Amazing Race 15 Spoilers

[Trista]

Let's start out with a huge spoiler-in fact, I was just getting the thread on them all readied-Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho are a team in the race this year! It was very suspicious that Tiffany, who was the last woman standing (17th place) at the 2008 Main Event, would not compete in the 2009 event, as she said that she was "going out of the country to film something" and that the WSOP comes around every summer and poker won't be going away. Maria, meanwhile, was the Last Woman Standing at the 2007 ME, and they are very good friends. There has been a picture of them seen at LAX and they have the rolly-style bags like how Christie and Jodi did last season! The race has JUST started filming, as Tiffany's last tweet (Twitter) was on the 13th. Both of them are musicians/actresses, with Maria having made the Hollywood week for AI season 3, and Tiffany appearing in many bit roles, as well as on an episode of This Hour Has 22 Minutes (a Canadian version of The Daily Show, but airing once a week). Maria is also fluent in Mandarin, which may or may not help them.

The reason why Tiffany couldn't do the main event is because the final 9 players take a 4-month break, and then in November the "November 9" play the final table over the course of a few days-and she would not be able to participate if she got that far.

[CCL]

I had to look up who Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho were as the whole WSOP and Main Event thing weren't clicking for me (not a poker fan). I gather they are both good poker players which could make things interesting strategy-wise. But why would Season 15 be just starting filming when it is scheduled to air in September? That wouldn't give them enough time to finish filming and edit everything for broadcast I would think. Maybe they will be in the next next season (Season 16)?

[Trista]

Nope, it has to be TAR 15 because the race itself only takes between 20 to 30 days of actual filming, and the first episode doesn't air til the end of September-so they have a decent enough turnaround time.

As for the skills of the two, they are fairly good considering how young they are-give them a few years and they'll be up with the Annie Duke's, Jen Harman's, and Annette Oberstad's of the world.

[karalott]

In the past fall editions of TAR has typically filmed in June/July and, depending on which month, could finish sometimes in mid-late July/August. TAR3 I believe finished filming late August and started airing in October. From what I've read in the past, unless it's changed, they are constantly sending the film reels back to the studio so they can get a leg up since there will be so much to use.

[Trista]

Not to mention they probably have a lot of different crews, and sometimes some episodes take place over less than six hours. It's not like, say, Survivor, where they can't ship the footage back as easily.

[freedom0927]

Any word yet on the other teams .... and how they are doing?

[Trista]

From RFF, here is some info I gathered:

Nate "Big Easy" Lofton and Herbert "Flight Time" Lang, two members of the Harlem Globetrotters, are competing. They are among the first few teams in Vietnam.
Ericka Dunlap (Miss America 2004) and her husband are a team.
There reportedly is a lesbian couple who are synchronized swimmers for a Vegas show.
Tiffany and Maria, along with the Globetrotters, make it to Dubai (at least).
The race course is westward the entire time, going to Asia first.
There are a LOT of M/F pairings, the only F/F pairings I know of so far are Tiffany/Maria and the swimmers.
There is a dad/son team. There is also rumoured to be a team of Simon & Boyd. There's also a brother-sister team-Jodah and Michelle, who I believe make it to Dubai.

They most recently were in Jerusalem (today), however they were also in Dubai, Phnom Penh, Vietnam, Tokyo, and rumours about Bali and Bangkok.

There will be more info eventually, though, as the race is currently filming. I'm already Team Poker though.

[norealityhere]

I much prefer when this show just draws contestants from regular people.

[Trista]

I do too but these people are interesting. I have no qualms with poker players getting asked on, as I do follow poker (somewhat) and poker players are some of the most generous public figures out there. Not to mention that Tiff/Maria are easy to spot for people doing spoilers, since there's no other team of an Asian-American and a Caucasian. And the Harlem Globetrotters? They are perfect for a show like TAR, which is one of the more family-oriented reality shows out there, especially since they mainly play for families. I remember seeing them in a suite at Key Arena when I was younger...good times. The swimmers are more on the ordinary side; I would not venture to say that for Survivor Palau, the producers said "Oh we need somebody who is in a Vegas show (Folies Bergere)". And in the case of the former Miss America and her husband, it's probably a case of they tried out on their own, so it's a legit non-mactor case. Nick and Starr actually auditioned. Granted, they both had some level of fame before the show, but TAR does not have to recruit as much as say, Survivor. Every season you are bound to have mactors, but I like the ordinary and extraordinary. And Maria and Tiffany-the producers did want to have a team of two poker players, and there were a few names that didn't make the cut due to citizenship or other reasons (Evelyn Ng, for example-she is a Canadian citizen). Also they are young, they'll attract a LOT of male attention, and they both were the top female finishers in the WSOP Main Event. Maria also is a top mahjong player.

Now if there's another team of reality folks, I will more than likely have to give them the pass.

[Ger]

Very interesting and I cannot wait for the show to air