I don't mind "All Stars" seasons. It is when shows try to do celebrity seasons that it gets really bad. "The Mole" (probably my favorite reality show) did it and it really ruined the show. It was probably one of the things that killed it (along with the loss of Anderson Cooper as host and, strangely enough, 9/11).
Actually, despite being superb, the Mole *never* did well. The celebrity edition actually improved slightly on prior low ratings. I personally prefer casting total strangers, as getting to know these strangers is a big part of the viewing enjoyment. I also prefer casting of real humans, instead of the deluge of model-actors ('mactors') that we've been subjected to. But celebrity casting isn't all bad... and it's been reasonably successful in series such as Surreal Life and The Apprentice.

If you go to the CBS website, the All Stars have now been officially announced. Of course, up here in Canada we can't view any of the promo videos though, due to region restrictions, grrrrr. :mad: I was surprised that Brook and Claire weren't in the list, they certainly were featured in the few promos that have been showing up here.

Amazing Race 18 Cast (http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/cast/)

Kynt and Vyxsin -- The Dating Goths from season 12; finished in 5th place.

Ronald and Christina -- Father and Daughter from season 12; finished in 2nd place.

Jamie and Cara -- Former NFL Cheerleaders from season 14; finished in 2nd place.

Margie and Luke -- Mother and Son from season 14; finished in 3rd place.

Kisha and Jen -- Sisters from season 14; finished in 4th place.

Mel and Mike -- Father and Son from season 14; finished in 6th place.

Amanda and Kris -- Dating Couple from season 14; finished in 8th place.

Flight Time and Big Easy -- Harlem Globetrotters from season 15; finished in 4th place.

Zev and Justin -- Best Friends from season 15; finished in 9th place.

Jet and Cord -- The Cowboys from season 16; finished in 2nd place.

Gary and Mallory -- Father and Daughter from season 17; finished in 6th place.

Yeah what the heck? They definitely made it seem like those 2 would be in the all star season. I do wish there was a moratorium on re-tread contestants.

Every pair on this list that people find 'interesting' was at one time an unknown quantity, and what was interesting and enjoyable was finding out their story or what made them interesting. Now it's just seeing the same old same old with little chance of delightful surprises. The cheerleaders will be bubbly, the globetrotters will be lumbering lunkheads, the cowboys will be charming and folksy. Yawn. 350 million people in North America, find me some new contestants already.

Once again, I'll root for Gary and Mallory.

I'm also not a fan of recycled contestants but at least it's in HD this year.

At least none of them finished higher than 2nd. I must say I hope Kisha and Jen get knocked out early. Can't stand their attitude.

lol...pretty hard for non-winners to finish higher than second :cool:

Happy my favourite team from last season finished 1st (for now). Doesn't look good for the cowboys though Too bad

Judging by the opening intros on these teams, I wonder what the plan for the final episode is? From the looks of it we'll just have a bunch of teams implode and go off course! How long would Phil just stand there if no one showed up?

Well this is definitely a little boring since we know all the teams there's not much new to see or think about.

The teams chosen seem to be the more genial ones instead of the more viewable villainous types.

Not only that, but having the established alliances totally killed any tension that could have arisen from all the teams that flubbed the clue.

Does the cliffhanger mean that a popular team will be 'saved' by the producer's perogative to insert a 'non elimination' whenever they like?

Or does the cliffhanger mean the team in last place WILL be eliminated and they just wanted to milk out their fans for at least a 2nd episode viewing?

I watched on that really bad CTV simsub, the one where they run it through some kind of vaseline coated video filter that can reduce HD down to a soft widescreen mid-def picture. Still, it was a nice improvement to see the locations in a somewhat improved picture.

Hopefully with the time change coming we'll get to see at least a few direct-from-CBS feeds in better HD.

I watched on that really bad CTV simsub, the one where they run it through some kind of vaseline coated video filter that can reduce HD down to a soft widescreen mid-def picture. Still, it was a nice improvement to see the locations in a somewhat improved picture.
That almost made me spit out my coffee...vaseline coated video filter...too funny :p

Neild: "Does the cliffhanger mean that a popular team will be 'saved' by the producer's perogative to insert a 'non elimination' whenever they like?"

I would not be a bit surprised that they would do something like this e.g. keep a popular team, such as the Cowboys. I'm pretty sure the producers would want to keep them around to help the ratings!
BTW I PVR-ed the East Coast feed of TAR and the HD was kind of disappointing unlike "Survivors" whose PQ really pops!

I'm sure the government classifies this as a game show. If so, they wouldn't be risking jail if they tampered with the game.

It's also one thing to turn an elimination leg into a non-elimination leg to save a popular team, which is easy for the producer to do. But the first episode featured a pit stop that wasn't the end of the leg. I'm pretty sure the entire first leg is planned out even before the race started so that the challenges (and the extras and production staff needed at each challenge) are ready to go when the teams arrive. So that makes the likelihood of the producers changing the pit stop at the end of the first episode even more improbable.

Episode 1 is being rebroadcast this Saturday night at 8pm

CTV at 7pm(eastern) tonight, due to Oscars

^^^^
...and 9pm PST for the west coast.

It's quite easy to juggle things... and they often do.

Sometimes climactic scenes are even faked to allow for visual story telling to occur.

Sometimes a dropped bag or clue gets re-shot later to add drama. Or the teams will be asked to run past a camera several times to get the right shots. They feel that since the event and results themselves aren't changed, that a reshoot is OK.

Knowing this does take away some of the magic, but it's still a great show.

The rebroadcast and Sunday gave the chance to see CBS feeds without simsubbing.

By looking at the graphic overlays, you could see the picture itself was (as expected) a lot sharper.

Much as I'd like to lay all the blame on mediocre sim-subbing, I'd say in both cases the actual event video itself from CBS was soft. I didn't give it the right attention or conditions to do a good assessment of whether it was just widescreen SD with HD post-prod, or whether the cameras & settings just don't allow for that Survivor class of sharpness.

No mistake though, I'm pleased with the improvement over previous season's picture quality.

Just speculation on my part, but the need for a portable camera may have forced them to trade off some picture quality (plastic vs. glass lenses and using more compression inside the camera to allow smaller, lighter media). Survivor takes place in a few fixed locations so they can setup tripods, gantries and such (they do a very good job of hiding all that, though I did see a camera man in one scene this season).

So far the race has been very boring. I have also not been impressed with the HD presentation as it seems to exaggerate any motion in the camera and I find it makes me a little dizzy. They had the same motion with the SD version, but it didn't seem to affect me the same. They need to show more nature/scenic shots like they do on survivor to make HD worth the effort.