From first to last and out, Rob and Amber bid farewell to Amazing Race All-Stars and their fourth attempt at a million bucks. And I couldn't be sorrier to see them go. Granted, Amber is little more than the contractually obligated second teammate and faithful sidekick on the Rob Show, but Rob has always impressed me with his understanding of the game. He recognizes it's a competition for a million bucks and not a sisterhood of the traveling pants. He never cheats, but exploits every opportunity to seize an advantage. The race without Rob will be a far less interesting journey.
But the lummox brought it on himself in an uncharacteristic lapse of gamesmanship. He chose the wrong task for the Detour, opting for the obviously more complex task merely because it involved hammer and nails. When told his sign was wrong, he said, "This better not be a spelling thing," and then-- incredibly-- did not appear to go back and verify all his spelling was correct. Amber, one assumes, was too busy signing contracts for a CBS Rob and Amber Pass Kidney Stones special to actually check Rob's work. She did try to convince Rob to switch to the other task, but Rob was too frustrated to see the wisdom in cutting bait. Instead of taking a deep breath and thinking through the problem, he flailed around at random hoping to get lucky. And this time, his luck ran out.
At this point, the only satisfying outcome left to the race is for Mirna and Charla to plummet to their deaths in a freak funicular accident in the Alps. Their behavior toward each other and everyone else in this race has been singularly dispicable, and I'm heartened by the certainty that the only way for that mean-spirited partership to win the race would be to be the only team not to board that ill-fated funicular. With Romber and Kentucky gone, I'm now rooting for either Uchenna and Joyce or Dustin and Candice to win.
But what I really want to see is Rob and Amber go up against Big Brother's Mike and Will in a game of The Mole.
Posted by Peter at March 12, 2007 04:11 PMI removed my season pass immediately after Rob & Amber were eliminated. If "Mirna & Schmirna" had been eliminated instead, I probably would have been content to watch the rest of the season, but I just couldn't bear the thought of having to watch them one more week.
The spelling "challenge" was a big blow, but the back-breaker seemed to be the mail-sorting roadblock. If Amber had done it I bet they'd still be in the race, but Rob was on tilt and insisted on doing it, scattering envelopes around without even looking at the addresses. At least that's how it was edited-- at the end it didn't look like they were even close, so maybe they had already lost before they got to the mail sacks.
Posted by: Doug Orleans on March 12, 2007 05:43 PMmy family and i couldn't be happier that rob and amber are gone. it was high fives and cheering all around. there's a difference between being strong competitors who are always focused on the game and being assholes. they were assholes.
btw, rob is a 5 time million dollar loser. he lost an addition million in the fan favorite vote.
Posted by: dana on March 14, 2007 04:04 PMI was really surprised that Rob and Amber didn't check their spelling as it seemed a simple thing to check. But according to an interview I read with them, the directions for the task made it sound like spelling didn't count, but the arrows needed to be pointing in the correct direction. (Maybe that's just sour grapes talking, but given how well they usually perform a task I think there must have been some confusion with the instructions.)
I must admit that I think Amber is a good match for Rob. She's quiet and calm but she know when he's getting a little full of himself and knocks him back down a peg. I think much of his obnoxiousness is a bit of an act. I wish they were still in the race, but I won't miss listening to the other teams obsesses about Rob and Amber. Although I suspect that some of those comments are in response to the producers asking teams about Rob and Amber.
Posted by: Sarah Stone on March 15, 2007 08:05 AM