The Amazing Race - S37

[Prancer]

Hypothetical: Let's say due to taking taxi all trip (and if they figured out the cypher quickly), they ended up in 1st. Would they have to sit out a penalty (those are 4 hours, right?), or go back to the starting point, and then proceed via bus/walking to each destination back to the pit stop?

In the past, there's been a time penalty. I think two hours, maybe? Something like that.

 

[On My Own]

I thought it was always variable, and googled. It's been documented in this relatively old reddit post.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheAmazingRace/comments/h01l7a/time_penalties_for_wrong_transportation/

 

[MLIS]

I was curious if they would assess a penalty for each instance of taking a taxi, or just one for the leg. In the end it didn’t matter, but I wish they had told us!

 

[Lilia A]

That I remember, penalties for breaking rules have varied a lot. The only set penalties are for skipping a roadblock (4 hours) and skipping a detour (I think it's 6 hours now, used to be 24 hours way way back). For taking a taxi instead of walking or taking another mode of transportation, the most common one I remember is 30 minutes but that was only when the mistake happened in one portion of the leg, in this case it was the majority of the leg. I think the worst penalties are the ones where a team forgets something and they have to go back to retrieve it, because sometimes they don't know where they could've possibly left said required item. And I don't just mean a passport but non-essential things like clues or the now defunct Travelocity roaming gnome. And my favorite, when a team actually found the finish line before they found the final roadblock many seasons ago. They ended up winning anyway, but I think it was the first and only time Phil had to send a team back to complete a task in the final leg.

The "no taxi" rule was mentioned so much this leg that I was convinced Melinda and Erika wouldn't arrive last and they'd either get eliminated because of a time violation or they would've just escaped elimination. It would've been the first time in a while we hear Phil say his dreaded "you're the X team to arrive, HOWEVER". Well, in the end it made no difference except M&E got to be better rested in their final leg before elimination. So far, no one's quite getting THE winner's edit in my book. But I'll make a prediction now, Alyssa and Josiah are getting the loser's edit, meaning that they're very unlikely to win if they make the final 3. They have the express pass, so that'll help, but normally they have a deadline to use that express pass and can't be used during the final leg.