Welcome to Pure Amazing Race

Hard to believe, but last night was the finale! The ending was unsurprising and the episode was somewhat lackluster. There was a tight race between Nick & Starr and Ken & Tina, but there was never really any doubt who would win it in the end: Nick & Starr!

Congratulations to the brother/sister team. They truly did deserve to win - they ran an excellent race.

Team Dandrew were nowhere to be found through out much of the episode - again, not surprising. They have to be the worst team to ever make it to the top three. In their parting interview, they said they made frat brothers around the globe proud. I yelled at my screen, “No you did not!”

I was disappointed to not see Toni & Dallas at the finale cheering on the finalists. It turns out, they were stuck in Russia due to the passports being lost in the cab. Wow!! I guess my theory from last week about him calling the cab company to retrieve the passports would not have helped them stay in the leg after all.

In other news

- Dallas & Starr are dating and have been for six months! Awesome.
- A new season of the Amazing Race starts in just two months! Season 14 premieres on February 15th, 2009. Woot!

There won’t be any real recap this week - I’m just going to post my thoughts on the happenings of the episode. I wasn’t able to watch the show on Sunday night this week, so I just watched it online on CBS.com. However, I already read a recap on Too Much Free Time, so I knew who was eliminated as I watched.

I think I need to do this every week; it was delicious watching how bitchy Christy & Kelly were being towards everyone knowing they were going to be eliminated at the end of the leg. Playing “Would You Rather” with Team Dandrew as the subject was pretty mean.

Nick & Starr were great sports on the Roadblock after getting pelted with paint. My respect for them has risen a great deal since the first few weeks. I also loved how Starr kept her cool as she looked for the clue. Dallas did the same, which wasn’t surprising.

Then there was Kelly. Let me just say this: “Ha!” Oh and, “Ha ha ha ha ha!” Man, those girls are dumb as rocks. I think they must have set some kind of Amazing Race record as the team who didn’t read the clue the most.

Terence got through the task without much drama and I thought maybe he had turned a new leaf. But, no. Turns out he was saving all his drama for his mama. The taxi ride to the next stop must have been torturous for Sarah.

Tina’s actions at the Roadblock kind of sucked - pushing the guys out of the way and yelling. I’m not sure I wouldn’t have reacted similarly, though.

Getting the clue for the Detour barefoot - why??? That was nasty.

No matter - CBS made up for the bare feet in the bird hospital by giving us ample shots of “The Package”. Atonement!

The Detour was a trip. Once again, Kelly & Christy and Team Dandrew put their idiocy on full display. Luckily for Dandrew, Ken & Tina told them how to complete the task just as Kelly & Christy figured it out on their own. Derrrr.

Next week - Team Dandrew have to be eliminated, right? These two gave Kelly & Christy a serious run for their money with the stupid.

Howdy folks! Sorry for not having an update last week - football ran over and the DVR recorded 60 Minutes instead of The Amazing Race.

So last night’s episode was fairly boring. The teams had to fly from New Zealand (so bummed I missed that episode!) and fly to Cambodia. We learned that just about none of the teams have a clue about geography. Seriously? They didn’t know where Cambodia was? Astonishing. Also astonishing is the fact that we’re down to 7 teams already. The seasons of this show go by much faster for me than others.

Ken & Tina started out first since they arrived first again last week. These two are doing much better in the race and in their relationship than anyone would have guessed. I climb aboard the KenTina train a little more each week. I actually yelled out, “Awww,” when Tina couldn’t find a small chamber inside the ancient Buddist temple Angkor Wat during the Roadblock. Normally I’m yelling, “What an idiot!” Thankfully her mistake didn’t cost them too much at the finish.

Terence continued to annoy me (and [I'm pretty sure] Sarah) as he whined about her “outrunning him out the gate” every time. Should she slow down and make you feel better about yourself, Terence? The sad thing is, I think she might start to do that in the future. Stand up for yourself, Sarah! I had to giggle when they got pulled over for speeding and Sarah said, “I didn’t think you were a speeder.” Hee. You know the unfinished sentence in her mind went a little something like, “… since you are so freaking slow at racing!” I also derived much pleasure out of their boat breaking down during the Detour. Sadly, they finished in a decent spot - but! - they incurred a 30-minute penalty at the start of the next leg as a result of getting a speeding ticket.

Nick & Starr raced well and Nick only played dirty once that we saw on this leg. Pretending to not having found the small chamber at the Roadblock was only slightly dirty relatively speaking, but I still hate the way they play. Starr’s best line from the episode, “Senór, stop!” I’m not quite sure what language is spoken in Cambodia, but I’m pretty sure it’s not, you know, SPANISH. Ugh. I also hate their smug attitudes in interviews. They’re good overall competitors, though, so I need to resign myself to the fact that they’re probably going to be around for a while.

I’ve got mixed feelings about Kelly & Christy. I loved that they were so genuinely touched and saddened by the poverty of the people in Cambodia. They were the only team who actually were aware of their surroundings and the humanity involved. On the other hand, I really disliked their mean (but funny) comments about Dallas looking like Teen Wolf with his spiky hair. I’m all about being snarky, but they did it in a mean and snobby way. These two are also not the sharpest knives in the knife block. Every week they are shown doing at least one ditsy thing. Last night it was showing up in the middle of the Detour to play basketball without going to the clue box first.

Toni & Dallas continue to quietly dominate this game. I think the other teams are underestimating them in a big way. I think Toni might even be underestimating herself. She says she can’t perform the physical tasks as well as the younger players, yet she does great in every physical competition they’ve attempted. I really like both of them. Even if Dallas does have a Teen Wolf thing going on.

Andrew & Dan are just pathetic. They weren’t eliminated last night - but really should have been. Unless there’s some stroke of complete dumb luck for them next week, there’s no way they’ll be around for much longer. We are due for a non-elimination round, though, so they’ve got that going for them. It’s only a matter of time, though. These two are probably the biggest disappointment for me this season. I had high hopes for them to be entertaining and smart. They’ve been neither.

Ty & Aja were really growing on me. They both seem super sweet and it’s nice to see a dating couple on the Race where the prospects look good for the future. Alas, they were too busy loving being together and not spending enough energy and motivation on the actual race, thereby getting themselves eliminated. At least Aja can console herself with the fact that Ty “would not trade her in for a Porsche or anything like that”. Aww, sweet.

Here’s the finish order:

1. Nick & Starr
2. Toni & Dallas
3. Ken & Tina
4. Kelly & Christy
5. Terence & Sarah
6. Andrew & Dan
7. Ty & Aja

Our favorite - okay, my favorite reality show won its 6th Emmy last night! Congratulations to co-creator and co-executive producer Bertram van Munster and his wife, Elise Doganieri for doing such a continuous fabulous job. The Amazing Race beat out American Idol, Survivor, Dancing With the Stars, Project Runway, and Top Chef.

Here’s to another award winning season - and it starts in just 6 days on September 28th!

Comedy Central has been doing a really fun spoof on all reality tv shows by doing their own reality TV show where comedians do spoofs of the other reality tv shows. Lost yet?

Basically, Comedy Central is doing a parody of various reality tv shows and The Amazing Race is one of them. However, it’s not called The Amazing Race. Instead, it’s called The Amazing Disgrace. Check out the video:

Here’s the second part of the show which is even funnier:

We’ll be getting to know Nick Spangler and his sister Starr Spangler very well soon since TAR 13 isn’t far away. I think it’s always interesting to have a little background on each of the racers. Looks like both Nick and Starr Spangler are going to be plenty interesting. Take a look at what broadway.tv said about them:

Nick Spangler is a pretty nice guy. We had a chance to interview him backstage at The Fantasticks this week. Nick will soon be on CBS’s The Amazing Race with his sister Starr Spangler, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader we might add.

The Amazing Race is quite popular these days. We hope that it gives Nick greater exposure for Broadway as we are all about someone living their dream. Nick wants to be cast in the hit musical Hair Spray. Will his competing in The Amazing Race help make that happen? Only time will tell.

A broadway kid and a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader. What an interesting combination. Sounds like drama just waiting to happen. Does it strike anyone else as weird that the former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader was named Starr? Well, at least she’ll be something nice to look at during the race:

Starr Spangler’s Picture as a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader

Looks like reruns of The Amazing Race have found a home in the Travel Channel. The only real question is why the Travel Channel didn’t decide to pick up this show earlier. My guess was it was probably due to The Amazing Race’s asking price.

I originally saw this posted about a week ago, but today I got an email confirming that the Travel Channel will be running TAR 12 premiering on Wednesday, September 3rd at 8 PM EST.

The summary of the show from the Travel Channel TAR website is as follows:

The Travel Channel will begin airing episodes of Season 12 of the award-winning reality series “The Amazing Race” from CBS Television on Wednesday, Sept. 3, at 8 p.m. ET, with additional episodes airing every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.

The popular series, hosted by Phil Keoghan, follows contestants across the globe through some of the world’s most exotic and beautiful destinations as they compete against one another through a series of challenges for the ultimate grand prize.

One other cool piece of information for the Amazing Race lover is that Travel Channel will be showing a “The Amazing Race Marathon” all day Sunday, September 28th to get ready for The Amazing Race 13.

The only other question around this move is whether this is just protection for The Amazing Race in case CBS ever decides to not renew (which they’ve threatened for years).

I think this is the best TAR 13 article I’ve read so far. It gives you some interesting insights on things to watch for and also some quotes from the TAR 13 cast.

“I love the fraternity brothers because they’re so young and such a contrasting team,” host Phil Keoghan recently told The Associated Press. “One takes his time to think things out. The other one loves to rush and go at a million miles an hour. There’s definitely tension between the two of them while they’re making decisions during the race.”

Another team competing is geeky best friends Mark Yturralde, 41, and Bill Hahler, 42. The Comic-Con treasurer and student aid administrator from San Diego have been pals for over 20 years and have auditioned for “The Amazing Race” since the long-running reality series’ third season. The superhero and gaming aficionados said they left their toys at home during the race.

“We’ve got really teeny backpacks,” said Hahler. “They are small. We wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything to prevent us from putting that pack underneath the seat in front of us when we got on a plane. We didn’t want something to happen where we got delayed because of our luggage. We thought that would help us go faster.”

“We did extensive research on what to wear - what was lightweight and would help us move the fastest,” added Yturralde. “I think it was the longest I ever went without wearing a logo on my T-shirt. If you see me on the street, I’m usually wearing a Superman, Bizarro or Batman T-shirt on a constant basis, but we had to utilize more multi-use clothing for ‘The Amazing Race.’”

Married beekeepers Anita, 63, and Arthur Jones, 61, from Eugene, Ore., are the oldest - and perhaps most colorful - team on this season of “The Amazing Race.” Among the self-described hippies’ mottos: “Don’t worry, be hippie” and “The hokey pokey is what it’s all about.” Before the race, the Joneses worked out in hopes of keeping up with the other teams.

“We both tried to do some training, along the lines of going down to our little gym, but that was pretty much it,” said Anita. “We have an emerging farm, so we do a lot of work out there, splitting wood and taking care of the horses. We’re pretty physical, so we thought, ‘Hey, we can be in there with everybody else. It’ll be fun.’”

Ken Greene, a former St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Chargers defensive back, now 51, will race with estranged wife Tina.

Starting at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the 13th season of the Emmy-winning reality competition (premiering Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. EDT) will follow the teams as they travel over 30,000 miles in 23 days to countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, Russia, India and Kazakhstan. It’s the first time the series visited the landlocked country lampooned by Sacha Baron Cohen in “Borat.”

“We shot most of that episode in the capital,” said executive producer Bertram van Munster. “People were a little afraid we were going to pull a ‘Borat’ on them. I told them we weren’t doing ‘Borat,’ but what happened there is very, very funny. It’s not easy to shoot in places like that because they practically have no television industry.”

Van Munster, who is currently scouting locations in Asia for the 14th season, promised the 13th season will include a series of firsts for the reality competition, including a mistake that ultimately prohibited one team from joining their fellow racers at the finish line, as well as a memorable first-ever stop for “The Amazing Race” in Cambodia.

“The teams have no idea how to get from Point A to Point B there,” said van Munster. “They don’t know the language. It’s very difficult to get through this country. They get so stuck, but they find so many fascinating solutions of how to get through everything. One of the things the teams do there is go to a real-life floating village. It’s insane.”

There’s a really interesting article talking with the hippie looking beekeepers who just finished running the Amazing Race. It seems like almost every running of the Amazing Race has to have their token “hippies” and TAR 13 is no different. I guess the big difference here is that these hippies have probably been hippies since the 70s.

This is an absolutely unique couple which looks like they’ll be really entertaining to watch. However, they almost didn’t get to go on the Amazing Race. The producers really wanted them, but had concern over there health. Here’s an excerpt from a story about Anita and Arthur Jones:

So how did these two find fame on a reality show?

The avid “Amazing Race” fans say it started with a video tape.

“The production assistant called and said ‘We can’t get your video off our minds. We just keep talking about it, but we really don’t think you can do it,’ ” explains Arthur.

So why not?

“Well, because most folks on the show are like 22 years old, and we’re kind of older,” laughs Anita.

So to prove themselves, the active duo made another video tape skiing in a downpour.
Their lifestyle didn’t hurt, either.

“I don’t know if they wanted the hippie thing,” Anita says. “I mean this is just our lifestyle. This is who we are, and they saw our video and they’re kind of going OK.”

Then, the couple also made some comments (although limited since the show hasn’t aired) about their experience running TAR 13.

“It’s like you’re in a twilight zone,” Anita says. “You’re just floating through as fast as you can, it’s just so amazing.”

“I think a lesson is that it’s not that dangerous out there,” Arthur says. “People sort of have this, well, you can’t go into these countries. Certainly there are war areas, but by and large people are helpful. You stop people on the street and ask for directions, people are more than willing to help.”

“You are under so much pressure and adrenaline that sometimes you say stuff you didn’t mean,” Arthur says, “but it’s just because you’re focused. Eventually, you have to come out of it with some forgiveness and understanding that we’re all human and make mistakes.”

Nah really? I can’t remember a single episode of TAR where someone said something they shouldn’t have said to the partner. Ok, most episodes include some sort of snide remark. However, the hippies are usually the exception. That might be a first for the Amazing Race: hippies saying something rude.

Of course, this is why I could never go on the Amazing Race with my wife. However, my brother and I would absolutely LOVE to go. I wonder if they’d let me live blog my experience on the Amazing Race. Now wouldn’t that be cool? Then, they could post my blog comments at the same time as the show is shown on TV.

The highly anticipated return of the Amazing Race is just a month away and CBS has released the bios of its Amazing Race cast. Let’s take a look at the competitors and see how close CBS stayed to their past formulas of choosing teams.

First we have Terence and Sarah, a dating couple whose biggest concerns are becoming too intense, fighting amongst themselves, and their dietary restrictions. Sounds like a formula for good TV if I ever heard one. You know the producers are thinking, “Yes! Get intense! Fight! Harder!” I’m interested to learn more about the dietary restrictions since I have a ton of those myself and have cited that as my main reason for never going on a reality show.

Next up are Marisa and Brooke AKA Team Hot Pink Velour Tracksuits. Haven’t we already seen this team on seasons 12 (Shana and Jennifer), 10, 11 (Dustin & Kandice), 9 (Danielle & Dani), and 7 (Megan and Heidi)? For some reason this typecast annoys me the most out of all of them.

Frat brothers Andrew and Dan look interesting. I expect them to bring the funny. Don’t disappoint, boys.

Aja and Ty are our token black couple on the race. For as diversely traveled of a show the Amazing Race is, they sure don’t carry that over to their casts, do they? I’m concerned about this team. They are in a long-distance relationship and Ty feels that Aja’s biggest weakness is that she gets upset easily. I foresee lots of distraught tears and miscommunication with these two as they struggle to stay on the same page.

Next up are Mark and Bill, the geeks for this season. These two are comic fan boys who met at a science fiction club almost a quarter century ago. How sweet. I predict their intellect will get them through certain challenges, but their lack of physical fitness will slow them down in others.

Mother and son team Toni and Dallas are all but guaranteed to be entertaining according to their CBS bio. Their breakdowns will (predictably) be when Toni tries to boss Dallas around.

Nick and Starr are a brother/sister team who I believe will get on my nerves by episode 2. Starr (how did she draw the short stick in the family name lottery?) is a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader and Nick performed in Off-Broadway, so lots of drama shall be sure to ensue. Their bios mention the siblings are best friends now but were bitter enemies in high school - let’s see which one holds more true as they travel around the world.

We’ve got hippies again! And an aging team! All in one tie-dyed package. Groovy. Anita and Arthur are a married couple in their 60s from Oregon. They run a farm and are all about the peace and love. I have high hopes for them.

Team Hot Pink Velour Tracksuits have company this season. Watch out, girls, Kelly and Christy are going to give you a run for your money. Both of these teams are from the south, but the latter are from Texas. And everybody knows you don’t mess with Texas.

Once again, we’ve got an estranged couple in the cast. Ken and Tina have been separated for 9 months, but are hoping to reconnect on the race. I hope that works better for them than it did for Frank and Margarita (Season 1), and Tara and Wil (Season 2). They separated because of Ken’s infidelity. I’m not sure going on the Amazing Race with two teams of Double Mint Twins is the best idea in the world, but that’s just me.

Finally, we have Anthony and Stephanie, another couple whose fate seems dubious. Anthony promises to propose to Stephanie if they win the race. So if they lose, will he dump her?

Since people can be so much different than they are “on paper”, it’s hard to choose favorites just yet. However, I’ll take that risk based on past Amazing Race experience. My picks - sight unseen - are Andrew & Dan and Anita and Arthur. I can’t wait to tune in on September 28th to see if my predictions hold!