A Bizarre Production Snafu Led to the Elimination of a Team in this Week's 'Amazing Race'

By Dustin Rowles | TV | May 3, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | May 3, 2024 |

Spoilers

Despite the abusive partner on one team, the 36th season of The Amazing Race has been a solid one, thanks in part to some solid casting. Former NFL running back Rod Gardner and his wife, Leticia, have been a particular highlight, although Ricky and Cesar — who have been dominating the race since the opening episode — are fun, too. I also love that the “Boyfriends” and the “Girlfriends” have made it into the top five, but then The Amazing Race has always featured LGBTQ representation (a gay couple finished third in the first season, back in 2001).

One of the fun underdogs this season has been the mother and son combination, Angie and Danny. I assumed they’d be eliminated early on (and they had a few precarious moments). They don’t look like the sort of team that usually wins The Amazing Race, but as the season moved along, their team got stronger. It was hard not to root for them.

In fact, in this week’s episode, Danny and Angie had the possibility of a first-place finish until one very bizarre screw-up. It did offer viewers an unexpected glimpse into the production. I never considered the fact that each team has its own production crew, and we learned this week that the teams are required to be with their production crew at all times.

Unfortunately, Danny and Angie accidentally lost their production crew at a roundabout in Barbados. The crew took a wrong turn out of the roundabout. Danny and Angie arrived at the challenge, but because they weren’t with their crew, they had to wait for them to arrive before they could begin the challenge.

What we see in the episode is Danny and Angie — who arrived at the challenge second — waiting for their crew until all the other teams had arrived. At that point, Danny said, “There’s our crew,” and began the challenge. It was too late. They didn’t have a chance. The edit gave the illusion that they were still in the running, but despite the fact that Rod and Leticia repeatedly messed up the challenge and later had to push their car out of the mud, I don’t think Angie and Danny were much of a threat to surpass them.

What’s more bizarre is that, though Danny had yelled, “Here’s our crew,” the crew never actually showed up, according to Danny in an interview with Us.

“They had me say the line like, ‘Hey, our crew is here.’ Our crew wasn’t there,” Danny told Us Weekly. “I don’t know why they decided — maybe it’s because we had waited so long — but they just grabbed another crew that was already there and [were] like, ‘Hey, they’re going to take you down to the beach.’ And so probably about 30 minutes into the detour I think is when we ended up seeing our cameramen again.”

Danny surmised that the crew got lost because a local was driving them. The local got them lost for an hour and a half, even though the challenge was only 15 minutes away from where Danny and Angie lost the crew. The production staff, meanwhile, scrambled and eventually agreed to use a separate crew. By that time, however, it was too late. Danny and Angie were eliminated through no real fault of their own.

I am bummed for them, although their elimination does allow Rod and Leticia at least one more episode in the race.

Source: Us Weekly