WTF??? (sorry please excuse my language, I'm so annoyed!)

I'm really getting annoyed with how EVERY episode there is bunching!!!

They send the freakin' teams off at 10, 11 pm or whatever knowing full well that these freakin' places don't open until 8, 9 am or whatever! Teams are making serious mistakes and yet ALWAYS catch up!!

Take for example when the moms got on a flight 5 to 6 hours later than all the other teams, it's OK the place won't open until you catch up!

Let's see what happens next week! The first 4 teams arrive at the PitStop in daylight, B/N get there in the dark... I just bet they will catch up (even after they beg for money) and there will be...
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(you got it!)

BUNCHING!!!!!

• RE: Must there be bunching EVERY episode??,buscemi, 09:50 AM, 09-01-04
• RE: Must there be bunching EVERY episode??,VA Slim, 10:14 AM, 09-01-04
  • RE: Must there be bunching EVERY episode??,buscemi, 10:27 AM, 09-01-04

I don't really mind it. Basically, you either have each leg as almost an independent race where teams pretty much start equally (bunching), or you allow teams to maintain leads that they grew from prior stages (no bunching).

There was a similar show on NBC called "Lost," and the 3 teams were each separated by days, not hours or minutes. It was really boring. If there were no bunching, Colin & Christie would have like a 3 day lead on Chip and Kim, who would have like a day lead over Brandon and Nicole.

The production team learned their lesson in TAR Classic and over time have refined and tweaked the Technique. It still seems that at the start of each race, the teams don't get the point that it really doesn't matter who finishes first (except for the mini vacations that are periodically given away) each leg as long as they don't finish last. As the race goes on, the "light" seems to click on that there will "always" be bunching. I put "always" in quotes because there seems to be the occasional leg (usually about one per race) where the bunching point happens early, but the rest of that leg is strung out by distance or mode of travel where if you get behind you just can't count on a point where you can catch up. Jim & Marsha were eliminated on a leg like that earlier this race. These legs are usually the least interesting too and if they happened often enough, the TV audience would dwindle. I think that the "manipulated tension" that the production team has "perfected" this race has been a factor in the ratings. Don't look for it to ever go away!

Oddly enough, despite the constant bunching, there really have been very few close finishes this season (usually b/c one team messes up big time). This was the same last season. I believe it was 2 seasons ago when there were many close finishes. Was that the season with the soccer challenge?