82 replies to this topic

[auntieB]

Filming of TAR 21 is officially underway!!

[auntlada]

Any idea where it started?

[Jyn]

Sigh. L.A. once more. According to someone who tweeted recently, teams were spotted at LAX.

[auntieB]

The start line location was THE PASADENA COLORADO BRIDGE

[Jyn]

Never mind. False alarm.

Edited by Jyn, May 27, 2012 @ 4:38 AM.

[auntieB]

Next stop: Shanghai

[Jyn]

Oh, China's the first stop. How original.

[Lantern7]

More importantly . . . who's racing this season? By the lack of names in the first six posts, I'm guessing that CBS didn't put the squeeze on Elise & Bertram to stuntcast. We had a tweet from Russell Hantz a few weeks ago saying he was getting ready to run with Dick Donato, a team that could pretty much break the show by their sheer volume of sucking.

[Jyn]

No Russell or Dick, so no need to worry.

According to RFF, there are four men's teams (surprise, surprise -- three out of four of them are buff, alpha-male teams), two women's teams (one with white and blonde girls, one with two Indian girls, a first for the show and the second Indian team overall, following Vipul & Arti from TAR10), and five coed teams, at least one of whom is the requisite oldster team. One of the other coed teams consists of a doubly amputated young woman.

Edited by Jyn, May 30, 2012 @ 5:22 PM.

[SnideAsides]

So a lady amputee, and Indian team, and a first stop in China? Why don't they just rerun TAR10?

[Jyn]

The eleven teams are as follows:

1. James & Jaymes (Chippendales)
2. Brent & Josh (gay goat farmers, Josh is a former drag queen)
3. M/M team of bearded, hippy-ish guys
4. F/F team of blonde twins or sisters
5. F/F Sri Lankan (not Indian) girls
6. M/F older couple, man has green mohawk
7. M/F of double amputee and partner
8. M/F generic young couple #1
9. M/F generic young couple #2
10. M/F wearing Michigan shirts, one much taller than the other, man looks like he could be older
11. remaining M/M team

Also, the first leg has ended. RFF detectives are unsure about whether it was elimination or non-elimination, but they're leaning toward elimination at the moment. The only known survivors at the moment are the bearded, hippy-ish guys, the two women's teams, and the Michigan team.

[Rusun]

Josh (Kilmer-Purcell) and Brent (Ridge) are Discovery Channel's "Beekman Boys": http://press.discove...s/fbb-season-2/

[Jyn]

Apparently, leg two is taking us to Jakarta, Indonesia.

Updated team identification:

1. James & Jaymes (men's team, Chippendales)
2. Brent & Josh (men's team, gay goat farmers, Josh is a former drag queen)
3. Nadine & Natalie (women's team, Sri Lankan twins)
4. Amy & Daniel (double amputee and partner)
5. Robert & Joel (men's team, architecture professors at University of Michigan)
6. Men's team of bearded guys
7. Women's team of blonde women
8. Older coed couple, guy has green mohawk*
9. Generic YDC #1
10. Generic YDC #2
11. Either middle-aged couple or possibly father/daughter team.*

*According to RFF identification, leg one was an elimination leg, and one of these two teams was most likely eliminated first.

[soymilk]

So I'm guessing the UMich Architecture professors are
Joel Schmidt and either Robert Adams or Robert Fishman.

[Jyn]

The older couple was spotted in Indonesia, so it's been confirmed that it's more than likely that the father/daughter team bit the dust first. The first time a parent/child team has been eliminated first since Deidre & Hillary were out first in TAR2.

Nadine & Natalie, James & Jaymes, the bearded, hippy-like guys, Brent & Josh, and two of the YDCs were definitely seen, in no particular order, checking in at the end of leg two, which was in Genteng, Surabaya, at the Pabean Market. So that only leaves Amy & Daniel, Robert & Joel, the blonde girls, and the older couple for the second elimination.

Oh, and soymilk, the professors are as you identified, except the Robert identified by RFF is Adams, not Fishman.

The third leg is in progress now, and three of the four teams who were previously unaccounted for were spotted on a train to the next destination. Those teams were Robert & Joel, the blonde girls, and the older couple. Amy & Daniel were not.

This means that Amy & Daniel were likely eliminated unless leg two was an NEL, which I'm doubting. So the double amputee might be out already.

[FrogsRule]

What a photogenic place to start the race! And definitely more options for ways to get from the starting line to LAX, so more potential for position changes.

Wonder if that one team hailing from Sri Lanka will mean no India for TAR 21?

Happy that TAR 21 is Hantz-free.

[auntieB]

"Robert" and "Joel" are not a team. They were incorrectly identified.

[enlightenedbum]

Woooo Michigan profs. Proud graduate, and I knew someone in the architecture program. Wonder if they knew those two.

[Jyn]

So apparently, the projected (though not confirmed) route so far has been:

Leg 1: Shanghai, China
Leg 2: Indonesia
Leg 3: Indonesia
Leg 4: Either Sri Lanka or Dhaka, Bangladesh
Leg 5: Russia
Leg 6: Istanbul, Turkey

If this is so, then Indonesia appeals to me despite having been visited only two seasons ago. Still a lot to mine from it. Sri Lanka also appeals to me since, while it's a repeat country, at least it's been a good fifteen seasons since we last visited. Bangladesh appeals to me, too, as I thought the TAR17 leg there was pretty good, but there's still more to see there, I think. Finally, Turkey appeals to me as I don't think we've been there since TAR7, when Rob famously screwed himself, Amber, Ron, and Kelly to unintentionally help Uchenna & Joyce and Meredith & Gretchen.

[Jyn]

Hmm. According to someone from RFF, Nadine & Natalie (the Sri Lanka sisters) likely won the second leg.

Also, the teams were last sighted in Amsterdam. The three teams seen there for sure were Nadine & Natalie, Brent & Josh (the gay goat farmers), and one of the young couples (who isn't Trey & Lexi).

[SnideAsides]

They're now believed to be in Mallorca, Spain. It's about time we went back to that whole Iberian region to be honest - Portugal gave us Heave's infamous "walk IN" penalty, Spain gave us the tomato fight, and together they gave us Dieselgate. It seems shocking we haven't done more there in the past.

Not too keen on most of the route - China's overdone beyond belief, I could do without the "every fourth season" visit to Russia, and we just did Indonesia and the Netherlands (kind of) two seasons ago, but with Spain, Turkey AND Bangladesh-or-Sri-Lanka on the route it's not going to be a completely crap season.

Most interestingly, there seems to be a leg in between Moscow and Amsterdam, and it looks like we'll either get our first two-leg visit to the Netherlands (which surprises me they've never done before, given Bert's from there), or we'll get our first trip to eastern Europe since TAR15.

[Jyn]

Apparently, we'll have another kick-ass women's team, too. Nadine & Natalie not only won the second leg, but were seen a fair distance ahead of other teams in other countries. During the Amsterdam leg, they were sighted far ahead of a good number of teams.

As for the other team, the blonde girls were apparently easy cannon fodder and were among the early-to-mid eliminations.

It's looking like Paris, France, is the penultimate leg this season. Nadine & Natalie, Trey & Lexi, and James & Jaymes (the Chippendales) were definitely spotted there. That leaves it down to either a girl named Abby and her boyfriend or Brent & Josh, the gay farmers, for the last spot, as one of their teams was apparently eliminated in Spain.

Nadine & Natalie were spotted in at least second place, with the unseen team being in first. Hope the goddesses can become the eighth women's team to crack the F3 and then hopefully join Nat & Kat and Kisha & Jen in the "winning women's team" club.

In other news, it would appear that the bearded Hippies, the oldies, the tall guy/short guy team from Michigan, and the blonde girls were the ninth- through sixth-place boots, though the order of their eliminations is still unknown. All that is known is that they got through the first three legs, at least.

Edited by Jyn, Jun 15, 2012 @ 4:00 PM.

[SnideAsides]

I'm wondering whether that leg between Moscow and Amsterdam could be... Latvia? It seems odd that we don't have a single new country spoiled so far this season, especially after the last few, and it's the closest unvisited country to Moscow, which seems to be where the gap is.

[Jyn]

No new countries this season.

Race ended a few days ago. Final leg was in NYC.

[SnideAsides]

No new countries this season.

There's still a gap that's unaccounted for. It's definitely possible there's a new country in there.

[Nascar]

Phil was quoted in our local paper saying that he has a surprise announcement for a teams at the start of TAR 21. He said it was to provide some motivation. I'm assuming that he is referring to the skip-a-task pass being in play again for the first team to finish the first leg, but maybe TPTB have something new.

[SnideAsides]

He was on The Talk the other day and said it was something "bigger than ever before". So I'm guessing the Express Pass is gone - although with the return of the Fast Forward last season, that was to be expected.

[jazz]

Would they raise the amount of the prize money? To say 2 million, one million each.

[fredfunk]

Season 21 promo video is out!

[legaleagle44]

And it answers everyone's question about what Phil's big surprise is.