Last night was the premiere of The Amazing Race. This time, however, the teams have an opportunity to win not one, but TWO million dollars - but only if the team wins the first AND the last leg of the race. We'll see if that actually happens...
First, the producers give us a brief introduction to all 11 teams that have been selected to participate in the race.
Lexi and Trey - He was a high school football players and she was a cheerleader. The couple wants to settle down and get married. Lexi says she wants a ring if they win the race.
James and Abba - One of them is a rocker; he's toured the world playing with different bands. The other is a lawyer.
Rob and Sheila - They are lumberjacks.
Rob and Kelley - They're drive monster trucks and they're married.
Daniel and Amy - They're a dating couple. Amy had meningitis and lost both of her legs. She utilizes prosthetic legs now. I am rooting for her all the way; I think it's amazing that she's running the race!
Natalie and Nadiya - They're identical twin sisters. They like to switch identities and fool people. One of them was really getting on my nerves tonight with her negativity (more on that later).
Brent and Josh - They both lost their jobs and became goat farmers.
Brittany and Caitlin - Best friends and athletes from the Midwest.
Ryan and Abbie - They're dating divorcees. Ryan trains in jujitsu while Abbie is a dance instructor.
Will and Gary - They're both substitute teachers.
Jaymes and James - Chippendales. They say they sing and play guitar, not dance around a strip pole.
They're Off!
The teams must repel down a 10-story building in order to get to the cars needed to drive to the airport to board a plane to China. However, seven teams will get on the first flight, which arrives an hour and fifteen minutes before the second flight. The teams who make it on the first flight are: Brittany and Caitlin, Abbie and Ryan, Rob and Kelley, Jaymes and James, James and Abba, Natalie and Nadiya, and Daniel and Amy. The teams on the second flight, therefore are: Trey and Lexi, Shelia and Rob, Brent and Josh, and Will and Gary.
Roadblock 1
Once in China, the teams must find a sports stadium. One member of each team must play table tennis against a Chinese junior champion. They must score one point against her successfully. If they mess up, they have to wait until it's their turn again (she rotates between tables). She uses different things to hit the ball with, like a clipboard and a frying pan!
It takes the teams a long time to score a point. Abbie is the first one to score a point, so she and Ryan head off to a restaurant. James, the rocker, is the next to score a point followed by one of the Chippendales.
Meanwhile Rob and Kelley are wandering around trying to find the clue box.
Roadblock 2
Whoever did not compete in the table tennis must complete this roadblock. One member from each team must eat a traditional Chinese dessert - frog fallopian tubes inside a papaya. It sounds - and looks - quite disgusting to me. The teams are given chopsticks to eat with; they are not allowed to pick up any of the food with their hands.
James and Abba finish the task first, followed closely by Ryan and Abbie.
The second flight has finally come in with the remaining four teams.
Josh and Brent are in last place at this point.
At the restaurant, Rob breaks the rules of the roadblock by using his hands to pick the food up off the table, so he has to start all over again. He isn't amused and doesn't think can eat two more of the desserts.
Once done with the dessert roadblock, teams must find a woman using an abacus.
Daniel and Amy are actually the first ones to find the woman who hands them the clue to the pit stop - a nearby tower. However, they run into Abbie and Ryan along the way and decide to tell them where the woman with the abacus is. Abbie and Ryan find her and end up passing Amy and Daniel.
Abbie and Ryan end up being team number one in this leg of the race. Amy and Daniel come in second. Brittany and Caitlin come in third and Natalie and Nadiya come in fourth. Kelley and Rob and James and Abba come in fifth and sixth, respectively.
James and Jaymes are confused. They don't know if the woman with the abacus is an actual woman, a statue, or someone in the water.
Josh and Brent come in seventh.
Meanwhile, Rob and Sheila are standing right in front of the woman they need to find, but they don't see her.
James and Jaymes run across Will and Gary. Will and Gary lie about finding the woman and they finish eighth. Lexi and Trey come in next at ninth.
It's a race to the pit stop between Rob and Sheila and James and Jaymes. It's close, but James and Jaymes end up finishing in tenth, which means Rob and Sheila reach the pit stop last. They are eliminated from the race.
Sheila is happy that she and her husband could participate in The Amazing Race without having a lot of conflict going on between them.
Jaymes and James are so lucky that they didn’t end up being the team that was eliminated. Without the advantages of having the earlier flight and running faster they would have finished last even though they were the first to the roadblocks. I was talking to a coworker at DISH, and he told me that the winner of the first leg has taken home the grand prize 6 times. Those are a lot better odds than I had expected, and it makes the $2 million dollar bump look less like a gimmick. I missed the show last night, but I was able to catch it off of a recording that my Hopper automatically made for Primetime Anytime. I love how it records everything on the four major networks without timers or using my storage space. I don’t know who I am going to end up rooting for this season, but I already don’t like the twins.
ReplyDelete