They're using casting agents now?

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Originally Posted by tokimeki

I feel disappointed about the whole casting thing.
I really wish Kelly and Jon won the thing.

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Chip and Reichen didn't win because they were found by casting agents. They won because they played a strong game. Wherever Jon and Kelly were found, I still would have rooted for David/Jeff and Reichen/Chip over them.

I don't know how I feel about the concept of casting agents, especially if this is the reason for all of the "bickering and unhappy couples" teams who have hampered the last two seasons for me. But this obviously isn't a new thing for Amazing Race or any other show. The two factors for me are if the team is compelling to watch and if they are strong players. I can't not root for someone just because they were found by a casting agent. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had applied for the show and was turned down, but I do have to wonder how many applications they even get, and how many of those they would consider suitable. Amazing Race is a cult show and likely has never received anywhere near the amount of applications shows like Survivor or even Big Brother get.

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Originally Posted by fluff

There seems to be very little point sending in applications for some reality shows.

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You don't know the half of it--my friend and I actually applied for TAR4 last year, and finding out about these casting agents really irks me.

Maybe we're all jumping to conclusions here, but CBS probably had some casting deadline to fulfill, that's why they needed to rush things; if you recall in those interviews both David & Reichen seemed to imply that they met with a lot of CBS people in a course of a day before they learned they were in. But still...were applicants from the CBS affiliates so unqualified that they had to get most of them from the L.A. area? (Russell lives in a beach community near Jeff's area, and Cindy is also from L.A.)

Some time ago there were allegations attributed from Chuck & Millie about David & Jeff not being friends and were either a planted team or just some random people that CBS recruited for the race. It seems that they were wrong about the "not being friends" part, but it turns out now that they were correct about the guys being recruited.

It's a little annoying that they put no effort in getting recruited for the show, and just happened to 'be at the right place at the right time'. I also find it discouraging that they did this for two two male teams, when there are only two two female teams in the whole race. I don't think going out to find a couple of alphamales is such a great idea. It's not fair for the other teams who had to send in an audition tape. I'm sure they could have found a better team than David and Jeff through videos... But if you look at Derek and Drew's audition video, all it is is them on a beach saying "Hi we're Derek and Drew, and we will win the Amazing Race." So obviously they don't care about personality, they're just looking for that 'type'.

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Originally Posted by JamesB

Maybe I'd feel differently if I had applied for the show and was turned down, but I do have to wonder how many applications they even get, and how many of those they would consider suitable. Amazing Race is a cult show and likely has never received anywhere near the amount of applications shows like Survivor or even Big Brother get.

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Just some more info from my personal experience:

When I applied to TAR3, I called the Santa Monica Post Office with a question about the delivery of my app. (The Delivery Confirmation I received said it had been "delivered" to the post office, but not to the address on the envelope.)

Before I even identified where the package was going, the woman I spoke with said, "Was this for The Amazing Race?" When I said yes, she told me that they have hundreds of apps a day coming to the post office -- way too many to deliver to the TAR address. Instead, TAR staffers came by a couple times a day to pick them up directly from the post office (which was why my Delivery Confirmation showed the p.o. and not the TAR address).

Sounds to me that there should certainly be enough apps to pick twelve teams from.

In the Chip & Reichen Interview thread, theschnauzers posted that "Team Rev were recruited (that Russell had applied for Survivor and was sent by the casting folks to interview for TAR - so Cyndi was recruited), Oswald and Danny were recruited walking out of a movie theatre in Miami Beach. " So it doesn't seem as if using casting agents to find racers is some new radical thing that the producers employed only for TAR4. And Oswald/Danny seemed to be extremely popular racers, so I don't think actively casting people necessarily means that the racers will be less interesting.

Just as some people seem like they would be great fun in their application videos (I'm thinking of that glum woman in Survivor5, or was it 4, who stripped in her application video), there are people who might look like they would be great for compelling tv (David/Jeff for example) but turn out to be less interesting during the race. I mean, that's just the breaks for reality shows. Perhaps I'm being blase since as a foreigner, I can't apply for the race anyway. Still, I agree with JamesB that it doesn't really bother me whether someone was recruited by casting agents or not - it's their actions on the race that make or break my allegiance for them. And I still prefer the Chipsters win than for JoKe to get the prize.

Possibly the only thing I would change about the casting would be for the producers to take in more female teams.

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Originally Posted by LAGuy

Just some more info from my personal experience:

When I applied to TAR3, I called the Santa Monica Post Office with a question about the delivery of my app. (The Delivery Confirmation I received said it had been "delivered" to the post office, but not to the address on the envelope.)

Before I even identified where the package was going, the woman I spoke with said, "Was this for The Amazing Race?" When I said yes, she told me that they have hundreds of apps a day coming to the post office -- way too many to deliver to the TAR address. Instead, TAR staffers came by a couple times a day to pick them up directly from the post office (which was why my Delivery Confirmation showed the p.o. and not the TAR address).

Sounds to me that there should certainly be enough apps to pick twelve teams from.

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Then we would have to see what the applications were, if the people were even qualified to be on the show (health reasons, legal issues), if they were going to bring anything interesting to the show, etc.

Personally, I feel that what matters in the end is what you bring to the show, not where you were found. Danny and Oswald were found by casting agents, and I can't imagine season 2 without them. Chip and Reichen were one of the only season 4 teams I even liked. I can understand why people don't like the idea of casting agents, but I can't go as far as saying that I wish so and so hadn't won or been placed on the show just because they were found by a casting agent. If there is any 'type' which has blanded the show down, it's the problem couples (Seasn 4 Russell/Cindy, Millie/Chuck, Flo/Zach, Michael/Kathy, among others) who have one issue between them which is hammered into the ground over and over each week, and who were seemingly cast only because of that issue. I don't know how many of them were found through agents and how many applied, but if I were going to make alterations in finding teams, minimizing the number of problem couples would be #1 on my list.

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Originally Posted by JamesB

Personally, I feel that what matters in the end is what you bring to the show, not where you were found.

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ITA. I liked David & Jeff and Reichen & Chip--it's the method of how they were brought into the show that bothered me, not them as recruited racers.

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Originally Posted by Iris

In the Chip & Reichen Interview thread, theschnauzers posted that "Team Rev were recruited (that Russell had applied for Survivor and was sent by the casting folks to interview for TAR - so Cyndi was recruited)

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I'm not sure that's entirely correct. Cindy said in her FORT interview that it was her idea to do the show.

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Originally Posted by Leo

I'm not sure that's entirely correct. Cindy said in her FORT interview that it was her idea to do the show.

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I think theschnauzers was refering to the Russell/Cindy in a previous TAR, not the Russell/Cindy in TAR4.

I didn't even know there was a previous Russell/Cindy. Oops.