Controversial Elimination on 'Amazing Race' Dispels Show's Magic

by Aprille Hanson Spivey 

Photo: CBS

I have been a fan of the reality show “The Amazing Race” from almost the beginning of its 36-season run, starting in 2001. The show sets itself apart from other reality shows by its world travel, educating viewers as two-member teams compete in various challenges surrounding the local cultures and traditions of that country. The globe-hopping nature of the show keeps it fresh and entertaining after so many years. But on the May 1 episode, “That’s What Being Strong Will Do,” the show had an unprecedented upset that was mindboggling for a seasoned show like “The Amazing Race.” 

Beloved mother-son teammates Danny and Angie Butler were eliminated in leg eight of the race in Bridgetown, Barbados, leaving five teams to compete for the $1 million prize. Their elimination had nothing to do with their abilities, but by a grave mistake by their camera crew and show producers, creating an unnecessary controversy. 

The two decked out in their Walla Walla shirts, a nod to their hometown in Washington state, accurately dubbed themselves underdogs early on. The lanky Danny, 27, is a superfan of the show, hosting his own versions of “The Amazing Race” in his hometown as a kid. His mom Angie, 55, is a seventh-grade teacher. The brilliance of “The Amazing Race” is how physically strong teams aren’t always the ones to dominate. Teams like Danny and Angie, who are incredibly intelligent and excellent navigators, can make it to the end. It doesn’t mean it’s not a tough road and the Walla Walla team certainly endured their share of hardships, but always prevailed with both endurance and endless positivity. 

It’s why their elimination was so crushing for fans. While navigating the chaotic streets in Barbados, Danny and Angie were driving in a tiny Jeep, made a quick turn in a roundabout and part of their camera crew went another direction. 

The episode shows the pair immediately realizing they lost their crew and the pair explained one of the rules of “The Amazing Race” is not to lose their crew. The show broke the fourth wall to show Danny radioing their crew with no response. While Angie was apprehensive, Danny persuaded her to keep going toward the Detour spot and the crew would meet them at that challenge location. In a May 2 article on Yahoo.com, Danny explained that the show’s security had told the competitors if they ever felt unsafe or are separated from their crew, they should continue onto the next destination. 

It’s exactly what the pair did, continuing on for about 16 minutes. But when they arrived, their crew didn’t show up. Because of this, they had to wait at the Detour for their crew to arrive before starting their next challenge. Viewers were led to believe their crew finally showed up, but it turns out, they never did. In an interview with US Weekly, Angie explained another team’s crew offered to film the pair when they first arrived, but producers decided the team needed to wait. Though it’s unclear in the show how long they waited, articles about the incident say they were stalled for about 45 minutes when producers relented and let another team’s crew film them so they could continue with the competition. But by that point, the other five teams had already shown up, completely obliterating their second-place standing. In reality, their actual crew didn’t show up until about an hour and a half later. 

This obscure penalty caused them to be the last team to arrive at the mat with host Phil Keoghan. 

In true Danny and Angie fashion, the pair took the elimination in stride. They have not once attacked the show for the decision and have been nothing but grateful for the opportunity to participate. They pointed to the silver lining that neither of them ultimately caused their team to be eliminated, something that would have been particularly devastating for mom Angie to be the cause of her son’s dreams being dashed. 

“The Amazing Race” does not play favorites. I’ve watched teams take multi-hour penalties for something they forgot or did wrong, have to apply for new passports when they lose theirs and just make crazy mistakes that force them to be the last team to arrive. I’ve seen everyone’s favorite team go home on countless seasons. 

But what bothers me, and so many other fans, about this elimination scenario, is that Danny and Angie did not do anything wrong. Their crew did. 

The team made a quick turn but they hardly made a maneuver to purposely evade their crew. They made contact immediately and continued to the Detour as they were told. They were not the ones driving that crew vehicle and had no control over what they did next. To suddenly go missing for over an hour when the Detour was 16 minutes away does not make sense. And if the rule was really that they had to wait for their crew to show back up, producers made an exception anyway, since an alternate crew filmed them after all. 

As Danny explained to US Weekly, a local instead of an official show crew member was driving the crew’s vehicle. I have no idea how common a scenario this is, but it’s inexcusable no matter who was driving, to take that long to get to the Detour location. 

It’s something producers should have recognized right away. Given the extra confusion in driving around Barbados – every team experienced navigation issues when most of the streets they were driving past were not named – producers could have let them continue to play right away with the other crew filming them and possibly given them some sort of penalty at the mat. It’s something that Danny pointed out on Reddit, the only slight criticism of the situation the two have expressed. But any on-the-fly penalty for something their crew did seems unfair. 

As a fan, I’d like to know explicitly where it says in “The Amazing Race” rules that if you lose your crew, whether intentionally or not, you have to wait for them to return before continuing to play. I suspect there is no written rule because it hasn’t happened before – at least it’s never been televised. And that likely reality makes this moment a bit of a black eye for a show that thrives on rules and fairness to all teams. 

By all means, give penalties to teams that do something wrong, but don’t punish them for mistakes by the crew that are supposed to be the silent documentarians. 

Because of the backlash, it wouldn’t surprise me if Danny and Angie were back in a future all-star season, where the show brings back old teammates to compete again. But it won’t be the same because these two had a shot at making it to the end this go around and I’m not sure all the stars and teams would align for them to do it again. 

“The Amazing Race” caused a team to be eliminated because of a mistake by their production crew, and it ultimately destroyed some of the magic of this season and the show in general.