The Amazing Race 6: Thinking Smart in Episode 11

It’s very easy to be critical of a TV show, and focus on what is wrong with it. I’ve done my fair share of it, pointing out things I didn’t like about the Amazing Race since the first edition. While I hope my columns have been read by the powers behind the race and have led to better races, I also hope that the essential fact that The Amazing Race is a fantastic production which countless people have worked very hard at has been worth the effort. I want to public ally thank them - they have done a great job in producing shows that have not only won awards, but also been popular with their fans.

The race spans the globe, and has done an incredible job of highlighting the beauty of various cultures, the fantastic landmarks and history of various countries, and the diverse experiences of human history. They’ve also shown places like Nelson Mandela’s cell, the passage of no return, and the Berlin wall - horrors of the past that should never be forgotten.

I hope future races visit such places, as well as places of natural beauty, human accomplishment, or the wrongs of history which should always be remembered as a warning to future generations. It’s a big task, along with the incredible amount of work involved in figuring out the right amount of money to provide the teams with, the way to keep the race tight with airline travel, and figuring out how to balance it with hours of operation and side adventures such as fast forwards and yields is an incredible production job. The crew has to adapt as well. Sometimes a team might try to make connections though a city they didn’t consider. It’s time to call up their affiliate or an independent camera crew to monitor them during their layover - nobody knows when they will get some great footage.

The latest leg spanned Sri Lanka to China, held the last Yield of the race, and ended up not eliminating anybody. The first thing to note is the Yield. Since it was first introduced in the first episode of Amazing Race 5, I’ve wondered how it would be used. As a strategist, I would have used it tactically, hoping to stall out (and hopefully eliminate) a strong team that fell behind due to back luck or circumstance. However, I figured it would really be used emotionally. Well, three times in the race (out of six opportunities), it has been used, and only once was it strategic. Chip and Kim put the yield on Colin and Christie. I still don’t think they should have done it only because they were in a position to force another team to do the dirty work at the time, but it was a strategic use of it nonetheless. I have no idea why Adam and Rebecca helped Jonathan and Victoria out a few legs ago by putting the Yield on Freddy and Kendra. I hope they offered them all their money or all the tricks they knew to do it, because it wasn’t a great idea strategically. Freddy and Kendra provided payback for that move this time. It probably cost Adam and Rebecca all their money, and they are now dead broke in the middle of China.

On this leg’s roadblock: it’s about time. Teams eventually started having to pay the piper if they hadn’t been careful about the balancing act the producers tossed into this edition of the race (which is a very welcome addition; no team member should be allowed to be dead weight in the race). It wasn’t hard, but it was scary if somebody had a fear of heights. The detour’s merits is another academic question since no team decided to haul the ice to the fish shop as opposed to carrying bricks. However, my personal thought is that if no option is clearly faster than another (often the case with long walks or a rappel), teams in last place should go for the option they think other teams will pass on. It doesn’t always work, but Reichen and Chip from Amazing Race 4 beat out Tian and Jaree because they were the only team to pick biking chickens to a farm instead of transporting fabric by an elephant.

Time for my final bonus thinking smart tips. The first is to never annoy another team. There is no percentage in it. A good relation with a team will get a team help, however minor. A bad relationship will only make things worse if they ever need a favor. Don and Mary Jean got money from every other team in the race once dead broke. Mirna (Amazing Race 5) interrupted Colin’s conversations with a local and annoyed him so much he cut her out of the express bus once he found it was available. Freddy and Kendra showed Yields can be personal - they stuck Adam and Rebecca with one after they had done it to them.

The next is to evaluate luck-based tasks correctly. Deciding to perform a luck based task is dependent on a team’s position in the race, and how open-ended the task is. Playing roulette in Amazing Race 5 was a good bet. The odds were about 50/50 of a team winning, but it let them bypass a line that would take an hour, and even if they lost, it was a 5 minute gamble. However, fishing in Amazing Race 6 had no time limit. It was all up to the fish. In practice, if a team is lagging way behind in a leg, they should take the gamble, but a front-running team shouldn’t take the risk.

How about alliances with another team?. Being nice and friendly to another team isn’t a bad idea - just as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the race. Being friendly to other teams means that they can aid each other or split costs when it makes sense for everybody to do so. For example, Gus and Hera offered to split the cost of a guide taxi with Kris and Jon in Berlin. Both teams got the same benefit at half the cost. Ken and Gerard and Drew and Dereck (Amazing Race 3) worked together for much of the early legs of the race, and both teams benefited. In the end however, it’ s a race - and teams that fear elimination should look out for themselves.

Finally, teams should always go to the next route marker as fast as they can. Sometimes it will be closed or have hours of operation. However, sometimes they won’t - or will have special hours. It’s always better to check this kind of thing out first instead of relying on the locals. The lighthouse marker cost several teams a lot of a time when they slept in the lobby of a hotel during Amazing Race 6. It was a bad idea because the hours might have been earlier than what the locals believed (as was the case), or had a sign-up sheet, or just sent teams to another location. The tip is to always go to the location first - and deal with delays second.

However, which teams were thinking smart in episode 11, plus how well does each team stack up in a race to the finish line?

Hayden and Aaron: A few weeks ago as part of my bonus thinking smart series, I said the dead time of the race should be used to take care of “housekeeping” chores. By this I mean converting money, buying maps, guide books, or translation dictionaries, and other similar types of items, and otherwise getting information about famous places in the city they are visiting. This team wasted 20 minutes in Shanghai doing currency exchanges - all the others did so during a layover in Hong Kong, another city in China. However, the tasks balanced out, and this team has found the magic that made them such a good team at the start of the race. They are a very real threat to win the race.

Freddy and Kendra: Kendra was right in one way - the taxi service was something they didn’t understand. Taxicabs are often dispatched, and go to their assigned pick up point for a fare. Believe me, I spent nearly two years working graveyard shift in Las Vegas, and spent several of my days off eating at a place where taxi drivers hang out at night during their meal break. This team used up their Yield in a non-elimination leg, and it was payback, not strategy. In any case, it worked for them. It was the last Yield, and it left their enemies with no money. Emotion makes reality TV shows great. They got their revenge at this point... and have all their money. They might win at this point due to not making the kind of mistakes that have led other teams to last place finishes.

Kris and Jon: Kris seems to understand a basic fact which, unfortunately, is lost to many Americans - in a foreign country, things are different, and the tourist is the outsider. While many tourists have the luxury of only going places where the merchants and people rely on tourism and have learned to communicate in English, The Amazing Race does not play by those rules. This team was hit by bad luck in this leg, but it didn’t eliminate them or force them to scramble for money. They are in a position to win the race at this point. They are a smart team which has overcome some bad luck to always place in the running. I really hope they win.

Rebecca and Adam: This team is in last place, has no money, and hasn’t even done particularly well in any placement in the race, except when they used a fast forward. In spite of everything, my intuition tells me to put a dollar down on them winning the race. I suppose part of it is that they are in great physical condition, have been lucky, and have a strong, smart person in charge (Rebecca), who is available to perform roadblock tasks. Or maybe it’s just the Zack and Flo factor, in reverse. This team was Yielded in this leg as total payback for them Yielding Freddy and Kendra a few legs ago hopefully got them something valuable (which I doubt). Apparently, this team didn’t understand the Yield is an emotional thing as well as a strategic thing. They ended up in last place, and are now without a cent to their names. Will they recover? I’m certain of it. But they have ended up in the finals, and I’m betting on luck this time. They can win; they just need to rethink the race and their position at this point.

Jeffrey Clinard lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his cats, Lam and Princess. He can be reached at realityfeedback@bookslv.com.

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