TAR S29 E12: Against all odds - Brooke & Scott's victory

Hi all, well what an incredibly exciting finale that was! I have seen the reaction on social media and I know there are a lot of people who are very upset with the results of TAR S29, mostly because there were so many haters who didn't want to see Brooke 'rewarded' for her terrible, negative attitude but such is reality TV for you. In this blog episode, I will discuss Brooke & Scott managed to pull away from the other two teams to win by such a comfortable margin, explore why the haters should really be watching a different kind of TV programme and compare Brooke & Scott to some of the previous winners of TAR. I will also be analyzing if Scott would have been better off with a different partner but personally, I am so glad to see them win because they performed extremely well in Chicago, avoiding major mistakes whilst the other two teams struggled. I know we have the final results already, but let's kick off with the statistics.

Final statistics at the end of TAR S29

Tara & Joey 3.08
Brooke & Scott 4.08
London & Logan 4.83

Were Brooke & Scott the strongest team in this season? No, not by far. I would say that I would not have picked them to be a probable winner at the beginning of the race - I always thought the winner would be someone like Matt & Red, Becca & Floyd or even Seth & Olive. But at the end of the day, they excelled when it mattered the most in Chicago and though unusual, their result does remind me of other TAR winners who surprised everyone on the last leg despite not being the strongest team: Amy & Maya (S25), Dan & Jordan (S16) and Josh & Brent (S21) also had average rankings of worse than 4.0 but still ultimately managed to win TAR. Here's a link for TAR records by a mega fan - though does need some updating. I particularly enjoyed Josh & Brent's victory as the final memory challenge was one of the most difficult ones in TAR history and that essentially sunk the other teams that couldn't match their brain power. Such is the nature of TAR, averages really don't matter as long as you are the first time that reaches the pit stop - the purposes of averages are simply for fans to predict winners and also for teams to decide whom the biggest threats are. So well done to Brooke & Scott for winning, I was cheering and extremely happy they won because they beat Joey whose behaviour on social media had been appalling (as discussed here, on last week's post).

Do you want to influence the outcome of the race? 

Well, that's simply not how TAR is structured. Let me give you two examples of shows where viewers do get to influence the outcome: in Big Brother, the audience get to vote whom to evict from the BB house. This of course earns a lot of money for the TV networks as it is usually a premium rate number you have to call or text to register your vote and you can actually vote as many times as you like whilst racking up a huge telephone bill. There are also a whole range of other talent shows where the audience can vote (again through a premium rate number) to influence the results. Perhaps in this day and age, the audience almost feel like they have a right to have a say about the results, that could explain why so many people were upset that Brooke & Scott won. Now don't get me wrong, I think Brooke's negative attitude was painful to watch but it is what it is - they managed to avoid major mistakes in Chicago and got to the pit stop before the other two teams. So they won fair and square, there's nothing to dispute or argue about whether the "right team" won. This is not the kind of programme where you get to influence the results - though this makes me think that perhaps there should be a version where fans of the race can influence the result by texting or calling a premium rate number, so the racers can for example pay for a taxi instead of running six blocks to the next pit stop. Perhaps that would satisfy fans who want a greater influence over the results or would that be taking it too far?

This reminds me of the 2016 Olympics when there was a shock result in the women's gymnastics beam finals. The favourite Simone Biles had made an uncharacteristic mistake when she stumbled on front somersault and had to grab the beam to avoid falling off - that opened the door for the next two gymnastics Lauren Hernandez (USA) and Sanne Wevers (Netherlands) and both gymnastics performed flawlessly, but Wevers won by a tiny margin, causing a huge upset for the USA. Social media went crazy that day, with many American fans disputing the results, claiming that Hernandez was robbed, that she deserved the gold medal not Wevers. Then there were others who thought that it was ridiculous that Biles still won the bronze despite making such a huge error and that the 4th place gymnast in that final, Maine Boyer (France) was robbed. They argued that Biles was ridiculously overscored because she was the world's most famous gymnast whilst Boyer, a relatively unknown gymnast from France, had actually performed better. The gymnastics community is probably still arguing about the results one year after the Rio 2016 Olympics, but the bottom line is, none of us can change the results regardless of how we may feel about what happened - it is what it is. Screaming and shouting on social media isn't going to change anything, so why bother? Such is social media today: yes you may have the right to speak up, sure you can rant all you want but is anyone actually listening to you?

How did Brooke & Scott win in Chicago?

Only Brooke & Scott were without their heavy backpacks which they left at the airport - the other two teams had to race around Chicago with their heavy bags, slowing them down. That was a great move, given how much running they did in Chicago. The teams were so close to each other all the way till they got to Monroe Station, at one stage both Brooke & Scott and Tara & Joey were literally a few feet from each other, the platform looking up where to go next with the help of some locals. However, from the moment they departed to get the three post cards, Brooke & Scott managed to pull way ahead of the other two teams (despite Brooke whining and crying all the way). In case you don't know the layout of downtown Chicago, let's look at the three locations: the Chicago water tower, the Wabash bridge and the Buckingham fountain. Scott chose to start at the Chicago water tower and work their way north to south and finished at the Buckingham fountain, whilst Tara & Joey did the opposite, seemingly working south to north. Ironically, Tara & Joey picked the better, more logical route as Monroe station is closest to Buckingham fountain. Scott chose to take the train one stop north go to the Chicago water tower first - odd choice to say the least, but at least that would mean not being in a foot race with another team and sparing themselves that stress. At that point, if things went to plan, Tara & Joey would have the edge over Brooke & Scott - but then things all went terribly wrong because of a huge mistake.

How did Tara & Joey mess up?

Tara & Joey made a costly error in going to Chicago Temple from Wabash Bridge instead of the Chicago Water Tower, ouch. That was a long detour as they first ran 0.9 km to the Chicago Temple and it was in the completely opposite direction! They then had to run 0.9 km back to the bridge and and additional 1.2 km to the Water Tower. Ouch. So in total, they ran 3 km (1.86 miles) instead of 1.2 km (0.75 miles). Try running that with a heavy bag - that was a painfully costly mistake. What could have happened was that Tara & Joey had seen Scott & Brooke look at the map - it looked like Tara was still getting information from the helpful local but Joey said, "they're looking at the map, let's get out of here". That was probably where it all went wrong - they had a local who was clearly helpful and good at giving directions, they could have spent a few more minutes double checking that they did get the right locations from the riddles (as they got the wrong building with the spire). The only way to be sure was to check on Google for a building with a spire that was 154 feet tall - the lady Tara was with had a phone in her hand, yet Joey hurried her away in panic.

London & Logan had their share of mistakes as well, they started at Wabash bridge which was the one in the middle, it wasn't the most logical or efficient route, they squandered an opportunity to at least overtake Tara & Joey at that point because of their poor planning. In fact, they had almost caught up with the other two teams - they entered Monroe station just as the other two teams were leaving the station. Another lucky coincidence that worked out great for Brooke & Scott was that they picked up the last post card at Buckingham fountain which was about 1.7 km (1.1 mile) from the Chicago City Hall, whilst Tara & Joey picked up their last postcard eventually at the Water Tower, which was 2.2 km (1.3 mile) from the City Hall - small difference, but enough to extend their lead. As soon as the teams had made it to the roof top gardens of the City Hall, none of them made any other mistakes and with a relatively simple memory challenge at Wrigley Field, the order wasn't going to change. Some fans have found it disappointing as an epic memory challenge is usually the highlight of a good TAR finale, but this was certainly not the case this time.

"In spite of" rather than "because of"

Many congratulations to Scott who was quite the hero - he won the race in spite of having Brooke as a partner rather than because of her. You see, when you take part in a race like that, you want the odds to be in your favour by having a strong, supportive partner. Brooke was anything but that - she was painfully negative all the way to the finish line and would whine, cry, moan, throw a tantrum every time she had to do something physical. Remember her grunting as if she was giving birth to twins in Vietnam? Yeah that's just Brooke riding a bike. No, having Brooke as a partner meant that Scott had the odds stacked against him. Just because she emerged the winner doesn't mean that she was a good racer - hell no, she was terrible but Scott was brilliant. Yes I had given him grief for the way he behaved whenever he had to do challenges to do with heights, but putting the drama aside, he did do the tasks eventually. Good for him and for doing that, he deserves the win - quite unlike Mika who refused to go down a water slide in Dubai in TAR S15 E6, eventually sinking them to last place and elimination. Imagine if Scott had actually picked a better partner, he has the brains and the muscles - people tended to write him off either because of his sexuality or because of his partner.

Gay winners of TAR

One of the many reasons why I love TAR is that they always make sure they try to reflect the full spectrum of society in their casting decisions. Scott joins a list of LGBT winners of TAR - I'm trying to list them all, so please if I have left anyone out, remind me: Josh & Brent (S22), Reichen & Chip (S4), Steph & Kristen (TAR Canada S4). There have been also plenty of other gay racers who didn't win but have left a huge impression on the fans. Team Guido come to mind (I said this before and I'll say it again - I love them, they're brilliant, I'll never forget what they pulled off in Tunis airport), there's Luke of Margie & Luke - again, he's totally adorable and I am so glad he got to race three times. And who can forget the feisty lesbians who got U-turned in Singapore, Carol & Brandy from S16? Gosh there are others as well: the Youtubers Tyler & Corey and of course, Harley & Jonathan who were not just a gay team but one of the very few celebrity teams ever on TAR USA as well with Jonathan Knight being a former member of New Kids On The Block. There have been a few rumours about the sexuality of various other racers who have chosen not to disclose their sexuality when racing, but the fans do find out eventually. Take for example Howard & Sahran from TAR Asia S1, they are a gay couple (Sahran is a co-founder of a Equal Ground, the only organisation in Sri Lanka that serves the gay community) but because AXN Asia distributes TAR Asia in some Muslim countries, they had to be presented as 'best friends' but news of their sexuality soon leaked onto the internet. Thankfully in TAR Asia S5, we had our first openly lesbian couple, who were unceremoniously eliminated minutes into the race as they crumbled in the very first task. 

The changes I would like to see in TAR S30

For starters, I'd like to see a return to teams who already know each other rather than this kind of "blind date" format (which they have done before, in S26) - the synergy between the team members is so much more interesting that way. Last week I talked about racers who don't really need to win a million (well, half a million, each) dollars and Brooke actually has a great job (thus by that token, undoubtedly wealthy) - how about a season where the people genuinely need the money? I would also like to see racers have more say over the way they make their way from one country to another instead of having their flights arranged for them - I miss the days when they would dash into a travel agent and ask for the fastest flight to Athens. I would also like to see far fewer brutal physical challenges and more 'puzzle' type challenges - I felt really bad for Floyd who collapsed from heat exhaustion in Ninh Binh, let's avoid a repeat of incidents like that please. Survivor has evolved with new twists each season, far more than TAR ever had - I'd love to see something crazy like Phil saying at the starting line, "you're all swapping partners now." A tribe switch would never make anyone bat an eyelid in Survivor, but would a radical forced partner switch at the starting line drive the hardcore TAR fans over the edge? Let's try something new next season, something that has never been done before! But otherwise, let's see what TAR Canada S5 has waiting for us - you only have to wait till the first week of July!

And I shall leave you with this...

I may have bitched a lot about many aspects of this season's race, but even as I am typing this, there has been yet another terrorist attack in London. Not again I hear you say. Sigh, given the number of terrorist attacks in Europe over the last few months - Paris, Nice, Berlin, Manchester, Brussels and London twice this year. Good grief. I can understand why some people would be afraid to travel in light of all this - that is why we need more programmes like TAR to remind everyone that the world is a beautiful place, there is so much to see and exotic places to explore, that there are so many interesting people to meet and befriend on your travels. When you are old and grey one day in the distant future, you're going to look back and think about what you did with your life: you're not going to remember the Monday morning meetings you've had in the office with your colleagues. No, you're going to remember the extraordinary things you did and tell your friends those amazing stories.Even the instances when you got into trouble with the authority in some remote location, you may be able to look back upon those memories one day and laugh at them. We cannot let terrorism scare us into submission - I'm off to Riga in Latvia in a few days and that's a country that TAR has yet to visit. I'm looking forward to my trip there. A lot of people are telling me on Facebook tonight to stay safe, but I'm going to finish by telling you to stay curious about this beautiful world of ours and never stop exploring. I do blog about other stuff apart from TAR you know, so please keep on reading my blog. Many thanks for reading.