The Amazing Race 34.2 “Patience Is The New Me”

“The last team to arrive will be eliminated!”

Last night’s episode of The Amazing Race was an exciting one, precisely because we knew that there were no second chances.  In the past, an episode in which contestants had to yodel and recreate musical notes would have probably been a non-elimination legs because, quite frankly, some people are tone deaf and are going to struggle with those challenges no matter what.  That’s why I panicked when I saw Derek X. and Claire fall behind at the yodeling challenge.  Because there are no second chances, regardless of how likable a team may be.

(And Claire and Derek X. have emerged as probably the most likable team on the new season of the Race.  Derek, in particular, is a bit less condescending than he was in the Big Brother house.)

The lack of second chances also added to the tension when Rich and Dom forgot to bring their hats with them to the pit stop and had to go back and get them.  As bad as that mistake was, it’s even worse when there are no second chances.

That said, I don’t think there was really any shock about Tim and Rex being the team that was eliminated.  Tim and Rex started at the back of the pack and they never really managed to catch up.  I understand that Rex is apparently a very successful football coach but he still seemed out of his element as far as the Race was concerned.  They were the 11th team to arrive and the second to be eliminated and, though the show is always edited to make it seem as if everyone is running neck-to-neck, it was pretty obvious that Tim and Rex showed up long after everyone else had already made it to the pit stop.

As far as the roadblocks and the detours were concerned, the yodel roadblock freaked me out because there’s no way I would have been able to do that, though I do think I would have enjoyed getting to wear the yodeling costume.  With the detour, I would have been all about that wedding dance.  That was a fun detour.

Here’s how everyone finished this week:

Going from 6th to first, Marcus and Michael!  Marcus and Michael didn’t make a huge impression on me during the previous episode but they came back strong during the second leg of the race.  They’re not a particularly exciting team but they do seem like they could go far.

Coming in 2nd for the second leg in a row, Glenda and Lumumba.  They seem to be a consistently strong team.  I expect them to be around for a bit.

Coming in 3rd, Linton and Sharik.  They went from 4th to 3rd.  As a team, they still haven’t really made a huge impression on me but they’re definitely running a strong race.

Coming in 4th, Derek and Claire.  Despite Claire’s yodeling issues, they still managed a good 4th place finish.  Derek and Claire are my second favorite team and that would probably be true even if I didn’t know them from Big Brother.  They work well together and they just seem like a fun couple.

Coming in 5th, Luis and Michelle!  This is my favorite team, just because I relate to Michelle.  They went from 10th to 5th, which is quite an accomplishment.  They owned that wedding dance!

Coming in 6th, Abby and Will.  They went from 8th to 6th.  They’re moving up but they still feel like a middle-of-the-pack type of team.

Coming in 7th, Emily and Molly.  They actually went down a bit, from 5th to 7th.  Emily and Molly seem nice but I expect them to be eliminated sooner than later.

Coming in 8th, Aubrey and David.  I like them because they’re dancers but, again, they just seem destined to remain in the back of the pack until they get eliminated.

Coming in 9th, Rich and Dom.  Rich and Dom would have come in 8th if they hadn’t forgotten to bring their hats with them.  Either way, it’s not all that impressive of a finish.  They seem to pay more attention to Dom’s hair than they do to their clues.

Coming in 10th, Quinton and Mattie.  The cheerleaders went from 3rd to 10th.  That’s not a good sign.

Finally, coming in 11th, Rex and Tim.  Sorry, guys, no second chances!

Next week, the teams continue to travel across Europe!  Welcome to France!

Survivor 43.2 — “Lovable Curmudgeon”

I have to admit that I was really excited when I saw that last night’s episode of Survivor was going to be 90 minutes long.  I was expecting some sort of epic immunity challenge or maybe even two tribal councils.  Instead, those extra 30 minutes were used to spend showing more photographs of what the castaways do when they’re not competing on an island.  I get that Survivor is trying to be a “nicer” show but the photo montages have been my least favorite part of the past three seasons.  As I’ve said before, I don’t need to know who these people are in the real world.  Everyone, whether they get to be on a reality show or not, has had tragedy in their life.  Everyone has people that they care for.  The photo montages seem to suggest that certain castaways just inherently deserve the money more than others and that goes against what Survivor was supposed to be all about.  Survivor is about outplaying and outlasting.  It’s not about who has the biggest sob story.  Or, at least, it shouldn’t be.

As for the episode itself, it centered on two men who are dominating the early episodes but who also probably won’t make it to the merge.  Over on the Baka Tribe, Gabler has proven to be so annoying that Elie and Jeanine actually searched through his stuff so that they could find out when his immunity idol expires.  Gabler does have an alliance going with Sami and Owen but it’s easy to imagine that even they will eventually get tired of him.  I cringed when I saw Gabler trying to use the fishing equipment.  If he doesn’t destroy or lose that spear next week, I’ll be stunned.

Fortunately, for Gabler, Baka won immunity and avoided tribal council.  The other immunity idol was won by the Coco Tribe.  That meant that the Vesi Tribe went to their first tribal.

Going into tribal, the Vesi Tribe was split into three factions.  There was the Justine/Noelle faction.  There was the Cody/Nneka faction.  And then there was the Dwight/Jesse faction.  Dwight wanted to join with the girls.  The problem is that Dwight lost his vote at the summit last week so, for him to have any power in the Justine/Noelle faction, he would have to be able to bring Jesse in with him so that Jesse could vote the way that Dwight wanted.  Unfortunately, for Dwight, Jesse felt more comfortable with Cody/Nneka.

Shortly before tribal, Cody found a beware advantage and made the mistake of opening it.  The message inside told him that unless he retrieved beads (which I guess were handed out when the castaways first reached the island) from all the bags of his tribemates, he would lose his vote.  With the help of Jesse and Nneka, he was able to convince everyone to give him their beads.  (He claimed that he wanted them to decorate his hat and, because Cody is kind of an eccentric guy, everyone believed him.)  So, Cody did not lose his vote.

At tribal, Noelle and Justine split their votes, one for Cody and one for Nneka.  They did this under the assumption that Jesse would vote for Nneka.  However, Jesse joined Nneka and Cody in voting for Justine.  With Dwight not having a vote, Justine was voted out by a vote of 3-1-1.

And that sucks.  The episode wasn’t bad.  I enjoyed watching Cody scramble for the beads.  But Justine seemed like she had the potential to be a far more interesting player than Nneka.  (If the tribe wants to keep losing immunity, I guess it makes sense to keep Nneka.)  But that’s the way it goes, sometimes.  It’ll be interesting to see if Jesse and Dwight’s friendship survives this.  Dwight did not look happy.

Justine, 2nd person voted out of Survivor 43

Big Brother 24 — It’s Over!

Hi, everyone!

I don’t know if the show is still going on the West Coast or not but, needless to say, I’m about to post who won Big Brother so consider this your SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t watched the show or checked social media yet.

Defying my expectations, Monte won the final HoH.

Defying my expectations once again, Monte evicted Turner and brought Taylor with him to the final two.

Now, to be honest, I thought Monte was going to win but I was wrong.  Monte won a lot of challenges and he engineered a lot of evictions but, when it came time to make his case to the jury, he stumbled.  He tried to argue that evicting Turner was the biggest move of his game.

For her part, Taylor played up the fact that she had survived despite being targeted from the moment she came into the House and she did a pretty good job of making it seem as if anything other than a Taylor victory would be a win for everything that was wrong with the world.

I predicted that Monte would still win.

I was wrong.

By a vote of 8-1, Taylor won Big Brother 24.  Only Turner voted for Monte.

Taylor also went on to win America’s Favorite Player, which means she gets even more money and a cruise.

To be honest, the main takeaway I took from the finale is that Joseph appeared to be sincerely upset by the Taylor/Monte showmance.  Personally, I think a cruise with Joseph would be more fun than a cruise with Monte.

Well, that’s another season of Big Brother in the books but fear not!  I’m covering Survivor and The Amazing Race on this very site! And I’ll be back here for the next edition of Big Brother!

Congratulations to the winners and thanks for reading!

Lisa Marie  

P.S. For the record, I think Monte’s biggest mistake was evicting Turner.  He would have beaten Turner in the final two.  Monte could probably argue that he had played a better game than Taylor but Taylor had a far more compelling personal narrative.

Big Brother 24 — For the last time, let’s open up the diary room!

Okay, everyone, for the final time this season, it’s time to open up the diary room!

We’re down to our final three.  Tomorrow, either Monte and Turner will be crowned the final HoH of the season and will choose who will be sitting next to him in the final two.  Then, it will be up to the jury to decide.

So, who do you want to win?

Do you vote for

MONTE

TAYLOR

or

TURNER?

Vote in the poll or in the comments below!  And then be sure to watch the show on Sunday to see who will win Big Brother 24!

Happy voting!

Big Brother 24 — Almost Over

Hi, everyone.  Just one more day to go!

The first part of the final HoH comp was won by Turner.

The second part of the final HoH comp was won by Monte.

So, part 3 — which will be on Sunday — will be between Monte and Turner.  Taylor is out of the running for the final HoH and she might be out of the running for the final two as well.  Monte and Turner both seem to be planning on taking each other, regardless of how the final HoH goes.

It all wraps up tomorrow so we’ll see what happens!

Big Brother 24 — Just To Make It Official

Hi, everyone!

No big shocks tonight but I will post it here for the record.

Tonight, Monte evicted Brittany from the Big Brother House.  That means that our final three is:

1. Monte
2. Taylor
3. Turner

As for the rest of the season:

Friday will be the dreaded flashback episode.

Sunday will be the finale.

Probably the most memorable part of tonight’s episode was when we saw Alyssa informing the jury (including Joseph) that Monte was now sleeping in Taylor’s room “every night.”  The look on Joseph’s face!

As far as the final three is concerned, I would probably put my money on Monte to win.  He’s got both Taylor and Turner planning to bring him to the final two and the jury seems to be impressed with his gameplay.

We’ll see what happens.

The Amazing Race 34.1 “Many Firsts But Don’t Be Last”

Yay!  The Amazing Race is back!

The Amazing Race is my favorite of the big three reality competition shows, largely because it’s always kept things simple.  It’s a race around the world.  If you make it to the pit stop in time, you’ll keep racing.  If you’re the last team to arrive, you may be eliminated.

Actually, forget about “may be eliminated.”  This season started with Phil Keoghan announcing that, for the first time in Race history, there would be no non-elimination legs.  So, if you’re the last team to arrive, you’re out.  That should make things interesting.  Over the past few seasons, some of my favorite teams have only remained in the race because of non-elimination legs.  Indeed, some of the best teams in the history of the race — Colin and Christie, Rob and Amber, and others — would have been eliminated early if not for the non-elimination legs.

With every leg an elimination leg, that means that teams will always have to be on top of things.  Not a second can be wasted.  Unfortunately, that lesson was lost on Aastha and Nina, the first team to be eliminated.  They seemed like nice people but I knew they were doomed as soon as they wasted several precious minutes getting directions.

The latest season of the Race started in Munich.  The 12 teams all had to complete three activities associated with Oktoberfest so that they could receive the clues to the next pit stop.  Because Aastha and Nina started out behind, there was never really any suspense over who would be eliminated but still, it was nice to have the show back.

Here’s a few thoughts on the teams:

Coming in first were Derek X and Claire, who were both on Big Brother 23.  I’m always a little bit cynical about Big Brother teams, despite the fact that those teams actually do have a fairly good track record.  (Cody and Jessica won.  Brendan and Rachel came in third twice.)  Last night, Derek and Claire seemed pretty strong.  They worked well together and there really wasn’t any question that they were going to grab the top spot.

Coming in second were newlywed Glenda and Lumumba.  Glenda is very tall and Lumumba is pretty short and that’s really all I remember about them.  Still, coming in second is a good finish so I’m sure I’ll be learning more about them over the next few episodes.

Coming in third, Quinton and Mattie.  Quinton and Mattie are this season’s former cheerleaders.

Coming in fourth, Linton and Sharik.  Every season, we get one father/daughter team and this season, it’s Linton and Sharik.  Father/daughter teams always seem to meltdown around the third or fourth leg.  We’ll see if that happens this season.

Coming in fifth, Emily and Molly.  They’re twins and …. that’s about it.

Coming in sixth, Marcus and Michael.  They’re brothers and they’re both in the military.  They didn’t make a huge impression but they do seem likable enough. 

Coming in seventh, Tim and Rex.  They’re friends who like to golf.  Rex is a former football coach.  They seem like a typical middle-of-the-pack team.

Coming in eighth, Abby and Will.  Who?  I don’t remember much about them, to be honest.  That’s the way the Amazing Race goes sometimes.  If they stick around, I’ll get to know them better.

Coming in ninth, Rich and Dom!  They’re motivational speakers.  Dom’s rainbow hair is impressive.  They seem like they could be entertaining but I get the feeling they’ll be eliminated sooner than later.

Coming in tenth, Luis and Michelle!  Michelle, like me, is a dancer so I totally want to see her do well.  Unfortunately, they struggled a bit last night.  I’m not sure why.  They seem like they should be a strong team so I’m going to guess last night’s ten place finish was a fluke.

Coming in eleventh, Aubrey and David!  Yay!  More dancers!  That said, I’m going to need all of my dancers to finish a bit more strongly as the race continues.

And finally, coming in twelfth, Aastha and Nina.  They fell behind early and never really caught up.

As of now, I am rooting for the dancers, Luis & Michelle and Aubrey & David.  I wasn’t really a huge Claire or Derek fan when they were on Big Brother but they seem like they’re going to do well on the Race.

We’ll see what happens next week!

Survivor 43.1 “LIVIN”

Well, CBS certainly isn’t wasting any time.  With Big Brother not even finished yet, we’ve started not only a new season of Survivor but also a new season of The Amazing Race.  Technically, I’m happy about that because I actually prefer those two shows to Big Brother.  But, as a blogger who usually enjoys having a few weeks off after the end of Big Brother, I’m not looking forward to the exhaustion of trying to keep up with all this.

But I’ll live!  Let’s talk about last night’s episode of Survivor.

We’re back on Fiji.  That’s fine, as Fiji is a lovely location and obviously, there’s still a lot of places that the show can’t film because of the pandemic restrictions.  That said, I associate Fiji with a lot of bad twists and, unfortunately, it looks like a lot of those twists are going to be repeated this season.

Once again, we’re starting out with three tribes.  The problem with three tribes is that, inevitably, one tribe is always significantly weaker than the other two and that tribe spends so much time at tribal council that we don’t really get to know the other two tribes until the merge happens.  Survivor has always been more interesting when it’s a big tribe.  The smaller tribe group dynamics are always more predictable.

Once again, we’re doing the stupid summit twist, with people losing their votes and getting weird idols and all the rest of that stuff.  Trying to keep track of all that is another thing that makes it difficult to get to know all of the players.  Instead of really getting a feeling for what a player is capable of, the game instead becomes about who has an idol and who still has their vote.

The shot in the dark is back.  The most useless twist of all time is back.

The premiere was once again heavy on tragic backstories.  To me, the beauty of old school Survivor was that nothing mattered beyond what the players did on the beach.  I don’t need to know whose these people are back in the real world and I kind of resent the idea that anyone “deserves” the money more than someone else.  Everyone has a good reason for wanting or needing more money.  Save the sob stories for American Idol.

On the positive side:

After having to endure two seasons of the new hyperactive, obnoxiously positive Jeff Probst, it was nice to see Jeff acting like his old sarcastic self last night.

Survivor still comes up with the best challenges, ones that reward not only brawn but also brains.  It’s always fun to watch some tribe totally rip through the physical part of the challenge just to fall apart because they can’t figure out how to solve a relatively simple puzzle.

I liked the twist of two of the tribes having to pick either “savvy” or “sweat” in order to get their supplies.  This was the sort of thing that had the potential to both help tribes bond and to also stir up some trouble if they failed.  Luckily, both tribes succeeded.

The castaways, for the most part, seem like they’ll be an interesting bunch.  They’re likable enough to watch but I also don’t think I’ll be sad to see any of them voted off.  Last season, it was so obvious that Maryanne was getting the winners edit that the show itself was kind of anticlimactic.  Nobody seems like an early favorite this season.

Here are your tribes.  Some of these people made a definite impression on me and some didn’t.  It’s early in the game.

Baka Tribe

Morriah — Morriah’s a teacher and watching her last night, I could very easily imagine her teaching a class.  Unfortunately, her Survivor students were a bit more unruly than her real-life students.

Mike Gabler — He’s the hard-working old guy who gets way too emotional about stuff.  Really, he should have been voted out last night but I think the members of the tribe like him on a personal level.

Owen — Owen seems like he could be a strong player.  Morriah and Sami’s attempt to blindside him failed spectacularly so the tribe has obviously decided that they want him around.

Sami — Sami is a 19 year-old pet cremator who seem to be this season’s villain.  He annoyed me a bit last night.  His job creeps me out.

Ellie 

Jeanine

Vesi Tribe

Cody — Cody is a a surfer and a salesman and seems like he’s going to end up coming on way too hard and way too fast.

Justine — Justine is being set up as this year’s manipulator.  We’ll see how that works.

Nneke — Nneke is a pharmacist.  She jumped right into an alliance with Cody and Jesse, which I think could be her downfall as Cody seems like he’s going to make enemies.

Noelle — Noelle is a Paralympian.  She has an inspiring story but there’s no way any smart player would allow her anywhere near the final four.  

Jesse

Dwight — Dwight lost his vote at the summit so, whenever this tribe goes to their first tribal council, he won’t be able to vote.  Unfortunately, Dwight also lied about what happened at the summit and it’s pretty obvious that the members of his tribe didn’t believe him.

Coco Tribe

Geo

Lindsay — Lindsay is a nurse and I have a feeling she’s going to have a meltdown on the island.  She seems to be a bit too tightly wound.

Cassidy

Karla — Karla seems like she’s in a pretty good position.  She’s got an early alliance going with Geo.

James

Ryan

As has become a tradition for the Fiji episodes, the tribes were instructed to pick one player to send to the summit, where they were given the challenge of either protecting their vote or trying to go for an immunity idol.  Karla, wisely, protected her vote.  Dwight took the risk and lost his vote.  Gabler took the risk and got an immunity idol that’s good for the next two tribal councils.  Proving that he’s perhaps a bit too naïve for this game, Gabler told the tribe about his immunity idol.

Baka lost the immunity challenge, largely due to Gabler’s inability to direct a ball through an obstacle course.  This led to Gabler having a breakdown on the beach and telling everyone that he wouldn’t play his idol but he would play his shot in the dark.  To be honest, I would have voted out Gabler because it’s always good to flush out an idol and I don’t know if I would want to be stuck on a tribe with someone that emotional.  Instead, Morriah and Sami tried to convince the tribe to vote out Owen.  The tribe, however, decided to vote out Morriah because she was seen as being a liability as far as physical challenges are concerned.

And that’s it for the first episode.  I’m just happy Survivor’s back.  I complain about this show a lot but that’s just because I love it.

Morriah, the first player to be voted out of Survivor 43

 

 

Big Brother 24 — It’s To Open Up The Diary Room For Week 11!

It’s time!

The season is almost over and it’s time to select our final three! That means that it’s also time for us to open the diary room an invite you to vote for you would send home if you were Monte!

Do you vote for….

BRITTANY, the hypnotherapist

or

TURNER, the hypnotized?

Cast your vote over in the poll or in the comments below and then be sure to watch the show on Thursday to see who will be joining the jury!

Happy voting!

 

Survivor and Amazing Race Coverage Start Tomorrow!

Hi!  Just a reminder that both Survivor and The Amazing Race are starting their latest seasons tonight and I will be writing about each episode.  I will probably post my write-ups the morning after each episode airs.

As for Big Brother, it’s all over come Sunday!