chtiet

Well, all the teams are "attractive" on some dimension: happily married couple, older yet outgoing/daring moms, young & good-looking, vertically challenged but feisty & ingenious, military dad & daughter.... so there's something 'cool' about all of them.

Congrats to Chip & Kim, they really pulled a Myrna at the airport and managed to get on the UA flight. Throughout I always kept thinking how complacent everybody was when they had booked a flight and just enjoyed their ride as scheduled... Only Myrna always arranged to scheme and take earlier/other flights. Otherwise Colin & Christie were the strongest team by far, and should have probably won.

Glad the whiny Christian-when-convenients did not win, although Brandon was always a good sport. She I could not stand.

Good idea with alternating partners for roadblocks. Would have been more balanced, and had the mom competed against Christie, they would not have been eliminated.

Mrukk

I was hoping that Chip and Kim would win as I felt they had been the most appreciative of the travel experience, but I have to admit that I would not have been too unhappy to see Colin and Christie win. They definitely were great competitors, and did almost everything well. They made a great move on arranging the towncar driver at the end, but they were unlucky with the flight delay business.

Basically at the end for me it became a matter of 'anyone but the bl**dy christians.'

Japhydog

He was a good sport in terms of being patient with her, but otherwise? The whole no-shaving-head thing was ridiculous, especially considering his goofy hair. Then he had the temerity to get angry at Chip for not revealing the correct flag -- he should have gotten out of the boat himself and looked if he wanted to know. Finally, what really killed me was the "look up and imagine it's Jesus in the clouds with his arms open wide waiting for you to come to him" line.

Reindeerflame

Like in November. CBS apparently isn't sure yet.

No need to wait until 2005!

(It's already been filmed, of course, with people spotting it in Chicago in August).

Tiki

Wow, I didn't think that Chip and Kim were over 40-they don't look it in the photos. I fianlly got around to reading the biographies. The show hasn't aired in Australia yet. It does seem biased against the bowling moms though-they had to climb up a cliff and rappel down? Out of the 4 couples left doesn't take a genius to see which couple wouldn't be able to to that task! Based on the website, I had been rooting for the bowling moms because I wanted to see middle aged overweight women beat out those slim younger couples. But if not the bowling moms, I would root for Chip and Kim. I hope they show this season in Australia!!

AR3 which was my least favourite of all of them-I couldn't stand Flo and was really rooting for Ian and Teri (the middle aged couple) to win. And if Chip and Kim hadn't gotten lucky on the flights, one of the younger couples would have won. The producers can't control the weather fortunately. I still think they want to have physically attractive people win to use them in more promos and stuff. They put a cross-section of people on the show then throw tasks that older and heavier people can't do at them.

Savvy Traveler

I thought it had been pushed back from this weekend to next (Oct. 2)?


Gimme more, gimme more...

Reindeerflame

Apparently CBS, emboldened by the growing popularity of the show, is reluctant to show it on Saturday evening, which apparently is the "wasteland" of TV viewing nights. They want to start AR 6 up during the rating sweep period which starts in late October and continues into November in order to "milk" this winner that they have.

Apparently, 2.6 million viewers in Canada tuned in for the final program along with 13.5 million in the US.

The Calgary Olympic Park gift shop received more than 60 calls within minutes with people eager to order the maple leaf hats worn by Chip and Kim. Calgary/Banff tourism people are ecstatic over the tourism exposure they received for free. The Luge run is available to ANYONE for C$50!

Ever wonder how the teams seem to breeze through customs and immigration....i.e. it's never an issue....apparently dozens of advance people pre-clear everybody and do other advance work. That's unfair!

Tiki

I've often wondered how they manage all those camera people. What if there are 2 seats on a plane do they need to book for the camera person as well? What if one camera person slows down a team? Are there other technical things (commercial flights/buses/trains) they "fix"? Are they allowed to visit internet cafes while on pit stops? Can other teams help a slow team in order to force out a more dangerous, competitive team? For example Team 1 tells Team 2 where to find a clue so they can jump ahead of Team 3 who is a stronger team? Why don't they ever share taxis to save money? What if a team put some white laundry soap or Sweet N Low in another teams luggage to make them lose time at customs?

Savvy Traveler

Well in regard to camera people and not sharing taxis, this is because the "team" is really four people: the two racers, the camera man and a sound tech.

Teams are free to help whomever they wish with information, money, etc. I'm surprised there hasn't been more of this, especially with Colin and Christie this season. As I recall there was talk of "taking out" Reichen and Chip a few seasons ago.

Viajera

Originally posted by Tiki:

"Why don't they ever share taxis to save money? What if a team put some white laundry soap or Sweet N Low in another teams luggage to make them lose time at customs?"

I thought that they only carry a backpack. I only saw them checking their belongings for the last flight. If they put Sweet n Low or laundry soap to cause trouble, wouldn't that be a crime? That could be recorded and serve as evidence.

Tiki

I wonder if a team has ever gotten behind because the cameraman/sound tech was slow or messed up in some way. Soap and Sweet N Low are legal substances in themselves but it would slow a competing team down while customs people analyzed what the white powder is. Unless there is something in the rules against sabotage? I recall one team trying to prevent another team getting onto a flight-can't remember which season it was. Does anyone know a good website for bihind the scenes at AR?

Savvy Traveler

They actually rotate camera/sound crews between teams to "even out" that factor of the race.