Hi. We are your designated obnoxious dumb-asses, as you can tell from the fact that we broke our engagement over naked skydiving. We're here, you hate us, get used to it.

Quite a good reason to hate them, Miss Ali.



Yes, TAR is a cutthroat game, but it's not like Survivor or Big Brother where you can lie and backstab (glares at Allison). That kind of play does you no good in a race around the world. This is a game that has effectively negated any kind of game-long alliance.

Yes, teams can bond and sort of help each other out, but in the end YOU and YOU ALONE determine your fate in this game.

What is with all the teams that think this is a backstabbing, cut throat game?

While I definitely agree that their "explanation" for calling off the wedding makes no sense at all, I am very interested in watching this team...I expect great enjoyment from people who would make decisions like this. I don't know that I will even hate them...I expect it may turn into something more like pity mixed with gleeful mocking.

"Meh....."

Sorry, couldn't muster up any more than that....

I'm worried about Erika admitting that she's a big drama queen. And it's pretty clear that Dennis will not put up with it for long. Expect to see some fireworks from these two.

One of the first five teams out.

The bastard children of TaraWill and FloZach. Oh joy. Oh rapture.

When I saw them on TES this morning, I was disturbed by the mental image of Erika skydiving naked (I'm just thinking there are some body parts that really do need to restrained in some way if you're going to be falling through the air, otherwise it would be quite uncomfortable), but I am now highly amused by Dennis's description on their bio page of seeing her "floating through the air with nothing on but shoes and socks and a naked instructor strapped to her back."

Good: I like their training idea (running in low-oxygen chambers).
Bad: Hopefully there was something other than the skydiving naked incident that caused their engagement to end, because ... picky, picky, picky. Their bio/interview comes across as trying too hard to be "wacky". "Overly dramatic and cry easily" - Flo much? Reminds me of Aaron and Arianne ...

Verdict: Pre-dislike

I saw a video somewhere of naked skydiving and it does very unnatural things to the human body (especially the female). Sounds like a weak excuse for someone who didn't really want to get married.

Oh No! Erika filled out the wrong CBS reality-tv application. She think they're going on some new Couples edition of Survivor.


Manipulative And a Drama Queen? It's hard to imagine why Dennis gave her the heave-ho!

Lots of pre-hate.

Although Dennis is all kinds of hot, if the naked skydiving thing is the reason for no marriage than I gotta say "Lame!!!", also, he used the term "thinking outside the box". Man, I wish people would think outside the box and get a new term. Get a Tara/Wil vibe, but think Dennis is going to be annoyingly uptight, I get a "shut up Asshat" vibe for him. Her, I got nothing, she didn't get to say anything*

*Opinion expressed based on website bios only

While this does fall under the "Good naked/bad naked" scheme of things, I seriously doubt it is a good enough reason to break off an engagement. Dude, lighten up.

Oh, and if they are the reincarnation of FloZach and TaraWil, then GACK! My ears are already bleeding.

Definite pre-HATE for this team.

Yes, jenniblevins! I got the same vibe too. A&A redux. Even though they live close to me, I'm not rooting for them. Maybe Dennis should have trained for the race by learning to shut his eyes fast when Erika shows too much skin.

Pre-hate based on being one of those couples who think they need to go through extraordinary things on television to decide if they are meant to be or not. If you don't know by now, people....

I thinks Dennis looks like a very naive bumbling fool, which is endearing to me.

And Erika looks like she's a lot of fun (you would have to be to sky-dive in the nude...)

So far, I'm pre-liking them.

This begs the question, did the instructor get off her back after they landed? If it took suspiciously too long for them to disentangle, I can see why Dennis might have reason to be upset. ("Erika? It's been ten minutes. What are you doing under that parachute?")

jennblevins, I'm also getting an Aaron/Arianne vibe.

I want to hate them, I really do, because of the whole "Hey! I'm not marrying you, you nothing but sneakered skydiver!" thing, but I can't because they're just like Felicity and Noel. It's all so very Felicity. I mean, NYU? The RA having a clandestine relationship with an advisee? A planned trip to Italy to be together (though it was Berlin for the TV lovebirds)? Have to love it!

Yes, I'm ashamed.

I'm pre-meh to pre-dislike on this team.

And I'm praying for a nekkid skydiving Roadblock. I just wanna see Dennis wig out...

The fact that they even think this is a cut-throat game, makes me dislike them. You've got your reality shows confused, people.

Yeah, there seems to be a lot of that going around. I don't get it. It's really . . . I mean, it's really not a cutthroat game. It's a hell-with-everybody-else, concentrate-on-your-own-race game. Honestly, you don't have time for throat-cutting.

Just to satisfy all the pre-hate: Dennis is one of the first to take a faceplant at the start.

I'm with the pre-haters. Erika's "I can also be manipulative and have a win-at-all-costs mentality. My weakness is that I am overly dramatic and cry easily." would have been enough, but they really had me at "cutthroat."

I think this can be attributed to the fact that some teams do not apply to be on the race, that they are "discovered" and cast instead. I believe this is what happened for Reichen and Chip.

Therefore, it's possible that they might have never heard of the Amazing Race before filling out this interview.

ETA



I somehow can't make myself hate anyone who takes a faceplant... :)

At least it wasn't over her opening a pickle jar naked. Still, the "argressive" comments are a big turn-off. Pre-hate.

There seems to be a lot of cross-casting on reality shows; every once in a while you hear about someone who applied to one show and got turned down, and was then invited to try out for another show. That's how Alison got to BB -- she applied to TAR first. I don't know if all the CBS reality show apps are kept in one big folder, or if someone at TAR casting called BB casting and said, "Hey, we're all done casting over here. We saved a stack of real psychos, in case you guys want to check them out."

Then there are the teams/players that get recruited from bars and beaches. So I guess it's possible that some of these teams really don't know how the show works, and think all reality TV is about manipulation and screwing the others. I can't imagine going into any competition without studying it thoroughly myself, but apparently it happens a lot.

As for the team: too wacky to tell yet. The broken engagement really just sounds like a contrived stunt to get on the show. Like Jon and Kelly, if they race well, I'll probably like them despite any annoying personalities.

Aw, hell, I pre-like them. They seem like they'll be fun to watch.

I wonder if the whole naked skydiving thing is one of those cases where the TAR folks grabbed on to an interesting detail and made it the team's gimmick.

Chuck and Millie are not the topic, and we're not debating that AGAIN. Seriously. Not.

So many reasons, so much pre-hate. Team Asshat, part V

I very initially liked this team just because they were from New York where I live and naked skydiving sounds pretty wild and crazy. But after reading their BIO's and the Q&A section I changed my mind. Erika says she can be manipulative. Is that what she was really trying to pull with that whole skydiving thing. Then she goes on further to say that Dennis is naive, so does that mean she trys to put things past him all the time. I just don't like the way Erika sounds, getting bad vibes on these two. Dennis -- flee, flee for you life.

Hope they can prove me wrong also.

I so do not want to accept that people who are totally ignorant of this game get cast on it.

I haven't seen the video (can't seem to get the website link to work), but from the written descriptions, I was all for the naked skydiver and against her closed minded boyfriend. As macaddict put it
Now that there is talk of her being proudly manipulative, I am disheartened. I truly destest the people who turn to reality shows to display their most unfortunate qualities in lieu of exhibiiting say, an actual personality.

Though I will admit, the oxygen deprivation stuff is cooler than cool.

Pre-??? I don't know how I feel about these two yet, but I think they'll be entertaining! (If they last long enough, that is.)

I know I've heard Erika's name somewhere. There was an Erika Shay from Pennsylvania that was a former teen titleholder (in the Teen USA system.) Wonder if it's the same person. I can't find a picture to compare to see if their the same person.

OH MY FUCKING GOD, ANOTHER beauty queen?!

Thanks for the tip, mallycat. It seems she was Miss Greater Juniata Valley 2001. (Gotta love Google!) That gives us 3 pageant queens and counting.

4. Allison was in pageants, too.

Pageants and famewhoring go together.

I think this is something seriously whacked about this team. We'll see if it's fun-whacked or scary-whacked. Right now I'm leaning towards the later.

This couple also seems to have been the "most likely to be mistaken for Alison and Donny in the previews" winners. Am I wrong in attributing the you're-not-getting-on-this-plane quote to Dennis instead?

Also, I got the impression that they are still together (although I could be mistaken). I've never heard of breaking off an engagement but staying together as a couple -- well, at least not outside the world of sitcoms.

Pre-hate, definitely. As someone who broke off an engagement over co-ed naked skydiving (which, incidentally, sounds like a lame-o frat boy t-shirt slogan), Dennis is likely to be both a nitwit and extremely self-righteous about it (must...resist...obvious...Bush...joke). And Erika, as the aforementioned naked skydiver beauty queen is... a naked skydiver beauty queen. Ah, hate. Sweet, delicious hate.

The back of the shirt reads: "Going down is frightening, but it's over before you know it."

Actually, I'm even more inclined to like the naked skydiver beauty pageant connection. I'm all for people who give a sock in the jaw to the supposed dignity of that profession. She's no Vanessa Williams, but the race is young. I'm pre-loving them.

I'm thinking it was strapped to the naked instructor that gave him a reason to think maybe not wifey material

No pre anything for me.

I'm trying for an open mind.

Get the hell off our site.

I kid. I kid.

Heh. I say this because there's usually a team or two that goes the opposite way from what we expect.

For example, didn't Jill and John Vito get a lot of pre hate?

I think this openess will last one ep then it's all about the hate.

Pre- "meh".
I'm not quite understanding the problem with the naked skydiving. He really couldn't have been all that surprised. I mean, one doesn't usually say, "let's go skydiving!" and then accidentally end up at a school where the only way you can jump from the plane is if you're naked. He must not have thought that the instructor would be naked too.

I've lost track of the screencap, but I think it was Dennis challenging the Nostra boys at the airport.

Would you want your children raised by someone who went skydiving naked? Even if you were the one doing the bulk of the parenting? Which usually isn't the case with guys, so Dennis was facing the possibility of his kids having a mother who skydived naked. What kind of judgment would such a person have? Granted, Erika might be wonderful and all that, but still, it's weird. I can think of about 28,761 things I'd do naked before I'd skydive naked.

Although the Felicity fan in me laughed heartily over what eladylil said:

I think I’m more inclined to agree with this:


I’m on the fence for now.

Great. Just what we needed. An ex-couple that may not even like each other. Who split over bizarre and petty reasons. And appear to be attention-starved and "cutthroat." I actually would liken this team to a cross between TaraWil and Aahab, not Flo and Zach. I have a feeling that they're going to be in it for the long haul, but they're going to annoy me in the process.

First off, when I hear "nekkid skydiving," I wonder about the harnesses and strapping. And who cleans the gear. Eww. And yeowitch.

Second, what if this is only the beginning? What if she routinely doffs trou and goes au naturel? We could potentially have:

• nekkid bungie-jumping (MORE fun with harnesses and straps)
• nekkid beachcombing (with authentic Brazilian so as to fit in with the locals)
• nekkid goat wrangling ("get away from me, you horny little kid")

Perhaps they cast her as a favor to the (presumably male) Drunken Cameramen. As in "Hey, keep her in the frame at all times, she might get nekkid."

As for pre-love and pre-hate, I'll wait til I see a Redemption Arc.