TAR S29 E3: things got ugly in Tanzania

Hujambo! What an exciting leg in Tanzania and it is clear that the stress of the race has revealed a lot of ugliness, I suppose it was to be expected and inevitable. This is reality TV and the race was designed to make racers crack under pressure. However, when it does happen, it looks pretty nasty. I remember years ago, an actor said to me, "I don't mind playing a murderer, a tyrant, a psychopath or a villain because people understand that I'm playing a character - but when you're doing reality TV, it's just you. There's no character to hide behind and if you lose your temper in front of the camera, there's nowhere to hide and people may remember you for that outburst for a long time to come. Get it wrong and the public are not going to be understanding." So before we go into leg 3 in more detail, let's do some statistics. Phil claimed that Liz and Michael were the strongest team so far, but let's see what my statistics reveal.

Average rankings average 3 legs

Matt & Red          3.33
Liz & Michael      4
Vanck & Ashton   4
Brooke & Scott    4.67
Seth & Olive        4.67 (eliminated)
Tara & Joey          5
Becca & Floyd     5
London & Logan  7
Shamir & Sara      7

Statistically, Matt & Red are still the strongest team and they held on to that position despite having been U-turned. Liz & Michael pulled of two wins in a row and have so far won trips to Barbados and Amsterdam. That is amazing considering how they recovered from a disastrous first leg in Panama, but have well and truly proven themselves to be a force to be reckoned with in Tanzania. But Tara & Joey also did incredibly well in this leg as well, with their best finish ever and they must have been only a few minutes behind the winning team - but they are still the middle of the pack when it comes to their average rankings. However, these rankings don't really matter that much because all you have to do is avoid elimination and you start the next leg on a clean slate - there's often a chance to catch up with everyone at the airport anyway. Shamir & Sara struggled in Tanzania, but statistically, they are equal with London & Logan - a team which seemed to have worked pretty well together so far. So much for statistics eh?

Things got ugly in this leg! 

Oh dear, things got ugly pretty quickly. Redmond was so angry with Vanck and Ashton and threatened them after they got U-turned. Duh, it is the Amazing Race dude, what the hell were you expecting? For people to be nice and allow you to cruise your way to victory? Both Matt and Redmond are involved in competitive sports and I would have expected them to have shown more sportsmanship. When you go to a major competition like the Olympics, you expect your opponents to do everything they can within the rules to beat you in whatever sport you're doing. You don't go around to their dressing room, shouting insults and threats at them - no, you do the opposite. You smile, shake their hands, wish them good luck and may the best man win. Matt and Redmond reacted in an incredibly immature manner, like guys, what are you? 10? Did anyone explain the rules of the race to you? Getting U-turned sucks, but it is completely within the rules of the game. Their arrogance on the pit stop mat was the nail in the coffin - you guys are oblivious to just how many fans you have offended in that episode. Looking at social media, there are a lot of people calling Redmond a bully and sore loser; this has been divisive with fans either attacking or defending him.

Context is everything: Redmond makes a living as a motivational speaker - is this the kind of behaviour you would expect from someone who is going to be a motivational speaker? Hell no. Like the policeman on United 3411 who carried out that savage act of police brutality, injuring that helpless 69 year old passenger, Redmond just gave in to his rage and said some pretty awful things which would certainly make a lot of potential customers think, "that's terrible behaviour, he may have done some good things in the past but I can't use him as a motivational speaker after millions have watched him lose his temper and threaten another person like that on reality TV - I will book a less controversial motivational speaker instead". Does realize that the damage has been done? It is his own career he is sabotaging and that's pretty dumb: you wanna make a living out of being a likable motivational role model, you don't go on reality TV behaving like a nasty, arrogant bully with anger management issues. At least be aware of the fact that there is a camera crew following you around, capturing everything you do before you say something that you may regret later.

Isn't this just a bit of American 'trash talking'? 

Am I perhaps judging Redmond too harshly, from another culture (I am British after all) and this kind of 'trash talking' does exist in American culture. Well, we are talking about a country where a presidential candidate can say things like, "I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married.Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful - I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything." And whilst the rest of the world recoils in horror when we watched that video from 2005, America goes ahead and elects him as president by a huge margin - I present you, president Trump. So I can see how he could get away with it by dismissing it as 'trash talking' - but if I may put on my PR hat for a moment and point out that it is still incredibly poor marketing: when you want to promote yourself as a brand as a motivational speaker and role model, you've got to avoid doing/saying stupid things that will hurt your brand not for moral reasons, but because it is simply bad for business. In contrast, someone like a snowboarder doesn't have to give a damn what he says as long as he can keep winning gold medals at competitions, but he's involved in a totally different industry altogether. Trash talking makes you look like utter trash.

I am very disappointed though that Phil made no effort to hold Redmond to account for his behaviour on this leg. Certainly in leg 2, when Shamir had a complete melt down over his harness in Sao Paulo, Phil did talk about it as Shamir & Sara checked in at the pit stop. Of course, Phil wasn't present at the U-turn when the confrontation happened, so he would have been dependent on his team feeding him information about who said what to whom during the leg - perhaps he wasn't informed but given the animosity between Ashton and Redmond at the pit stop, surely it would have made more sense for Phil to have investigated the matter. Perhaps the editors could have done a cut away to interview Redmond away from everyone else, to get his take on the issue, without the pressure of being in front of Vanck & Ashton or Phil. But there was so much drama happening at the end of that leg - namely Floyd's passport and Seth & Olive's elimination. Trash talking is not unusual at all in the genre of reality TV - plenty of that on Survivor and you rarely get a winner there who has trashed talked his way to a million dollars, it is simply not a way to win friends over. Redmond is not exactly handling this well either - but then again, let's take a closer look at this.

Oh do we have a statement from Redmond? 

Yes we do, he posted this on a Facebook TAR fans group, "I'm the first to admit that editing was not the issue for me. That's how I am. When I'm competing in track - you talk shit on the blocks. When you're playing a team sport- we would get into people's heads. The fact that people say I'm a horrible person is honestly laughable to me. That's me. I'm a great man - I don't have to change who I am to be loved." I look at that and I just think, sigh, you don't get it do you? I then dig a bit deeper into Redmond: he's 28 this year and he was injured by an IED in Afghanistan in 2011 - that was 6 years ago when he was 22. He was a navy corpsman in the Marines when that happened, I hate to be harsh but he is the typical kind of lower. working class American who didn't have the opportunities to have a good education, so he joined the Marines at an early age instead of going to a university and getting a degree (hey, further education is painfully expensive in America) and whilst he's undeniably good at competing as a para-athlete, the man doesn't have a business background and doesn't understand PR at all. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but it takes years of working in the corporate world to understand how you protect a brand identity and even CEOs get it wrong sometimes. Top celebs get a PR agent to help them say the right things on social media, Redmond just speaks his mind and doesn't understand that price of being blatantly honest. Honesty is never the best policy, sometimes I have nasty thoughts but I may choose keep my big mouth shut because I do actually think about the consequences before I open my mouth.

I have to call Redmond out on his claim that this is what athletes do. I am a former national champion gymnast who has competed internationally back in the 1990s and we simply do not behave like that with opponents. Good grief, we do the complete opposite of what Redmond claimed! There is a great spirit of sportsmanship in the gymnastics community where we show so much respect to other gymnasts, because we know how hard we all train and the sacrifices we have to make. At competitions, we don't talk shit on the blocks as Redmond claims - that just undermines who whole spirit of sportsmanship. I want to win because I am better than the other competitors, not because I managed to freak them out with some nasty trash talking. The greatest gymnasts I have met and competed against are the most humble, nicest people you could possibly meet. Redmond's brand of trash talking is a reflection of his upbringing and social background, it certainly has little to do with competitive sports. Dare I mention the elephant in the room? This is a matter of social class and Remond's behaviour was a reflection of his social class and has nothing to do with competitive sports. Please don't associate the rest of us athletes with that kind of behaviour.

What should Redmond do instead then? 

Instead of being defiantly unapologetic about the way he trash-talked after the U-turn, he simply has to say something like, "look we were all extremely stressed on the race and some things were said in the heat of the moment. I never meant to cause any other team offence and I could have handled the situation better.  I apologize not just to the other racers but to all the fans of TAR whom I have upset. Rest assured that I have made up with all the racers and we have moved on from that incident in Zanzibar. Ahston and I are now friends." Simple. Nothing more need to be added, an admission of guilt and a simple apology without trying to make any excuses. You nip it in the bud, put the matter to rest and then move on. It is PR 101. However, as we have seen in the United 3411 case, when you start defending the indefensible, then you are pouring oil on the fire because the people start getting angry with your reaction and your refusal to apologize, rather than the original incident. Oh dear.  When in a hole, stop digging. To his credit, it seems that he has made up with Ashton already (be it off camera or after the race), she did post a statement on Facebook defending him in light of all the rather harsh statements posted about Redmond's behaviour about this incident.

What would I have done if I had been in Matt & Red's position? 

Well, I would have dealt with the U-turn issue way before anyone got to the U-turn board: they had a very long flight from Sao Paulo to Dar Es Salaam - plenty of waiting around and time on the plane to deal with the imminent U-turn. I could have gone to Ashton and attempted to reason with her about the whole helicopter incident in Sao Paulo and offered an apology - saying sorry costs nothing but may buy you a lot of goodwill on the race. I would then go to Vanck and then appeal to him via statistics - like me, Vanck works in finance and loves statistics I'm sure! I would argue that there's no point in using the U-turn on team Matt & Red as they would finish both roadblocks and still just finish the middle of the pack. I would persuade him instead to use the U-turn on one of the other teams like Becca & Floyd or Liz & Michael, given that those teams are not as strong and a U-turn would most probably get rid of them. You have that one chance to U-turn, you want to choose wisely whom to U-turn and it should be based on statistics and strategy, not a desire for revenge. As it is, Liz & Michael were not U-turned despite having just won a leg and they went on to win a second leg in a row. They are a well-liked team, so that contributed to them not being U-turned.

What Redmond failed to realize is that you need to reach out to people on their wavelengths when you want something from them - he seems to have only one wavelength and is unable to adjust that for others. That is something I have picked up from years of working in sales - if you want the customer to buy, you have got to reach out to them in their wavelength, not yours. I speak ten languages and would often speak in the client's language rather than English, because I know I can use that to establish rapport. If you are about to fight someone in a boxing ring or participate in a WWF match, then yeah that is the right place and time for a bout of dirty American trash talking: context is everything. But it was clear that Redmond was reaching out to Vanck and Ashton on his wavelength and not theirs, the best he could hope for was to antagonize them but a more intelligent person with better EQ would have found a far more effective way to get what he wanted from Vanck and Ashton. Dogs bark, but us humans can do much better than that by using our intellect. If a snowboarder had no such soft skills, that's understandable as he doesn't need those skills to make a living - but a motivational speaker to be this crap with communication? Go figure.

And you haven't even mentioned about cutting the queue in the ferry terminal. 

Hmmm. I am conflicted about this one. On one hand, yes I am pleased to see that there is enough honour amongst the other racers to form a queue at the ferry terminal, but there's nothing new about cutting the queue when you are on TAR. But strangely enough, it isn't against the rules at all, so you can do what you want when when it comes to cutting the queue and sure enough, other teams have done that on other seasons. Racers can be penalized for breaking the law (speeding is the most common offence) or not specifically following the instructions about what mode of transport or what route they have to use. I actually wasn't that bothered by that incident of queue cutting - especially since they didn't get any advantage in doing so since they all ended up on the same ferry to Zanzibar. The fact is in many of these third world countries, even the locals don't queue. The only thing racers should bear in mind is whether the short term advantage of cutting the queue is worth offending every other racer who did queue up.

Hold on to your passports!

Another team that took me by surprise was Becca & Floyd! "Team fun" became "team angst" after Becca totally lost her temper with Floyd as he realized he had left his passport in the taxi whilst on the way to the pit stop. Fun quickly turned to frustration and anger - it would have sucked to have been eliminated on that basis. How could you be that careless with your passport even you are on TAR? Now that has actually happened before: in TAR S15 E4, Justin & Zev checked in to the pit stop first, then realized Zev had lost his passport. They were unable to locate Zev's passport before all the other teams checked in, resulting in their elimination. In TAR S21 E6, James & Abba had their bags (which contained Abba's passport) stolen by an evil taxi driver in Russia- that led to their unfortunate elimination. In TAR S13 E8, Toni & Dallas were eliminated because Dallas had lost his passport in Russia as well. And of course, in TAR Canada S3 E4, Hamilton famously left his passport on a flight on that leg because he wanted to show his passport to an air stewardess. His passport was located but it resulted in such a delay in retrieving it that it led to Hamilton & Michaela being eliminated. There are countless other instances when teams came close to misplacing their passports but managed to get it back - Floyd was lucky that the hotel staff were able to locate his taxi driver so quickly.

Now I actually lost my passport like that before, so that's why I actually feel sorry for Floyd because it could happen to anyone - even someone like me who's so careful. In around 1997, I got on a flight at Singapore Changi airport and settled down for what was a long haul flight to Paris - a few minutes later, someone came along and pointed to me I had sat down in the wrong seat. So I said sorry, picked up my hand luggage and moved to the correct seat. It was only after take off and the plane was somewhere over the Indian Ocean that I realized I didn't have my passport with me, yikes. I went into a mad panic and the passengers next to me started helping me search the area around me. Luckily an air stewardess noticed something was wrong and she remembered that I had initially sat down in the wrong seat. So she went there to have a look and sure enough, found my passport there. I can't express just how worried I was or the relief I felt when she handed me my passport - the thought of landing in Paris CDG airport without my passport was unthinkable. So yeah, that kinda thing can happen to anyone, let's not give Floyd a hard time over the passport incident. Perhaps it is just the kinda thing to remind them that they are not on holiday and that this is a race, it is not just about having fun - it is about winning a million dollars and maybe they will now shift gears.

U-turn before the detour is completed?

In this episode, there was something somewhat unusual - they got to the U-turn board before they had even completed the detour. Usually, the U-turn board only appears after the teams have finished their detour, so effectively, the team who completes the detour the fastest earns the right to U-turn slower teams. If this had happened, then Seth & Olive would not have been eliminated. Nonetheless, this has been done twice before - most recently in TAR Asia S5 E9 when the racers got to the U-turn board before they had even attempted the detour, this led to Trez & Lou's unfortunate elimination because they had a huge target on their back as the strongest team. You may also remember that this happened too in TAR S27 E10 in Agra, India. A lot of fans don't like this format as they feel you should earn the right to U-turn another team by finishing your detour first - in this case (as was the case in TARA S5 E9) it boiled down to which racers got the faster, better taxi to get them to the U-turn board first, thus taking the situation out of the hands of the racers. Having worked with game show producers before. I know that they are acutely aware of how the notion of 'fairness' in any kind of game show type programme could affect the viewers' enjoyment of the show.

Who has a target on their back now?

It should have come as no surprise to fans that the two strongest teams got U-turned in this episode, there is really no point in U-turning anyone but the two strongest teams as you want to get your biggest competition out of the game if you want to win. Seth & Olive merely accepted the fact that they were a target for the U-turn since they had won leg 1 in Panama but how on earth could Matt & Red have been surprised that they were U-turned in Zanzibar since they were statistically a strong team too? Credit to them for finishing fourth in this leg despite the U-turn, but clearly they are now the team that everyone would want to get rid of quite simply because they are so strong. It is a race, you want to win, you don't want to let the stronger team cruise to victory, duh. In Survivor, the strongest player is often the one voted out at Tribal Council by the weaker players. So for example, we have already seen instances where teams worked together to finish a road block or detour faster (such as at Darajani Market in this episode) - would anyone want to help Matt or Red out in such a situation? I doubt it. If there is an intersection coming up, teams may decide not to work with them just to sink them to the bottom of the pack. It is not a popularity contest, it is a race.

White people getting ripped off in Africa

Were the teams getting ripped off in Darajani market? Of course they were! You have a bunch of Americans people running around the market, haggling for goods whilst being followed by a big camera crew. Anyone who has ever set foot in Africa will know that there will be a price for locals and a price for foreigners/tourists - how big that difference will be ultimately depends on your haggling skills. Credit to Sara who managed to go back to the vendor who had clearly ripped her off and managed to get a refund of 10,000 Tanzanian shillings back (about US$4.48 or £3.58) - that may not seem like a lot of money, but it made the difference between elimination and living to see another leg of TAR. It enabled her to complete the task and get to the pit stop before Seth & Olive, who had problems of their own. I was equally surprised that they managed to pay for their goods in Brazilian Reals in a market in Zanzibar! That is an important lesson for all racers to change their money before leaving the country - they must have had enough time at the airport waiting for their flight to Tanzania, so why didn't they go to a money changer in Sao Paulo airport then?

Which teams are working well? Which teams are not?

It is fair to say that most teams are working a lot better together in leg 3 - this is to be expected given now they have had more time to get to know each other. The one team that does stand out is Sara & Shamir I'm afraid, they are still struggling to get along at times mostly because Shamir is so negative about being taken out of his comfort zone. Yes I get it, you work in finance, assembling furniture is not something you have had to do before, but just get on with it and anyone who has watched TAR before will know that these challenges will favour some teams and not others, expect to be taken out of your comfort zone and when that happens, just deal with it. London shocked me when she gave up on the weaving task despite her background in crochet, I thought that would have been the perfect task for her. Yet she panicked the moment she realized it was quite different from the kind of crochet work she has done - if she had calmed down and spent a bit of time studying how the baskets were weaved, she could have completed the task like all the other teams who had to do it as well. What effect will Floyd's passport mishap have on the working relationship?

Goodbye Seth & Olive

Ouch. Poor Seth & Olive - a very likable and strong team, yet they could not overcome the U-turn despite having built the classroom furniture very quickly. The fact that they had done so well in the first leg instantly made them the team to beat, so it should have come as no surprise for them to have been the team that everyone wanted to U-turn. Who knows, maybe if Floyd hadn't been so lucky in recovering his passport, they may have been still in the race. With a U-turn in this leg, I knew it was highly unlikely that it was going to be a non-elimination leg, so that does beg the question, we are already three legs in and we have had three eliminations. Surely the fourth leg would have to be a NEL?

Next leg in Dar Es Salaam, my predictions

We will stay in Tanzania for yet another leg - it is such a fascinating, exotic country that it would be a shame not to spend a bit more time there! The contestants will head back over to the mainland and back to the city of Dar Es Salaam where they had already passed through in episode 3. Given that Liz & Michael have just won two legs in a row, it would be silly of me not to predict them as a possible winner for the next leg. Statistically, the other two strong teams are Matt & Red along with Vanck & Ashton - I guess it depends on what kind of road blocks and detours they will have in the next episode, anything physical would favour Matt & Red but Liz & Michael along with Vanck & Ashton have proven that they excel at the 'attention to detail' types of challenges. Tara & Joey seem to have hit their stride as well, so I hope they will do well too in the next leg. I am going to predict that Shamir & Sara will self-destruct in the next leg because of Shamir's negativity - but I was wrong in my last prediction and was shocked to have seen Seth & Olive go.

So that is it from me on this episode. do let me know your thoughts on the issues discussed. Thanks for reading.