From zap2it.com:

This has been a frantic two hours, all right. The tasks are wild--wasabi sushi roulette and mud with lots of falling down and duck herding with a duck whisperer. FUN! Not sure I like the immediate elimination task though.

I don't have a lot of hate for anyone, but Lance is already a big tool.

Favourite line tonight "I'm having duck for dinner tonight".

So far I like Sam and Dan, the poker girls and the dad and pink haired kid. I really don't like Lance the assy lawyer. The rest I haven't paid attention enough to l like or hate. I must say that I was not very impressed when the teams were introduced because most seemed kinda blah, but a few have developed personalities over the first two hours.

Good thing I’m not a producer, or the episode title would have been “Suck it down! Suck it down!”

Lance can’t believe the Race didn’t send those bastards home! He can’t believe the Race follows the rules of the race! He’s cutthroat! He’s a lawyer! He’s also token obnoxious dirtbag! Can’t wait to spend a season with this jerk. Also somewhat unpleasant out of the gate: Mika and Canaan. The screaming he was doing during Duckherd did not bode well. Many of the other teams are mixed: they pulled things that were blisteringly annoying, but occasionally managed to be endearing too.

So which is more difficult: leading 20 injured, wandering, pee-break-taking Japanese tourists through Shibuya or herding hundreds of ducks? While there was too much bunching, I did actually enjoy the legs, covering crazy flash and busyness in Tokyo and then going rural (mud-farming! Local music festivals! Ho Chi Minh city coming to resemble Venice!) in Vietnam.

Zev and Justin aren’t bad, but I worry, much like in previous seasons, that I am supposed to be inspired by everything that Zev does. Zev gave a guy his coat! Zev herds ducks! Isn’t Zev amazing? He is capable of things! This will become gross rapidly.

Hooray to the losers who got booted. One less team to pontificate on how the race will decide on whether to shit or get off the relationship pot. That only leaves us, what, like three more to deal with?

Decent opening. The only standout team for me so far is Zev and his partner. Even before they said he had Aspergers I knew something was off. They seem like a good team and I'm routing for them...he is the duck whisperer. Poker players stand out...what's with the stupid lie. I'm not mad at 'em, just think it was stupid to perpetrate.

Was it just me or was that Speedbump for the poker players totally bogus? Do you think that was planned in advance so as to lessen the likelyhood that they would be eliminated?

Glad the yoga teachers were eliminated from the git. Gave me a little bit of pleasure..come on bad ass yoga teachers..please.

I wanted to take up smoking after the first 10 minutes. That was one of those "it's really easy IF YOU PAY ATTENTION!" challenges that I loved so much. Sure, the first elimination at the starting gate is kinda messed up, but I think the time has come that if you want to win, you have to expect anything at anytime.

Oh TAR. How do I love thee? I love you for the wasabi bombs. I love you for the funky Japanese game show host that Phil felt the needd to imitate. I love you for the adorable pooch and the awesomeness that are the duckies. I love you for some pretty kickass teams such as Sam/Dan,the Globetrotters and Zev/Justin. (And hey, I even love you for a female team I have to actively root against because they grate.) May you continue to be nominated by the Academy just to tell Peachy to suck it.


Welcome back show (and Phil.)

YAY! I just remembered why this show has won every reality tv emmy.

I'm on team globetrotters. Especially if they play the Globetrotters theme every time they're on the screen. (also, team GayButGoAheadAndFlirtWithUsAnnoyingLiarGirls"...)

I wish they'd started with a Grease challenge. Called the yoga/hippies being the first team out.

The poker girls bug, so I was happy when they got recognized at the airport. Cover blown so quick.

Japanese Game Show: Amazing concept, not my favorite execution though. I was irked by the randomness of the roulette because of the possibility that bad luck would lead to elimination, but thankfully it didn't work out that way.

Impressed the 2nd bus thought to buy out the bus, but amazed no one kvetched when all that money ended up being a waste due to the hours of operation.

The Pho speedbump would have killed me because I would've eaten all the Pho. mmmmmmmm pho.

Somewhat dissappointed in the first task; I really don't like it when tasks rely so much on luck like that, and I also thought it was lame that their fates were somewhat tied to their crew of spectators in the beginning- like the place where you finished depended on if someone had to pee or had a broken shoe!

Liked the Elimistart. Especially since Zen dude would have been so annoying.

Makes sense that Globetrotters are on TAR.

Japanese game show = excellent start

Hate, hate, hate the lying poker skeezers. What a bummer about the non-elim leg. Cue Joan Rivers ("You're just Pokah playahs! Pokah playahs!")

Lance is a jerk but his "Here I am, I just found myself" quip was good.

Flooded Vietnam = Houston streets

Did I read the sign right, was the bunch place named Gai Hot Dong? If so, was that a tribute to the late John Hughes?

OMGosh, the ducks even funnier than Sushi Roulette!

So far I'm rooting for the Globetrotters, Zev & friend, Team Tina Fey In Ten Years, Chick-Cheney, and maybe the Promised Land (if he treats her better.)

Eat the Wasabi!

"They'll need to get their ducks in a row. Literally."

I love you, Phil.

So happy this show is back!

I don't have a horse in the race yet, but I enjoy the globetrotters- they seem fun.

Not liking the poker players. Their lie was nasty and manipulative. If you don't want people to know your job tell them your a secretary, or even a teacher if you want to seem compassionate. But it's a big lie, not a little one, to say you work with homeless kids.

Good challenges this leg, though I hate so much to be luck based like the sushi was.

I'm ready for screaming couples to be gone.

Also- at the end, did one of the guys knock someone off a bike? Which one was it- the one who was eliminated, or the one who stayed?

The yoga teachers seemed like "plants" to me - any chance they were actually actors hired to be the first eliminees? If not, I hope they drop the early elimination next series. It seems needlessly unkind.

Did the Christian dude say he wanted to rip his girlfriend's head off? That's not what Jesus would do! I love Ericka singing "Stop in the Name of Love" to the ducks.

Not keen on sushi roulette but both herding activities were brilliant.

I think that SpeedBump difficulties are planned without regard to which team might be doing them. Also Maria & Tiffany did hustle to get there earlier, which helped.

It's nice to see the race back.

The plate task at the beginning was an interestingly cruel way to distribute the tickets to get out of LA. Also, it was a nice hook to get people to sit through the opening credits and a round of commercials. Still sucks for Eric & Lisa. They had a good attitude about it.

The wasabi roulette was well edited, and an interesting way to effectively bunch and randomly scramble all the teams for their next task. Kind of bogus towards the end when there were 2-3 teams left, but the difficulty of the group leading task made up for that. Truly inspired. And I was thinking non-elim too. It was nice to see all the teams there to welcome Maria & Tiffany; that doesn't happen very often at all outside of finish lines. So it's doubly amusing that their cover got blown so early into the next leg of the race.

I missed the last 2 seasons but I love this show. I didn't like the Insta-Elimination but the tasks were really fun - the wacky Tokyo game show was the best spin possible (pun intended) on an eating challenge, and then the mud and the ducks - just a lot of fun to watch.

I very much like the Globetrotters, the gay brothers, and the cute pink haired kid and his dad. I think I might like Miss America, too, "we're eating duck for dinner." Ha. The poker girls alternate between funny and grating, and the dumb lie about their jobs was . . . dumb. The unlikable lawyer is unlikable, and I didn't have much affection for the volatile dating couple who got eliminated - I tire of those. Everyone else, I don't have much of an opinion yet.

I keep mixing up the blonde girl/spiky-haired-guy couples, I like one of them more than another but I can't tell which one I'm looking at half the time.

I did not like the first hour. I admit: I watched I survived a Japanese game show, and I moderately enjoyed it, but keep it out of my Amazing Race please. AR never used to be the show that stoops to zany on-screen graphics and the like. I also don't like how the names on screen are "flight time and big easy". Seriously, these are real people: use their real names. At least Phil used them in hour 2. I was not upset about the starting-line elimination at all: he already seemed annoying and I wasn't sad to see them booted. I did enjoy one mega eyebrow pop though!

Hour 2 got much better. The tasks were much better, there were comedic moments without it feeling forced. Second hour was much more of the Race I love.

That said, I know there's a lot of time for them to come around, but as of now, I think this is the weakest cast this show has had in several seasons. I just can't get invested in anyone right now.

Like: Globetrotters, Zev and Justin, Gary and Matt, Sam and Dan.
Hate: Maria and Tiffany, Lance

Everyone else is pretty much neutral, though many of the couples got on my nerves during the duck Roadblock.

I took an instance disliking to the Yoga couple, so that twist worked out for me. I like those puzzles that are all about Reading the Damn Clue, too.

Both Roadblocks were awesome, I liked the task of having to herd a crowd through a scramble crossing, and overall I liked how these two legs kept things close, with lots of shuffling.

The world is waiting for you....

Tokyo leg was horrible
Kill the Lawyer
Roller bag luggage is useless
There can NEVER NEVER NEVER be too many animals in the race

Somehow, I doubt it. Maybe they were actors at some point, but I very much doubt TAR would hire "plants".

I doubt they were plants- it was just mean. But they've eliminated someone mid-first leg before haven't they (two muslim men?) or was that just a double leg first episode? Never THIS early though. I was sad because I liked them from their intro.

Still, I can see them making the best of sequesterville, and not being a bitter couple while there. So that's a plus.

Mostly. I think Maria & Tiffany had convertible bags, which sort of work, but a lot of the inner bag space and weight is taken up by the frame. Meanwhile, our Globetrotter team is rocking the duffel bags pretty hard.

Wow, lying about helping the homeless...on the one hand, that's awful. It's as bad as the time that wrestler pretended to have cerebral palsy to get on the train before everyone else. On the other hand, they're professional poker players, and they tried to bluff everyone, so I guess it's in character. I kind of have to respect that. Ladies, to evil!

While I thought the first leg was funny- I also thought it was one of the most unfair ever. Basically, it came down to herding every team into one room when they all got there (would they have waited were there a larger gap?) and then spinning a wheel to see who gets to leave first. Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, we're going to put you at the mercy of 20 people who have to follow you OR YOU LOSE. Horrible first leg.

Second leg was much better. I'm rooting for the hot gays.

Thank God, Allah, Buddha, Ganesha, and all the other deities for live streaming.



It's nice to see this show's finally got it's ducks in a row. The Japan half was pretty poor, all-up, but the Vietnam half is possibly the single greatest episode since the first Burkina Faso leg in TAR12.

Does tanking before the race even gets going qualify a sequesterville trip?

So far my favorite teams are the Globetrotters and the blond couple who are dating but may get engaged.

Also like the brothers, Zev (?) and his partner and Miss America and her hubby because they seem to have funny/good attitudes. And Montana dad and son and Eharmony middle aged couple.

Least faves are "I'm a trial lawyer" and the poker players.

I like just about all of the guy-guy teams, and I also really like the oldest dating couple, the young not-the-Christians couple (tweeness of the spelling of "Cheyne" aside), and I think Ericka is a firecracker.

The poker girls can get off my screen, however. Do not like them - I thought they were both rather incompetent and not very nice, shades of Team Heave way back in TAR 3. And Lance should be lanced. Thankfully, the only other team I strongly disliked (Garrett and Jessica) was eliminated.

Really, the only thing that bothered me about these first two episodes were the massive bunch-ups in each leg; the one at the Sushi Roulette and the good-ol' Hours of Operation. It's early, but I really don't want bunching that literally negates EVERY lead in a lot of legs.

That aside, I love having you back, TAR. Probst can suck a nut.

Worst first leg ever. Slightly less memorable than TAR10's opener. The Japanese game show ate up way too much time (I'm thinking it was a roadblock), and we had a chance to eliminate the Poker players. At least we won't have to endure Team Yoga for the rest of the season. Leg 2 was a significant improvement.

Favorites so far: Zev & Justin, Cheyne and his girlfriend, Father & Son, the Globetrotters

I want to like Mika & Canaan, but he's a little intense right now. I'd like the brothers if they weren't so chummy with Poker.

Here's hoping next week is better. Sorry to see you go, Garrett. You were pretty until you made your angry face.

Best Amazing Race season premiere ever! Loads of fun. Loved the Japanese game show/sushi challenge. Loved the the duck Roadblock. The license plate task weeded out a dumb team (Team Yoga: good riddance). And best of all? Ugly American & hothead chick got eliminated. Does it get any better than that? Ugly American shoving that Vietnamese guy and not even apologizing -that pissed me off. Buh bye.

Team Globetrotter is my favorite. They are my new Oswald & Danny. Love, love, love them. And I'm glad the poker chicks didn't get eliminated. They are going to add an interesting element to this season. I haven't decided whether I like them or hate them yet. This promises to be a great season. Some good teams. So glad they started off in Japan. TAR has only gone there a few times.

Yeah, it's hard to tell at this point if there will be a dominant team - no one seems to stand out race wise. My guess is that Maria & Tiffany will either cement a role as big bads, or be out, by mid race. Gary & Matt seem to be doing pretty well, and Zev earned tons of good karma by giving away his jacket.

We didn't even get to know Team Yoga.

ITA down to thinking they should have said they were secretaries. And I wish they had been eliminated.

That might have been the worst starting hour in TAR history. Imagine a focus group where somebody suggests this: "Hey, how about eliminating one team right off the bat? Then you can take them to the set of I Survived A Japanese Game Show, bunch all of the teams up, take the game completely out of the Racers' hands, and then make them eat their way to the Pit Stop. That would be awesome!" And Worldrace actually decided to run with it.

Look, I don't care who got eliminated first. It's just completely bogus that a team didn't even get to leave the country, except to go to Sequestersville/Elimination Station. Even the nice Muslim fellas from TAR10 got to go overseas before they got cut off. I know the Yoga people (Yogis?) sounded like pills, but it's just bullshit. Even if Lance and his girl got eliminated, it still would've sucked.

And yeah, I can't see Lance in a courtroom . . . unless he's a defendant. Seriously, shouldn't he be on Tool Academy?

Also, I'm really hoping the producers have done enough "Sweet Georgia Brown" for one season. From what I've heard, the Globetrotters rarely play that this days. I like Herb and Nate, Herbert & Nathaniel, Flight Time & Big Easy . . . shit, why all the names? Seriously, they might be the guilt-free fan fave team of the season.

Zev/Justin (Zevstin?) . . . I like 'em. I get where Zev comes from, so I'm hoping he does all right. And already, he can whisper to ducks. Hidden talents can come in handy.

Maria/Tiffany (P3?) . . . I can understand the lying, but c'mon, they can't be that loaded. And yeah, I thought the Speed Bump was bogus, too.

Pinky and The Brain . . . best nickname so far, even if the dad turns out not to be that smart. Nice team so far.

Not much else to add. You can never go wrong with animals on this show, so the duck herding was awesome. Is Garrett's elimination reaction the worst in the show's history? The only one I can think of in that category is poor hurt Drew stalking off in TAR11. Phil's still Phil, and thank God for that, with the eyebrow popping and deadpan sense of humor. And he didn't win an Emmy why, exactly?

Next week . . . anybody else in the mood for a longneck? [THUNK]

EAT THE WASABI!!!!

That task was great. There was a bit too much luck involved in this one, but shuffling can be a good thing.

I love Zeb and Justin, and hope they stick around for awhile. My son has AS, so I'm a bit selfish in that - I want to observe an adult person with AS. Plus, the pair of them are just darned funny, and seem like good people. I will barf if the "he's so speeeecial" gets overplayed, though. And it's already skating on thin ice.

I also really like Sam and Dan.

Lance can leave NOW, along with the poker liars. I'm surprised we haven't seen more outrage about that, but it's been so frantic there wasn't much time to have a lot of discussion/reactions among the racers.

Yea race!

That was so much fun. Mud and ducks -- how can you go wrong.

This SO makes up for having to bail on Survivor this season.

My only dislikes so far are self-loving lawyer and the poker chippies.

Zev seems to have a sense of humor about being this season's designated inspirational tale. I like that -- a lot.

Well, gonna watch it again.

The Race is back!

So far I strongly dislike Lance and Keri, and Brian and Miss America - .
I am border line on the poker girls. I don't like them lying about their jobs, but they seem nice so I'll have to decide later.

I like the Globe Trotters- man, one of them sure is big!
I like the older couple but except they won't last long.

I thought the Road Blocks were great - I don't think I could have eaten that Wasabi - I loved the Japanese Game Show and was chanting with the audience!

I could do with the "Zev has Aspergers" bit - didn't we get enough of that last year with the deaf guy??

Hated the first hour and the whole Japanese game show thing and leading people thru the city. I actually had to turn the volume all of the way down. Way, way too much screaming and yelling thru the entire 2 hours.

Despise the lawyer guy. Was glad to see the couple go who were eliminated. He was annoying. What is up with the blonde guy with the two tons of hair gel in his stick up in the front hair?

Not really liking any one team yet. I'm sure the episodes will improve. This is the first time I've been disappointed in an episode.

I'd say it does, since as far as their friends and family know, they were supposed to be going away for a month. It would be a little odd if they came home early.

While I do love Team Globetrotters (I recently went to an event where two of them, not these two, talked to abused kids and they were incredible) I feel as though they managed to work the product placement right into the show. It's right up there with the Glad family of products on Top Chef.

I like that the nickname for the father and son is Pinky and the Brain and I am so glad they came in first.

I wish the poker players had been eliminated, they and Lance are my least favorites.

I am also very glad that the show did not refer to the brothers as "Gay / Brothers" under their name and kept it to just "brothers"

At one point I commented to Mr. Tashiann that Miss America seemed competitive. Boy did he give me the "duh!" look. Can you get more competitive than winning Miss America?

This may be one of the best season premieres this show has had to date :)

When I saw the Sushi Roulette, I yelled "Amazing Race meets I Survived A Japanese Game Show!!!" I thought for SURE that they got the same host, and was looking for Judge Bob :)

I don't mind much the mid-game elimination, this many seasons in, most shows are trying to tweak their format. It could have gone MUCH more offensive than this. As Phil said, they didn't read their clue. They have no one to blame but themselves.

Lots of likeable teams out of the gate: The Hot Gay Brothers, Pinky and the Brain (hee) Globetrotters, even the Female Poker Players, who seem to be getting the villain edit along with Meathead Lawyer.

On that note, just one Female team this year? after last season, have the producers finally given up on a all-girl Winner?

Yeah, the only thing that would have made it better would have been someone blurting out "I think my duck is broken"

Oops, meant Zev, not Zeb.

Justin:"Who knew he could work with ducks like that?"

Zev: "I did."

Hee.

Guess what? Poker chicks are my early favourite. Yes, they're liars and manipulators, but so are the brothers for 'flirting' with them. They're canny and crafty and don't get themselves stuck on hardships. I'm just loving them.

Glad to see what looked like a couple real annoying teams go out first; the yoga couple bugged from the intro alone, and the daters quickly soured with their bickering. Now we just need to lose Lawyer!Muscles and this will be more enjoyable!

Great race design again, too. the awesome side effect of the opening elim is that it also sorted out first-flight assignment, letting us drop the interminable airport drama. Japan was just crazy awesome, and Vietnam was equally cool in its rustic rivergoing way. I am so pumped for more from this season!

As I thought, the immediate elimination was pretty bad. Did not like that at all! I like the idea of a challenge for airplane tickets, but didn't like having someone eliminated without even traveling. I hope they still got a nice vacation at sequesterville.

I didn't notice anyone having problems eating the sushi. I wonder if the yoga/vegetarians would have had a problem and if that would have been an issue. I thought the Japan challenges were pretty well thought out, if a bit stereotypical. The two hour penalty didn't hurt the poker gals at all and paying extra for the bus to leave earlier in Vietnam was pretty useless too, as it turned out.

Lance is like a lot of type-a ego-centric lawyers I know. I hope he gets eliminated soon and deflate that ego a bit. Nice to see we already got rid of the 'relationship in conflict' teams. I hope they all go. The country-Christian team appear to fall into that category as well, although the couple with Cheyne seem pretty good (only recall the name because it was unusual).

Laughed at "duck for dinner" and totally agree. Laughed at "Pinky and the Brain" too. Good job for the son/dad winning a leg.

Like the globetrotters, seems like decent guys and good racers, my favs so far this season. Not caring too much for the poker gals, but I can understand they felt the need to bluff about their jobs. Still, if they are that good at poker and are on TV, they had to think that someone would recognize them eventually.

So looking forward to this season, but that first hour was horribly disappointing.

Overload of male-female couples in one form or another. Only a single all-female team, and they're not particularly likable. And I hope the "rip her head off" Christian team doesn't pontificate one moment and act horribly (towards each other or anyone else) the next. I'd rather see them gone sooner versus later.

Don't like the immediate-elimination. That would have to be the suckiest of sucks to get knocked out without even a single airport drama.

What was the point of separate plane tickets? Clearly that first task wasn't going to start until all the teams were there. How "convenient" that the 2nd plane was ahead of schedule. What if it had instead been stuck on the tarmac for 3 hours? Would they have had the first 6 teams sit around for several hours doing nothing?

Don't like tasks that are almost completely luck-based like the roulette wheel. Notable that the person with the most "skill" at the task was the 2nd to last to leave purely due to bad luck. Then the added luck of whether you end up with a bad egg in your group on top of that.

Sorry, but that first hour was one of the worst I can ever remember.

The second hour was much improved. Loved the ducks, and people sliding around and getting stuck in mud is always fun as long as no one is seriously hurt.

Go globetrotters, father-son team, and one of the regular "couples" (the one with Cheyna, maybe?). Definitely not the asstorney. I'd like to pull for the one pair of females, but I can't bring myself to do that right now. They don't impress.

I like all the teams except Maria and Tiffany. But my favorites are the Globetrotters and Brian and Ericka.

Seriously. I really like these two guys - I just wish they were labeled by their real names. And I hope that we don't have to hear the Globetrotters theme music every episode, please.

I was fairly happy. Two out of three teams that I took an instant disliking to were eliminated. Now I can just pray that Lance and Keri will go. He grates me more than any other player at this point. There's nothing wrong with being competitive, but some people take it to the level of extreme testosterone poisoning. Still, I did get a slight chuckle out of "sitting right here" when Keri was talking about how he gets on her nerves.

As far as my favorites go, I like Team Hot Gay and Pinky and the Brain (best nickname ever). I'm a sucker for family teams. The poker girls aren't quite getting on my nerves just yet, but they have the potential to grate, especially if they start bickering every time they get behind.

Her husband was trying though.

Ehh... for all intents and purposes, and especially from a PR perspective for being on the show, those are their names. If Elton John and Sting were on TAR I wouldn't expect them to go by Reggie and Gordon...

(ps TAR can we have a Sting/Elton John team please?)

I do agree there aren't a ton of distinctive cast members this season - too much "married, dating, dating, dating" and not enough "circus clown."

The poker girls have got to go. I cannot stand them or the lawyer.

Zev -- my son has Asperger's, so I am rooting for that team to do well. My daughter thought that they said he had Alzheimer's at first -- she was like "how in the world is he going to race with Alzheimer's?" Can you even imagine?

Generally, a pretty good episode. The duck herding is a classic task that I think people will remember for seasons to come. So how does herding ducks compare to herding cats? This was a bit of symmetry between the legs because the first leg involved herding studio audience members. I don't know why so many teams had both members in front of their group of 20. It seemed like common sense to me to have one teammate in front and one in back so you don't lose anyone.

I was wary of the instant elimination which I was aware of from the commercials. But it turned out better than I thought it would. It would have been a shame for a likeable team to get eliminated, but fortunately the last two teams were the two teams that I found most annoying in their intro interviews. I often try to put myself in the place of the teams and ponder how I would do in a task. I think I would have done really well at the license plates. I took Japanese in college. I forgot at least 90% of what I learned, but as soon as I heard the district ended in "gawa", I thought that might use the same kanji symbol as the "kawa" in "kawakami." So I was think of those three nearly parallel lines right away. At least it was a challenge that rewarded paying attention rather than a pure needle in a haystack. It worked out well this time, but as a general rule I think the instant elimination would not be a good addition to TAR.

Jessica of dating on & off: If it doesn't work out give me a call.

Generally, I don't like when reality contestant go by nicknames (Coach, Shambo, -gag-). But if you're a Harlem Globetrotter, I think you get a special exemption. It interesting to see the different approaches taken by our E list celebrities. The 'trotters use their fame, while the gamblers try to hide it. I recognize Tiffany Michelle and the other poker player looks vaguely familiar to me, so I think they took a big risk thinking no one would recognize them. Although out of context on the Race I might not realize that Tiffany Michelle was indeed Tiffany Michelle. The mirrored deceptions were funny, and it's funny that the gay brothers succeeded more than the professional deceivers.

The father and son are probably my favorite team so far.

I'm not digging Team Nashville. "He's not interesting in having sex with me. He likes me for the right reasons." If you guys want to get married, it would be a good thing if he wants to have sex with you.