# The Amazing Race 15



## jodyguercio (Aug 16, 2007)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Race_15

Looking forward to the new season.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

THey announced an interesting twist this season as well. (CBS Announced it but I am putting it in spoiler tags anyway.)



Spoiler



One team will be eliminated right at the start and will not move on to the first leg.

I wonder if it will be last team to the bags or something?


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

No HD mention. Maybe? :grin:


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

No hot blonde team?


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## davemayo (Nov 17, 2005)

spartanstew said:


> No hot blonde team?


Miss America 2004. Maybe that will ease the absence of the hot blond team.


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## davemayo (Nov 17, 2005)

tcusta00 said:


> No HD mention. Maybe? :grin:


I was hoping for this also. I have a hard time watching anything in SD.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

davemayo said:


> I was hoping for this also. I have a hard time watching anything in SD.


Upconverted SD on a HD channel isn't as bad as the regular SD channel.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

davemayo said:


> Miss America 2004. Maybe that will ease the absence of the hot blond team.


I wonder if she will be wearing a thong? :lol:


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## Capmeister (Sep 16, 2003)

Amazing Race has said no HD for the foreseeable future. I'd like them to change their minds. They think it's too expensive. Seriously, I'd be happy with wideformat SD.


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## IndyMichael (Jan 25, 2003)

If Lee L's spoiler news is true, it has to be the stupiest thing to do.


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## davemayo (Nov 17, 2005)

Capmeister said:


> Amazing Race has said no HD for the foreseeable future.


Bummer. Would be nice to see all those interesting places in foreign countries in HD.


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## davemayo (Nov 17, 2005)

Herdfan said:


> I wonder if she will be wearing a thong? :lol:


Or a bikini and high heels.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

IndyMichael said:


> If Lee L's spoiler news is true, it has to be the stupiest thing to do.


Survivor has done it before. Remember when they got off the boat and did a school year pickem and the last 2 went home. Five minutes in and they were gone.


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## IndyMichael (Jan 25, 2003)

I hated it then too. Can you imagine being picked for either, exited as hell about doing it, then being told to go home before even having a chance to compete?


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

I like the show. HD or SD, I'll watch, but I do like the wider format that The Travel Channel uses better. Still worth watching either way, the object being seeing how the rest of the world lives. 

I traveled Europe and SE Asia extensively in the 70s and 80s and I'm amazed at the good quality-of-life changes I see. Of course, India, Africa and most of Asia have a long way to go.


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## Casey21 (Sep 20, 2007)

sigma1914 said:


> Upconverted SD on a HD channel isn't as bad as the regular SD channel.


Agreed. I love the show so I watch it on our bigger HD instead of the smaller HDTV. Honestly, even though it's SD, because I guess it's upconverted it looks pretty good. If it didn't look good, I wouldn't bother watching it on our big HD since we mainly use that for exclusively HD, movies, and the occasional Xbox game. With that said, obviously, I'd prefer HD. If Survivor now uses HD cameras (and they're in a "jungle") why can't Amazing Race??? It's inevitable so get on board........


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## TomH (Jun 11, 2005)

Casey21 said:


> Agreed. I love the show so I watch it on our bigger HD instead of the smaller HDTV. Honestly, even though it's SD, because I guess it's upconverted it looks pretty good. If it didn't look good, I wouldn't bother watching it on our big HD since we mainly use that for exclusively HD, movies, and the occasional Xbox game. With that said, obviously, I'd prefer HD. If Survivor now uses HD cameras (and they're in a "jungle") why can't Amazing Race??? It's inevitable so get on board........


Survivor probably doesn't have nearly as many handheld cameras. Which would all have to be HD. The Amazing Race has at least one camera with each group and has to have additional cameras spread out at each venue. They've also got much more travel to deal with needing to get cameras set up for the next leg of the race. Survivor is set up at one location for 39 days and just doesn't require as many cameras.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

TomH said:


> Survivor probably doesn't have nearly as many handheld cameras. Which would all have to be HD. The Amazing Race has at least one camera with each group and has to have additional cameras spread out at each venue. They've also got much more travel to deal with needing to get cameras set up for the next leg of the race. Survivor is set up at one location for 39 days and just doesn't require as many cameras.


I watch a few shows on HGTV (which is broadcasting in HD) and DIY(which broadcasts in SD, but nearly all their current shows are captured in HD) and they have pretty darn small HD cameras now (they are not always able to sheild the crew from other camers viewing them), so I don;t think the size is the issue that it was as far as moving equipment around.

Also, if Deadliest Catch can do it in HD (also using very small cameras for many shots), where at least 25 percent of their 40 plus cameras are total losses each season and many more are damaged in some way, certainly, it is _possible_ for Amazing Race to go HD. They just don't want to make the investment I guess. I can kind of understand, since CBS has treated the show pretty badly IMO by waiting a long time to renew for following seasons and even delaying it, only to come begging back when they needed it to bail them out of the writers strike, in spite of decent ratings.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

I'm waiting for a response from The Travel Channel on whether season 15 will be aired.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

Still waiting on The Trave Channel, but the CBS broadcast is in the EPG window if you want to set a timer.


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## SPACEMAKER (Dec 11, 2007)

Amazing Race is one of the very few shows I will tolerate watching in SD. Too bad they aren't willing to utilize HD.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

SPACEMAKER said:


> Amazing Race is one of the very few shows I will tolerate watching in SD. Too bad they aren't willing to utilize HD.


+1


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

SPACEMAKER said:


> Too bad they aren't willing to utilize HD.


Or at least Widescreen SD.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

I think this brings me down to 3+ Sd series that I watch. Amazing Race, The daily Show, The Colbert Report and the occasional PBS re-run (like how WGBX has be re-running ken Burn's "Baseball" recently)


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

Herdfan said:


> Or at least Widescreen SD.


+1 That's why I prefer the Travel Channel's rebroadcasts.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

HDG said:


> +1 That's why I prefer the Travel Channel's rebroadcasts.


Is it filmed that way?


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## Indiana627 (Nov 18, 2005)

Nice how the CBS promos are in HD but the show itself isn't. CBS is such a tease!


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

Herdfan said:


> Is it filmed that way?


Beats me. I'm no wizz at this stuff.

I think you described it pretty well when you called it: _Widescreen SD_. Last season's reruns on The Travel Channel filled a lot more screen, and it didn't look stretched or grainy ... so much so that I passed on the CBS broadcast and recorded the superior PQ on the Travel Channel instead, albeit a week late.

Maybe that's why _(strictly speculation) _they may not rebroadcast them this season? I'm still waiting for an answer from them.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

Well, I have noticed that the usual AR is pretty good picture quality normally even if it is 4:3 SD, so if they zoom it I bet it would not look too horrible compared to most SD channels today, which are far worse than they need to be. SD video can look pretty good if not compressed down to almost nothing.

It would be interesting to compare the two airings side by side. I imagine that CBS would show it widescreen if it was produced that way.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

Lee L said:


> Well, I have noticed that the usual AR is pretty good picture quality normally even if it is 4:3 SD, so if they zoom it I bet it would not look too horrible compared to most SD channels today, which are far worse than they need to be. SD video can look pretty good if not compressed down to almost nothing.
> 
> It would be interesting to compare the two airings side by side. I imagine that CBS would show it widescreen if it was produced that way.


You may be right, Lee ... I'm no expert, I just know what looks better.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Less than an hour away!


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## Scott Kocourek (Jun 13, 2009)

CBS in Milwaukee lost National feed of the show last night for about 5-10 minutes because of storms, not the end of the world but still a bummer. Still no HD, Maybe next season.


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## jodyguercio (Aug 16, 2007)

OK so I'm going to get this out of the way now: read the whole frakking clue people!!!!!! 

1) The "smat" guy needs to go away quickly.

2) The team with the guy w/ Asbergers (sp) is going to be in the race for a long time. I am picking them to win it all.


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## trainman (Jan 9, 2008)

jodyguercio said:


> 2) The team with the guy w/ Asbergers (sp) is going to be in the race for a long time.


Agreed -- it seems to me that Asperger's tendencies can definitely help with the "find the such-and-such hidden in or among the so-and-so" types of challenges, such as the license plates at the beginning of this episode.


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## say-what (Dec 14, 2006)

I don't know what it is about the contestants this season, but I don't really care for any of them. I think I'm going to pull for the Harlem Globetrotters since one of them grew up in New Orleans.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

jodyguercio said:


> OK so I'm going to get this out of the way now: read the whole frakking clue people!!!!!!
> 
> 1) The "smat" guy needs to go away quickly.
> 
> 2) The team with the guy w/ Asbergers (sp) is going to be in the race for a long time. I am picking them to win it all.


Hey, not reading clues is a long tradition on the show. Why should they start now? 

I agree about the team with Asburgers guy. I also like them to go far.

Good thing they did not make the elimination strictly a race to the bags and at least made it some type of challenge. Also makes sense to have the first run be a non-elim after cutting a team that way.

I love Sushi and love Wasabi (and horseradish) so the Sushi roulette would have been awesome for me.


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## Tele-TV (Nov 26, 2003)

I couldn't stand that Wasabi Bomb challenge. I had to fast forward through it.

BTW, does anyone think that Marcy [Marcy and Ron] kind of looks like Robin McGraw (Dr Phil 's wife)?

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/bio/marcy_and_ron_15/bio.php?season=15

http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/robin-mcgraw/photos/195305


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## davemayo (Nov 17, 2005)

I'm still puzzled why they had to eliminate one team at the very beginning. Not enough producers/cameras? It makes no sense to me. 

The team that was eliminated was from LA so they didn't even get to leave town. :nono2:


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## dave29 (Feb 18, 2007)

Crap, I forgot to set this up as a SL. I guess I will have to watch the first eppy on my PC.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

davemayo said:


> I'm still puzzled why they had to eliminate one team at the very beginning. *Not enough producers/cameras*? It makes no sense to me.


Traditionally they have only had 11 teams start, but this season had 12. So they "started" with their traditional number. It was a valid challenge. Teams need to learn to read the whole clue. Those that noticed the symbol quickly were in no risk of being eliminated.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

dave29 said:


> Crap, I forgot to set this up as a SL.


I wish they would quit numbering the seasons in the title so a new SL would not be required.


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## davemayo (Nov 17, 2005)

Herdfan said:


> Traditionally they have only had 11 teams start, but this season had 12. So they "started" with their traditional number. It was a valid challenge. Teams need to learn to read the whole clue. Those that noticed the symbol quickly were in no risk of being eliminated.


I'm not saying it wasn't a valid challenge, but it seemed pretty harsh to get rid of one team in the first 10 minutes. Oh well, when I produce my own show I can make the rules, right?


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## tsmacro (Apr 28, 2005)

After team intros, my wife said that Yoga bikers would probably be interesting to watch this season and of course they're eliminated before it even starts. I just got done watching the first elimination station ep online and they didn't even get to go there! Sheesh the very least they could've done was let them enjoy a vacation for the duration of the race after such a big disappointment, oh well. First impression I liked Mr & Mrs America and I guess after the first couple of hours I like them ok still. Other than that the Harlem Globetrotters are fun and the Father/son team from Montana seems to be starting to grow on me. I agree wholeheartedly w/ the sentiment that "Mr Lawyer w/ muscles who thinks he's all that" needs to go down hard and asap!

The elimination station: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/video/?vs=Elimination+Station


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

:lol:_ Flight Time and Big Easy_ :lol: Gotta love them Globetrotters!


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