Warning! The following contains spoilers from The Amazing Race Season 38 episode "What Would Houdini Do?" Stream the episode with a Paramount+ subscription and read at your own risk!
The Amazing Race is sending former Big Brother players all around Europe in the season currently airing on the 2025 TV schedule, and thus far, it's been an enjoyable ride. We've seen teams forming power alliances and some difficult challenges that felt mildly unfair. All of that continued in the latest episode, where the teams ran around Budapest, Hungary, trying to get one step closer to winning that prize money.
Hungary was a challenging leg for players for various reasons, but for Joseph and Adam Abdin, it was significantly more complex than what I feel the episode illustrated. While it highlighted some of the challenges faced when it came to favorites Jag and Jas Bains trying to get a taxi, we didn't see what the Abdin brothers had to do to finally get to their location, and I wish we had.
Joseph Abdin Explained Just How Hard It Was To Get A Taxi In Hungary
The latest episode of The Amazing Race was by far the most difficult for Joseph and Adam Abdin, who ultimately fell from their position in the top four teams all the way down to seventh place. Part of the issue was due to trouble hailing a taxi, as well as getting lost on the way to their clues. On the Chat BCC app, however, Joseph gave some more context as to what was happening and what viewers didn't get to see:
Those taxies did not stop for Adam & I/Jag & Jas, the one we're in, I jumped in front of the car to stop it and he took us and dropped us off far from where they needed to be. Then every person we asked for directions brushed us off and sent us further away.
Now, The Amazing Race did highlight Jag and Jas needing to hide their turbans with hoods in order to get a taxi to stop for them. The brothers commented on it during the episode, noting it's not new for them:
So many taxis passed by us. As soon as we put our hood on, we found a taxi shortly after. This happens to us, where people will avoid us, but this nice gentleman did stop for us.
I'm happy The Amazing Race took an opportunity to highlight that issue they had to deal with, but bummed we didn't get to see Joseph literally jumping in front of a taxi.
I Would've Liked To See That Scene Just To Drive Home The Struggles Those Two Teams Faced
I understand there's only so much time in an episode, and The Amazing Race has to highlight a lot of teams on this journey. That said, I don't think it was made too clear that Joseph and Adam's struggles finding the right location were tied to the uncontrollable challenge of hailing a cab and people giving them the wrong directions.
I think there was an opportunity for The Amazing Race to also talk about the challenges both Jag and Jas and Joseph and Adam faced that the other teams didn't.
I think it's fair to say that The Amazing Race tends to have a positive spin, and at the end of the day, its main goal is to highlight multiple teams making their way from each checkpoint of the race. I can certainly understand that there isn't enough time in an episode to give Joseph and Adam Abdin more time to talk about their struggles, when they also must show the circumstances that led to Kat Dunn and Alex Romo's elimination.
However, I do wish we could have spent more time addressing this issue with the taxis, seeing as it impacted the outcome for two teams.
Fortunately, we have other platforms for players to share what we didn't see and better inform us on the struggles all people face.
The Amazing Race continues on CBS on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET. I'm psyched to see where the rest of this season goes, although I feel like I know who is going to win based on the edit so far.
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