I thought I'd check this out, because I've become SO addicted to the Survivors Strike Back blog at cbs.com, which is brilliant (P. Beefcake, Anthony, Brian, Jonathan) and infuriating (Scout, Jenna, Terry, Bruce).

However, I was extremely disappointed at the Return of the Racers blog. The major problem? It is dead boring. There doesn't seem to be anybody on there who is particularly funny or witty, or has anything to really add to the analysis of the show, except that they like/dislike teams. Oh, and there's also the ever-annoying shout-outs to random people.

In all fairness, not everybody has posted yet, but the major writer seems to be an Andrew (didn't see his season, nor did his bio say), who is both gruesomely unfunny and determined to kiss the BQ ass (on the Survivor site--the bloggers are mostly concerned when talking with each other to halfheartedly apologize for the mean things they said about each other in previous seasons, hehe)

I'll wait and see if things improve when everybody posts, but if not, I won't be visiting again.

I've read Return of the Racers the past few seasons and agree it's not as good as the Survivor blog but there is some worthwhile stuff there. Tom and Terry usually make long blogs that aren't too bad, though they seem over anxious not to offend anyone. That's part of the problem I had with the blog in the past - most of the posters seemed too afraid to say anything remotely bad about any of the current racers. I'm not saying I want to read meanspirited posts or nasty bashing but some honest criticism of racing skills or behavior make for interesting reading. The Survivor blog was like a shark tank in comparison to the Mr. Rogers tone of the TAR one.

I'm thankful, though, that they dropped BJ and Tyler. BJ was a waste of space and rarely commented on the show - just wrote stuff that sounded like he was stoned at the time. And I think Tyler only wrote once.

Chip of Kim & Chip used to blog to constantly promote his website.

Hopefully the new group will do better.

And Andrew used to call him out on it constantly. Go to ChipandKim.tv for more! Andrew's actually quite good value sometimes. They seem to have dropped a lot of last season's crew, like Chip, the other Chip, Kim, the Hippies and so on, and replaced them with TAR10 people, but it hasn't changed the tone much. Go to ChipandKim.tv for more! They're all a bit too safe on ROTR, and we could do with more than them just telling us what they think about the personalities. Since they've actually been on the race, you'd think they'd have some more interesting commentary.

They should put Mirna on. That would be awesome, we'd have to keep a running tally on how many people she defamed per entry.

Go to ChipandKim.tv for more!

Well, Bill of Team Guido has posted that he plans to bring an edge to the blog so that sounds encouraging. Bring it on Bill!..:)

Andrew has stated elsewhere that he wasn't approached for this season until Friday, as was Lyn, so my guess is that the bloggers really didn't get much of a heads-up before Sunday -- and tha several of the blogging cast weren't able to access the blog until after Sunday night.

I do appreciate the fact that CBS managed to get John Vito as well as James (but no Tyler Denk, unfortunately). James will be far more tolerable than BJ/Tyler.

I think Andrew's insufferable. He adds very little in terms of witty or substantive analysis of the show and instead focuses on insulting his fellow bloggers. (I finally quit reading the TAR blog last season because it consisted of little more than digs by Andrew at Terry/Tom and others). And while sometimes the opinions of other bloggers may deserve ridicule (i.e., President Beefcake calling out Scout's racist posts) by other bloggers, I do not go to the CBS blog to read someone's unfunny flaming of other bloggers. Take it to Sucks. Perhaps if and when Andrew starts to contribute high quality posts, I'd be more amenable to his self-important analysis of the quality of the writing of the other bloggers.

Okay my post is now up on the CBS TAR Blog. I am just getting warmed up!

xxoo BB

Great post, Bill! I just wish the other posters could be relied upon to audit this board. How else can we get feedback to them?

I see Godwin is still insufferably self-richeous...

Just read your post Bill - love it! Thank you for bringing the snark and livening up that blog. Let's hope the other former racers pick up the trend but if not, at least we have your posts to look forward to.

I do appreciate how Bill wasn't all shmoopy-woopy about everything, and I can definitely appreciate anybody who appreciates Phil aesthetically.



Heh. Because it just can't be said enough: Phil is hot.

Kandice and Godwin=boring.

From the Dustin/Kandice thread...



Maybe there hasn't been anything controversial worth discussing right now? Other than blunders, we haven't seen "OMG, what the hell did they do THAT for?!" this season, and that is alledgedly due to change next week. As for the tediousness...at least they're talking about the episodes which makes me want to read the damn thing. The only ones that actively blogged the last year were Chip (of Reichen), Andrew, Bill (for part of TAR10) and maybe Chip (of Kim) when he wasn't pimping his website. But the others either rarely blogged or if you're a Hippie, spewed some free verse crap that irritated me. It's not a social game like Survivor or Big Brother and hence I'm not bothered that it isn't like their respective blogs.

At least we agree on one thing:



Ah Bill. Je t'aime beaucoup pour ca. (BTW, LOVE his picture with Guido.)

Survivors Strike Back has Scout on race relations and Return of the Racers has Bill on posting etiquette. I'm bored by this blog (except for James, whose grocery list I would find stimulating). But Bill does have a point--it is repetitively redundant to identify yourself and self-title your post mere millimeters away from "Posted by..." and your picture.

I went back to see if the blog was any better this week, and got this sparkling gem from Andrew:



Brilliant! Because, as we all know, arrogant people never win reality show competitions. Especially not the very last season he presumably watched.

Otherwise: why can't they stop treating the blog like it's somebody's MySpace page?

Someone needs to tell Andrew about God being in the tub...

Are you sure he wasn't joking? Andrew tends to joke around. It sounds like sarcasm to me. He's never used the blog to talk about God smiting the arrogant or God watches TAR, so I think he might be kidding around. In the same post he says he wants to wear a dog collar and be led around by the Guidos.

Eric and Danielle were arrogant, but I think he brought up Rob and Amber because they also won many of the early legs, as Azaria and Hendekea have, and slowly began to have a more arrogant edit that consumed them.

The writing is sloppy, but I enjoy the blog. They ramble, but the Survivor blog is so full of blowhards who write 5,000 word posts to try to convince everyone how witty and hilarious they are. I prefer the informal chatter.

Andrew being sarcastic and joking is certainly a possibility. Given my love for James, I can't cast stones.

But as far as Azaria and Hendekea go, I have to believe that even Boston Rob would have allowed Amber to take a piss without bitching about it. Or requiring her to take the chicken with her.

Rob treated Amber well, and she probably wouldn't have let him treat her with any less respect than she deserved. I think the A/H comparison is more about some of the arrogant comments they make here and there (like Azaria talking about what big threats they are) and how those are included in their edit. Usually those are a sign of some kind of problem ahead.

To clarify: my objection to Andrew (season? placement?)'s statement was not that I think he literally thinks God takes an active interest in reality television competitions, but to the insinuation that some kind of karma attacks those who are arrogant/that arrogant people end up not winning TAR. Which is bull.

Since I find many of the long posts in the SSB blog (Jonathan, P. Beefcake, Anthony) hilarious, I would have to disagree with you there. Also, most of the time they are actually analyzing the show itself, not writing shout-outs or greeting each other. I also disagree with the argument that the RoTR blog isn't more interesting because TAR isn't a show about social interactions/scheming. I think the TWOP "blog"/forum is VERY interesting, and we're writing about the same episodes.

I see them as analyzing the show in the guise of talking about themselves. I enjoy some of the bloggers you mentioned, especially when they are more concise. They're good writers. Often when I read the posts there I feel like many of them are trying too hard, that is when they aren't making idiots of themselves, like the man who called another blogger a "poofter". They also have Scout, who I find so offensive that I stay away from that blog for long periods of time. Ideally there would be a middle ground between their verbal diahhrea and the sillier posts on the TAR blog.

I don't think he meant arrogant people never win, although I can see either interpretation. Sometimes, when a team starts to become too arrogant, then they stumble. That's happened to a number of teams, with the most famous being Rob and Amber. In ASS, they became (or were edited to become) more cocky as they won the first three legs, and then they screwed up and were eliminated. There are other teams who were very arrogant, moreso than Rob and Amber, but they're not as memorable. That doesn't mean arrogant teams never win (quite a few have), but that too much arrogance can trip a team up.

Maybe he'll clarify his comment and I'll turn out to be wrong. Just based on how he was in his season, and what he's posted on the TAR blog over the years, I've never seen him as a person who seriously talks about karma or who God smites.


That's true, but this board has a different format and atmosphere. If some of us posted there and posted a dozen variations on "My ox is broken!" jokes or about God getting out of the tub, it would look much different all crammed on the one Wiki page than it does here across many different pages and threads. There are also so many different people here, whereas they only have a handful who actively contribute.

I have to admit I'm still relieved that they moved away from the ugliness of last season's blog (nothing but fighting and pettiness) and I might be viewing this season's comments more about how much worse they could be than what they actually are. That's my bias, I should work on it.

Ordinarily I don't enjoy reading Tom/Terry's blog, however this:



Is actually a pretty awesome idea which I wouldn't have thought of originally. Yay for lowered expectations (or yay for not referencing pulling boats anymore)!

When did Mirna refer to Kandice as the 'Big BQ' in AS? I think I missed that part. I liked that Kandice pointed out to James that it wasn't the Yield which alienated the BQs. And wasn't James the one bitching about them from what, Ep 2 of TAR10? I'm pretty sure HE knew that the BQs weren't the most popular team that season even before the Yield. I never could stand that guy. Ditto for T&T.

The Kandice/Guido interactions are pretty cute and the only reason I read these blogs.

IIRC, Mirna said it in an interview after AS. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I guess I don't remember James bitching about Dustin and Kandice. They seemed pretty tight to me. And James only rarely spoke, what with racing with Tyler and all.

The Big BQ... I love that. It's so very Mirna. In that it makes so little sense.

See, here's my thing. Laying smack-downs on other bloggers has got to be either witty or well-deserved. Moreover, taking shots at Tom and Terry seems kind of cheap.





Oh, believe me, there are plenty of people on the SSB blog that are inane: Gary (who made the above comment), Jenna, Scout. But if reading the long posts by P. Beefcake and Anthony aren't your thing, Brian is always very witty and insightful without being too lengthy.



This is the first time I've even been on the RotR blog, so it's true that it could be an improvement over previous years. I imagine an All-Star season really brings out the venom in the former players who are pissed that they weren't asked to come back.

Oh good lord. They're talking about shopping for socks and underwear now.

Mirna said that in her blog about the confrontation at the ticket counter where Dustin gently put her hand on Mirna's arm and Mirna complained that her arm had virtually been ripped from it's socket. She referred to Kandice as the Big BQ.

This is my first season reading the ROTR blog and it is a PAINFUL experience! The writing is full of shout-outs to unknown people and do we really care that one of the *win's wanted to do a Travelocity "challenge" during his season? Underwear ads? Who cares?!

I find the writing in the TWoP forums to be much more interesting and relevant. Thank you to all of you posters here at TWoP!!!

Hang on, John Vito is one of the bloggers? When did that happen? My god, and Kimberly as well. I should keep track more.