U-Turns are typically contentious on The Amazing Race, but even as U-Turns go, we’ve had a lot of hard feelings this season. Izzy and Paige were furious for multiple legs after they got U-turned by frontrunners Jas and Jag. A few episodes later, the live U-Turn devolved into a mess of accusations and hard feelings that criss-crossed multiple teams. Ahead of the finale, host Phil Keoghan was asked about all that bitterness, and it turns out we only saw a small portion of it.
Speaking to Parade Magazine, the longtime face of The Amazing Race was asked about the live U-Turn, and he said he had to step in multiple times to stop the drama from getting out of hand. Apparently the players voted, pointed fingers, argued and voted again for more than ninety minutes, and it would have taken even longer if he didn’t repeatedly try to keep them on track.
There was a big to-do during the U-Turn voting. There was a lot more back and forth than we could show. Put it this way, in real time, the drama of it all went on longer than an entire 90-minute episode. I had to continuously step in to keep things moving along.
It’s not surprising that teams would have feelings about getting U-Turned. They’re in a race for huge prize money, and getting U-Turned means there’s a significant chance you’re going to be eliminated during that leg. With some notable exceptions over the years, however, there’s typically an understanding that getting U-Turned is part of the game, and while it’s annoying, the team that U-Turns you is well within their rights to do so.
This season, however, there has clearly been personal bad blood and resentment about the decisions teams are making. From Keoghan’s perspective, that’s less a byproduct of random chance or the game evolving and more a byproduct of the special circumstances this season. Every team has at least one Big Brother player, and many of them have personal connections with each other. Some are dating. Some used to date. Some shared prior Big Brother seasons and had a lot of unresolved conflicts. Others had positives relationships and formed very overt alliances.
Because of all these emotions, they brought a lot of that into the game, which is perhaps why people got so upset about the U-Turn choices. That’s certainly what Phil thinks…
Things were complicated from the beginning. No buildup, there was pressure long before I said go. I think BB fans got what they wanted. And TAR fans got the kind of drama they don’t usually see on the show. I think what we saw was drama that wasn’t solely promoted by TAR. It was left over emotions from their BB history and, again, a long time coming
This season has definitely felt different than the standard Amazing Race cycle. In addition to all that drama, we’ve also gotten players who were, by and large, more comfortable on camera because of their prior reality television experience. That’s made many of the confessionals more energetic and exciting, but at the same time, it’s also made them feel a little more polished, for better or for worse.
You can check out The Amazing Race finale on Wednesday this week. There are a lot of competitive teams left; so, it should be a terrific conclusion that may or may not be filled with drama.
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