Category: amazing race 12

Trying to play up their new U-turn twist as something that actually made a difference in the leg results, the producers tried to make us think Lorena & Jason were eliminated from The Amazing Race 12 Episode 4 as a result of the U-turn. The fact that they were an hour and a half behind because of the ridiculous whining at the camel task was disregarded. Anyway, we’ll probably be greeted with some more drama about Shana & Jennifer’s decision to use the U-turn in tonight’s episode.

Tonight the show’s starting on time. That’s new.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Azaria & Hendekea (6:45am)
Second: Nathan & Jennifer (6:46am)
Third: Ronald & Christina (7:17am)
Fourth: Nicolas & Donald (7:18am)
Fifth: Kynt & Vyxsin (7:22am)
Sixth: Shana & Jennifer (7:44am)
Seventh: TK & Rachel (7:59am)

The next destination is Vilinius, Lithuania.

Azaria admits he’s a bit harsh with Hendekea. Jennifer’s done crying now and just says she’s hungry for a win this time. Christina tells her father she loves him out of obligation more than anything else. He wants to teach her how to deal with various kinds of people… because he’s not a total train wreck at doing so himself

Nicolas & Donald arrive at the ticket office before most other teams, but because they get a person who doesn’t speak English, the seats they were arranging ended up being given to Azaria & Hendekea. For some reason, though, after they leave, there’s still another set of seats for Nathan & Jennifer. But despite all the drama and the original seats that were scheduled to arrive after 5PM, they get seats on another flight at 1:35PM, 10 minutes after the first flight.

As expected, Shana & Jennifer are being ridiculous about using the U-turn, as Jennifer doesn’t agree with the decision to use it and was quick to point this out to us and the other teams.

1st flight (arrives 1:25PM): Azaria & Hendekea, Nathan & Jennifer, Shana & Jennifer
2nd flight (arrives 1:35PM): Nicolas & Donald, TK & Rachel, Kynt & Vyxsin
3rd flight (arrives 2:10PM): Ronald & Christina

The first and second flights are within minutes of each other and run into each other pretty quickly. Most people are just guessing where they’re going. Last place Ronald & Christina hire a taxi to show them the way.

Nathan & Jennifer are falling apart, getting mean and nasty with each other for no apparent reason.

In the road block, they must become a Lithuanian messenger, delivering packages through allegedly confusing streets. Most people don’t appear to have a lot of difficulty.

Road block: Nicolas, Kynt, Hendekea, Ronald, TK, Jennifer, Shana

Nicolas gets stuck on his second delivery, and all the other teams pass him. The blondes go in circles for a while and are the last ones to arrive at the road block. Both teams finish the road block at the same time.

The next stop is a Lithuanian museum. There, teams must find gnomes. Of course, this is sponsored by Travelocity. This doesn’t appear to serve any actual purpose other than product placement.

The detour is a choice between count down or step up. In count down, they’ll count every picket that makes up a fence. Counting tasks typically suck, particularly for teams with minimal patience (no need to point them out). In step up, they’ll stilt walk along a marked course. If they fall off, they must return to the beginning.

Step up: TK & Rachel, Ronald & Christina, Nathan & Jennifer (after trying count down)
Count down: Kynt & Vyxsin (after trying step up), Azaria & Hendekea (after trying step up), Nicolas & Donald, Shana & Jennifer

Kynt & Vyxsin seem to have an easy time at counting. Ronald overcomes the hernia to finish the physical task, which it was fairly silly for them to do in the first place. Nathan & Jennifer are drove crazy by counting. Shana & Jennifer just simply can’t seem to agree on anything… still.

The pitstop for this leg of the race is a working windmill.

First: TK & Rachel (win a trip to Japan)
Second: Kynt & Vyxsin
Third: Ronald & Christina
Fourth: Azaria & Hendekea
Fifth: Nathan & Jennifer
Sixth: Nicolas & Donald
Seventh: Shana & Jennifer (eliminated)

A lot of people will probably try to point this out as karma, but at the end of the day, their problem was that they couldn’t work together as a team. The finger pointing that came with the U-turn was a pretty clear example of this, and it continued throughout this leg as well. The best thing about this is that now there’s only one person named Jennifer in this race (even though both are equally annoying). What was up with that anyway?

Next week, Azaria loses patience with Hendekea, and Nathan and Jennifer decide they hate each other. So basically more of the same.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 12 episode 6 Cherry on Top of the Sundae That’s Already Melted, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

A team that had been fairly invisible, Marianna & Julia, were eliminated in The Amazing Race 12 episode 3. Unfortunately, Lorena & Jason survived by the skin of their teeth, in spite of Lorena blowing past mere breakdown right into sheer embarrassment. On the other side of the coin, Azaria & Hendekea won the leg for the second time, while Nathan & Jennifer continued strongly following their near elimination in episode 1.

As usual, the show’s behind tonight. Worse than usual, though. Due to the football overrun, it’s about a 55 minute delay. A live blog will begin when 60 Minutes is over.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived. Given the design of the previous leg, everybody’s pretty bunched up.

First: Azaria & Hendekea
Second: TK & Rachel
Third: Nathan & Jennifer
Fourth: Kynt & Vyxsin
Fifth: Ronald & Christina
Sixth: Nicolas & Donald
Seventh: Shana & Jennifer
Eighth: Lorena & Jason

Teams must follow a marked path to find the tribal chief and obtain the next clue and a gift, a chicken, which they must keep with them for the entire leg. They have no money for this leg of the race. From there, they must take a taxi to a nearby village.

When they arrive at the village, there’s a detour, shake your pan or shake your booty. In shake your pan, they must pan for at least one ounce of gold. In shake your booty, they must learn a dance, and if the judges aren’t impressed, they incur a 10 minute penalty.

Shake your pan: Nicolas & Donald, TK & Rachel (after seeing Nathan & Jennifer fail the dancing)
Shake your booty: Nathan & Jennifer, Azaria & Hendekea, Ronald & Christina, Kynt & Vyxsin, Shana & Jennifer, Lorena & Jason

Nathan & Jennifer choose shake your booty because she’s a dancer, not taking into account that Nathan’s not a dancer and that it’s not just about learning a dance but making it your own. The judges don’t like them. Azaria & Hendekea, however, do get a positive reaction. Nicolas & Donald find out how easy the gold mining is. Ronald & Christina also get rejected due to lack of creativity. Kynt & Vyxsin blow everybody away and move on without penalty. Shana & Jennifer also move on without penalty. TK & Rachel finish up with the mining. Jason & Lorena? Uh, well, they’re around somewhere. I guess. When they do show up, they do the dance, where they’re given good reviews.

Faux French proves worse than faux Spanish. Multiple people use the word merci to say please.

From there, they must go to a market, and they will come upon a new twist to the race, a U-turn. In the U-turn, they can force one of the other teams to do the second task they have not yet done.

Azaria & Hendekea are first and choose not to use the U-turn. Nathan & Jennifer also choose not to use the U-turn. Kynt & Vyxsin, Ronald & Christina, and Nicolas & Donald follow and don’t use the U-turn as well. Shana & Jennifer choose to use the U-turn on Lorena & Jason. TK & Rachel, close behind, think it was a really bad move, which means it’s a really good move because if the blondes didn’t do it, it doesn’t sound like they would have been smart enough to do so themselves. Later, Jennifer tells us she’s not happy about it and that it’s Shana’s fault.

When they arrive at the market, they must load up a bunch of items onto their bikes and take them to the destination. These items include plants and a live goat.

Road block: Azaria, Jennifer (of Nathan & Jennifer), Christina, Nicolas, Vyxsin, Shana, Rachel, Jason

The main chore of the road block is navigating the hot streets where they don’t understand anybody. Everybody struggles, but nobody seems to struggle any more than the rest, no matter how they may be trying to edit it. Shana is afraid the goat will bite, but Jennifer comforts her by saying they ram rather than biting.

Jason discusses staying positive. Has he seen his partner? Granted, she hasn’t had a breakdown yet this leg. He says he doesn’t want to lose the race because of the U-turn. What he might want to do is think back to the camel task if he’s looking for the flaw in their race.

After the road block, Vyxsin gets emotional, as it gave her a closeup look at what she considered a sad surrounding environment, with garbage and poverty everywhere. She later says she appreciates that everybody’s greeted them with a smile, not caring about how different they look, and she’s upset that such wonderful people have so little.

First: Azaria & Hendekea (by a split second, they win Yamaha motor scooters)
Second: Nathan & Jennifer (Jennifer starts crying, apparently expecting sympathy)
Third: Ronald & Christina
Fourth: Nicolas & Donald
Fifth: Kynt & Vyxsin
Sixth: Shana & Jennifer
Seventh: TK & Rachel
Eighth: Lorena & Jason (eliminated)

Lorena made her bed last time around. It was a miracle they even survived that. After they’re eliminated, Jason gives us some excuse about a deeper love between people who aren’t married than people who are or some nonsense. I hope she’s not expecting a commitment any time soon.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 12 episode 5 We’ve Really burned Bridges, for Sure, which airs Sunday at 8/7c(ish) on CBS.

The results were a little more as expected in The Amazing Race 12 Episode 2, where Kate & Pat were eliminated. Multiple couples are arguing, but none of them seem to be as bad as Ronald with his daughter (and everybody else).

We’re about 20 minutes behind with the football overrun, but a live blog will begin when the show starts.

Ronald developed a hernia during the previous leg and required medical attention at the pitstop.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived:

First: Lorena & Jason (4:19am)
Second: Nathan & Jennifer (4:30am)
Third: Shana & Jennifer (4:31am)
Fourth: Kynt & Vyxsin (5:21am)
Fifth: Azaria & Hendekea (5:22am)
Sixth: TK & Rachel (5:23am)
Seventh: Marianna & Julia (5:46am)
Eighth: Nicolas & Donald (5:47am)
Ninth: Ronald & Christina (6:26am)

The next stop is Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, a small developing nation in Africa that’s 3000 miles away. They first need to figure out where they heck they’re going, as they’re not given the country.

Jason says Lorena gets stressed out, like the girl in The Exorcist. Jen and Nathan are similarly struggling. Vyxsin says she takes on some masculine roles with Kynt.

Nathan & Jennifer are the only team able to get the first flight at 7:20am. The others get the 8am one, with Ronald & Christina just barely making it onboard. They’re all informed of a problem with the plane, and if they miss the connecting flight, there won’t be another one until the next day. I find it hard to believe they’d actually allow one team to get a 24 hour lead over everybody else, though it wouldn’t be the first case of extremely poor planning in this respect.

Despite the drama over the mechanical problems, all teams are now on the same flight to Burkina Faso.

The next stop is a train. They need to wait until 6am the next morning, so they’re going to have to kill some time. Grandpa Donald dances with Marianna and Julia. He says they’re fiesty, hot, and a little bitchy, but not bad.

The blondes make it pretty obvious they’re not comfortable with the poverty and lack of cleanliness, but everybody else embraces the situation.

The road block is camel milking. They must first milk them, then drink the milk. Donald is confident because he’s been around animals a lot before. Lorena’s afraid and a drama queen. TK’s the first to finish. Donald finishes pretty quickly and is second. Christina finishes third. Vyxsin is fourth. Nathan is fifth. And Lorena’s still being a drama queen. By this point, the remaining teams have dry camels. Azaria’s finally smart enough to switch camels, and the others follow suit. Azaria is in sixth. Jennifer finishes seventh. Julia finally finishes in eighth. Lorena? She’s still freaking out. Now crying on the ground. It’s really not that big a deal, and if she didn’t make it that big a deal, she’d be done by now. She does finally finish, though.

Teams must then lead four camels along a path. Hopefully camels are easier to deal with than donkeys. Nobody has any clue where they’re going, so they all just follow each other the wrong way. This leads to the detour: teach it or learn it. Teach it is teaching children 10 English words. In learn it, they must learn the local words for 10 items. I’d think learning would be the easier choice, but neither seem overly difficult.

Teach it: TK & Rachel, Nicolas & Donald, Ronald & Christina, Shana & Jennifer
Learn it: Kynt & Vyxsin, Azaria & Hendekea, Nathan & Jennifer, Lorena & Jason, Marianna & Julia

Azaria and Hendekea have no problem learning and are in first place. Shortly thereafter, the weather goes crazy (but they apparently made more out of this than necessary, as it looks like a pretty quick/mild storm), but they’re within running distance of the pitstop. The next five teams are all right on top of each other.

First: Azaria & Hendekea (win a trip for two to Bermuda)
Second: TK & Rachel
Third: Nathan & Jennifer
Fourth: Kynt & Vyxsin
Fifth: Ronald & Christina
Sixth: Nicolas & Donald
Seventh: Shana & Jennifer
Eighth: Lorena & Jason
Ninth: Marianna & Julia (eliminated)

While Marianna & Julia didn’t seem like a particularly strong team, after that complete and total meltdown, Lorena should be long gone. It’s only going to get worse from here, and if she breaks down that easily, it’s going to get ugly. On a positive note, Ronald made something of an effort to get along with his daughter.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 12 episode 4 Let’s Name Our Chicken Phil, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Lorena’s a meltdown waiting to happen. And apparently you can milk camels.

The Amazing Race 12 episode 1 started off the way most seasons of TAR start off. Some of the weaker teams got a stronger than expected start, while a couple of the seemingly stronger teams fell behind, leading to a somewhat surprising, albeit welcome, first boot of Ari & Staella.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Azaria & Hendekea
Second: Kynt & Vyxsin
Third: TK & Rachel
Fourth: Lorena & Jason
Fifth: Nicolas & Donald
Sixth: Shana & Jennifer
Seventh: Ronald & Christina
Eighth: Kate & Pat
Ninth: Marianna & Julia
Tenth: Nathan & Jennifer

The next stop is Amsterdam, nearly 600 miles away. They’ll fly there and then take a train to find a bridge for their next clue. Kynt and Vyxsin say they’re happy being in the dark. Lorena and Jason are getting along… for now. Grandpa Donald is driving below the speed limit, driving his grandson crazy. One of the blondes is concerned about being an idiot. Kate & Pat are the first religious nuts who don’t believe God cares whether they win, so we won’t be stuck with more Weavers.

They arrive at the airport and have to wait around. Ronald & Christina and Kate & Pat get on the Internet and do some research, but in the process, Ronald gives Christina a hard time.

Azaria & Hendekea, Kynt & Vyxsin, TK & Rachel, Shana & Jennifer, Nathan & Jennifer, and Lorena & Jason get on the first flight to Dublin, where they will be able to get on the next flight to Amsterdam without any problems.

Nicolas & Donald, Kate & Pat, and Ronald & Christina must get on standby to get to Amsterdam. Nicolas is pushy and is made to stand aside at the ticket counter. Ronald takes issue with it and gives Nicolas grief. Nicolas just smiles at him and lets him talk. Only one of these teams are able to get on the first flight with the rest, Nicolas & Donald.

Marianna & Julia are left behind and don’t make the first flight, so they’re an hour and a half behind everybody else.

Azaria & Hendekea run onto the train and pay there. The others get tickets first and aren’t able to get on and must wait 10 minutes.

The detour is hunt it or hoist it. In hunt it, they search for two bikes with the color pattern that’s on the clue, normally an extremely frustrating concept. Hoist it is tying knots until they’re safe, then hosting things like TV sets to a window above them.

Hoist: TK & Rachel, Lorena & Jason, Shana & Jennifer, Kynt & Vyxsin, Nathan & Jennifer, Ronald & Christina (later switch to bikes)
Hunt: Azaria & Hendekea, Nicolas & Donald, Marianna & Julia, Kate & Pat

Lorena & Jason finish the detour first and make it look easy. Kynt & Vyxsin get done pretty easily, but the other two couples just argue with each other. Shana & Jennifer outdo most of the men hoisting the furniture. When Jennifer switches with Nathan and does the hoisting instead of him, they finished next. Hendekea & Azaria finish in 5th. TK finally gets it through his stubborn head and switches with Rachel, who like Jennifer is also able to do it where her partner failed. Nicolas & Donald are next. Christina’s already getting fed up with her father. It’s a fight for last between the last three teams. Marianna & Julia are 8th. Ronald & Christina are 9th. Kate & Pat are bringing up the rear.

We’re focusing on a pretty destructive dynamic for quite some time here between father and daughter Ronald & Christina. His theory that being polite to people apparently only applies to airline personnel. Other racers, including his own daughter, are fully exempt from that theory. He lets her know he’s not going to be all rosy and that she disappointed him. She asks him to change the fact that he’s hard on her.

The road block is ditch vaulting, where they will use a pole to successfully get across a 12 foot irrigation ditch. Jason finishes pretty quickly to retain their lead. Shana is next, followed by Jennifer who gets hateful about the all girl team that did it faster. Rachel finishes fourth, followed closely by Kynt. Donald says he thinks he can get across, which scares Nicolas, and then Donald strips down to his underwear, even more cause for being scared. Hendekea finishes sixth. Donald finally just barely gets across and is in seventh. Marianna & Julia finish quickly in eighth. Christina seems to be making some jumps just as well as the others, but they’re not counting. Ronald continues to give her a hard time. She finishes in 9th, and his immediate thought is that he could have done it better.

Teams must ride a bakfiet to the next pitstop.

First: Lorena & Jason (win sportbikes with three wheels)
Second: Nathan & Jennifer
Third: Shana & Jennifer
Fourth: Kynt & Vyxsin
Fifth: Azaria & Hendekea
Sixth: TK & Rachel
Seventh: Mariana & Julia
Eighth: Nicolas & Donald
Ninth: Ronald & Christina
Tenth: Kate & Pat (eliminated)

This is more like what I was expecting. The weak links settled down toward the bottom of the pack. Ronald seriously needs to snap out of it if he hopes to survive much longer.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Amazing Race 12 episode 3, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

TAR12 was foolishly left out of CBS’ fall lineup initially, but the good news is it’s back early. We’re looking at about a half an hour football overrun delay, which we can expect most of the season, but I will start the live recap when the show does start. In the meantime, check out The Amazing Race 12 cast list and meet the teams.

The starting point for the race is Los Angeles, at the Playboy Mansion. Kynt says he and Vyxsin are like cartoon characters. Jennifer has trust issues with Nathan. Hendekea’s concerned Azaria will want to dominate the race. Kate & Pat are the show’s first lesbian couple and also ministers. Ari says he’s a bitch.

There are 11 legs in the race. Only 8 of the pitstops are elimination points, so apparently the initial indication nonelimination legs have been eliminated was incorrect. I was okay with that move myself, though, but at least they stopped mugging people.

First stop is Shannon, Ireland. Grandpa Donald, at the front of the line, insists on counting the money before leaving, and all the other teams are behind him honking. Yeah, this team’s in some serious trouble.

Half the people go left, and the other half go right, which means half the people will end up getting lost before the first airport stop at LAX.

Lorena & Jason, who are from LA, get an easy jump on the rest, knowing exactly where they’re going. Some teams follow them, but most are going the wrong way and realize they have to turn around.

Lorena & Jason, Shana & Jennifer, Kate & Pat, Nathan & Jennifer, and Marianna & Julia get on the first flight, giving them a 45 minute advantage, or so they think.

Azaria & Hendekea and Ronald & Christina (who form a bit of an alliance and start to look up the next location on the Internet) and the rest are on the next flight. Due to a delayed takeoff on the first flight, this set of teams actually get in the lead by 7 minutes.

Ari & Staella are making enemies already, stealing Ronald & Christina’s taxi. Nathan and Jennifer start falling apart… already. Lorena’s a complete disaster as well. She compares their inability to communicate with real life.

Ah, the complete and total chaos of the first few episodes. Hard to figure out who’s who, even with the list right in front of me.

First ferry, 8:00 – Lorena &Jason, TK & Rachel, Kynt & Vyxsin
Second ferry, 8:30 – Ari & Staella, Nathan & Jennifer, Azaria & Hendekea
Third ferry, 9:30 – Shana & Jennifer, Kate & Pat, Marianna & Julia, Nicolas & Donald, Ronald & Christina

The next stop is Cleggan Farm. When they get there, the must ride a tandem bike through the mud. Teams must ride a bike on a suspended wire across a ravine, while their partner is attached below and taken along for the ride. Teams must then load their donkeys and guide them to their next destination. Donkeys are meaner than you might expect… and stubborn as a mule. Ari threatens to eat his donkey because apparently that will help. He then threatens to kick his ass’ ass. This takes me back to “My ox is broken.”

Ronald & Christina pass both Ari & Staella and Nathan & Jennifer, who have no luck with their donkeys, and she says donkeys have souls, too.

The pitstop for this leg of the race is Connemara Heritage Center, 13 miles away. I initially thought it was between the last ferry in a battle for last, but there’s hope for them yet.

First: Azaria & Hendekea (win a trip for two to Alberta, Canada)
Second: Kynt & Vyxsin
Third: TK & Rachel
Fourth: Lorena & Jason
Fifth: Nicolas & Donald
Sixth: Shana & Jennifer
Seventh: Ronald & Christina
Eighth: Kate & Pat
Ninth: Marianna & Julia
Tenth: Nathan & Jennifer
Eleventh: Ari & Staella (eliminated)

The donkey task screwed over the last two teams, and at the end of the day, we get the typical unexpected first boot. Things normally settle down after the first couple of episodes, as we start to really see a bit more of a realistic picture.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 12 episode 2 I’ve Become the Archie Bunker of the Home, which airs Sunday at 8/7c(ish) on CBS.

As a followup to the previous post about the cast list, this video is a brief introduction to each of the teams.

Here’s a look at a crazy looking bike challenge from The Amazing Race 12 Episode 1, which airs this Sunday at 8 on CBS. As always, stay tuned to dingoRUE for a live recap of the show when it airs.