Thanks. So that means Australia will be 3 episodes behind the US when it starts next week, and 2 episodes behind America the week after.
I have been watching this season through some âcreative methodsâ and (without giving anything away) the first two episodes are pretty good. It is a stupid gimmick in theory (22 strangers matched into 11 teams) but it is providing good viewing.
Also, TAR has been winning the Thursday 10 pm slot for CBS which is reasonably good news for a potential renewal. (it has done a 0.9 in the 18-49 while its rival shows are doing a 0.7)
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Yep. Totally absurd.
It could be worse, Australia could be 1 to 2 months behind the US.
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I disagree. Seven have routinely launched new seasons of the TAR several weeks behind the US, presumably to account for the inevitable breaks in the US broadcast. We usually end up pretty much on par as the seasons progress.
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If they have a break, we have a break! I donât understand why thatâs so difficult for FTA networks?
Can you imagine Foxtel pulling that stunt with Game of Thrones?
GoT doesnât take breaks. If the Americans didnât interrupt the run then there wouldnât be a problem.
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Itâs still a problem because Seven is airing The Amazing Race on Tuesdays. It needs a Friday airing to have any chance of fast tracking.
There are no breaks this season. Double episodes will air on the 20th of April and 18th of May in the US. The only reason Amazing Race took breaks in the past was because it aired on Sundays where it took breaks because of award shows and sport events. The last few seasons have aired on Fridays with the current season airing on Thursday
Interesting start to the new season. One thing I donât like is American subtitles which are all in capitals (past series were all subtitled by Australian caption firms) And who gave the hashtags for each team - LongHairDontCare sounds so random.
The first 10 contestants who arrived back at the LA starting point with empty suitcase with a Panamanian flag were able to pick their partners on first impression (Phil paired the final two contestants - Jessie and Francesca), and already a team (Shamir and Sara) had verbal arguments during the competition. They had to sort their differences out quickly if they were to win the race and claim US$1 million.
Although the 11 teams took the empty suitcases to Los Angeles International Airport, no doubt they were given their own backpacks by the production team after check-in.
Feel sorry for Kevin and Jenn, who were unable to complete their detour due to darkness. Had they not got lost on Panamanian roads they would have reached the canopy tower earlier and had enough time to do the detour.
I also notice that in the second leg, the 10 remaining teams took six different flights to fly from Panama City to Sao Paulo, with Jessie and Francesca arriving in Sao Paulo while all other teams were already on their helicopters on their way to the first clue. I reckoned flight arrangements could have been better arranged with (for example) five teams on flight 1 and five teams on flight 2.
With the remaining episodes at 11.10pm Tuesdays, I will have to continue downloading each episode and watch it before the Seven broadcast.
I only watched the first episode (And maybe 10 minutes of the second) and recorded the rest. Not a fan of it running past midnight but better than nothing! I wasnât blown away by the first episode to be honest as none of the tasks were overly exciting but usually takes me a couple episodes to get into a season.
I remember reading a comment from Phil that by episode 3 if you are not hooked on this season you never will be⌠or something along those lines. So it must get really good after that. Iâve seen the locations for this season and overall it looks like one of the best in that regard.
After last nights episode I did a bit of instagram stalking of a few of the contestants. I noticed that two contestants from this season who are not paired together seem to have been dating for quite some time (obviously this was filmed almost a year ago). They are Logan and Sara. So my prediction is both of them probably make it pretty far on the race for them to have spent enough time to then pursue a relationship.
Apparently they have been taking applicants for the next season on CBS so it looks like there is a chance of a 30th season. Iâm guessing the race might just be one season per year now.
In this weekâs episode, teams flew to Tanzania and took a ferry across the sea to Zanzibar. When they arrived at Zanzibar they had to take a dhow (instead of a taxi) to the north of the island for detour. I wonder if this was done to slow teams down while the crew set up the tasks?
In the roadblock, several teams paid US dollars to buy produce at the market and got short changed. It would have been better if they exchanged for some local currency when they arrived at the airport instead.
This weeks episode was really good, much better than the first two. The location was great and it had good tasks. Those market stall challenges are always intense but as they werenât given money to spend at the actual challenges some teams were at an immediate disadvantage just cos they had spent more on other things this leg. You can tell that Matt & Redmond will probably become the villains this season.
It would be great if this week episode was on 7plus!! OMG that has to be one of the worse online channels!!! 
Thank you!! It wasnât there the other day when I posted that message. Thanks! 
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The tasks in this weekâs episode at Zanzibar were very time consuming. The contestants were not helped by the clue which told them to go the house where Farrokh Bulsara lived in his early years, without revealing he was actually Freddie Mercury. If the clue was clearer the teams would not have wasted valuable time looking around.
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But isnât that the point? It is one of my annoyances of the show that has changed over the years, that with mobile phones and the internet too often clues like that are done with a google search rather than talking to somebody or looking around.
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The problem was many locals had no idea whom Farrokh Bulsara actually was until they did a web search.