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Rob Cesternino (@RobCesternino) is joined as usual by Amazing Race Correspondent Jessica Liese (@HaymakerHattie) to recap the Amazing Race All-Stars Finale which took teams from the UK back to the USA.
Jessica hosted a finale party in New York City, and she got to meet a lot of fans. She feels she had more fun than Rob did at his party, which consisted of eating Chinese food with his in-laws and a baby.
Pantheon or No?
Jessica feels Dave and Connor are not a top 5 Amazing Race winner, but may consider them among the top 10. In the Pantheon of Amazing Race winners, Jessica places Dave and Rachel, Nick and Starr and Rob and Brennan. Rob makes the point that Dave and Connor have never been eliminated from the Race, but Jessica counters saying that Brenchel hasn’t either.
Jessica gives Dave and Connor a lot of credit for making the most of their second chance, saying a lot of teams don’t live up to their potential on their second time out.
Jessica disagrees with Rob when he says that Caroline and Jenn are the greatest team to win a leg. Jessica will hold her reservations until she is able to see the statistics.
Brenchel vs. Dave and Connor
Rob feels that CBS should cast more reality TV imports from other shows. Jessica agrees, saying the cross-promotional teams are good TV although they never win. Rob believes that CBS puts the pressure on the Producers to put those cross-promotional teams on the show, and the producers cave. Jessica believes they are happy they do not have to cast one more team though. If she had to cast a reality TV team, Jessica would cast Tony and Spencer.
At Jessica’s finale party, the crowd was very anti-Brenchel, but they weren’t rooting for Dave and Connor either. Rob feels the super Amazing Race fans are not supportive of Brenchel, but the casual fans are.
Rob said that during their exit interview, Dave and Connor would not be sending Brenchel a Christmas Card. He believes that they were on their best behavior on this season, more than any other season that they have ever been on.
David Copper-bust?
Jessica thinks this format for the finale is no different than any other Season, because the finales are usually 2 hours with two legs. Although they changed the format dragging over two nights, the actual race stayed the same.
Jessica believes that they can’t do a memory challenge every season, because the contestants will come to expect it and they will be prepared for it. She feels the David Copperfield challenge was a suitable replacement. Rob feels the challenge wasn’t hard, because all that the challenge really entailed was finding the right key on the key ring and the gag was really for the viewers at home.
Rob believes that this leg didn’t have a ton of opportunities for Teams to pass each other. Jessica believes they could have made the seeing the sign challenge harder, and that they should have done more with the neon.
Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel
If this year’s final 3 was replaced with the three previous eliminated teams, Jessica would think the Globetrotters would not do the light challenge well because of the counting. She feels that the Afganimals would win that leg.
Jessica liked the challenge with the Ferris Wheel on the first leg, because it required skill. She also liked the Bartending challenge. Both Rob and Jessica think that the Balloon Shaving and the Hotel Room cleaning were among the worst challenges on the season. Jessica thinks that this year’s tasks were the bottom of the barrel.
Jessica believes you can’t really judge Dave’s edit, because your opinion will vary based on your opinion on Brenchel. If you like one, you won’t like the other. Rob doesn’t believe Dave was unlikable, but believes he complained for too long.
Moving and Not Twisting
Jessica likes everything to do with Vegas, so she liked David Copperfield’s appearance on the leg. Rob couldn’t complain about this leg because they felt the producers went so big on this leg.
In terms of the game, Jessica feels we do not need more twists, but more effort needs to be placed on making the Race they have run smoother.
Jessica believes there is an opportunity that Racers will be on Survivor or the Race. Rob feels that would work very well in a Blood vs. Water type setting.
In Jess’ opinion, a good leg of the Amazing Race contains opportunities to mix up the order a lot, tasks that appeal to a lot of different skill sets and the ending of the leg is not a forgone conclusion. Jessica believes that if the teams stick together, you will have a more exciting leg.
Jessica is willing to take the risk of having the show on Friday night, and not thinking it will kill the show. Rob believes with the fan base that the Race already has, the race will be just fine. If it was a new show, Rob would be worried.
Don’t Count the Brenchel Army Out
Jessica believes there were a lot of surprises on this season. She feels that the Afganimals surprised her with being less obnoxious. She was most surprised by the Cowboys because she was not expecting to end up rooting for them.
If there was a fan favorite award, Jessica believes that Dave and Connor would have won and the Afganimals would have been in the mix. Rob believes the Brenchel supporters would already be mobilized from Elissa’s run on Big Brother, so they would be a strong force to beat in a fan vote.
There were not any Racers at Jessica’s party, but they were mostly at a club in Vegas. All the racers from this season were there, although she did not see Dave and Connor in the pictures.
Jessica felt the moment where the stepped into the casino was the death moment for them. The cab driver didn’t help, but going into the casino killed it.
Jessica cannot remember a finale leg ending at night before.
Jessica will be covering The Amazing Race Canada and Amazing Race Australia on Robs Reality TV-RHAPups. There will also be coverage of Last Comic Standing, The Bachelor and I Want To Marry Harry. You can catch Rob’s finale coverage with Survivor Know-It-Alls immediately after the reunion show on Wednesday Night.
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