The Search - Episode #4

I agree with Ironhold's analysis, but would like to add that Tamara has consistently shown herself to be a good builder, team mate, science communicator and even leader in this last one (which - as far as I could tell - was why she got the MVP), so if she gets on the final show, it's not just going to be as the token female. The woman's got some skills and I'd even go as far as saying she's got more of them than Kari had at the beginning of her MythBusting career.

Tracy is fun and brings great energy, but with her lack of skills and planning ability compared to Tamara, she'd quickly get a reputation for just being there as a pretty face and yes, the token female on the show. Letting her go was the right thing to do and it tells me they're serious about finding the best possible hosts, instead of just filling some PC quota or appeasing the marketing department.

If I was making the final call, I'd boot Hackett in the next episode, keep the rest of them and call it done.

If I had to shave it down even further, I would only let go of one person and that would be Brian. While he's certainly a great builder, he's not as entertaining as the rest of them and not as good a science communicator. I'd be hard pressed to cut anyone beyond that, but if I absolutely had to, it would be either Allen or Tamara, but I can't decide which one yet.

For me, Martin and Jon are the only ones who are totally safe.

Do the people hiring the "Contestants" not have the sense to google who they just interviewed?..


And BTW, whats worse, a "Boring" presence, or a non existent presence?..

Or DID they do the google thing and just decided to run with them because there is no such thing as bad advertising, and knowing beforehand that someone was going to be dismissed that way would bring viewing figures to see it unfold?..

They would probably ask about criminal convictions, which as far as I can tell he doesn't have; Being arrested doesn't mean you've actually broken the law. For example you can be arrested for DUI at the roadside, but blow under the limit and be released without charge at the police station.

The article also explains why he made the initial shortlist, and why he came over as overbearing in the early episodes. He's clearly an experienced host, but working on his own rather than as part of a team and as such not used to sharing the spotlight.

It seems that the identity of the new hosts is a closely guarded secret, and the new series is in the early stages of production. If he had been cast he would be under a NDA, and couldn't say anything.

One said 90 days and another I found said 9 months related to the same date and charges. Either way, he's been tried and convicted.



I'm sure Beyond Productions has been informed of these things and for some reason decided his past wasn't a hindrance to being on the show. Well, at least not The Search. We'll know within the next 5-6 weeks if they've accepted him for the real thing.

Completely agree. Tamara is legit. Each week she keeps getting stronger and stronger.

to get back on the topic of the episode, I liked the thinking that brought the microwave into play. however, it still failed to catch the bone needle. if you had only metal needles, a magnetron could give a quick indication that there was a needle in the stream.

however, a my thinking might be to go with a hot blast for initial separation - and let it blow out any flyaway hay in the process - follow that up with a thermal imaging scan, which should give you an immediate hit on the denser needles, which would pick up more heat from the hot blast. needle-free hay could be hand cleared. having a shaker table with a screen that could let the needles drop through would also be a good addition to the processing stream.

as far as the handcuff test - consumer handcuffs are a piece of cake. real police cuffs have a keyhole too small to accept a bobby pin - and that is kind of on purpose.

Yes, I would split the remaining five people into two teams*, but I'm not entirely sure how I would split them up.

I think maybe Martin and Tamara as one team and then Jon, Allen and Brian as the other**.

Martin is good at a lot of things, but he's not the best in front of the camera, so I think he would need either Jon or Tamara to back him up. However, splitting up Jon and Allen might be a mistake. Those two work really well together and have great chemistry that just makes for fun TV. Throwing Brian into that mix would provide a little stoic contrast to their antics, so I think that would be a good fit.

My only concern with that division is whether Martin and Tamara as a stand alone team would become a little too serious to be entertaining.

The other option would be Martin and Jon as sort of the main hosts and Tamara leading the other team with Allen and Brian, but I'd just hate to split up Jon and Allen.

As I said in an earlier post, I could potentially live with cutting Brian and just going with four people on two teams, but I would be hard pressed to cut it down even further. I'd like to see Martin, Jon, Tamara and Allen all go through.

I'm glad I'm not making that call, that's for sure


*As has already been pointed out by others, we don't know at this point if they'll be going with two teams or if they're cutting it down to two people, but that's how I would do it if I was calling the shots.

**I wouldn't call either of them "the Build Team", though. That was just a name given to the old team because that's what they initially were. Extra hands. They weren't originally meant to be as integral a part of the show as they ended up becoming, so when they did, the name just stuck. These people all started on equal ground, so "demoting" one team to being less than the other wouldn't be right, if you ask me.

Okay, maybe "demoting" wasn't the best word there. Yes, anyone who applied should be happy with whatever role they're assigned if they get on the show. I completely agree with that.

Still, the name "build team" was something unique to Grant, Kari and Tori because that's what they started out as. Extra builders who were supposed to help get all the stuff done that Adam and Jamie didn't have time to do themselves.

Whoever ends up on what team after The Search, none of them will be "just extra hands" but specifically chosen to be on that team for the purpose of testing myths, so I don't think the name "build team" would be appropriate. Maybe just call them Team 1 and Team 2 and let that be it.

I was thinking something along the lines of making Martin and Jon sort of the main hosts or team leads and then allocating the other three to them for each myth as needed, but then I remembered having watched a Reddit AMA with Grant a while back where he made it clear why that's a bad idea.

Someone asked him why the build team almost never did tests with Adam and Jamie anymore (this was while the show was still running) and he explained that the logistics of making that happen were a nightmare, because at any given time, each team would be working on 2-3 myths each. This was done in order to have buffers. When a myth hit a snag of some sort - additional research needed/materials on back order/location not available and so on - they could work on one of the other myths, instead of just wasting valuable production time waiting around. However clever that was, it also meant that if the teams were to work together on one large myth, they'd all have to focus solely on that one project and drop all the others for a while, meaning that for 8-10 days, they would only be shooting material for one story where they'd normally be shooting material for 4-6.

Allocating team members as needed for each myth on the new show would probably result in a similar problem, making set teams the best option.