Shouldn’t we wait until the 27th Season is all over and everybody has a chance to talk about it? Well maybe that’s a good idea, but I want to get started on the next season of AR that begins in February.
Eleven teams of internet sensations take to the carpet hoping to draw AR fans to their social media sites. CBS is counting on higher ratings and grabbing lots of new young viewers to come along for the race across the world.
Seven teams have presence on YouTube, three teams have presence on Vine, and one team has an Instagram presence. Millions of their followers will be let in on race news and maybe we will see some spoilers on their sites? Can someone fluent with these three sites fill us old codgers in on who is who and what all of this means?
I can’t speak to all that, but I would like to put a good word in for the cc crowd to support my favorite going in, what friends are calling Team Krodie. Brodie Smith and Kurt Gibson are ultimate frisbee players, the sport my son played in college. He’s played against these two in club play. They are amazing athletes and friends, and, because they’ve competed together in high-stress competition, I think they’ll go far.
Apparently, there was a livestream-only premiere of the beginning of the race (it’s internal in the link below and looks insane), and they arrived second. Writers for ultiworld watched and wrote live as it went along. I found it hilarious, but I get some of the inside jokes (for instance, the guys played for Florida, hence all the Florida and orange jokes). But anyone might like it because it’s funny to see what people who’ve never watched the show think of what’s happening.
This link, which has 1.5M hits, is an example of some of the trick shots Brodie makes. As you can see, he’s traveled the world playing so that could be an advantage.
I watched every single frisbee shot that he made and he is incredible. #Team Krodie could be the team to beat. I think this will be an interesting season coming up and I can’t wait. Thanks for sharing.
Vine is a social media site where you can post 6 second videos - 6 seconds long is the max. Amazing what can happen in 6 secs though!
Instagram is mostly about sharing a photo. It’s a one photo shot deal (unless you make a photo collage - but still, just one screen to look at). Usually accompanied by a few words but not a long explanation of what is happening. People who follow you can then “like” or comment on your Instagram photo - likes are much more common than comments. I love Instagram! Much less work than Facebook!
I think this concept for Amazing Race as I see it is kind of dumb. In the end, it’s the couple that I become interested in - I don’t really care what their legacy is! And I TOTALLY don’t like the idea of spoilers out there.
Eleven teams of “internet sensations”? Ugh. Eleven teams of famewhores, more like it. I think the show is much more interesting when the competitors are folks we can identify with–after all, don’t we all fantasize about what it would be like to race? And when ordinary racers rise to the top and do extraordinarily well, it’s kind of thrilling. It’s bad enough when a few teams have some kind of celebrity in their backgrounds, but all of them? And probably all playing for the camera all the time? Boooo.
I’m not thrilled with gimmicky contestant picks. I guess the demographic for viewers of AR is trending upward (look at the age of all of us who watch), so the producers and network are trying to attract younger viewers. I don’t know if this will work. My 20-something sons don’t watch the show and I doubt this will motivate them to do so.