Amazing Race Standings: Week 1

Season 13 of the Amazing Race kicked off tonight, with a strangely uneventful episode. There were no meltdowns, no petty fights between teams, no huge mistakes to cost a team the game, and very little personality on display from the teams that we all assumed would be endearingly quirky-- namely Anita and Arthur (the hippies), Andrew and Dan (the frat boys), and Mark and Bill (the geeks).

After an initial mad dash to the airport, we saw an early, loose alliance form between the likable Nick and Starr and the unlikable Ken and Tina. They booked the most desirable plane flight, which turned out to be the most important factor in the finishing order of the leg.

Teams arrived in Brazil and faced their first task-- they had to guide a goods-laden pushcart through a rough, brick-paved area of the city. Some of the teams were frustrated by the tendency of the boxes to fall off of the narrow cart, thereby slowing them down.

There was no major shakeup during this portion of the race, and the teams that got that initial plane flight were the first to enter into the Detour (there was no mention of a roadblock). The teams had to choose between a hard ascent, or a soft descent. Ten out of eleven teams chose the soft descent, which involved an elevator ride up a tall building, and then climbing a cargo net down a 240 foot drop.

Only Andrew and Dan chose the hard ascent, in which they had to climb up a stone staircase on their hands and knees and correctly answer a question posed by the drummers at the top. The question turned out to be "How many stairs did you just climb?," necessitating a second trip up the staircase.

It was difficult to tell which task was the more difficult one-- even the least physical teams seemed to get down the net without much of a problem, and Andrew and Dan didn't have a counting meltdown (the type of brain fart that we've seen lay low many a team).

There was a little bit of excitement when Marisa and Brooke got a bum cab driver, but it turned out to be a non-factor.

As many of you predicted, the oldest, slowest team was eliminated. Anita and Arthur were pleasant, but wholly unmemorable, except perhaps as a massive blur of tie dye and white whiskers.

The first place team was Nick and Starr, which many of you also predicted. The brother-sister team was very capable, fast on their feet, and a little bland. But hey, there's a lot of race left to run, so I'm sure their personalities will emerge. Actually, Nick had a funny moment when Andrew was bragging loudly about having worked in the airline industry. "He didn't work in customer service," Nick said quietly to those around him.

In all, I didn't find it to be a very memorable episode. The biggest surprise was the special brand of unpleasantness that Terence trucks in, as was evident in his continual badgering of his partner Sarah.

On paper, the marathon runner and the wall street worker sounded good, but it turns out Terence is something of a basket case. He used modern psychobabble words to be an emotional bully, as when he berated her (on camera, mind you) for interacting with and engaging with other teams during a rest period, when he wanted her to engage with him. Not only is this ridiculous on all fronts, but he clearly expected the viewing audience to see Sarah as some sort of cold monster, and himself as a heroic martyr, putting up with all of this abuse. The reality tv addict in me hopes that there's more of this ugliness to feel superior to.






So, the finishing order of the 11 teams was as follows:

1st: Nick and Starr
2nd: Ken and Tina
3rd: Terence and Sarah
4th: Mark and Bill
5th: Kelly and Christie
6th: Toni and Dallas
7th: Andrew and Dan
8th: Aja and Ty
9th: Anthony and Stephanie
10th: Marisa and Brooke
11th: Anita and Arthur

The Pool

What's that mean for our pool?

Interestingly, the strongest-seeming team in our picks came in first, and the weakest-seeming team came in last. So, as a group, we were right.

Three people picked up 16 points apiece for correctly predicting that Nick and Starr would be the Fastest Team (FS). Four people got 50 bonus points for predicting that Anita and Arthur would be eliminated in this first episode. When the dust cleared, here's where we stood:

1st: Carl 1068 (+50 +16)
2nd: Mike 1066 (+50 +16)
3rd: Jennifer 1050 (+50 +0)
4th: Paul 1046 (+50 +0)
5th: Kim 994 (-10 +0)
6th: Dawn 976 (-40 +16)
7th: Matt 968 (-30 +0)
8th: Mom 940 (-60 +0)

Carl edged out Mike for first based on his handicap for his poor showing in last season's pool. Of course, he also had a perfect game-- the only person, other than Mike, to do so. That won't happen too many times this season, if past pools are any indication. Jennifer and Paul also had a very nice opening week, powered by their Anita and Arthur prediction, while the rest of us ranged from so-so (Kim and Dawn) to terrible (Me and Mom). Of course, the season is young, so Carl and Mike shouldn't get too comfortable up at the top.

Be sure to send me your FT pick for next week's episode-- if I don't hear from you, I'll keep using the team that you predicted would win the pool.

Good luck, everyone!