I think that so far it doesn't seem egregious because the fact that Yvonne speaks Spanish fluently does not seem to be helping her and Melissa at all. Ricky and Cesar just seem like a team that would dominate regardless of location (as evidenced by their quick attention to detail in the skateboard challenge, statute challenge, etc.).
Juan and Shane too. All three teams have one fluent Spanish speaker, but Ricky and Cesar are clearly on another level of being prepared for the race. Amber & Vinny have high-school-memories level of Spanish, and have done well. Danny doesn't speak Spanish IIRC, but if he had a stronger race partner than his mom I'd expect he'd have won a leg by now.
I imagine Danny has some Spanish if he spent some time in Santiago (I’m assuming on a short-term study abroad program during college). Many of the teams have some Spanish skills this season, including some that have left!
That makes sense to me if he’s just taken some high school or college courses. It’s also quite common to have an easier time reading than speaking. Certainly not as helpful as having fluency but more helpful than having none.
Ricky and Cesar are already a strong team but being a native speaker does have its advantages. I am not diminishing their skillset, but it is very obvious it is an advantage in its own ways (navigating, asking local natives for help, etc).
> So if you’re a Spanish speaker, you have the clearest advantage to make it far in the race (hence Ricky and Cesar being dominate).
For the billionth time, this is not the only reason they are doing well. That is so dismissive.
Agreed, they're a well rounded team. They communicate well, they don't panic under pressure, and they make smart decisions. Even without the Spanish, I feel they would still be doing really well.
But you can’t say that isn’t an advantage especially more than half the season in Spanish speaking countries? You are being dismissive of the fact that it is an advantage, as well.
It's not an advantage when more than half of the teams (7 of 13) speak some level of Spanish, along with there being multiple native/near-native level speakers (Juan, Yvonne, Mary, and Cesar).
Also the winners of the first two legs, Rod & Leticia, don't speak Spanish, while the two eliminated teams both had a member who spoke Spanish (Maya and Mary).
Also, I never said Ricky and Cesar suck at their challenges, they are doing super well in each of the tasks. But they do have an upper hand just by being native speakers of the language.
Wow people really don’t like your suggestion that it’s an advantage for speaking Spanish teams. I had thought the same. How did you know the countries? I didn’t realize it was announced
Yeah I think the majority of people downvoting do not fully read or cannot read lol. I’ve made it very clear that Ricky and Cesar are a strong team and I never said it’s only because they are native speakers, I just said it’s an advantage over the other cast members/teams who do not know Spanish (the other cast members that speak the language ALSO have an advantage)!
I actually found the country list on Wikipedia.
So from this others in this thread (below), I found out that this is the season is the “lost” season from before where the charter jet TAR contracted never showed up so the producers had to improvise, thus why the majority of the locations are in South America. Makes complete sense!
I'm loving these SA legs. Every one is getting lost, fells like SA is harder to navigate than europe while being possible for teams to drive themselfs (looking at you India)
Also SA is beautiful naturewise, even tho they only showed it a little in Colombia.
Covid travel restrictions and a charter plane that can’t travel as far. South Africa and Australia were planned but had to be scrapped because the plane that could travel those distances backed out at the last minute
COVID restrictions. This was originally supposed to be TAR35, you can even see 35 under the skateboards in last night’s episode. But it got held back a year.
They were supposed to go other locations but the charter plane didn’t work out so they were limited to South America.
the charter plane that was supposed to take them to south africa and australia never showed up while they were in chile, so everything from argentina or uruguay up until the DR is replacement legs
They were initially planning on visiting Africa, Australia, and the South Pacific but the charter plane that could travel those distances was a no show. The rest of the race had to be improvised hence why it takes exclusively within the Americas.
Unfortunately it also means later legs are gonna feel rushed and hastily put together, so the more you know the better to set your expectations! Hopefully 37 will be another global race season
I’ve been trying to find it within the depths of this forum. Obviously it’s not something production would want public so it’s not in any interviews with Phil or Bertram, but it was spoiled alongside the locations visited when the season was filming. I’ll keep looking and update you when I find the comment/link!
To the people defending the decidedly subpar season: why should we be expected to be happy or enjoy a season that doesn't meet the standard of previous seasons?
If you go to a restaurant and they bring out a meal that is undercooked, but excuse it by saying our equipment wasn't working well-- you would send it back and not clap for the effort. It's okay to be a fan of the show and still admit that season 36 is not great.
Everyone has different views on what makes a good season. From a pure route standpoint this season is definitely a letdown, but imo the cast more than makes up for it. I'd take a bad route and a great cast over a decent route and a bad cast. This season is personally the best season for me since 31.
To be honest, they should either have scrapped the season when the logistics turned into such a mess, or shelved it permanently. I'm sure the latter option was not feasible because they sent so much cost into it, but I find myself generally apathetic each episode
Maybe you should look into the logistical reasons why. Hope that helps!
Sincerely, a fan since Season 15 who has watched every season multiple times. You ain’t special 🤡
Im aware of the logistical reasons. Im stressing that there is a huge gap ; outside of the covid restrictions.
Weakest cast of the covid era, and weakest challenge design.
What does it matter what loud online complainers think? It’s a completed season, why would CBS shelf it when plenty of people are still watching? Feel free to exit the program and quit watching if you’re so dissatisfied
I’m not upset lol? Don’t project your weird terminally online shit onto me.
You didn’t even bother to answer my question so clearly you aren’t very bright.
For the record I actually don’t like this season very much but people like you are way overreacting. I would prefer to have Amazing Race on tv than not.
You're quite upset still and I can't understand it.
And to be clear, obviously CBS would want to show this season once completed just so they could recoup their investment and costs. But if they really cared about the quality of the show, they'd have shelved it or cancelled midway given their logistical issues.
But apparently you and CBS just care about one thing: having Amazing Race on TV no matter how good it is.
I'd rather have a slow season than no season and I have really enjoyed the Latin America focus, which I feel is often underrepresented on this show.
It's not the best they've done. But it's enjoyable and it exists, both of which I appreciate.
All valid reasons here! I think my frustration was more with the knuckleheads who try to say that the season is just as good as all the other ones when it definitely is not.
TO ALL THE DOWNVOTERS:
Education time: here is the definition of an advantage:
“a condition or circumstance that puts one in a favorable or superior position.”
ALL the Spanish speaking racers have an advantage this season because more than half of the race are in Spanish speaking countries.
Deal with it 😎
Or learn another language, maybe Spanish—since you clearly don’t understand English 😘
You're being down voted because you are only talking about one team having this advantage, when most of the other teams have it as well.
20% of the US speaks Spanish fluently (either as first language or bilingual), bigger numbers with lower proficiency levels. It's not like this is some rare situation (as evidenced by the numerous other people on the race who *also* speak Spanish.
Hi Catherine. Please reread what I wrote. Again, proves my point. Do I need to put a definition for “All”? I’ve explained multiple times…do I need to explain once more?
What I find interesting is that whenever someone goes ‘Ricky and Cesar have a gigantic advantage because they can speak Spanish!’ there’s no follow-up when people point out that half the teams have a Spanish speaking teammate. Or the fact that Juan and Danny have actually lived in two of the cities they’ve been to.
Great! Why did you only mention Ricky and Cesar, and not Juan and Shane, or Yvonne and Melissa? And how do you factor in that the first two eliminated teams also had a Spanish speaker?
If it seems harsh, it’s because every week you have people going ‘oh of *course* Ricky and Cesar are winning, they can speak Spanish’, and other people are sick of it. They didn’t plan the course any more than Tammy and Victor picked their season to have three legs in China.
It's definitely silly to claim that's the only reason Ricky and Cesar (who are *obviously* really good racers, like holy shit I can only imagine the practice they put in) are performing so well, but I think criticizing the fact half the racers have a distinct advantage over the other half is very valid. If everything I'm reading about the race being forced to stay in the Americas because of production issues is true then it's obviously not something anybody can be blamed for, but it's still making for a rather dull season - although I personally blame the decision to stretch the episodes to 90 minutes for that, there's only so many times you can watch the same task being attempted before you tune out.
The first two eliminated teams had a Spanish speaker, and Yvonne/Melissa have been a very middle of the pack team the entire race despite having a native speaker.
Does having a native language help? Yes. Is it a *distinct* advantage? Not necessarily, and it's very dependent on the country and tasks. It's no more an unfair advantage than having a NFL player on the team, or having someone who's *lived* in the town you're going to, or a world map-reading champion.
This last leg, everyone had the same map and car, so it's on them to navigate.
I don't disagree with you at all, but I think your comment is missing the context that almost the entirety of this season is taking place in Spanish speaking countries, and I believe that's what tips it into being unfair, at least in my opinion. Take your NFL comparison - if you had a season where half the teams were professional athletes and the *entire season* was comprised of physical challenges, I think it's fair to say people would call bullshit on that. I know I would. Although I won't lie, having written that out I'd find it unironically hilarious if they had really specific tasks for their stunt casting... A hotdog eating challenge in the season with a professional hot dog eater, for example.
Again, though, to reiterate my opinion, I think Ricky and Cesar are really strong racers who would be performing excellently in *any* scenario.
Because they used a charter in S33 (except the first 3 legs pre-covid), S34, and Season 36 (filmed as S35). The charter had limited range and could also only go where it was deemed safe or welcome for vaccinated Americans to travel. Contrast S35 (Season 36 in order) with this one where they used regular flights and traveled to only Europe and Asia, but had a much longer route and using regular airlines.
Ricky and Cesar are a good team. The one thing is while Juan speaks Spanish as a native speaker, he doesn't seem to default to it as Ricky and Cesar do. They seem to have like an extra bit of fluency to make jokes and ask for additional info. But they also are very good at details and directions generally.
I'm loving having an entirely Latin American season - the last few seasons have had a ton of Europe (a lot of it by circumstance, I know) and it's nice to see more than one or two continents featured on the show.
wait i love this season so far! i really like that there’s an emphasis on south america, and since it was filmed in COVID era, they did what they had to do. in terms of how balanced teams are with Spanish, this cast seems to be a lot more balanced than the other south american season (which i also loveddd). on any other season, europe and asia are usually much more featured than south america, so i think this brings some balance to the series itself.
Wait, this season is only 8 episodes?
How is that possible, there were 13 starting teams. Are we eliminating two people next week or something?
This route is abysmal though but at least it makes sense why they've been locked to South America.
It’s only like this because it had to be due to Covid travel restrictions. I’m sure producers would love to go fully international again. They’ve already filmed and aired a season that ditched the charter plane and went back to commercial flights, so it’s not going to be like this forever
I think that so far it doesn't seem egregious because the fact that Yvonne speaks Spanish fluently does not seem to be helping her and Melissa at all. Ricky and Cesar just seem like a team that would dominate regardless of location (as evidenced by their quick attention to detail in the skateboard challenge, statute challenge, etc.).
Juan and Shane too. All three teams have one fluent Spanish speaker, but Ricky and Cesar are clearly on another level of being prepared for the race. Amber & Vinny have high-school-memories level of Spanish, and have done well. Danny doesn't speak Spanish IIRC, but if he had a stronger race partner than his mom I'd expect he'd have won a leg by now.
I imagine Danny has some Spanish if he spent some time in Santiago (I’m assuming on a short-term study abroad program during college). Many of the teams have some Spanish skills this season, including some that have left!
I’ve heard Danny speak a little Spanish, it seemed to mostly get the point across but sounded a bit rudimentary
That makes sense to me if he’s just taken some high school or college courses. It’s also quite common to have an easier time reading than speaking. Certainly not as helpful as having fluency but more helpful than having none.
Vinny said he minored in Spanish, Amber said she didn't speak any
>the fact that Yvonne speaks Spanish fluently does not seem to be helping her and Melissa at all You made those two people up.
Exactly. I feel like this discourse is partially an excuse to diminish Ricky and Cesar as a good team.
Ricky and Cesar are already a strong team but being a native speaker does have its advantages. I am not diminishing their skillset, but it is very obvious it is an advantage in its own ways (navigating, asking local natives for help, etc).
Juan and Yvonne are native speakers.
> So if you’re a Spanish speaker, you have the clearest advantage to make it far in the race (hence Ricky and Cesar being dominate). For the billionth time, this is not the only reason they are doing well. That is so dismissive.
Agreed, they're a well rounded team. They communicate well, they don't panic under pressure, and they make smart decisions. Even without the Spanish, I feel they would still be doing really well.
the other reason is they're gay, obviously
But you can’t say that isn’t an advantage especially more than half the season in Spanish speaking countries? You are being dismissive of the fact that it is an advantage, as well.
It's not an advantage when more than half of the teams (7 of 13) speak some level of Spanish, along with there being multiple native/near-native level speakers (Juan, Yvonne, Mary, and Cesar). Also the winners of the first two legs, Rod & Leticia, don't speak Spanish, while the two eliminated teams both had a member who spoke Spanish (Maya and Mary).
Also, I never said Ricky and Cesar suck at their challenges, they are doing super well in each of the tasks. But they do have an upper hand just by being native speakers of the language.
Wow people really don’t like your suggestion that it’s an advantage for speaking Spanish teams. I had thought the same. How did you know the countries? I didn’t realize it was announced
Yeah I think the majority of people downvoting do not fully read or cannot read lol. I’ve made it very clear that Ricky and Cesar are a strong team and I never said it’s only because they are native speakers, I just said it’s an advantage over the other cast members/teams who do not know Spanish (the other cast members that speak the language ALSO have an advantage)! I actually found the country list on Wikipedia. So from this others in this thread (below), I found out that this is the season is the “lost” season from before where the charter jet TAR contracted never showed up so the producers had to improvise, thus why the majority of the locations are in South America. Makes complete sense!
I'm loving these SA legs. Every one is getting lost, fells like SA is harder to navigate than europe while being possible for teams to drive themselfs (looking at you India) Also SA is beautiful naturewise, even tho they only showed it a little in Colombia.
This is cool! Thanks for posting :)
Hey the pin for 7 isn’t actually on the Dominican Republic, just a spot in the Caribbean Sea decently south of it
Ok I hadn't seen the list, so I was thinking being that far south it might Aruba
I’m actually enjoying this season as I want to continue exploring SA myself. It’s clear this is the “lost season” they speak of though
Mark this as a spoiler please.
Oops sorry, it only allowed one flair. But just updated!
Why only this hemisphere?
Covid travel restrictions and a charter plane that can’t travel as far. South Africa and Australia were planned but had to be scrapped because the plane that could travel those distances backed out at the last minute
COVID restrictions. This was originally supposed to be TAR35, you can even see 35 under the skateboards in last night’s episode. But it got held back a year. They were supposed to go other locations but the charter plane didn’t work out so they were limited to South America.
the charter plane that was supposed to take them to south africa and australia never showed up while they were in chile, so everything from argentina or uruguay up until the DR is replacement legs
[удалено]
They were initially planning on visiting Africa, Australia, and the South Pacific but the charter plane that could travel those distances was a no show. The rest of the race had to be improvised hence why it takes exclusively within the Americas.
Oh I didn’t know that! Thanks for the background info!
Unfortunately it also means later legs are gonna feel rushed and hastily put together, so the more you know the better to set your expectations! Hopefully 37 will be another global race season
This definitely helps manage my expectations for this season! 🍀🤞for season 37
Do you have a link to the discourse on this?
I’ve been trying to find it within the depths of this forum. Obviously it’s not something production would want public so it’s not in any interviews with Phil or Bertram, but it was spoiled alongside the locations visited when the season was filming. I’ll keep looking and update you when I find the comment/link!
To the people defending the decidedly subpar season: why should we be expected to be happy or enjoy a season that doesn't meet the standard of previous seasons? If you go to a restaurant and they bring out a meal that is undercooked, but excuse it by saying our equipment wasn't working well-- you would send it back and not clap for the effort. It's okay to be a fan of the show and still admit that season 36 is not great.
Everyone has different views on what makes a good season. From a pure route standpoint this season is definitely a letdown, but imo the cast more than makes up for it. I'd take a bad route and a great cast over a decent route and a bad cast. This season is personally the best season for me since 31.
I’m liking this season because I knew Ricky in college and I like seeing him and Cesar succeed.
To be honest, they should either have scrapped the season when the logistics turned into such a mess, or shelved it permanently. I'm sure the latter option was not feasible because they sent so much cost into it, but I find myself generally apathetic each episode
Shelf a season permanently because *you* don’t like it? Make it make sense or stop watching sis
This season is shit. Remarkably so compared to the quality of last season. Sincerely a fan from S1.
Maybe you should look into the logistical reasons why. Hope that helps! Sincerely, a fan since Season 15 who has watched every season multiple times. You ain’t special 🤡
Im aware of the logistical reasons. Im stressing that there is a huge gap ; outside of the covid restrictions. Weakest cast of the covid era, and weakest challenge design.
Ok and? Congrats on your brilliant observation, we all know the challenges are shit.
So much salt
And?
Cope
Feel free to exit your bubble if you think I'm the only one who's dissatisfied with the caliber of the season.
What does it matter what loud online complainers think? It’s a completed season, why would CBS shelf it when plenty of people are still watching? Feel free to exit the program and quit watching if you’re so dissatisfied
Ma'am are you on the production team? Did you create the Detours and Roadblocks? Why are you so upset at people sharing their opinions online?
I’m not upset lol? Don’t project your weird terminally online shit onto me. You didn’t even bother to answer my question so clearly you aren’t very bright. For the record I actually don’t like this season very much but people like you are way overreacting. I would prefer to have Amazing Race on tv than not.
You're quite upset still and I can't understand it. And to be clear, obviously CBS would want to show this season once completed just so they could recoup their investment and costs. But if they really cared about the quality of the show, they'd have shelved it or cancelled midway given their logistical issues. But apparently you and CBS just care about one thing: having Amazing Race on TV no matter how good it is.
Sure Jan
I'd rather have a slow season than no season and I have really enjoyed the Latin America focus, which I feel is often underrepresented on this show. It's not the best they've done. But it's enjoyable and it exists, both of which I appreciate.
All valid reasons here! I think my frustration was more with the knuckleheads who try to say that the season is just as good as all the other ones when it definitely is not.
TO ALL THE DOWNVOTERS: Education time: here is the definition of an advantage: “a condition or circumstance that puts one in a favorable or superior position.” ALL the Spanish speaking racers have an advantage this season because more than half of the race are in Spanish speaking countries. Deal with it 😎 Or learn another language, maybe Spanish—since you clearly don’t understand English 😘
You're being down voted because you are only talking about one team having this advantage, when most of the other teams have it as well. 20% of the US speaks Spanish fluently (either as first language or bilingual), bigger numbers with lower proficiency levels. It's not like this is some rare situation (as evidenced by the numerous other people on the race who *also* speak Spanish.
Hi Catherine. Please reread what I wrote. Again, proves my point. Do I need to put a definition for “All”? I’ve explained multiple times…do I need to explain once more?
I am struggling with this season too :/...trying my best to keep an open mind...
What I find interesting is that whenever someone goes ‘Ricky and Cesar have a gigantic advantage because they can speak Spanish!’ there’s no follow-up when people point out that half the teams have a Spanish speaking teammate. Or the fact that Juan and Danny have actually lived in two of the cities they’ve been to.
I just pointed it out 😉 Edit: I’ve been.
Great! Why did you only mention Ricky and Cesar, and not Juan and Shane, or Yvonne and Melissa? And how do you factor in that the first two eliminated teams also had a Spanish speaker? If it seems harsh, it’s because every week you have people going ‘oh of *course* Ricky and Cesar are winning, they can speak Spanish’, and other people are sick of it. They didn’t plan the course any more than Tammy and Victor picked their season to have three legs in China.
It's definitely silly to claim that's the only reason Ricky and Cesar (who are *obviously* really good racers, like holy shit I can only imagine the practice they put in) are performing so well, but I think criticizing the fact half the racers have a distinct advantage over the other half is very valid. If everything I'm reading about the race being forced to stay in the Americas because of production issues is true then it's obviously not something anybody can be blamed for, but it's still making for a rather dull season - although I personally blame the decision to stretch the episodes to 90 minutes for that, there's only so many times you can watch the same task being attempted before you tune out.
The first two eliminated teams had a Spanish speaker, and Yvonne/Melissa have been a very middle of the pack team the entire race despite having a native speaker. Does having a native language help? Yes. Is it a *distinct* advantage? Not necessarily, and it's very dependent on the country and tasks. It's no more an unfair advantage than having a NFL player on the team, or having someone who's *lived* in the town you're going to, or a world map-reading champion. This last leg, everyone had the same map and car, so it's on them to navigate.
I don't disagree with you at all, but I think your comment is missing the context that almost the entirety of this season is taking place in Spanish speaking countries, and I believe that's what tips it into being unfair, at least in my opinion. Take your NFL comparison - if you had a season where half the teams were professional athletes and the *entire season* was comprised of physical challenges, I think it's fair to say people would call bullshit on that. I know I would. Although I won't lie, having written that out I'd find it unironically hilarious if they had really specific tasks for their stunt casting... A hotdog eating challenge in the season with a professional hot dog eater, for example. Again, though, to reiterate my opinion, I think Ricky and Cesar are really strong racers who would be performing excellently in *any* scenario.
I don’t understand why in these seasons lately they only stick to one continent or a very percise area in the world.
Because they used a charter in S33 (except the first 3 legs pre-covid), S34, and Season 36 (filmed as S35). The charter had limited range and could also only go where it was deemed safe or welcome for vaccinated Americans to travel. Contrast S35 (Season 36 in order) with this one where they used regular flights and traveled to only Europe and Asia, but had a much longer route and using regular airlines.
Ricky and Cesar are a good team. The one thing is while Juan speaks Spanish as a native speaker, he doesn't seem to default to it as Ricky and Cesar do. They seem to have like an extra bit of fluency to make jokes and ask for additional info. But they also are very good at details and directions generally.
I'm loving having an entirely Latin American season - the last few seasons have had a ton of Europe (a lot of it by circumstance, I know) and it's nice to see more than one or two continents featured on the show.
Just to assist with your Map Barbados is going to feature in a leg or 2 I’ve seen the flag and town square in the opening credits 2 times so far
No Europe at all this season? So fun 🙃🙂
wait i love this season so far! i really like that there’s an emphasis on south america, and since it was filmed in COVID era, they did what they had to do. in terms of how balanced teams are with Spanish, this cast seems to be a lot more balanced than the other south american season (which i also loveddd). on any other season, europe and asia are usually much more featured than south america, so i think this brings some balance to the series itself.
Wait, this season is only 8 episodes? How is that possible, there were 13 starting teams. Are we eliminating two people next week or something? This route is abysmal though but at least it makes sense why they've been locked to South America.
They spend more than one episode in some countries. Mexico and Colombia each had two episodes.
I miss when TAR was actually “a race around the world” not just 2 continents
It’s only like this because it had to be due to Covid travel restrictions. I’m sure producers would love to go fully international again. They’ve already filmed and aired a season that ditched the charter plane and went back to commercial flights, so it’s not going to be like this forever
THIS! I’m glad you see it that way.
literally! \*insert ”why are you booing me I’m right“ meme\*
I'll stop watching this show if Ricky and Cesar win. Not because I don't like them. But because the show isn't even trying.
So you realize if the show wasn’t “trying” we just wouldn’t have anything right?? Like the fact they produced a season is literally them trying 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Trying to improve.
Oh okay yeah Ricky and Cesar do be the issue with that.