode aired on Seven last night I can now post my reasons. I have put them in a spoiler tag as some people haven’t seen the episode yet.
Steve and Anna Leigh were eliminated in the Dublin leg, meaning the top three teams would all be male. I wanted to see at least one female racer making the final leg back in the US. I reckon Steve and Anna Leigh would have made the final three if they didn’t get lost driving between tasks in Dublin, and that Steve had to perform both roadblocks to even up the number of roadblocks he and her daughter performed, as ordered by the producers.
The season 35 finale aired on Seven last night and is now available on 7plus. Here are my thoughts.
For the final leg in Seattle, a Scramble was used, with the final teams teams finding out in the clue envelope the locations of all three tasks that they had to complete after climbing to the roof of the Space Needle, and could complete them in any order, to collect clues which gave them the location of the memory challenge. It’s the first time the format was used in the final leg of the race (and only the second time in the show’s history, it featured at the start of season 34 in Munich). I like the Scramble format as it created more suspense, and I hope it will return in a future season.
The final leg began at sunset at Seattle International Airport, to avoid the afternoon peak traffic. But it meant the race didn’t finish until early hours of the morning, given the time teams spent at the tasks.
Joel and Garrett arrived first at the memory challenge, and managed to arrange kayaks quite quickly. However, they got mixed up at the order of the two tasks, which gave Greg and John a chance to grab the lead and take out the race. If not for that mix up, I think Joel and Garrett would have won.
I caught up last night. The scenery in this season has been amazing. It’s rare that the teams reach the final pitstop at night. I’d be curious how late it was when they actually got there because it was dark during the previous challenge too.
I wasn’t happy with the winners. I would’ve preferred either of the other two teams to win. I was put off last week when they said that ‘100% they were going to win the Amazing Race’.
I wanted Rob and Corey to win but the winning team were the strongest the whole race, so fair play to them. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being confident in your abilities.
I finally finished off this season over the break.
Overall I thought this was the best season of The Amazing Race in a long time. Some of the recent seasons I have been struggling to get into (especially the last season) but I really got into this season .It was good casting, good locations and the 90 minute episodes made a difference. In some of the early episodes I did find 90 some episodes a bit long, but once a few teams were eliminated I really enjoyed the extra length getting to know the teams more. It felt like old Amazing Race again where I was really behind certain teams.
Yeah I felt the same on this. Of the F3 the teams I was really going for Rob and Corey, who were my absolute faves. So it was a shame that they didn’t get there in the end. I also really warmed to Joel and Garrett the more that it went along. I’d love to see both teams race again. I wasn’t a huge fan of the winners - they just felt the predictable winners and I found their over confidence at times annoying. But they won fair and square. The scramble in the final leg worked well too.
After such a great season, I’m worried next season might go backwards next season knowing it was filmed a while ago, they didn’t plan for the 90 minute episodes and that it will be back to charter flights. But I’ll remain hopeful it’s still decent.
I don’t know how they would hide the fact that it’s back to chartered flights unless they cut out some of those details or minimise the focus on it.
The locations this season sound good. I hope that it just doesn’t drag with unnecessary filler added in. The previous season was fantastic and was one of the best seasons in a long time, so it’s a shame that it might lose that momentum.
The producers can’t hide the fact that they hired a charter plane to carry the teams and crews around. I think Phil Keoghan will record a special intro which will air at the start of the first episode.
Although the main channel replay is scheduled for 10.30pm, in Melbourne and Adelaide it could well depend on when Thursday night AFL telecast finishes. If Seven decides to go to a post-match press conference, the replay will start late.
Promo run in the middle of the episode. What’s the message? Stop watching the broadcast and stream on 7Plus instead? Don’t wait up this late next time!
