That is a question all of us have, I guess its because when they were planning the routes other countries were chosen for familiarity.  Anyways, its a matter of time they visit there maybe even this season. 

I'm curious what the typical experience is for live sightings/spoiling for the seasons.  Though I've watched the show every season since the beginning, S18 was my first time viewing this forum, and so my first experience with live information was the excellent work done in the Australia legs for the first episodes. 

I'm wondering if that level of detail was the exception rather than the rule, and the current status of information (or lack thereof) about progress with S19 is more typical. 

No criticism intended of the many people doing great work to track what's going on, just wondering if I got spoiled by having last season be my first experience tuning in here! 

I'm curious what the typical experience is for live sightings/spoiling for the seasons.  Though I've watched the show every season since the beginning, S18 was my first time viewing this forum, and so my first experience with live information was the excellent work done in the Australia legs for the first episodes. 

I'm wondering if that level of detail was the exception rather than the rule, and the current status of information (or lack thereof) about progress with S19 is more typical. 

No criticism intended of the many people doing great work to track what's going on, just wondering if I got spoiled by having last season be my first experience tuning in here! 

Yes.  It is very rare to get such detailed information for an entire leg, usually we only have little scraps to work with and try to piece together. 

lovetherace, as far as I know, leg 1 of TAR 18 was the most completely spoiled leg ever.  We (and I do not mean me personally) even knew about the flight being diverted to Hawaii as it occurred.  In sum some people did some excellent work for last season's filming in both Australia and in China, and I still applaud them to this day. 

I'm curious what the typical experience is for live sightings/spoiling for the seasons.  Though I've watched the show every season since the beginning, S18 was my first time viewing this forum, and so my first experience with live information was the excellent work done in the Australia legs for the first episodes. 

I'm wondering if that level of detail was the exception rather than the rule, and the current status of information (or lack thereof) about progress with S19 is more typical. 

No criticism intended of the many people doing great work to track what's going on, just wondering if I got spoiled by having last season be my first experience tuning in here! 

Yes.  It is very rare to get such detailed information for an entire leg, usually we only have little scraps to work with and try to piece together. 

Even in Season 18, once the teams left China (or maybe it was India), we had few reports about where the teams had gone.  Reports were sketchy and subject to misleading interpretation.  Kisha and Jen were seen in Switzerland, but didn't seem to be racing.  There was some speculation that the teams had gone to Spain since the Cowboys were seen in the Madrid airport.  A lot of the destinations didn't get settled until the season preview clips started coming out. 

I haven't been here that many seasons, but I've never seen as much spoiler information as for the Australian legs.  The Chinese legs after that were near the top of the list as well.  This season is more typical of the last 5 or 6 seasons and might even be a little better than average. 

Is there a reason why foreign versions haven't come over to the western hemisphere? ( Obviously not counting Latin America TAR and TAR Brazil.) 

People don't be mad at me but I think reason they haven't visited in USA and Canada is because they're not as interesting as Asian or African countries.  And USA is hard to get in too!  Latin America is maybe considered too dangerous But some TAR-like shows have visited in western hemisphere like French Pekin Express and Finnish Reitti 44. 

That's been somewhat of a debate over time.  I am not sure that anyone knows the actual rule if there is one. 

What I do know is that no one has ever done more than 7 and that they are always allowed to do at least six.  In TAR13 when there were only 9 roadblocks Andrew did 6 and Dan did 3.  This seems to rule out a 50/50 rule.  There have been many occasions where one member did 7 so 6 is not the absolute rule.  Although it did seem that in TAR18 they attempted to force each to do 6.  A +/- 1 rule would fit all of these cases as well, so maybe that is the main guideline. 

That's been somewhat of a debate over time.  I am not sure that anyone knows the actual rule if there is one. 

What I do know is that no one has ever done more than 7 and that they are always allowed to do at least six.  In TAR13 when there were only 9 roadblocks Andrew did 6 and Dan did 3.  This seems to rule out a 50/50 rule.  There have been many occasions where one member did 7 so 6 is not the absolute rule.  Although it did seem that in TAR18 they attempted to force each to do 6.  A +/- 1 rule would fit all of these cases as well, so maybe that is the main guideline. 

(This is all from TAR7 on)

The answer is 50/50 at this point.  It can change season to season just as certain rules are adjusted each year to make things more competitive.  It has basically been 50/50 for sometime since Nate (I believe) did them all for his team seasons back.  Sometimes during the course of the Race production will let u know how RB's are to be handled.  For example, most recently a rule change has occured whereby teams who are on a self-drive task are not allowed to just hire a taxi to follow.  Now teams can essentially follow each other but they cannot simply get in a car and not have to navigate to some extent. 

The answer is 50/50 at this point.  It can change season to season just as certain rules are adjusted each year to make things more competitive.  It has basically been 50/50 for sometime since Nate (I believe) did them all for his team seasons back.  Sometimes during the course of the Race production will let u know how RB's are to be handled. 

Then what happened in TAR13?  And they changed the rules after TAR5 where all the females only did one. 

With the caveat that FF's, and the double RB's in some finales may play a role, as does the Express Pass. 

Lion is right about the new rules!  We saw the non taxi following and non-ferns in 17/18...although there is some hope that Ferns may not be totally dead. 

In the last season, we saw clues saying So and SO MUST do the RoadBlock...so there is clearly a rule in place.  But a 7/6 split seems the most likely to allow for odd numbers. 

I

Logged

"Our fans are pretty good.  They don't give away too much.  Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good.  They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know. "--Phil Keoghan

The Bowling Mom rules basically hasn't changed, but there have been slight variations to account for the actual number of RBs, or for special leg formats in some seasons. 

One way to see this is to track how teams decide, and what they are shown saying on camera (and the viewer knowing what that team's RB balance is at that moment.  It's been years since Phil has described the rule on camera, but if you track the teams week by week, it's pretty clear the rule remains in place. 

You have to be aware and pay attention to what teams say in reading clues, or in conversations on camera/ The editors still let us know about these things, but rarely is it Phil doing a stand-up or voice-over of the change.