Hall of Shame Moment: Globetrotters Fail to Live Up to Their Name on The Amazing Race 15

From the first episode of The Amazing Race 15, it was obvious that Harlem Globetrotters Nate & Herb would be tough to beat. Not only were they two of the most physically in-shape racers of the season, they were also friendly, which comes in handy when dealing with strangers, and used to traveling the world. Hardly any other team was as well-suited to the race as these two were.

The Globetrotters proved themselves throughout the season, racing strongly on almost every leg and winning two. In Dubai, when they found themselves at the back of the pack but took advantage of Mika’s fears to keep themselves in the race. They made it all the way to the final four… and then promptly fell apart.

In Prague, the teams came across a Roadblock that required one person from each pairing to search through a bunch of telephones, remember five letters, fill out a bureaucratic form, and unscramble the five letters to spell out the name Franz. Unlike many of the race’s task, this was neither physically challenging nor a matter of thinking logically or strategically. It required a decent memory and the ability to focus.

Nate took the task for the Globetrotters, and he seemed to have little trouble getting through the first parts, answering the phones and collecting the letters. The form was what tripped him up. For some reason, he couldn’t unscramble his letters to get the right combination. Nate teamed up with Dan, but when Dan got the correct answer, he opted not to pass it along to Nate. Perhaps not the right move karma-wise, people like Brian might argue, but in a race to stay out of last place, it was a good move.

Dan did leave Nate with a clue – that the answer he was looking for started with an F – but either Nate didn’t hear him or didn’t believe him, or the hint simply didn’t help. Nate spent hours trying out different combinations of letters, to no avail. Brian came and went, and soon Nate was the last person at the task. And since this was the last leg before the final three, this was the last chance everyone had to be around for the race for the million-dollar prize. For many people, that would be a big motivation. But apparently not for Nate.

After handing in numerous forms with numerous wrong answers, Nate exited the building where the task was taking place and gave Herb some stunning news: He couldn’t complete the task, and he was willing to take a four-hour penalty rather than keep trying. Rather than try to talk his partner out of stopping the task, Herb agreed to let Nate make the decision. The two settled in for a four-hour wait as the other three teams continued with the leg.

Four hours is a long time in any situation, but in the race, it’s an eternity. The race can be won or lost in minutes. Nate & Herb wasted 240 minutes. They hoped that one of the other teams would make a mistake big enough to result in elimination, but from the moment they decided not to complete the task, the situation was out of their hands. They went from actively competing in the race to passively waiting out a penalty they voluntarily endured.

Herb & Nate literally sat around and did nothing for four hours. In this time, Meghan & Cheyne, Sam & Dan, and Brian & Ericka completed two tasks each – enduring extremely low temperatures at the Kryocentrum and either lugging a golem around town or delivering beer to a pub. In Ericka & Brian’s case, the latter task took hours – hours that Herb & Nate could have used to make up a lot of lost time and remain in the race. Indeed, the couple was so far behind that we found out in the finale that the first two teams didn’t even know who the third-place team was!

No matter how difficult Nate found the task, it most likely wouldn’t have taken four more hours to finish. There were only 120 possible combinations of five-letter words, and if he had taken Dan’s clue into account, he would have been left with only 24, meaning he would have only had to guess once per 10 minutes equal the four-hour penalty, even if he started from scratch again and guessed Franz absolutely last. If he had kept up his guessing for hours, at least he would have been doing something, and that something could have kept them in the race. Nothing will most likely get you eliminated.

The Globetrotters were eliminated, and long after the other teams finished the rest of the leg. They weren’t even required to do the task after the Roadblock that did them in. That means that Brian & Ericka finished three tasks – the Roadblock, the Kryocentrum task, and the Detour – before the Globetrotters’ penalty time was up.

The Globetrotters ran a mostly-great race up to this point. But as professional athletes, they surely know that competition means fighting. They knew they were in last place. When you’re in last place, you should try everything you can to get out of last place. Doing nothing and hoping someone else screws up is not trying to get out of last place. By choosing not to complete the Roadblock, Nate & Herb effectively quit the race. They also effectively earned themselves a place in the Reality TV Hall of Shame.

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Jenn Brasler is an Associate Editor of Reality News Online and a writer/book enthusiast/secret spy from Falls Church, Virginia. When she grows up, she wants to be Tess Ocean. You can e-mail her at luckyjenn@hotmail.com.

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