Warning: lots of text (scary) so i’ll put the summary here:

TLDR: The best age to be to win TAR (U.S.) is about 29 years old, yay!

Other good ages that win are 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36 years old (don’t blame me, blame the stats)

I remember watching The Amazing Race for this first time when I was in 6th grade, and I’ve always wanted to apply for the show. However, I began to notice that young people (early 20s) went home early often because they just don’t have enough life experience and get lost easily. That’s when I wondered to myself, at what age should I apply and go on to win The Amazing Race? Soooo….

Statistical Question: What is the optimal age for winning The Amazing Race (U.S.)?

Initially, I thought that you can simply gather the ages of all winners of the race, then find the average/median/mode to get an answer.

However, this kinda is unfair and doesn’t take into account of population size or whatever.

• For example, there are five winners aged 26 years old and four winners aged 33 years old. Based on this information, you may conclude that racers who are 26 years old have a statistically higher chance of winning. However, TAR has cast sixty-two 26-year-olds but only thirty-two 33-year-olds, so it’s probable that there is a higher count of 26-year-old winners compared to 33-year-olds.

Thus, we should compare the win rate of all ages since it accounts for population size i think.

• However, another problem occurs because this method benefits the ages that don’t have many racers. For example, there have been only five 55-year-olds, and since one of them won the race, the win rate for 55-year-olds 20%. This is the largest win rate for any age, but we know obviously that 55-year-olds aren’t the best racers lol.

So now I made a decision to arbitrarily draw borders and make my own conditions. I want to only analyze data sets with ten or more data points since I want to take into account for population size; I developed 2 ways to determine the optimal age for winning The Amazing Race.

1. I found the win rate of these age ranges: 19 to 22, 23 to 27, 28 to 32, 33 to 37, 38 to 42, 43 to 47, 48 to 52, 52 to 57, 58 to 62, 63 to 67. It satisfies my condition since there are ten or more racers for each age range. Here’s what I got:

Close race, but it seems like ages 19 to 22 years old have the highest win rate, so you would conclude that ages 19 to 22 are the optimal ages to win, right? Looking at my second method…

1. I found the win rate of each age, but only if there have been ten or more racers with that age. For example, I wouldn’t include 55-year-olds in my data because there have been only five 55-year-old racers. Here’s what I got:

Now, it seems like 29-year-olds have the best chance of winning the race! How interesting, but this makes the results inconclusive, great. In this second table, the top four win rates do not include the age range of 19 to 22 years old, quite conflicting I’d say. Moving on ig to the actual graphs I uploaded

-----------------------------------

NOTES

• I recorded the individual ages of all team members, rather than just using team averages, so each individual person has their own data point. Also, returning racers are counted for each time they ran the race
• The age data reflects how old each racer was at the time of the START filming, not their current age. For example, Flight Time TAR15 had his 33rd birthday on Leg 8, but his TAR15 stats are counted under as a 32-year-old.
• Additionally, all ages were rounded down to whole numbers, as you would typically state them in a normal conversation e.g., '42' instead of '42 and a half' (duh)

Slide 1:

• I found the average age for all the people who finished the race in 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, and so on.
• There is a clear trend here: younger racers do better, with the average age of all winners being 29.92 years old.

Slide 2:

• I graphed each individual person’s age on the x-axis, then their respective finishing placement on the y-axis. Larger dots correspond to a greater frequency (for example, there are a lot of 26-year-olds who placed 9th).
• There is not a clear trend here. An r-squared value of 0.0258 is pathetic lmao (basically, this graph is kinda useless)

Slide 3:

• This a vertical bar chart of the average finishing placement of each age.
• The best average finishing placements are by ages 14, 16, 30, 68, and 36 years old. This is misleading because there has been only like one 14-year old, two 16-year-olds, and two 68-year-olds.
  • The best average finishing placements by ages that have ten or more data points are ages 30, 26, 29, 35, and 46 years. uhhh cool.
• The worst average finishing placement are by ages 8, 11, 60, 70, and 71 years old
  • The worst average finishing placements by ages that have ten or more data points are ages 49, 39, 41, 44, and 40. idk what you want to do with that information

Slide 4:

• This is a histogram of all the ages of all the racers. Each category’s size is five years. It follows a pretty even smooth curve skewed right.
• Ages 23 to 32 make up 48.9% of all racers. I wonder if that is the same percent amongst the people that have applied for the race.

Slide 5:

• Column chart of all the ages of all the racers.
• There is a CLEAR peak at 26 years old, making up 7.1% of all racers. The next three ages with the highest frequency of racers are 27, 29, and 28 years old.

Slide 6:

• Box-and-whisker plot of all the ages of all the racers. Outliers are not marked, but are included in the graph.
• Min = 8 years old, Q1 = 26 years old, Median = 31 years old, Q3 = 39 years old, Max = 71 years old. There are quite a few outliers using the outlier formula.

Slide 7:

• This is an extensive table of statistics for each age.
• Oldest Racer Records
  • The oldest racer ever period is Jody TAR16 at 71 years old at the time of filming! She is followed closely by Mel TAR18 at 70 years old (he’s such an icon). Props to them for signing up to do the show at that age
  • Don & Mary Jean TAR6 and Meredith & Gretchen TAR7 (we have a BAD elephant!) are the oldest teams, with both teams having an age average of 67.5
  • Dave TAR24 is the oldest person to win the race at 58
  • Kim & Penn TAR33 are the oldest team to win the race, with an average age of 46
  • Teri & Ian TAR2 and Ken & Tina TAR13 are the oldest teams to reach the finale, with an average age of 50
  • Donald TAR12 is the oldest person to reach the finale at 68
• Youngest Racer Records
  • Youngest racer period is Austin Black TAR8 at 8 years old, followed closely by Carissa Gaghan TAR8 at 9 years old. They both were incoming 4th graders at the time of filming. Outside of TAR8, the youngest racers are Zac TAR19, Cole TAR28, Cameron TAR28, and Maya TAR36 all at 19 years old.
  • Darius & Cameron TAR28 and Maya & Rohan TAR36 are the youngest teams to have run the race, with both teams having an average age of 20.5
  • Tommy Linz TAR8 is the youngest to win at 19. Outside of TAR8, the youngest person to win is Starr TAR13 at 21.
  • Nick & Starr TAR13 and the Linz Family TAR8 are the youngest teams to reach the finale, as well as the youngest teams to win the race, with an average age of 21.5
• The ages that have won the race the most are 29 (count=7 racers), 25, 22, 24, 26, and 30 years old.
• The ages that have reached the top three the most are 29 (count=18 racers), 30, 26, 27, 25 years old.
• The ages with the best top three RATE are 14, 20, 19, 50, 16, and 68 years old.
  • The ages with the best top three RATE and have more than ten data points are 30 (43.59%), 29, 36, 35, and 46.

Slide 8:

• Season # is on the x-axis, Average Age is on the y-axis.
• TAR8 “Family Edition” had kids competing on the show, so that’s why it has the youngest average age at 29.40 years. TAR25, TAR29, and TAR17 closely follow it, all 29.something years too
• TAR37, the newest season, visibly has the oldest average age at 40.46 years! I think the show did that due to the aging of the show's middle-aged audience (mostly Gen X & Millennials), or it’s because 14 teams is a lot of people so they decided to cast more older people. TAR21, TAR15, TAR36, and TAR11 follow it, in that order.
  • Despite TAR37 having the oldest average age, it’s kinda funny how the two youngest average age teams on that season placed first and second place lmaoo

Slide 9:

• Season # is on the x-axis, MEDIAN Age is on the y-axis
• Quite odd how the results change compared to the graph on the previous slide. Both graphs suggest that TAR is casting more older people recently. This post is already too long and this graph isn’t that useful so I’ll move on.

Slide 10:

• I calculated each team’s age GAP and plotted it here.
• Most teams have an age gap of just 0 to 3 years.
• There are two clusters on this graph: one cluster at an age gap of 0 to 10 years, and another cluster at an age gap of 25 to 38 years. This is because teams are either really close in age (e.g. friends, lovers) or teams are part of a parent/child duo (parents, grandparents, children).
• Largest age gap is Jody & Shannon TAR16 with a 49 year gap, followed closely by Nicholas & Donald TAR12 with a 45 year gap (props to them for making it so far).
• Smallest age gap would be any set of twins.
• The largest age gap of any team that is NOT a parent-child team is held by Tim & Rex TAR34 with a 19 year gap (I rly wish they lasted longer)
  • Meanwhile the largest age gap for any romantic team is Ray & Deanna TAR7 (17 year gap)... hmmm such a lovely relationship they had huh

Slide 11

• I graphed each team’s age GAP on the x-axis, then their respective finishing placement on the y-axis. Larger dots correspond to a greater frequency (for example, there are a lot of teams with an age gap of 4 years and also placed 5th).
• There is not a clear trend here. An r-squared value of 0.0079 is even more pathetic (this graph is also useless)

TLDR (again): The best age to be to win The Amazing Race (U.S.) is about 29 years old, yay!

if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, lmk! what kind of statistics should i do next to waste my time?

I always thought season 15 was the hardest, but after rewatching it it wasn't that bad. Or at least not as hard as season 12. It has hard mental/physical tasks and even if we don't pay attention to probably the hardest task in TAR - that memory challenge, the number of N-E are cut short too, not to mention 2 U-Turns and Speed Bumps that were added. A close second (and one that would make sense to be the hardest) is season 21.

I was just thinking randomly and wanted to know if anyone has ever used an express pass at a Face Off, specifically one of the last two teams, leaving a team forced to lose. Idk sounds funny to me to see that happen for some reason haha

It would've been so... wow if it actually happened and i am really curious what stopped them from doing this. Also a top of a skyscraper finish line would've been so unique and beatiful!

When TARCAN says a trip around the world as part of the grand prize for the winners, does anyone else wonder what the trip is actually like. I joke that it’s just a plane ride from Toronto to London, then a plane ride from London to Tokyo, and then a final flight from Tokyo to Toronto!

The first thing was looking at Phil so long ago

Then one of the team men reminded me of one of last seasons most famous characters

And also, it's amazing how much film strategies/quality has changed in 2 decades

Another one only viewable on my blog! Sorry for the hassle https://tarrecap.wordpress.com/2025/09/11/s15e4-car-replacement-rules/

A lot of people seems to hate the green team mostly because of Justin, but for me they were really fun on the race. Their storyline of them vs every other teams were great and save the season from being mediocre imo

The globetrotters were the first off the mat, heading to “gnome pen”, and other such mispronunciations of the Cambodian capital. Zev tried pronouncing the name as “Chom Nen”, and Justin called it “Sean Penn” jokingly, titling the episode. There was some slight airport drama as the last two teams, Z+J and Lance and Keri, were put on standby overnight, but they all managed to make the same plane.

From the airport, they travelled six miles to the Foreign Correspondents Club where they had to ask for their next assignment. Canaan, in last place, didn’t ask correctly and got stuck for a moment. Little moments like this are fun.

This next clue was pretty cryptic; teams had to figure out just from a photograph (without any building in it) that they needed to get to the building that had the original photograph. I suppose this photo of Jackie Kennedy from 1967 (and her entire visit) must be a memorable event in history for the locals, as teams seemed to have no trouble getting help getting to the Raffles Hotel Le Royal, even if most of them didn’t recognise the former first lady, one of them thinking it was Queen Elizabeth.

There, teams found their detour of Cover or Wrap (1/10). I know how time-consuming a search can be, so I would have given Cover a go (four helmets for $10 sounds like a bargain), but only Lance and Keri did this task, with all the other teams hunting through the Russian Market for women wearing scarves.

Zev and Justin arrived and left early with Sam and Dan in hot pursuit. Flight Time and Big Easy joked that they scared the woman wearing their scarf as it looked as if she started to run away from them. I was worried for Team Zebra, but a keen-eyed Brian noticed the woman wearing the pink scarf almost immediately after selecting it, launching them from 7th to 3rd. That might be the quickest I’ve ever seen someone complete a detour in the history of the show.

Mika and Canaan had made up some time getting to the market, but proceeded to have terrible luck, finishing last, even worse than Maria and Tiffany, who dropped from 6th to 8th while hunting round and round.

Next, teams would travel on foot to Wat Toul Tom Pong. We saw a brief glimpse of Zev and Justin beginning to head inside the temple before eventually finding the clue box outside. Little did the audience (or indeed Zev and Justin) know it, but disaster had just struck, and the team wouldn’t know it until it was too late.

The roadblock called on the teams to dress as monkeys and perform monkey dance manoeuvres. This challenge looked so simple, and yet it took Zev out, who lay on the floor due to overstimulation, which allowed Dan to pass him. Nevertheless, Z+J were still able to beat Sam and Dan to the pit stop to be announced as Team #1. But I was confused, as Phil didn’t announce any prize for them.

There was a reason. Zev realised his passport was missing, and I couldn’t believe it… three seasons in a row, we’ve had someone lose or not take their passport with them. How can this happen so often?! Phil revoked their status as team #1 and said they weren’t allowed to check in until they found the passport, and they embarked on a desperate needle-in-a-haystack search. 

The other teams, meanwhile, were doing the monkey challenge themselves. Of all of them, Canaan really got into the role and made for the most convincing monkey. It was once again Maria and Tiffany who came last, but were saved again on account that Zev and Justin had still not found their passport (looking at the starting times from the next episode, it had only been about half an hour since Zev and Justin had departed). It was gutting to see this entertaining team of friends, one struggling with Asperger’s, go out so soon over such a devastating mistake, but taking care of your passport is vital, and they should have had it more secure.

I was really hoping that Elimination Station would hold some answers for me. The first part of the episode showed Garrett talking to Ron about his decision to propose to Jessica, and Jessica also talking to Marcy. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Then, they noticed that it had been too long without another team arriving (I do genuinely wonder about how these episodes are filmed, time-wise, as the same amount of time must elapse on the show as in Elimination Station). They began speculating as to what had happened, and Marcy threw out passport issues as a suggestion.

All of a sudden, the aspect ratio changed to 4:3, and we were shown the Cambodian flag in front of a temple. I was genuinely so excited to see footage of what had happened to the boys post-race. It actually made this episode of Elimination Station feel more integral to the show. The boys walked to the U.S. Embassy (which must have cleared production to be able to film inside), where they mentioned they had lost Zev’s passport. To their amazement, the Embassy had it right there, ready to give back to Zev, telling him that it had been found at the Wat Toul Tom Pong and had been handed in. It’s nice to know that concerned citizens will generally do the right thing and return a lost passport to the embassy, although it’s unclear if this return had happened before they got back to the temple to search inside. Justin said, “It’s where we thought it would be, which makes this more difficult”, which makes me reckon that they did search there, but it had already gone. But there’s also the possibility that it was still there when they searched, but they didn’t look hard enough. At any rate, this extra footage was so exciting that I even got my wife interested in it, and she never normally cares about post-show drama. Having a filmed resolution to their passport story was very satisfying (I never felt I got that for Toni and Dallas, even though some commenters did explain what happened).

Later on, they called the teams in Vietnam to explain what had happened and why they weren’t there already. Following on from last week, I noticed none of those teams were correct in their bet (either for Zev+Justin or the Poker Players), and I wished they had made a new bet.

What's up with the broadcast schedule for the new TARAUS season? First it's M-Tu-W, and now the next two are Su-M, wit nothing on Tu.

Is there an official broadcast schedule for the whole season somewhere?

I just recently finished S37 after starting the show 13 months ago (ironically in preparation for S37), and I always felt like I was rooting for the loser team so I decided to check it out and it is a little sad lol

If anyone wants to read my recap, it's on my blog

https://tarrecap.wordpress.com/2025/09/11/s15e2-old-cap/

There will be spoilers if you click this link! This is an interview about reality tv with the latest team eliminated from the Amazing Race Canada, we also chat about their time on the race and all that fun stuff! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqsz0OntOtM

Would love to hear people's thoughts on the interview/series !

Wednesday 10/09/25 7:30 - 8:40PM

Our 11 remaining teams continue racing in Kathmandu. They lend a hand in the Old Town, carting water, restoring doors and helping repair a local temple roof, all before finding Beau at the pitstop.

I just done finishing Season 5 and one of the moments that stood out to me was the Tanzania leg where all teams have to travel to Kilimanjaro Airport via Taxi. However they all have to pay $100, Colin & Christie had to deal with punctured and flat wheel so they only paid $50 which the driver disagreed.

After watching the previous leg where one of the bus driver literally asked Brandon & Nicole for $200, here i was like just give $50 and leave quickly, do not get scammed. Obviously the taxi driver filed a police case with Colin and the latter had no choice but to give up the arguement.

If you're in the position of Colin, would you also give $50 and stand firm to your decision?

I am continuing my ongoing statistics breakdown of The Amazing Race (U.S.)! This time I am analyzing the non-elimination points. Also, I want to clarify that the numbers might be slightly off but nothing too drastic for me to rly care lmaoo.

1st Slide Notes:

• This pie chart represents the outcomes for teams on the following leg after finishing last on a non-elimination point.
• 67% survival rate after a non-elimination is decent. I think it's a great percentage for the show to be entertaining; It’s large enough so that most teams can realistically hope to recover and keep racing, but small enough so that they still are in greater jeopardy.
• This data does NOT include Penultimate Non-Elimination Legs where the Final Leg has no Elimination.
  • For example, this data does not include TAR1's Leg 12 & 13 but does include TAR26's Leg 11 & 12.

2nd Slide Notes:

• This table displays the number of times teams experienced each outcome on the following leg after finishing last in a non-elimination, for every season.
• This data DOES include Penultimate Non-Elimination Legs.
  • For example, this data does include TAR1's Leg 12 & 13.
• The race had less harsh penalties for placing last on a non-elimination point in seasons 1 to 9, and that is reflected in the data since an overwhelming majority of those teams survived the next leg.
• *Cody & Jessica and Kristi & Jen placed last on TAR30's Partner Swap Leg 7 and survived the next leg, so I included them both in the counts

3rd Slide Notes:

• This table shows the survival rates for each penalty and type of non-elimination in TAR (U.S.)
  • For example, 73 out of 109 teams placed last on a non-elimination point and survived the following leg
    • That column does NOT include Penultimate Non-Elimination Legs. For example, TAR1's Leg 12 & 13 and TAR26's Leg 11 & 12 are NOT included in that data.
• Non-Elimination Survival Rate accounts for all teams who placed last on a Non-Elimination Leg, Superleg, Megaleg, and No-Rest Leg.
• No-Penalty Non-Elimination Point: no penalty for placing last or being in last place when the first part of the superleg/megaleg is over
  • For example, this data includes TAR1's Leg 6 Non-Elimination Leg, TAR6's Leg 6 Superleg, TAR14's Leg 10 No-Rest Leg, and TAR32's Leg 8 Megaleg.
• No-Penalty Non-Elimination Leg: no penalty for placing last at a Pit Stop where they actually stop and rest for a while
  • For example, this data includes TAR1's Leg 6, TAR17's Leg 6, and TAR 37's Leg 9 Non-Elimination Leg, but does not include TAR6's Leg 6 Superleg, TAR14's Leg 10 No-Rest Leg, and TAR32's Leg 8 Megaleg.

• For reference, placing last on a Non-Elimination Leg...

  • Seasons 1 to 4: No Penalty
  • Seasons 5 & 6: Surrender Money
  • Seasons 7 to 9: Surrender Money and Possessions
  • Seasons 10 to 11: Marked for Elimination
  • Seasons 12 to 33: Speedbump

• I grouped the Megaleg, Superleg, and No-Rest Leg altogether because they are intrinsically the same thing and I was lazy.

• Personally, I enjoy the speedbump penalty the best. It's more versatile because the producers can design quick speedbump challenges for legs that are quick, and producers can design longer speedbump challenges for legs that are long. Plus, the speedbump penalty has the best name.

• I didn't enjoy the surrender money and possessions shit because begging in a third-world country as an American isn't morally good. In addition, teams could overcome it easily due to begging for money during equalizers and the other teams giving them money out of pity. Plus not having to carry two large backpacks for the rest of the race means you can run faster. The data shows this penalty was way too easy.

• Marked for elimination was fine; it was tense seeing teams wait at the mat hoping for the other teams to not arrive, but I didn't like how you can just simply follow a team to the Pit Stop because you knew they had a 30-minute penalty while your team didn't. Also, the data reveals that this was the harshest penalty by quite some margin.

Slide 4 Notes:

• This table goes into detail of which kind of non-elimination point each season contained.
• *In TAR30 Partner Swap Leg 7, I counted it as two teams that placed last, thus, the number of times a team has placed last on a non-elimination point is actually 117, not 116
• *TAR32 Leg 1 was a No-Rest Leg but had an elimination, but I didn't include this in the count.
• I enjoy a mix of Non-Elimination Legs and Superlegs/Megalegs/No-Rest Legs in a season. I think it's best to have 2 or 3 non-elimination points throughout the season. 4 is too much and 1 is too little.
  • I thought it would be actually more interesting to have an elimination every leg since it makes every leg matter, but in practice, I didn't like it. I don't like how seasons 35-36 had an elimination every leg because there were times where a team was in last place throughout the entire leg and had no chance of surviving, so it was boring to the viewer to know who was gonna be eliminated. Most legs should have the viewer questioning if the last place team will be eliminated.
• I would like the non-elimination points to be roughly evenly spread out throughout the legs because it won't make the season drag on or feel fast.
  • The early seasons saved up their non-eliminations to use at the end of the race, so viewers got to know the final few teams in depth but it felt like the race was boring since those teams knewno one was gonna get eliminated in certain legs (i.e. TAR2 Leg 6).
  • On the other hand, using up the non-eliminations very early in a season allows the viewers to get to know most teams quite well (e.g. TAR31), but in the later legs the viewer knows that the team who finishes in last will be eliminated and it removes that level of unpredictability when you are watching the show. I will admit that using up the non-eliminations very early in a season is way more preferrable for me than saving up the non-eliminations until the end of a season

Link to the spreadsheet i used

TLDR: About 67% of teams recover after placing last on a non-elimination point, yay! :)

Episode 9 - Discussion Thread

Episode Name: We're Full of Moose Farts

Air Date: September 9, 2025

The Race continues in St. John's and Gander, Nfld., where the remaining teams compete for a coveted spot in the Season 11 finale.

09/09/25 7:30 - 9:00PM

Eleven remaining celebrity teams race across Nepal to the capital, Kathmandu. Teams are pushed to the limit facing a terrifying descent down a mountain before consuming some local delicacies.

Notes:

• As of Season 37, The Amazing Race (U.S.) has traveled 1.25 million miles across 97 countries!
• Countries like England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are all just counted under the UK. Same goes for Hong Kong and Macau counted under just China.
• The U.S. is counted as a country visited in every season.
• Overall, Season 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 11 have the best routes.
  • I would say this is like the "golden age" of TAR, and you can actually see this reflected in the edit bc the best airport drama was during these seasons.
  • Season 5 in particular has the most distance traveled, goes to the 6 main continents, and visits 12 countries (United States → Uruguay → Argentina → Russia → Egypt → Kenya → Tanazania → United Arab Emirates → India → New Zealand → Philippines → Canada → United States)
  • Season 10's route was very ambitious as TAR has not returned to a whopping six of the countries it went to, which is double more than any other season (Mongolia, Kuwait, Mauritius, Madagascar, Finland, Ukraine)
• Meanwhile, Season 8, 24, 33, 34, 35, and 36 have the worst routes.
  • Season 8 is the Family Edition which visited a lot of U.S. states and stayed only in North America because kids are racist (just kidding).
  • Season 33, 34, and 36 were all filmed with COVID-19 restrictions, so they mostly just traveled in Europe or South America. The upcoming season, 38, is an all-Europe route for some reason too.
  • Season 24 is out-of-place bc its route was especially lacklustre and boring for some reason, plus it reused challenges of the race from other international versions of the show.
• Analyzing the seasons after the "golden age" and before COVID-19 (seasons 12-32), the route was decent overall, about as good as the first four seasons of the show. There were dips in route quality in seasons 15, 21, and 24. Season 15 had the Swine Flu pandemic in 2009 so there were some last-minute replacement legs. Weather problems in season 24 had some replacement legs too. Idk what happened for season 21's mid route.
• It's kinda obvious that the budget is a lot smaller now than it was 20 years ago. I really hope they are saving up money to go all out for season forty or something idk bc the route nowadays isn't great.
• Link to this spreadsheet I used
• Not me but Wikipedia goes in-depth with the specific countries visited: Link here#Countries_and_locales_visited)
• Funny how Phil was like "The Amazing Race hits one million miles" on season 32, but these statistics say that it was actually during season 27 lmaoo

I had read about the news of a lawsuit filed by a Kilimanjaro airport employee for filming without her consent years ago but didn’t find out till now that a Tanzania court actually ordered CBS to pay this lady $35000. It’s absolutely ridiculous that a court would find unpaid appearance is tantamount to slavery. This lady was doing her day job. She’d have a better case if she was interviewed by Billy on the Street where it’s actually getting a reaction from random people.

Initial allegation: https://www.tvsa.co.za/user/blogs/viewblogpost.aspx?blogpostid=11717 An employee of the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) in Tanzania is suing CBS, broadcasters of The Amazing Race, for footage of her the show used when they visited the country in 2004. Stella Mwanyika "is employed as a ground hostess at (Kilimanjaro International Airport)" and claims CBS "without any lawful cause infringed the fundamental human rights of the Plaintiff," and she "has suffered loss and damage to feelings and dignity and likely to suffer further loss and damage," according to a report in the weekly Tanzanian publication The Arusha Times. She is suing the broadcasting giant for $2-million. So what actually happened? Why is Mwanyika so upset? Firstly, the context: it was sometime during the 7th or 8th leg of the 5th Race (which was later won by Chip and Kim McAllister). The teams flew into KIA via Kenya from Egypt, and later left via the same airport. The leg was memorable for an incident involving race villain Colin Guinn (of Colin and Christie fame), in which he refused to pay a taxi driver the agreed-upon fare and was almost arrested for it. At some point the contestants stopped by at KIA and Mwanyika was filmed and included in the final footage. In her civil suit against CBS she says photographs of her were taken against her will, they were published on the Race against her will, and in fact the entire broadcast of the show was done so without her consent. That's right. It says so right there in her submission: "...broadcasting the documentary 'The Amazing Race' without her consent or knowledge." Apart from special and general damages, Mwanyika is claiming aggravated and exemplary damages in view of "the fact that the defendants (CBS) gained profits from the said publishing and broadcasting worldwide." Ever heard anything like that? She may have had a case if she wasn't a) lying, or b) a whackjob. CBS, no doubt, intend to prove both if called upon to actually do so. Responding on behalf of CBS, REX Attorneys of Dar es Salaam claim that, "the raw footage we have reviewed does not include your client's refusal to be tapped. "Instead, it shows her staring directly into the lens of at least one of the production crew's very large and visible cameras without any objection and also smiling and acknowledging the camera. "She among other things, asked whether she could get a copy of the tape for herself ... all of which amount to a very clear implicit consent for the program to tape and use her image." Accordingly, the attorneys concluded, CBS will not agree to meet the demand to pay her that amount of money. Hearing of the case is scheduled for May 31 this year.

Ruling: https://elibrary.matrix.co.tz/product/stella-mwanyika-v-cbs-high-court-arusha-2009/ Signing of a pleading by any person duly authorised – express authority to sign a pleading – powers of an advocate to sign a pleading – mere knowledge of an impending wrongful act – consent – express or implied agreement – filming, publication and broadcasting of the plaintiff without her consent – infringement of privacy – use of the plaintiff’s image for business purposes – enslaving – violation of dignity – violation of the human rights – payment commensurate to a lawfully work done – an officer able to depose the facts – claim for damages for feelings and dignity – mental torture – aggravated damages –an unconsented publication and broadcast – an award of a total of USD. 35,000 for an unconsented filming, publication and broadcasting. • By reason of absence or for other good cause a pleading may be signed by any person duly authorised by the party to sign the same, or to sue or defend on his behalf (p. 8). • The defendant’s previous lawyer signed a written statement of defence and simply stated that she had been authorised to sign – it was held that the advocate’s statement was not enough and that there ought to be produced a specific authority from the defendant to support that authority (p. 8). It was also held that the written statement of defence was signed without the party’s express authority in terms of the law (p. 9). • A person signing the pleading must possess an additional qualification of being conversant, able and authorised to depose the facts. In other words, he should be in a position to feature as a witness (p. 8). • An advocate cannot be both an advocate and a witness in the same case (p. 9). • If an advocate should sign a pleading on behalf of a party, he should possess express instructions from either of the three officers covered by Order XXVII Rule 1 of the CPC, so that in the event of the need of clarification on any issue, such officer can be consulted (p. 9). • Powers conferred to the advocate are limited to signing of the pleading and not to the deposition of the facts of the case (p. 9). • The plaintiff claimed that she was filmed without her consent but the defendant argued that she consented because she knew she was being filmed but she did not protest. The court rejected the defence on the basis of the remarks in Salmond & Heuston Law of Torts book (21st Edition) that mere knowledge of an impending wrongful act, or of the existence of a wrongfully caused danger, does not in itself amount to consent, even though no attempt is made by the plaintiff to prevent or avoid the act or danger. Consent involves an express or implied agreement that the act may be rightfully done or the danger rightfully caused (p. 10 and p. 11). • Filming, publication and broadcasting of the plaintiff without her consent was found to be an infringement of the plaintiff’s privacy (p. 14). • It was held that The defendant’s use of the plaintiff’s image for business purposes without payment amounts to enslaving the plaintiff hence a violation of her dignity and a violation of the human right of payment commensurate to a lawfully work done (p. 15). • The defendant did not bring an officer able to depose the facts to court for examination in terms of Order X Rule 3 of the CPC – it was held that there was a failure from his side to disprove a claim for damages for feelings and dignity (p. 16). • The defendant refused to pay the plaintiff for broadcasting her image without her consent – it was held that the defendant’s refusal to recognize the plaintiff’s contribution subjected the plaintiff to a mental torture, which is more harmful than personal injury (p. 16). • Aggravated damages – by an unconsented publication and broadcast, the defendant acted with undue consideration warranting an award of aggravated damages (p. 17). • The plaintiff was awarded a total of USD. 35,000 for an unconsented filming, publication and broadcasting of her image by the defendant (p. 17).

I can't be the only one watching, can we have a discussion thread?

Season 15. Still 2009. What are we waiting for?

I groaned as the opening shot showed us LA for the fourth time in a row. However, I lit up when they showed that the start of this Amazing Race would be in the iconic concrete culvert of the Los Angeles River. Phil mentioned Grease and Terminator 2, which I suppose have probably the most iconic uses of the river, but I distinctly remember it from Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (a revolutionary independent blaxploitation film) and 24 (with Jack Bauer, duh).

We began with 12 teams, unusually. In order of their introduction, we had:

Brian and Ericka. My wife and I were instantly drawn to this married Nashville couple, who I believe are the first mixed-race team ever on the show. If not, they must be the first mixed-race couple… Why has it taken this long? They seemed like us in a few ways, so we instantly began pretending that we were them and rooted for them.

Lance and Keri… not much to say. They seem sorta intense but also boring.

Maria and Tiffany, poker players. They immediately likened the race to playing a game of poker… I don’t really see how it’s like a game of poker at all. Maybe sometimes you have to keep your cards close to your chest, but mostly it’s about getting from place to place and completing challenges. IDK, they seemed a little clueless.

Zev and Justin. Zev has Asperger’s. When I think of Asperger’s, I think of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which may or may not be a realistic depiction. Perhaps going on a race where lots of things are changed from day to day would be too difficult for Zev to handle, or perhaps it could be the shock to the system he needs to put things in perspective and deal with change better in real life. Time would tell.

Mika and Canaan… more Nashville. Christian virgin. Next.

Flight Time and Big Easy… interesting nicknames. I think I heard Phil at the end of this episode (two legs) call them Nate and Rob. Basketball players, I hope they’re good and entertaining!

Sam and Dan. Gay Missouri brothers. I thought their story about coming out to each other was funny. It must be nice to be able to confide in your sibling and have them reflect the same thing back. I have to say, they wouldn’t show up on your gaydar at all, because they don’t present as flowery or effeminate at all, which is fine. They have a weird strategy about wanting to flirt with the girls to get ahead. This isn’t The Circle, guys.

Matt and Gary, later referred to by Brian as Pinky and the Brain. Love to see a dad and son reuniting.

Eric and Lisa, married yoga teachers. Eric made me cringe when he said, “We’re yoga in the hood.” What does that even mean? Team YITH is how I’ll refer to them from now on.

Garrett and Jessica, coming in with a nonsensical intro. Garrett placed his misunderstandings about his partner Jessica (from a Colombian family, which doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but I think we’re supposed to imagine she was raised around Sofia Vergara-type “strong women” characters) on the fact that he was raised with a brother and “didn’t need to deal with female drama”. Jeez. I can’t stand these ‘dating on and off’ couples.

Marcy and Ron from SF, CA. Love the older couples, and I love that she’s quite fiery and feisty. Maybe she can be the next Gretchen!

Meghan and Cheyne. Young, fit, blond, happy. A boring team that I predict will do well, just like Nick and Starr did.

With that out of the way, Phil gave the teams his usual patter but said there was a big twist that would affect just one team. There was to be a challenge right there and then, which would result in a team being eliminated. At first, my reaction was disappointment, as I hated seeing teams leave early.

However, as the teams were given the clear to start, I realised I much preferred this new, harsher twist to the mid-leg elimination from Season 10 in Beijing. This one added a fierce desperation and confusion to the first task, which was remarkably simple- just find the number plates that had the Japanese region on them, which they were supposed to visit. The Japanese symbols were printed plainly on the clue, but in their desperation not to be eliminated, most teams missed this at first.

This seemed like a filming/editing nightmare as each team’s camera person would be trying to focus on them during the scrum. The poker players were the first to figure it out and snagged a ticket on the first plane to Japan. Marcy and Ron were also savvy, as were boring Meghan and Cheyne. By the time the Globetrotters rolled around, it wasn’t clear if they’d figured out the clue or just got lucky and selected the right license plate by accident. The other teams quickly fell into place behind them, and it was tough to keep up with all the action.

I was just focused on team BAE (Brian and Ericka), who did NOT get it right on their first try and were among the final three teams. Were they really about to get excised from the group at the first hurdle? Fortunately, they were able to leave 10th, leaving just Lance and Keri and Team YITH.

As Lance and Keri found the correct plate, it was Yoga In The Hood that got eliminated, removing the cringe from the show at the first stage. I felt bad for them, but they were among my least favourite of the line-up, so it wasn’t too bad a miss. This was an electrifying first challenge, especially as my favourite team had come so close to being eliminated.

Teams flew to Japan on two different planes and made their way to Tokyo Tower Studios, where a rather different challenge was about to take place. I guess the planes were fairly close time-wise as some of the teams on the second plane arrived before teams on the first plane. Still, the order didn’t matter as the teams were all about to gather around a large green table to play…

SUSHI ROULETTE!!!

Inspired by wacky Japanese game shows, this roadblock pitted the teams against each other with a live studio audience, where they could get ahead with a bit of luck and the intestinal fortitude (to use Phil’s favourite phrase) to stomach a massive ‘wasabi bomb’. I wasn’t so fond of the luck aspect of this roadblock, as some teams (ahem, BAE) were waiting a long time to even start.

Bland Cheyne and fun Ron were up first, and both smashed it. I was surprised that there was no more to this leg of the race as teams were instructed to head to the Konnō Hachimangū Shrine over the Shibuya Scramble of Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift fame (which we’ve already gone over, if you were paying attention to my S9 recaps). The twist is that they had to guide twenty members of the audience with them; what a fun day it must have been to be an extra watching the teams.

After Justin and Garrett also proved themselves, it was time for the poker players. Maria looked more Asian, so she was selected (I mean, I’m guessing this was their team’s logic, lmao). Technically, alongside Team BAE, they also count as a mixed-race team. However, the wasabi bomb proved to be too much and she was still chewing when the time ran out.

However, she was given another chance to redeem herself immediately as the wasabi landed at her once again. She hadn’t had a moment to cool down from the previous one, but was now forced to gobble even more. This time, however, she improved on her original time, and they left in 5th place.

Then it was time for Brian to have a go, and I looked to the team member I was living vicariously through to knock it out of the park. Surprise, surprise, he fuckin’ sucked, spitting out the giant bite he had originally taken before trying to take it more slowly. Despite Ericka’s desperate encouragement, he failed and had to sit and watch every other team complete the goal before he could try again. This is really the team I chose to back?!

Meghan and Cheyne, first out, were the first to reach the pit stop, winning a trip to Aspen and Vail in Colorado (I don’t reckon we’ve seen Travelocity hand out a vacation to one of the contiguous 48 states before). They were the only team to keep their place surprisingly. Despite leaving 11th, Brian was able to befriend a local who brought their group straight to the Shrine, shooting up 5 places and arriving 6th. I whooped for joy.

Lance and Keri also did well, going from 7th to 3rd, while Garrett and Jessica had navigation issues, dropping from 4th to 8th. On the tail end, Mika and Canaan arrived at the mat 10th but were missing a trailing group member, preventing them from being able to check in. Fortunately, she was just around the corner, and Canaan carried her up the stairs. Marcy showed her energy by encouraging her team frequently with the megaphone.

The Poker players were not as lucky, and, on top of having navigation issues, managed to lose two of their group at the Shibuya scramble, and had made it as far as the pit stop before realising they needed to backtrack. After a bit of backtracking, they realised their group was getting fed up with all the walking, and decided to go check in (did production look after the lost group members, or did they just go home?) With heads hanging, the 200 audience extras formed a crowd to witness Phil addressing them on the mat. When he noted that they had gained two hours for not completing the task with all their extras, I realised this was going to be a non-elimination leg. Last season, I was even saying I wanted to see a non-elimination happen on the first leg, but it doesn’t count when YITH were already eliminated.

For the first time in quite a few seasons, this was a mega episode, with two legs back to back. After a 12-hour rest (not as common anymore), teams ripped open their clues to find they would be heading to Vietnam. The start times revealed that all teams arrived within roughly an hour of each other, but Maria and Tiffany got to have a 14-hour rest instead. Their penalty didn’t affect them at all, as the first plane was at 10:30, and somehow everyone got on.

It wasn’t originally going to be that way, as the plane had run out of economy seating. Brian started begging the desk clerk, “Can we sit in business but pay for economy?” Of course, why did I never think to ask if I could get a business class ticket while paying for economy? Could I buy Buckingham Palace while paying for a cardboard box?

Somehow, the begging worked. I still don’t get it. Naturally, the pokers turned up later, and they were recognised by a poker fan at the terminal… I guess they must be pretty good at what they do. Just as Sam and Dan were trying to hide their homosexuality from the teams, Maria and Tiffany were also trying to hide their profession, and instead pretended they worked for a non-profit organisation. Marcy and Ron had been tricked on the previous leg and had called them wonderful people.

However, Sam and Dan somehow overheard the fan’s comments and realised they had been duping the other teams, and soon everyone knew and had opinions about it. I just found it weird that they would lie about it. It also shows they weren’t particularly good at keeping information close to their chests.

Next, teams had to reach the bus station in Ho Chi Minh City to travel to Cai Be. It wasn’t extremely clear what was going on, but it seemed that Zev and Justin arrived on time for the first one but decided to wait until its actual departure time to get on board, but the bus actually left as soon as it got full, leaving them stranded for the second bus. Realising they’d have to wait over an hour and a half for the next bus, Brian rallied the trailing teams to pool their money to bribe the bus to leave sooner…

It was a fruitless effort, though, as both buses came too late and the dock was closed, equalising everyone yet again. In the morning, everyone set off on sampan boats except for Maria and Tiffany, who had a speed bump to complete. They needed to make a bowl of pho for the dockmaster to his approval. He didn’t seem very fussy, though, as they simply threw the ingredients together and he gave them the clue.

All the other teams were already at the fruit farm mud pits, where a messy challenge involved them getting stuck in the mud and filling a basket to a line. I wondered if this was part of a failed detour, where either the other challenge hadn’t been ready on time or everyone simply chose this task. Meghan and Cheyne, still first, blasted through the task and remained in first. Garrett and Colombian Jessica finished strong in second, and team BAE pulled out of 8th and finished 3rd. Proud of them.

Next, teams went to a local sports ground for an utterly awesome challenge: herding ducks. Each of them had to herd 150 ducks over a narrow bridge and back again. I’m wondering what stopped the ducks from flying off. It was a pretty hilarious sight as some of the contestants got very flummoxed and started screaming at the birds, or using their flagpoles rather violently to scoot them. Matt, Flight Time, and Sam did very well, while Tiffany (who had arrived last) revealed that she’d had ducks earlier in her life… there’s always one contestant who has some coincidental related experience to the task, no matter how random. Pinky and the Brain finished the roadblock second, but would make it to the pit stop on a boat first, where they would receive a kayak each.

Meanwhile, things weren’t going well for Ericka or Jessica, and Garrett was practically flipping his lid, which was pretty ugly to see. Asperger’s Zev managed to pull out the ‘duck whisperer’ technique by showing he could be calm under pressure, and did a pretty much perfect run of the task, keeping the ducks calm as well whilst guiding them where they needed to go. Other teams took his lead afterwards. Marcy also had a whale of a time.

Fortunately, team BAE just clinched the lead over Garrett and Jessica, and a nerve-wracking taxi and footrace revealed that they just kept their lead over the hotheads, leading Garrett to slap the boat in anger when it was revealed they were the last team to arrive. Brian and Ericka might have gotten away with it, but I’m still pretty appalled with their performance so far. Why are they stressing me out so much?!

At Elimination Station, Garrett and Jessica touched down somewhere else in Vietnam… and I was expecting them to run into Eric and Lisa (aka, the YITHs). But they weren’t there. Apparently, getting eliminated right on the starting line is such a disgrace that you don’t even get to go to elimination station. Brutal.

Well, G+J had all the usual feelings about being eliminated first, and wishing they were still racing instead of lounging at a resort (I honestly wouldn’t take it that hard; there are worse things you could be doing instead). They pondered who might leave next whilst playing Scrabble, and one of the words was “VOW”. Foreshadowing.

Next, Garrett did something completely unexpected. Realising his partner was feeling down and frustrated because of her poor performance at the duck roadblock, he decided to propose to her on the beach. Except, he didn’t get on one knee (from what we saw, anyway). So I almost didn’t believe he’d actually done it until I saw the giant rock on her finger. Well done, Garrett! I didn’t know if they were really meant to end up together, but here’s hoping they make each other happy.

All in all, a very fiery, very different start to the season, but one that’s given it a lot of energy and drive to make me watch more. This show is just such a good format that it doesn’t even feel stale after 15 seasons.

What prevents teams from speeding when doing self-drive? Is there a time penalty for it? Or is it just a risk they take that local police won’t pull them over?

Rumors are they are supposed to be filming this month?