The Amazing Race 34: Episode 1 Review

0:01 Foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] Tech channel here on YouTube we've got the TNT takes for you on The Amazing Race 34 I'm your host Chris and for the very first time in months I've got Michelle back as my co-host for The Amazing Race Michelle how have you been good very busy as we all are but yeah last day of term today so yes I am I don't know whether I'm on a high or whether

1:21 I'm just so tired I can't even think straight but I'm here yeah I'm so grateful to have you back I had people you wouldn't believe it when we were doing the challenge content hit me up afterwards saying are you doing The Amazing Race again this season and I said yes and there's the they're asking is Michelle going to be back because I loved having you and Michelle do the Amazing Race last season so for those people they're in the US they're probably not watching it live we're not on a great team or a great time for it but you know we've got Michelle back and I'm so grateful Michelle that you're willing to do this again especially with your busy schedule running this group of Amazing Race fans that continue to grow you just hit 7 000 this week I saw six I wish it was seven six but yes and every time a new reality show comes out people ask me are you starting a new group so I think at the moment I'm admitting six groups and then the funny thing is Jules who does the Survivor Australian Survivor group with me and another she does I think Hunt No I can't remember what other group she does with me the bridge she said oh there's a new show coming out and it's basically in the wilderness it's all for money and you've got to get to the end and I can't remember the name but it's a new show and new group last night and I'm like oh my

2:41 God stop adding these new reality shows for money because I can't vote but these are the ones that I love I don't I don't like the ones like the block or you know love Island and all that sort of stuff I want competition so I know we're going to be talking about the Amazing Race but I do have to ask you before we get into it and lovable Nikki and Igor welcome to the live as well lovable Nikki saying she was the one who asked me yes she did ask and also we had Nikki here say that she hasn't watched it yet she's probably gonna get spoiled I don't know if you want to get spoiled like we won't be angry at you if you jump off and watch this later on and you know we'll do our best to make it entertaining but it's worth it to watch the episode as well and yes Igor I am standing at the moment different camera angle today I think but hey Michelle just before we get into The Amazing Race I wanted to ask you did you watch The Challenge she was a since there were some players on there that you actually knew or did you not get into it this season didn't get into it because there was so much else on and I actually watched the other one I actually watched a bit of the other one where there were four Americans they were either from Survivor or big brother or some other show was it taking the grass and I loved watching some of that you know that was that was interesting yeah I didn't watch that yet I haven't watched hunted

4:01 Yet there's a bunch of stuff I have not watched yet that I need to get back to you I haven't finished Big Brother yet and it's you know I get real nervous about not watching Big Brother these days like I've watched a little bit of the beginning of it but we've again got big brother players crossing over to The Amazing Race We've Got Big Brothers crossing over to the challenge like it's just everybody seems to be crossing over everywhere now and I always feel like I'm a little bit behind what was your first impressions of Derek and Claire who ultimately you know dominated this first leg or you know did pretty well especially as someone that's not seen them on any other reality TV shows before and I know that you know it's sometimes the Amazing Grace fans can be a bit iffy about people coming from other franchises to The Amazing Race because they've already had this shot how did you feel about seeing these two on the show well I like them as a team they were really friendly which a lot of Big Brother contestants who do cross over to something else normally they're not that friendly they're quite Cutthroat sort of people but they were really happy and they were really happy doing all the different challenges and I thought God I really like this team but I don't know their background at all but I found them lovable were they anything but that in Big Brother yeah they from memory I didn't watch their whole season either I watched maybe the first four weeks and then I've

5:22 Been struggling it's both the last two seasons I got into the first four weeks but I've kind of been spoiled on how this season is turning out for big brother and I may need to go back because the person that I really was rooting for in the beginning was getting bullied quite a bit in the show and I don't like seeing that type of stuff but that person has made it very deep into the show potentially could win this thing so it may be such a cool Arc to go back and watch it to see this person dominate so but Derek and Claire were fan favorites I believe the season that they played and Derek played in The Challenge USA recently so he's just jumping on all of the shows and I got to see the whole season of The Challenge USA since I was covering it and I thought he did reasonably well in that season as well but these two seem to be extremely balanced you know you've got Claire who's going to be extremely smart you've got Derek who's not the dumbest person either he's pretty smart like you said you know if he's bringing the muscle they're in trouble but I think they've got such a fun Dynamic and I do think they could be really threatening throughout the season but I did look out to see in the next on or throughout the season what's going to happen I didn't see them in any of those cut scenes that they had about the whole season so that makes me a bit worried for Derek and Claire will they get even there deep into the season or could they be like a Boston Rob and Amber the second time that they came and they had they had one or two very good legs and then they're out on the third yeah you never know I mean I

6:42 Mean you don't know but I don't take a lot of like a lot of people look at what's coming next and what sort of challenges each person is doing and where they could possibly be on the race and I don't take note of that because I don't like to be spoiled for one thing so I sort of gloss over it all but that makes me sad if you haven't seen anything D well in it was literally I don't know how long that clip was but it's like watch for everything that's gonna happen this season on The Amazing Race and they showed different people doing different things throughout the season and I was like where's Derek and Clay I can't see them in any of these clips so I don't know if that is them spoiling it or they're not wanting to make it too obvious and maybe they're hiding it because a lot of fans will be watching for them because they've played before so yeah we'll have to see how it plays out but there's a lot of Firsts here this league you know the Amazing Race USA is mixing things up and for the first time ever there's going to be a new starting point for them outside of the USA they're starting in Germany what did you think about the fact that they kind of mixed it up because I do feel like in recent times The Amazing Race has been trying to do things differently and these this is one of the things they changed for this episode that I thought for me personally I enjoyed it but I don't know how you felt about it and have you been to Munich before I

8:03 Haven't been to Munich yes I have actually I think it's quite it's a take out of the Aussies book when we started overseas and I was quite shocked when that happened because I was ready to go and find them in Australia when they started and then they I got the photos of them overseas and I thought oh this isn't really The Amazing Race but now America has adopted it I don't know what the value is in it for covert wise racing because if they're living on one plane anyway regardless and landing in Munich it doesn't really matter but maybe they're just taking a leaf out of the Aussies and thought well let's do something a little bit different let's start over there what did you think I think personally and I could be wrong I think it's a logistics thing because if you start in the USA a big portion of that first leg is taken up by you trying to get to the airport getting on a plane just to get to your first country where the first leg really starts so it eats up a lot of time for you that you could be putting them into something different and doing challenges and they did mix it up here they brought something in called the scramble which is now you can do things in any order that you want and it made it maybe a little bit different where if someone was really badly screwing up on one of these challenges they're all together they're all in

9:23 The same country they're all thrown into a foreign environment that they don't necessarily know so I feel like maybe it allowed for them to be braver with what they did in this first leg by starting internationally so that's my take on it yeah I quack I loved the scramble only because when I did the races in Sydney you get a whole page of Clues and you have to figure out what order you're going to do things in and you go to the map mind you we knew what the pit stop was we knew where the ending was so we would go to the furthest point first do those things and come back and that was an easy way to do it and I thought actually it was the twins who said you're right let's go here and here because we think the pet stuff is going to be at this near this Waterway because he likes usually to do something where there's a good Scenic area and afterwards I actually went to Google Earth and they actually picked where he was going to be and that he was actually the angel of what was it angel of something was actually in that area so I thought wow they really thought ahead angel of peace so that was great but the challenges were very equidistant around the area so

10:44 It didn't really matter which one you went to First but then as one of the teams said it's really hard to gauge where you are in the race because you don't see everybody and no one's doing it in the same order so you're really going as fast as you can for your race which is a bit disconcerting for the teams that are used to you know going in and seeing it in a certain route yeah or like for super fans of the show like Abby and wool who've seen all the seasons or most of it by the sounds of it they come into the show they see something new happening so they can't pre-plan it based on their experience as fans now they have to go by the seat of their pants and just adapt on the thing and I personally love it when producers do throw curveballs like this in front of players where they are forced to adapt and you know the first time ever The Amazing Race played no one knew what to expect so it brings them almost it will never be like that but it brings them kind of close to what it would have been like for people doing that first season not really knowing what the optimal strategy is to do different things and you say that it doesn't matter but I do think that probably like you said because they were not sure where people were at I think it actually made them not copy other people as much or they all were kind of doing their own thing they weren't working in alliances or groups so I do feel in a lot of ways it

12:04 Did really show us who the teams are going to be the C season that potentially could think on their feet and they can do things if they have to work solo through these challenges because I didn't really see these early alliances forming or people being together and I'm hoping we'll know next week that the grouping is gone as well where they had this is group one group two and group three leaving together I'm hoping that they just leave in the order that they came and with the time differences that they got to the pit stop I'm hoping that's how it's going to work in any case because it'll make it a little bit more fair in my mind I don't know how you feel about that yeah I mean it's always good when you have the ability to move in front of another team and also it's nice when you're at the top of the pack to be able to stay there when you're starting another leg and not have to start with like the first five teams you know all together it's nice to be able to start in your own time slot but I don't know whether they'll do the scramble again they might leave it for another three legs and then do it again I don't think it's going to be a regular episode thing because I think people would miss things like the roadblock and The Detour and you know the things that have been on the race for so long yeah no I don't think you can and I mean we spoke about you know it's good to throw the curveball

13:25 In there maybe they do it once or twice more in this in this you know there's going to be what nine legs so maybe three of the nine legs will be a scramble and people will be like oh no it's a scramble again we're gonna have to think on our feet here but for a viewer you bring up a good point how did it sort of feel watching the scramble take place like did you follow it correctly could you make out who was in the lead because as I was taking notes for it I'm going to be honest I was all over the place I really struggled when Derek and Claire ended up pulling away I was like what they're the ones they're in the front I didn't have any idea no you don't have any idea but I loved it because I've done that and I thought oh this is this is like what I've done so I was enjoying it but not a lot of people have done what I have done so I was I was I was right in the moment I was loving it and I was going back to how I used to do things but I don't think it as I said I don't think it would work for every episode because people would start walking against it Riot people will write against it I'm gonna share the script for the screen here for people that are listening to this on Spotify or any of the different audio platforms and we're looking at all of the teams that are playing the season and I wanted to talk a little bit about these teams because we didn't get our official pre-season cast assessment

14:45 Thing out of the way so we're going to do it all in one as we talk about the first episode here who stood out for you and who is the team or teams you know I'll allow you three teams Max who's the three teams you know that you think you're really gravitating towards this season after this yeah and who impressed you from the first episode I've got several who didn't impress me and I think oh my gosh they're going to be out soon okay let's start with the negative then and oh really positive yeah let's throw you straight under the bus so who do you think who's gonna crack Under Pressure thanks I'm just looking at names Linden and is it sharick a so that's the father and daughter team this season wants to do well but I don't know I don't see them going final three at all I think they've got the love of the race but I don't think they'll get far here we go they'll probably get so they won't be like there won't be like Arun I got so much Aruna Natalia Vibes in them although they were giving me Aaron and Natalia Vibes as soon as I saw them yeah but again it was interesting because there were certain points where I felt the dad's experience

16:05 Came in where he was picking up certain things with the saw people sawing incorrectly and we'll talk about that a little bit later on so it does seem like he's got some real knowledge so I don't I don't know if I'm necessarily gonna say I feel like they're the team for me that's gonna crack they ended up overall in fourth place this week so not a bad start for them at all but the team for me that stood out this week as a team that I feel like there's a couple where you could potentially you know pick on you could do the obvious one and say Tim and Rex you know at some point Rex is going to pull the team down he's still not that fit and we'll talk about them a little bit later on but I think a team that either will go very deep and will be that team that just fights all the way to the end and potentially gets into like a final three maybe even win this thing or they could burn out very hot and cold early on it's going to be Louise and Michelle and they didn't do that well the first episode either from memory I think they only yes got it very surprised I was so surprised when they were down the bottom yeah they were 10th Place tenth place this first episode and I think that a lot of it came down to more the guy here Louis I don't know if I'm pronouncing it might be Louis you know being the male guy being that alpha male type of Personality it's like oh we do it this way and he's like trying to power his way through the sore part of

17:25 It which you know was funny to watch and then his girlfriend here or wife I'm not sure if they're married they might be married Michelle I feel like she was very submissive so it's that kind of relationship where he's probably gonna have most of the say and she might have valuable things to add at times but will he stop and listen I know this is being very judgmental after one episode but hey this is all we've got to go off at this point so they're my team at this stage that I'm a little bit worried about they're married by the way yeah all right so they are married just want to bring up here Edgar saying I was confused the whole time I thought the all dancers were in first place throughout the season I agree it also says we get another Dom after Race Across the world old just like Carl's who are all big brother shows that's true we do have another Dom it also said to lose really prepared for this race on Instagram so I was surprised that he came tenth okay well he seems like an intense personality that's what I'm trying to say so it's either gonna go it's like a backhanded compliment that I'm giving him and Michelle are either going to go all the way to the end and dominate and he will from what I've seen in the first episode he'll be the one carrying the team or him being there dominating might at some point be very bad for them you sound like me the new survivor I'm like okay Cody is either gonna crash and burn or he's going to get to the end and I hardly ever

18:45 Say that about Amazing Race teams but I say it about survivors all the time yeah I feel like this is if there's a team like that this is the team and I agree with your assessment on Cody we will be talking about Survivor 43 episode one tomorrow so I'll definitely get into my thoughts on Cody but obviously you know I like him because I like the characters so I'm also going to like this team because I like the characters I just hope you know that I'm that the best case scenario happens for them here but let's go back here so we started off with the negative let's go into the positive who do you like who do you gravitate towards after this first episode well obviously Derek and Claire because they don't get too stressed I like Emily and Holly because they seem to be quite analytical and thinking about the best way to do things what a story what a story right twins grew up in different parts of the world didn't know that each other existed so it's going to be interesting to see how this whole thing is going to play out because they're now having to find out I mean it's hard enough if you've got a brother or a sister that you're not close to and but you guys have grown up in the same house and then you've got to go out there and play a game together but you kind of butt heads that time now they're forced to play together when they've never done anything together so they have to like figure out how both of them work and will this twin telepathy type of thing be there that people always talk about like

20:06 Does it really exist because they actually spoke a sentence at the same time together and I can't remember what it was but I'm like oh wow they're they've only known each other for a year and they're actually saying the sentence at the same time so obviously it does work they were the surprise of the first of the first leg because they came in what place were they were pretty high up I feel like you've got the list there yeah they were fifth so yeah really good finish for them in the first one and I got that as soon as they said well we think Phil's going to be around here they're really thinking about what they're doing so yeah from like very early on in the episode I thought maybe they will do well yeah I agree so and also I think that Emily and Molly is a great team to get behind I feel like you're stealing my teams here I'm gonna have to be different because I'm gonna like I have to you know I've got to choose I've got to choose my Lulu and Lala for this season you know well a lot of a lot of people who podcast pick on the teams that are most athletic or you know have jobs that are very athletic and I generally don't do that because I look at the whole person and

21:26 You know their intelligence because a lot of this race isn't athleticism you know it's being able to remember a song a dance remember you know an order of food it or how to make something you know you need to have the mind going there it's not all about running Dusty and Ryan would have wondered if it was the case last season right so I mean it shows that it's not all about athleticism but Emily and Molly for me if I'm looking at this at the team right now the cost that's out there they're the underdog team that you want to shout for they're like the team you look at them and you're like man they're not necessarily like you said they're not unfit but they don't look dominating they're shorter than everybody else they're not necessarily look intimidating they're two people that have just come together you know like they haven't seen each other for years and years and years or never seen each other they didn't know that they existed you know so why would you not want to get behind that story so for me I'm very much with you on the Emily and Molly train I like Derek and Claire two great choices there from the start other people that stood out for me obviously in this first season you know you kind of feel like Abby and will they're going to be big this season so maybe they're a team that I'll get behind because they're the they're the fans of the show so again you like seeing fans of the show get out there and hopefully do well so we don't see much of them in this first episode

22:46 I don't feel like anything specifically stood out the one thing that did impress me is that when we got to the point where they had to do the saw part which was the most difficult of the three okay nightmare but I you know that's what I was going to pull out like he noticed he's like it's not about pushing down on the saw it is about just gliding over it and letting the blade do the work and for me as someone that has done it but Dad being a builder obviously we did a lot of carpentry in houses my dad used to build the houses and do his own carpentry inside and all that kind of stuff I've used the saw in my life so I would have known that you don't force it like Louis tried to do you know like he was trying to force through it which basically means to get stuck you've got to let the blade do the work so but that's the crazy thing it's like I took for granted because when they told us about the three things I thought the way full explained the massive ice block was going to be the most difficult thing but it ended up being cutting through wood my God the ice block people just bash that thing to so quickly geez it was just ruthless yeah it was it was insane to see like I mean I thought like well he did say it's going to be a huge or a massive Boulder or like a ice block and it wasn't that big it wasn't really that big but I suppose

24:06 Only this big then the ice block seems to be big yeah I feel like it oversoldered like to us you know I was like in my mind I was like this thing's gonna be gigantic and it's gonna take them forever they should have given them like a little ice pick to pick through you know so it's really annoying but they gave them something decent to work with so it was easy to get through it the clue Giver or the next clue Giver at that place wasn't as enthusiastic as the guy with the Kegs and the sores how enthusiastic were those guys when they when they completed the challenge they were like wow the most the most amp person and this is another team that can either like fail or succeed this season was in the rich and Dom team was Dom like you know she is I can already tell this season is going to be fun the longer they're in this in the show because can you imagine every time they're going to be doing these challenges and one of them's struggling they're going to be doing motivational speeches to each other while they're out there they're professionals added and then they're going to motivate us when they talk to us in the screen is all about perseverance it's all about not giving up you've got to believe in yourself and I mean I don't think that the guy when she finished that keg role expected her to come in for the hug like she did I know

25:27 I know he looked very uncomfortable the Germans are very stiff people in general no they were very happy but they're like ah in the in the car she's saying I'm I'm focusing on my power and strength and you know I'm all about uplifting yourself but I was like you can focus on your parents strength skill but better get that hair out of the way because it's gonna get in the way of all the challenges and she's with that keg and rolling The Keg and I'm like she's left two little hairs down on each side and I'm thinking put the hair back you're going to pull it out when you're pushing the keg I love to hear by the way it looks awesome I love the color the color is awesome obviously she got compliments while she was out there by locals I was impressed by the amount of people that were able to communicate with them because I have been to Munich I've been to the Oktoberfest in Munich and I've walked those streets and I know how difficult it is to get someone that can speak English in Munich but it's been seven or eight years since I've been there things may have changed this may be a lot more of the younger generation now coming through that are better because it looked like younger people that they were talking with but still like I was impressed that they got people that understood them while they were there friendly people really friendly people but like I said they're just very upright and uptight and like proper like you know so and yeah

26:47 It was it was great to see her this so she's someone I'm hoping they go deep because I think she's going to be a lot of fun she's going to be intense and I like my characters on the show I want to see in teen City I think that she's being a motivational speaker you know she's going to be competitive and like I said we're going to get motivational speeches we might get the most motivational speech when one of them gets stuck can you imagine if Dusty had Dom there to help him through that last season when he had to look for the coin underneath all the Rocks yes oh God yes I remember that I know she would have been able to talk him off the ledge though I feel like Ryan was the Whisperer in that situation yeah he was good for that I'm also looking at Quinton and is it Matty yeah so I believe it was Igor who said here that he thought that they were in the lead the whole episode and that's why he found it so hard to follow them because ultimately they ended up getting in third place so they weren't far off the lead they did really well in this first episode yeah definitely it seems like a really well-rounded team I feel like they're not going to be fighting you know obviously they just have that connection I believe she was his cheerleader captain and they used to do Channel cheerleading for the NFL which is highly competitive means that people underestimate

28:08 How fit people are the do cheerleading like I feel like there is a stereotype out there for cheerleaders where people think oh well they just look pretty you know they're not real apps yeah but I feel like that stereotype exists and I think that they could prove it wrong this season because they definitely not the two young white blonde girls that are cheerleading out there that is like that's you know that's not them it's that if they underestimate them this season these two could be dark horses to do really well I mean obviously Quentin's got quite a bit of upper arm strength he's the one that used to you know throw the girls up in the air and that's what they do when they're a man in cheerleading so yeah he's got a bit of strength going there's got to be trust like if you're getting thrown in the air there's got to be trust between you and your partner so I feel like that's gonna it's gonna work well for them this season I think that's a that's another good call but like I said I think maybe Abby and wool two people I could get behind also another team that impressed me in this first episode but I also feel like they could end up like the cops maybe I was I was worried for them this first episode was Marcus and Michael I really enjoyed these two military brothers and they said that you know one of the things that was really funny is that they've been obviously they're Brothers but they've been in different places they're

29:28 Not necessarily competing with each other and what they do in their career even though they're both in the military they've never really had this competitive Vibe between them and obviously being in The Amazing Race now there's this competitive Vibe so they're going to have to learn even though they have known each other for so long they have to learn how to communicate and motivate each other through this thing when there's probably going to be times where Michael or Marcus is going to be one of them is going to Halt the other one back and how do they handle that how do they deal with that situation there was a few times here where I felt like I believe Marcus is the is the bigger one of the two or yes they always put them on the left they always have them even come to the mat so that the first name is on the left they always do that I'm a bit worried about markers because he seems to be a bull in a china shop like he's like let's not think let's just move like even when they started he's like I just need to drive not ask for directions because I'm just about to say they had problems driving yeah that's the problem like and they're that they're the typical team where people will look at them and say well clearly they're the two men all male teams do well in The Amazing Race they're athletically really fit so they're a team that a lot of people may look at and say this could be a Powerhouse team this season but there is there are flaws to their game potentially that we've seen in these first few challenges out there that potentially

30:49 They might not just steamroll through it yeah exactly also something about the scramble you know they were at the cars and I think it was is it ASA and Nina I'm not sure how to spell yeah I believe it's Asta that's how you pronounce it they know they were there saying we want to find out where everything is and then we'll go and then they were the last to leave and from experience doing stuff like that you want to be leaving halfway in the pack even if you don't know where one of the Place challenge places is because you can find that out on the way you don't want to ever be last leaving a scramble I thought God this is not good yep you found the places but your last yeah no I agree with you and that's gonna it didn't bite them in the butt this first game or the first league but it can but bite them in the butt later on while you bring up us and you know obviously ultimately the team that's gonna not make it here this episode they're gonna get their last which is a shame because it seemed like they had such a great relationship I kind of wanted to see how they grew on the show like it's never fun you're going to lose someone regardless and I don't necessarily hate someone yet which I don't know if that's a good thing we spoke about that last season where we're like well if

32:09 You don't really you don't Hate's a strong word but if you don't dislike someone on the show then it's kind of less fun to watch it because you kind of want to have that team where you're like oh they're so good and I just want them to be lost this league because they're annoying type of thing you want that team that you can shout against you know to get some emotion out of you I don't feel like we have that this no well they definitely weren't them yeah I don't have any inkling towards anybody to feel anything but you know everyone seems to be pretty fun I'm not sure whether you know the motivational speakers were great on me after a few episodes but we'll see yeah are you a fan of like motivational speakers in general like Tony Robbins and those types of people yeah I don't mind them sometimes they say things for the sake of saying them feeling that they have to say something instead of actually meaning it so you know I'd be interested to see you know what else they say along the along the face yeah do you think that there's a chance that maybe they're doing the race and they're like oh you know this is another opportunity to build our social media platform for motivational speaking and they're like looking at it as like a marketing opportunity every little opportunity to do that anyway I

33:29 Mean they do that anyway I mean I'd say half the races have some sort of ulterior motive usually yeah no definitely you're right you know that this might just be a little bit more obvious if they start going into these motivational speeches every single time when they're out there it might be a little bit more obvious but again how often are you going to get the opportunity to have three million people in the US watch you live and it's probably even more than that when you count the fact that this show is you know internationally it's in Australia New Zealand South Africa I don't know where else but it shows in a few countries so you're probably getting to a lot more than three million people so it's an opportunity for you to Market yourself so I do expect that to happen a little bit here but us then you know where did they go wrong this episode Michelle like you know this is one of those episodes where it was hot this is what I'm trying to say like when I was doing all the notes writing and it was a little bit all over the place in regards to who was doing what when I really lost track of them personally throughout this whole thing I don't know if it was maybe that they were too slow maybe asking for too much Direction and then still struggling or you know what I think so I think asking for two Manchester Direction and the were they trying with

34:50 A hundred percent of themselves I don't think so I think they were at 80 and that sort of led to their downfall I mean you've got to be on the ball with this race you've got to be 100 all the time and I don't think they were there yeah I don't know it's hard because we saw so little of them it was only a 45 minute episode as well were you surprised to see that the premiere was such a short Premiere with so many teams and it's still like you kind of expected two hours like huge episodes of everything now and even Survivor which was on yesterday as well I was ready for an hour possibly an hour and a half and it was a two-hour episode I'm like what American survivors under two hours and these guys were only you know one hour I always want more Amazing Race but then you know the Aussie Amazing Race at the moment there's too many teams it's too much to take in and I think that's backfired on them having although we love a lot of episodes I think having so many teams has backfired it would have been good if we followed the Americans and had the 12 teams it's just easier to follow

36:10 Michelle they mentioned that this is not the first time they've done 12 teams but it's the first time in a very long time okay I'm not the historian that you are the Thai story and that you are in regards to the history of the amazing yeah but you know what is the normal number 12 11. okay so they've gone one time so because of the non-elimination they've gone up one maybe yeah I think so because well normally there's three non-elimination legs and now they're having none so really they couldn't like they could have gone up to 13 teams really easily yeah they're having less episodes so yeah I think that it was a little bit confusing so it was it's hard to track who is going to be the Front Runners just base of what we saw but what stood out for you like when you looked at these teams were there anybody that we you know and I'll bring maybe the teams up because I think it is very useful as we're talking about this in the first episode and as we're getting used to the teams as we look at these teams here you know obviously Derek and Claire we were surprised they were they were all round they were really good but another team that for me really surprised me we haven't spoken about them yet and I don't know why they were so good because I don't feel like we saw a lot of them we only got the one thing where they spoke about how they started dating and Glenda didn't

37:30 Want to give lumumba a chance I hope I'm pronouncing that right or not butchering it but you know I kind of called them team tall and short because it's such a such a such a height difference between the two of them right but they were second they were sick in this leg and I mean they had no edit we didn't see them I think they spoke to us once on the camera when they came in and I'm like where did they come from exactly I think they're a really different kind of team yeah they do stand out because they're very different they're not your normal team that you would see and not just because of her height mind you I think she's more of a dominant personality than he is but I don't know why whenever I look at her I just see Kevin I see Kevin Hart like he just reminds me of because Kevin Hart is like a shorter stockier guy as well but I'm like man I just feel like he's got a lot of Personality because you know like come on Michelle you're a woman right you know there's sort of stereotypes that women have when they're dating right and one of them is that a guy needs to be taller than you right so I mean a lot of women don't really want to have a guy that's shorter than them so he has to have mad game to have called her you know so yeah I feel

38:50 Like he's got a I feel like he's got a personality he's like a little pocket rocket Kevin Hart he's got the smoothness about him so I don't know if he doesn't have a personality I just think we haven't seen it yet but I'm ready for it I'm waiting for him to show us what he's gone well yeah because she is so bubbly I mean you can see just looking at her she looks like she's bouncing off the page she looks like she should be in Wonder Woman as one of the amazonians you know like one of those women as he said he must have a certain amount of pull so yeah he's obviously got something going there yeah definitely has some game that we haven't seen yet Sandy here in the comments saying Sandy welcome back to the live stream no non-elimination League doesn't mean no keep on racing leg right so we might have one of those ones because I've been trying to Rack my brain how many episodes are we getting this season because if it's no if every single leg is an elimination it comes down to Nine episodes unless what Sandy says happens in there is like this non-elimination not non-elimination but it's keep racing yeah but thing is Sandy every time that comes up that there's a keep on racing like there's a huge argument in the fan groups as to really whether it is a non-elimination leg or not and it's just this I

40:10 Don't feel like it is it goes around and around I'll fight people on this Michelle I feel like it's not a non-elimination like I like the whole I like the whole thing because it pushes teams beyond their limits because let's say they've had a league where they've been running for I don't know 18 hours or something like that and they're like oh man I finally get to rest finally I can like put my head down in the hotel room and then Phil stands there and he's like guess what you've just been doing this for 18 hours well I don't care you need to get on a train this league is continuing or you need to jump in a car and drive there that tests you mentally in a different way compared to actually getting the rest yeah exactly I mean if you'd watch the Australian League one of the leagues this week they had to climb up this huge rock face million stairs and if they had to keep continuing with and you know I keep on racing like I think a lot of them would have just killed over right there because they've had a massive day but it's love it's great seeing those keep on racing legs because you think well who is going to cope and who's just going to explode and not be able to I agree and I've given you my team that I thought was impressive we haven't spoken about them necessarily but you know finishing in second well you know how did

41:30 How did they get there we don't know we spoke about a few other teams that's been impressive but is there anything like when you wrote down your notes some of the teams that we maybe haven't touched on or one of the ones that we've touched on who else sort of stood out for you that you thought wow like this team could be a Powerhouse team you know we've spoken about Derek and Claire we've spoken about Glinda and probably not pronouncing this right but I'll again say lumumba and we've also spoken about Quentin and Matty who were the top three teams I believe going into this first leg we've spoken about the twins who've been impressive who else out there do you think like is there anybody we're missing I was impressed with Rex who has dropped I think he said 50 pounds and he gave the keg thing his all and got through it and I was impressed by that because he's not a small guy and so you can see there that he has the drive and dedication to want to not let him down and I'm hoping they get at least halfway because they're really lovely guys I feel like Rex is the Kim he's the Kim and pin recruit for this season he's the guy I didn't get the numbers because we as International people who are watching this show and I know a lot of people from the us is going to be listening

42:51 To this or watching the recap at a later stage and they'll be like oh it's so cool that Rex is on because they'll know who he is but for us who don't watch you know American football yes we don't have that you know thing to go back on but I can imagine like if like someone very dear to us like you know was on the race there was a massive rugby coach or something like that we'd be like really excited to see them get their opportunity and we sometimes don't get to see that on Australian Survivor where certain Legends or celebrities go on to play survivors so I'm sure that a lot of people are very happy to have him on he's currently an ESPN analyst I see as his occupation so he's clearly still a big shot and must have been successful as a American football coach I'm assuming so it's a big deal for him to be out there and you don't reach that level of success or you know get to the top level of your profession without being an extremely competitive person so yes maybe he's the older guy yes he's got his friend there they met playing golf but they could also still surprises like you said he's got a lot of heart he didn't give up yeah and also I think they're very cluey and once you get to that age you've got so much life experience in so many different things you know and The Amazing Race you might have to suddenly you know fix an engine or you might have to

44:11 Suddenly do something that you may have done in a long time ago in the past and you know that life experience really comes into the race and a lot of people don't see that they want to go on the race and think oh I'm fit I'm fine I can go and do it but it's so much more than that and people don't see that or don't take that into account yeah I agree I think that they could be a definitely a shock team that could do extremely well people might underestimate them or you know I always get worried because I do read into the edit the whole thing about you know I don't want to be the one holding Tim back I don't you know I lost a lot of weight to come here that could still play out at some point where he does well in the first couple of leagues but then just can't keep up yeah the pace with the younger people even though he's got that life experience and maybe does well in other places you do know there's a certain level of Fitness especially if they're going to do what they did last season which was every single time at the end of The League they had to run up 20 flights of stairs and get to the top like they had to all those Hills last season and I feel like Phil likes that have you been watching Australian I mean the Australian race this time really yeah do you think that they watched season 33 and they were like yes that is what we need to do let's add more staircases oh

45:32 My gosh it's crazy I know some of them were crawling up by the end of one of them of all the things of all the things that they could have taken they're taking that I will say one thing The Amazing Race players that jumped over to The Challenge USA I felt like they all did The Amazing Race reasonably proud like they did a good job out there and they were so outnumbered there were only three Amazing Race players that actually took place in the I think it was like 20 or 24 people in total and there was three of them so they were outnumbered yeah and I had the opportunity to talk to James he came onto one of the podcasts and spoke to us after he left the season he spoke he was like the only one who reached back out to jump on I'm sure Kayla if she had the opportunity as well yeah I just haven't had the opportunity like or time to get on the show which I'll try and get on at some point but Kayla did she blew it out of the water she was the star for The Amazing Race people but I think she went game mode she just you know went straight back into it and did again really well I don't want to give too much away you need to actually I don't know if you'll ever get the time to watch it but we'll talk about it offline and people keep saying do you want to go watch this do you want to go watch that and I'm like oh my God when people were asking me I said look I've got two amazing races on at the moment I've got one that's finishing

46:52 And then another one starting too much too much reality TV I never thought I'd say that God I've never thought I'd say that because we've got the Amazing Race we've got Survivor we've got the challenge 38 starting very soon right so there's going to be three shows right there who knows when Australian survivor's starting I'm just hoping they hold off until I think that'll be Feb traitors coming it's sort of like the mole in the house but with three people it's sort of like I think it's there's three traitors and it's like Mafia if you've ever played Mafia games online I have I've actually played it on a board game it's a lot of fun Sandy's saying I still cannot believe that only snatched through people from The Amazing Race For The Challenge I agree they should have definitely taken more I will say this I've had some very initial conversations with Channel 10.

47:54 I may be able to do exit interviews for the challenge Australia but it's not confirmed yet and that would be very exciting if I get it they yeah they'll get back to me so you know if they just stumble across this podcast please do it'll be amazing because you know the challenge Australia is around the corner as well so I'm hoping Michelle will get into that one well I've seen this is the bottom of the cast if they're actually in it I mean you never know the rumored people even the rumored Australian Survivor people didn't all go so yeah well a couple of things more to talk about it here before we sort of get to the end of this first leg because I feel like we've touched on a lot Derek and Clay coming in first both get 25 000 how awesome is that to get first place I can't remember if there was that big of a prize money to be won in the priest the previous one because normally it's like you get a getaway trip and you know you can go do something but yeah you can spend this on any trip anywhere so I was wondering if the trip is actually in sort of like travel like from a travel agent or something that sort of dollars 25 000 is a lot of money for a trip like you could you could live large yeah that'd be good and it's each it's fifty thousand dollars I know so I mean I hope they can if it's if

49:14 It's only like vouchers travel vouchers I hope they can do it in multiple trips because yes what trip is going to cost you fifty thousand dollars like I mean that's anywhere from Australia and New Zealand obviously it's expensive but 50 000 US Dollars like that's like what nearly 80 or 70 000 Au dollars like it's a lot of money for just like I mean large yeah flying first class I have to say the beginning of the whole intro is amazing going down that slide together and someone said there's no seat belts and then all of a sudden they were gone and they were like trying to hold on to something that was so good I want to go on that thing massive raft that they were going down this like slide yeah that was exciting to watch it was so different because they all got to meet each other and socialize before now the one thing I said this last season and I'll say it again this season one thing I would love to see is more of the interactions between the legs because that's when the magic happens between the cast so I'd love to see for them in between the leg to show us different people either like having an issue with each other or like vibing and you know like they did it in some of the earlier Seasons I feel like we're missing I know the Aussies aren't allowed to see each other

50:34 Between links now they're put in hotel rooms and they can't come out why I don't know they don't want them gelling with each other maybe they don't want alliances forming more than what there needs to be so I don't know whether the US are the same but they can't in the Australian one they're not allowed to see each other okay evc's saying I think it's 2 500 ish not so 5K not 50k I thought it was 25 000 but I mean I could be wrong I only watched the ones it might have been 2500 maybe I misheard it yeah so I don't understand why you would keep people away because you know unless it's just the cost saving thing because you don't have the ability to have the cameras there rolling at all times and you need to give your camera people a rest as well because they're running the whole day and they're active but I do feel like that is where some magic happens that's like the one thing where the Amazing Race misses out on a little bit of extra spice a little bit of extra drama that could happen or getting to know people outside of just doing tasks you know otherwise it's not task orientated well I know in a few of the Aussie oh in I found out online that they've been put in rooms the Aussies and they've got Verandas

51:54 So they talk out of the Verandas to the other teams that might have been next door so they you know they were able to interact that way they got around it or they'd open the window and they'd yell out the window like wouldn't you feel robbed going on this great experience like I mean this is the thing that makes people who do Survivor together for instance such great friends after the show and you see them hanging out for ever on Instagram and stuff like that especially in Australia they seem to be getting very close after the game but I feel like you know they create these families and bonds that people just have by doing the show together like last season was no different with 33 and we learned about some of those relationships after the season was finished or towards the end but I feel like you get robbed from having that experience and feeling like you're a part of something bigger with other people if you can't interact with them in between legs so I do feel like we're missing out on net now let's talk about the three the main three challenges that they had to do I believe the smash one was the roadblock they had saw log saw a log and then also the big smash one was there anything that stood out for you on those like you know I mean we talked about the saw being probably the most difficult one we didn't really talk too much I can't remember their names now who were they were they Marcus

53:14 And Michael probably remember Marcus and Michael why don't we've been watching so much that the saw would start bending in half they didn't seem to be able to cooperate to get the saw through and I was really surprised with them I'm maybe I'm being stereotypical thinking your guys you should be able to saw I couldn't and they're military so you'd be like surely you know I don't know what you do out in the military but I'm sure you sometimes have to do some physical manual labor out there you know wherever your stationed exactly I just thought they'd be able to do it but they were surprising me they'd yeah I mean the other two challenges weren't that hard I mean they just had to be fast with the cakes I loved how they get the guys were generally were so gung-ho that they did it so fast you know right over the top of the keg or it would go out of the ribbon area was it who wasn't there trying to like just run bulldoze across over it I think it was Marcus it was Marcus I'm pretty sure it was him he tried again like just try to run over it and then Michael was like clearly there's a reason there's obstacles and you've got to go around them you can just run over them you know so I'm a little bit worried for him he seems to be almost like the dusty of the Season you know just like we both love Dusty's awesome but just you know it's got a lot of heart that is going to go hard

54:34 But is he going to do it in a calculated manner that's the that's the problem here I just wanted to read out what Sandy said here so Cindy says yes I think that the Amazing Race didn't have more hardcore fan base towards the contestants because they only show competition understandable and really show the interactions between races which is basically what I said I think you don't get to know some of them that well because whenever they're talking to you yes they talk about their life outside of the race or they're talking about the task that they're doing but you don't get to see them naturally interact unless they're interacting with each other you don't get to see them interact with other teams as much and that's something that I like I'd like to see more of that you know yeah I'm at an advantage in that in the Aussie group I literally have every team represented I think I only have two races not in the group out of 20.

55:28 I've got 18. and the banter between them on the group they talk more than the US guys do in the races in the US group the Aussies are a bit more laid back they don't give stuff away because obviously they sign the but they engage with the fans and they'll engage and they say funny things to each other so you can really tell which teams sort of were friendly with others on the race because the way they interact in the Facebook group which is fun so yeah you can tell who's getting on with who and who doesn't talk to who else yeah I really think that's almost really it we've touched almost on everything here from what I can see and right on the dot just under an hour what a start to the season I guess as a whole it's exciting to have the Amazing Race back I'm always I always enjoy The Amazing Race it's refreshing to talk about a show difference in the challenge and Survivor that I've just been talking about for so long for so often which I enjoy talking about both of them but it brings a bit of variety to it and Michelle I'm excited to have you here with me this season as we break everything down and let's hope that this one stands up against season 33 because I had a lot of fun doing that one with you as well I mean I

56:49 Love doing it I love doing podcasts on the amazing way so obviously last year was a joy and this year is fantastic as well I mean I would podcast about any Amazing Race in the world most likely yeah I just wish I had more time and I could do this full time then I would have definitely done the Australian one with you as well I felt so bad when you said can we do the Australian one and anybody listening to this I'm the one that said no I couldn't do the Australian one because I'm so busy like doing the three podcasts probably most likely as soon as the other shows all kick off very soon plus having a full-time job plus working on my side business that I'm starting to do on the side as well so really busy like I don't sleep anymore so I was like I want to do it but if I did this I'd think I would go crazy I just couldn't do it so busy but always fun talking about The Amazing Race with you and I had a lot of fun talking about episode one here with you anybody that is jumping in late at this all that watched it after the live please be sure to subscribe to the channel we are still on our way to 2 000 subscribers that's the next Big Goal we're at a thousand two hundred when Michelle when we did this last time I believe we were like in the 300s so it's grown quite a lot I'm counting it to 500 and then you go to 500 and then you're wanting to get to a thousand so yeah it's been exciting so thank you for everybody that

58:09 Subscribed you know it's absolutely free to do we really appreciate it and the more following this channel gets when I'm talking to channel 10 or I'm talking to CBS which I have spoken to CBS you know if I want to get more things going in the future they look at the numbers so you know you're helping me by growing the channel so that I can get through these official channels to do interviews and do extra content which I badly want to do for you just because you know it looks better if you've got a couple of people behind you so I appreciate it put a like on this video and we'll be back next week to talk about this at the exact same time again Michelle it's been great and talk to you guys later bye