I declare this the best TAR so far. Not that I've even seen all of them, but this was the first one that made me want to watch the whole thing. I am happy beyond words that Team Implosion, as Liese put it, weren't in the final.

libkitty, have you seen TAR5 yet? That's the one with Colin and Christie, the Bowling Moms, Charla and Mirna (the first time around, before they became more annoying than fun to watch), and Chip and Kim.

As a relatively latecomer to TAR (I didn't tune in until TAR4), I'd have to say that TAR5's finale was probably my favorite until yesterday's, and overall, TAR5 is probably my favorite race so far.

It has all the team characteristics that are now practically cliched on the race--the religious couple (Brandon and what's her face), the intense team (C&C), the low-key but hardworking team (the Moms), the whiners with a satisfyingly early boot (what's-her-face from Big Brother--Allyson?), the standout tough person saddled with a deadweight partner (Charla); great scenery and tasks; the almost-standard heartbreaking 4th place team (the Moms--so sad to see them go!!); and the most nailbiting finale before yesterday (the only thing that would have made that ep better was seeing Colin's reported freakout at the finish line and the car going into the pond).

the standout tough person saddled with a deadweight partner (Charla);

HA! I was thinking "Chip."

I believe they are the reason they instituted the "no one person can do more than 6 challenges" (or something like that)

I liked Kim, but I don't think she did one Detour.

Actually, I don't think that any of the women in that finale ever did a detour, or if they did, it was no more than one or two, whereas the Moms split everything up evenly and still managed to do great until the final one in the Phillippines, climbing that rope.

I saw most of TAR5, and I think I probably liked it best until this one. Maybe it was even best overall, but I really liked that all of the whiners were gone for the finale. That's huge for me, because I really don't like watching people whine, even if it's justified.

This season was one of the best recent ones, but I'll admit I'm partial to the teams of the very early seasons - Team Cha-Cha-Cha, Team Zoolander, the clowns. Even Zach & Flo made for great TV!

(Of course, that was also back when DH was covering the show for TV Guide, and we got to go to all the parties. Splitting a cab with Team Virgin on the way to TARCon was made entirely of win.)

I definitely miss the nicknaming. Not coincidentally, CBS stopped doing that right around the time they started casting mostly models and young couples.

I did miss the earliest ones, although, if I remember right, I think I saw part of 1 in reruns.

Does anyone know if another TAR is going to come on more quickly because of the strike?

They're doing Big Brother and Survivor both starting in February, so that will fill up a bunch of the CBS schedule for a while.

I never could get into Big Brother, and can only watch Survivor sporadically or my head will explode. Getting rid of my tiny cable and getting more Netflix is starting to seem like a better and better idea.

A friend of mine is totally loving Celebrity Rehab, even though she knows it's all about the trainwreck factor. She feels it actually sneaks a lot of real 12-step info in between the temper tantrums. I could not last through 30 seconds of it--too horribly sad. Has anyone seen this show?