Logically, we should be able to figure some things out from this.

In all the races so far they have travelled eastward around the world, so 9 to 10 AM EST would translate to later in the day itself for the racers, wherever they are, until they cross the IDL.

Phil has certain filming responsibilities during the race. He has to be present when each team leaves each Pit Stop, he has to be present when each team arrives at each Pit Stop. He also has segments he has to film along the race course: "This is a Roadblock, in this Roadblock..."

Logically then: The teams must have all left a Pit Stop earlier that day. All of Phil's scenes in that country were already filmed or could quickly be filmed. The racers will end up in another country in this leg, they are probably headed to a bunching at an airport that evening. There can be no Fast Forward in this leg. Phil flew by private jet to New York, flew by private jet to the next destination, had to have plenty of time to film his scenes in that country and be at the Pit Stop before the first team arrived. There is no need for an extended Pit Stop if all the logistics work out properly.

LAST EDITED ON 12-08-04 AT 01:26 PM (EST)

When we see the scenes in a Country, we see Phil in the begining of a statement(which wouldn't take that long to shoot unless he messes up a lot), the rest is voice over, thus he doesn't really need to be there, they can just film whatever without him, then he can just do the voice over later when they get back to the states.

Do we actually see Phil when the teams leave?

I don't recall ever seeing him. Is he really there?

Or just doing a voice over when they leave?

If he was there, wouldn't they be showing him?

IMO he is sleeping thight when teams are leaving...

I would think he would have plenty of time to come in the US back and forth during a race.

But that's just my opinion...

(edited to correct my typing...)

LAST EDITED ON 12-08-04 AT 07:27 PM (EST)

Do we actually see Phil when the teams leave?

Good point. No, we don't actually see him. But we do know that they review the material from the previous leg and determine if penalties are in order which will affect their departure times, which Phil usually mentions. Of course, they could record all of Phil's voice-over material after the fact in post-production sessions. I doubt they would let it get to that sort of backlog, but they can exercise a lot of leeway for Phil's voice-over material.

Good point. Thank you.

I am sure they have someone who is always with the contestants when they arrive and when they go who takes careful notes of everything that would be worth being mentioned by Phil and then someone else writes how they want him to say it, then I guess he just goes into a studio and records it.

It would be much more easy to record everything that is voice-over in a studio then on the road I think. Actually, the way it is done, they only need Phil to be there for the teams to arrive at the pit stop, as he can shoot the intros for road blocks and all while waiting for the contestant. We feel he is actually there more than he is because they have him narrating a lot.

That's my 2 cents...

I would not be at all surprised if Phil does do all his TAR flying on a private jet. It makes the logistics of keeping ahead of the teams so much easier!

it's only 7 or 8 hours to Europe from NYC, so he could easily make that trip within the alotted times. If they're using a private plane (which I would imagine), then he could be whisked in and out with no trouble at all.