I completely see your point, VG, an excellent point.

As a counter-point, The Amazing Race works on exactly that principle of racing. Teams who manage to arrive before the last team, stay in, and the team bringing up the rear is eliminated. This continues until the last leg of F3, when they flip it around and the first place team is all that matters.

In the old days on TAR, there wasn't even a prize for first on the mat, and all the teams bunched up on the next leg, so first or second didn't matter so much.

Of course they could always be evil and give the first person to complete the challenge some food (if it were not endurance).

My main feeling that it should be a 9-person jury comes from my sense that all the remaining players should be in the game to the end. They are all solidly developed characters. If Julie and Steve had been bounced last night, I could see them being done, but it's hard for me to think that only one of Matt, David, Mike has any story left.