That's good to know. And next week, they should be # 1 in their timeslot, with the finale!

Chris

You sign contracts forbidding this type of activity. This is basically the same thing as informing everyone the results.

Pretty easy to evade detection. Just tell a friend to make the bet. There isn't SEC-type enforcement like you see with insider trading.

There are no "wasted" yields as this was the last one. Rob knew that U&J were on the direct flight to London that was 90 minutes behind. He also probably knew that retirement home was also on the same flight. 30minute yield on one of the teams fighting for third IS crucial. 90 minutes head start meant that Ron and Kelly's yield would probably have little effect unless they totally messed up the challenge. Rob just wanted to finish first. He didn't think ahead and try and eliminate the tougher competition. Anyway, I HOPE they don't win but all signs point to a Romber victory with LOTS of help from locals which I hope they do away with in future editions.

Meh. Everyone can get help from locals and if they choose not to, that is their own fault. Besides, people have been getting help from locals since this has been on the air. That whiny bitch who won the 2nd or 3rd season had locals literally carry her load on one task where she had to ride a bike with a bunch of stuff on it. The locals basically carried the stuff for her.

I'd say it would be hard to make a hard and fast rule against locals helping. what about asking a local for directions, ticket clerk for faster flights, begging locals for $, asking a cabbie for directions? And don't forget those episodes where Phil specifically says that a task may be quicker/easier if they get locals to help (eg pushing a car, elephant, carrying something, etc).

because it would get too specific and therefore leave room for another someone like Rob to find a loophole, I doubt they'll make a rule against asking locals for help.

I don't want to see such a rule either.

I can understand people being frustrated with Romber getting help (for free) due to their fame, but would this be any different than say a hot chick duo getting help from local men along the way?

Or a retarded wrestler ... or a disabled little person ... or someone who just has to get home to her sick child. Old people get help because people feel sorry for them. Hotties get help because they're hotties. Some people speak foreign languages. We've covered this before. Rob and Amber are just doing what everyone else has tried in one way or another. Use what you got.

das

I still am waiting for the time that Rob enlists help from a person who isn't a fan and they steer him in the wrong direction! He is a rather polarizing figure, after all. People either love him or hate him.

Like when Ron and Kelly was asking for money and those people asked if they were Americans, I was getting ready for them to encounter resistance, what with our current standing in the world. And they were in the middle east, after all.

I'm dreading the moment at the end of the finale when the other teams are there clapping. If Rob and Amber win, they will be clapping with these dreadful looks on their faces and every muscle in their face clenched to not show how pissed off they are and if Rob and Amber lose, they will be doing cart-wheels and french kissing one another with the joy of seeing them lose. I think there will be more interest in Rob and Amber losing than who winds up winning.

Please let the wedding of Rob and Amber being televised be a sign that CBS wanted a ratings pay off for all the celebrity on Rob and Amber for winning Survivor AND The Amazing Race.

Will there be an Amazing Race and Survivor over the summer or only Big Brother?

So sorry about that. I didn't think what I posted was even spoiler material since it was a hearsay. I read that post a while ago and dismissed it until today. Anyways, It looks like one of the moderators already add a spoiler to it. (Thanks to whoever did that!) I'll be more careful and not post this type of stuff in the future.

Not at IKEA they don't!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you can't get a local to help you out while you're being followed around by a CBS camera crew, you don't deserve to be on the Amazing Race.

Only Big Brother. Amazing Race is so popular now, that it is only shown in prime time (the fall season).

In Seasons 4 & 5, the Amazing Race was shown during the summer. But that was right before it won an Emmy and the rest as they say, 'is history'.

Chris

Not saying one way or another, but so you can feel better those kind of betting curbs have been kicked in on other reality shows (The Apprentice, for one), and it has turned out the heavily bet on supposed winner in fact did not win. I would put zero faith in those sort of conjectures.

Maybe it's just incredibly nerdy of us, but are my wife and I the only ones who noticed that when Rob and Amber were looking up other flights, they were clearly using Expedia?

We laughed and wondered if Travelocity was pissed...

And there is already just the opposite of that, where in the last episode they were very specific (based on M&G and U comments) in the boat moving task that you could not receive any help from anyone.

That is not how I remember it going down. As I recall, the bets came at $1000 at 10 to 1 odds for both Kelly and Jennifer at the start of the season. The bets came in for the eventual top 2 finishers because the finale airs live i.e. Trump hadn't decided on the winner. The "insider" know who the top two were because that had already been filmed, so they basically won $9000.

This also happened i.e. bet on the top two finishers in the Survivor edition where Sandra won.

TAR is different because all episodes have been filmed so people do know who won as opposed to live finales. I am glad I didn't read the spoiler because I think it would be accurate.

Possibly, but it would likely be at the risk of contractually losing your $1 million prize and probably more if in fact you were caught.

And for that matter, every competing team knows the outcome, not just the winners, since they all greet the winners at the finish line. Since the last place team wins next to nothing in the race, what would prevent them from freely cashing in on that knowledge if not for an iron-clad contract with massive potential penalties?

I would absolutely love to see a moment like that.

I recall big betting trends on Jen to win, and on another female player (don't recall whom) who didn't make it even to the final two.

I didn't hear about the "final two" bets you mention, but sure don't doubt it. I would bet on professional wrestling before betting on a pre-taped anything.

In honor of the 24 thread:

I can't believe you didn't spoiler all those winners.

Amen - Gretchen is finally gone.

Ron/Kelly are dipshits - they said at the end that Romber had no character (I'm assuming because they YIELDed them), but they were going to do the same thing if they got there first.

I agree, although I don't think he was just trying to get first in this leg as everyone seems to think; he knows they'll probably bunch up again in the next leg. I think Rob and Amber were hoping that their closest/nearest competitors (both closest in time and the biggest threat) would be eliminated, that in yielding Ron and Kelly they would be bumping R&K back enough that the other teams might overtake them (as they almost did).

We have to remember that the teams DON'T know if it'll be an elimination leg, they don't know how many more episodes, they don't know how many more pitstops, and in this season, they don't even know if there will be a pitstop at all (the to-be-continued leg). When Rob and Amber used the yield, they hadn't even gotten to the detour yet, so they didn't know how hard it would be. They didn't know if they would need LOTS of extra time to make sure they (Rob and Amber) didn't slip to last place (remember the spear-throwing challenge, when Rob had so much trouble). They didn't know if perhaps they could bump Ron and Kelly back so that the other teams would catch up if the detour was challenging enough.

I don't think this was about getting first in this leg. It was still mid-leg (pre-detour), so they have no way of knowing how much of a time cushion they might need to keep from getting last themselves. Bumping back the nearest competition seems logical.

Umm, maybe the ones in the cab where he was bragging that he'd flown a "multi-million-dollar helicopter" and thus somehow he would be far better at driving anything, including the bus? That was hilarious, and I for one was begging them to go back to squash that ego. I was actually going to come on dvdtalk and post "Right, count me in with those who think Ron NEEDS to get over himself and his Iraq experience!"

Just an FYI, CBS has been running a nice TAR commercial featuring the final 3 teams, and the song being played in the vignette is "Lost Without You" by Delta Goodrem, a young Australian singer who I discovered by watching the last episode of "North Shore" of all shows. If you like a mix of power ballads and youthfulness, check out either of her 2 albums, "Mistaken Identity" and "Innocent Eyes", and she's easy on the eyes, and ears.