The Amazing Race Close this dialog window Streaming Options As a super fan of The Amazing Race, you’ve probably had to defend your choice to watch reality TV to naysayers a time or two (quick aside: imagine if it was your stone cold job!). Oh, I actually don’t even OWN a television, they might say to you. Suuuuper cool, bro—I guess you don’t enjoy FUN, or TRAVEL, or Phil Keoghan’s CHEST HAIR??? you might calmly retaliate. Well folks, get ready to get those defenses in high gear because reality TV just got…realit-i-er! In season 31 of The Amazing Race, it’s not just any all-star season; it’s a reality all-star showdown among contestants from the CBS trifecta of Survivor, Big Brother, and of course, The Amazing Race. And some of the teams have even double dipped in the franchise waters! I appreciate that these different competitive reality experiences bring a new layer to the way that teams are able to size each other up, and I especially appreciate a couple of Survivor villains talking about how weak and dumb other teams are and then basically getting lapped by those teams in the end. You're in Our Race Now Pictured L-R: Eliza Orlins and Corinne Kaplan on THE AMAZING RACE Wednesday, April 17 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS ÃÂÃÂ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved | Credit: Monty Brinton/CBS Ahhh, Chekhov’s villainous boasts: once only for Survivor—now featured right here, on The Amazing Race! And you know one more thing I appreciate? That this premiere just embraced the zaniness of a reality-TV-based season and had these bozos chomping down on shoes for a few hours. I mean, that was simply wild. It has to be one of the most amusing Road Blocks I’ve ever seen, and I have ever so many questions about it, but before we can get to those, we have to meet our yet to be named teams (I have taken the task upon myself for now, but am highly open to suggestions): RUPERT & LAURA (SURVIVOR), “Team Tie-Dye”: Oh Rupert, Rupert, Rupert. That presence! That voice! That omnipresent tie-dye! And now it’s all on The Amazing Race along with his incredibly kind and gentle wife Laura who also competed on Survivor: Blood vs. Water. I will note that Rupert and Laura both say in their CBS bios that “getting lost” is the thing that scares them most about traveling and…hey, facing your fears can be really healthy. JANELLE & BRITNEY (BIG BROTHER), “The BBBlondes”: I will shoot you straight from the jump and tell you that I don’t watch Big Brother so I am at something of a disadvantage in assessing these teams. But of all the Big Brother Blondes, these appear to be the BBBlondest. Janelle seems to be something of a BB legend with three seasons under her belt and Britney is like her mentee that turned on her and got her evicted in their shared season. I am into this dynamic. LEO & JAMAL (THE AMAZING RACE) “The Afghanimals”: Oh, hey fellas, it’s been too long! The hair is shorter, the egos (allegedly) toned down, but these are definitely the same spirited Afghanimals from back-to-back season 23 and 24. Now, these cousins have a daughter (Jamal) and a cat (Leo), so in addition to mature haircuts, they also now have mature motivations. NICOLE & VICTOR (BIG BROTHER), “Team Vicole”: Is it my most creative team name ever? No. But I only know what these two have told me, and that makes them seem like they deserve an adorable couple’s portmanteau. They met on their season of Big Brother where Nicole voted Victor out three times, so he didn’t vote for her to win in the end, but she won anyway, and then they fell in looooove. TYLER & KOREY (THE AMAZING RACE), “Team Torey”: That brings me to my old school fav portmanteau from the TAR social media season. Tyler has only gotten more famous (8 million YouTube subscribers!) and Korey handles all the behind-the-scenes production work for his best bud. They seem just as pleasant and hilarious as ever, but guess what else: they’re jacked now!! ! COLIN & CHRISTIE (THE AMAZING RACE), “Team Med”: Hell yeah, take it aaaaall the way back to TAR season 5 with that clip of Colin cursing out oxen: “My ox is broken, THIS IS BULLS—!” But listen here—Colin says they’re a lot less intense now. Thanks much in part to Christie’s career as a life coach, they practice regular mediation. BECCA & FLOYD (THE AMAZING RACE), “Team Fun”: Becca and Floyd are new kids on the block in this lineup, fresh from TAR season 29, but they made a big impression, didn’t they? It’s hard to believe they were strangers when they started racing and now they’ve returned as total besties. Floyd jokes that they’re dating, but nope—just regular ol’ freestyle rappin’ BFFs. ART & JJ (THE AMAZING RACE), “Team Patrol”: Art and JJ had a tough final leg in season 20 of TAR, sputtering out when they were just about to win the whole thing. JJ says they didn’t really talk about it for five years, but now they’re ready for redemption. I hope you’re not a fan of uplifting, full-circle narratives… RACHEL & ELISSA (BIG BROTHER), “SisterSister”: Oh, our girl Rachel is back, and maybe having her sister alongside her is the key to being able to root for her. After all, if Brendon isn’t there, she can’t completely lose it on him! Now, Elissa, who has only competed on one season of Big Brother, is racing this first leg in a sensible bike short and sports top. Rachel is wearing a coordinating spandex outfit that is…a dress. She ran the first leg of The Amazing Race in a short spandex dress. In an episode where people eat shoes, it is the height of lunacy. CHRIS & BRETT (SURVIVOR), “The Odd Couple”: These two! Bret the Boston cop and Chris the country lawyer might just deserve their own sitcom, but for now, we’ll have to settle for getting their clashing accents and very cute friendship in TAR bits and pieces. CORINNE & ELIZA (SURVIVOR), “Team Villain”: Hey, they called themselves villains. And then they went all in on proving it. They talked about the time Corinne accused another Survivor contestant of faking tears about her deceased father, and I honestly can’t believe sweet little sister show TAR would roll the clip, but they did. Then Corrinne and Eliza listed all the teams they saw as “easy pickings” including Victor and Nicole for seeming dumb, Rupert for being old, and Rachel and Elissa for “looking like they lost a bet.” Let’s see how they fared against them, shall we? Now it’s off to the rrrrrrace around the world, which begins in sunny L.A., where the 11 starting teams have to dig through a sand sculpture of an octopus to find their first clue. This doesn’t sound like a particularly difficult task until the teams sprint over to said octopus and it is huge and they have no guide, they just have to start digging. Dig they do, where they learn that they’re flying to TOKYO, JAPAN and being dropped off in the middle of Shibuya, home of the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing. In this completely overwhelming atmosphere, the 11 teams have to hunt for their second clue at one of two places: Tokyo Tokyo Restaurant or ABC Lock & Security. But each only hold a certain number of clues, so they have to hope they choose the right place first. In many ways, the leg is won and lost in the race to find these establishments. Most of the teams that were slow here never fully recovered. The teams that had the most success with finding the clues were the ones that immediately charged out and started asking people to help them without allowing themselves to be overwhelmed by the sheer overwhelmingness of Shibuya. (Also the teams that got to Tokyo Tokyo Restaurant first because it was much easier to find.) Once found, the clue led to the ROADBLOCK: WHO WANTS A NEW PAIR OF SHOES. This first leg featured two Roadblocks, the first of which was an absolute doozy. “Inspired by Japanese game shows that are famous for their cringe-worthy entertainment,” Phil tells us, one person from each team has to request a Japanese sandal from a room full of Japanese sandals and then bite into that sandal to see if it is made of chocolate or wood. Only 12 of the sandals in the store full of sandals are made of chocolate and they truly seem identical to the wooden sandals so there is no rhyme or reason to picking. The record for the most amount of wooden sandals bitten goes to Victor with 43 attempts, and the least goes to Janelle, who does not have to bite a single wooden sandal, she hits chocolate on her first try. It is incredible. Worse than chomping into wood though, the contestants appear to have to eat the whole chocolate shoe once they’ve found it, which is…a lot of chocolate! Especially considering the next ROADBLOCK: WHO WANTS TO CLIMB MOUNT FUJI. Phil, that jokester, briefly makes it seem like one contestant from each team is about to have to scale Japan’s tallest peak, but no—still in the tradition of a Japanese game show, they have to climb a 20-foot toy summit that’s slicked up, and holds the clue at the tippety-top on how to find the PIT STOP at ATAGO JINJA. Oh yeah, and they’ll be wearing spandex unitards and giant wigs because, why not?! The Afghanimals arrive first and it takes Leo a few slides down the summit, but he eventually figures it out. Most everyone else seems to scale right up with no problem. That includes Bret, who somehow doesn’t realize he is supposed to get the clue at the top and shouts “Alright, I’m coming down!” much to Chris’ silent dismay. Then he has to get the energy to get himself back up there. Corrinne has a bit of trouble with her clue too but luckily moves pretty quickly because—if you can believe—for all their talk about how unprepared the other teams were, Team Villain struggled through each and every part of the leg. But no one struggles more than Team Tie-Dye and Team Patrol. Rupert and Laura seem to have real directional issues, or maybe it’s context clue issues, but they wander around the park where the second Roadblock is for two hours before locating a map and finding it. It’s…unbelievable. And were it not for some rather wild circumstances, it would have lost them the game. Also hanging in the back of the pack was Team Patrol, but they made it to the summit well before Team Tie-Dye, and Art began his ascent…and Art began his ascent…and Art began his ascent…and he simply could not do it. The man tried but he was having a complete physical breakdown. He was convinced he couldn’t do it, and then his legs cramped up and he really couldn’t do it. JJ told him they’d just have to take the four-hour penalty, and for a little while, it truly seemed like Rupert and Laura could stay lost in that park for four hours. Alas… THE AFGHANIMALS: Oh, I do love a redemption arc. The last time Leo and Jamal went to Japan, they were eliminated from The Amazing Race, and this time—they won the very first leg. TEAM MED TEAM TOREY SISTERSISTER TEAM FUN TEAM VICOLE THE ODD COUPLE BBBLONDES TEAM VILLAIN TEAM TIE-DYE, Phil saying “because another team took a penalty, I’m pleased to tell you that you are team 10” sounded a liiiittle shady to me, but nothing could dampen the joy of Rupert and Laura just barely skating into the mat in a lubed up spandex suit. ELIMINATED: ART & JJ. It was a brutal end for these two, as they clearly didn’t give the performance they wanted to. But I hope they had a good time and I really hope they talk this through before five more years roll around. So what are your hopes and dreams for this season of CBS all-stars?<doc-sep>After our first non-elimination leg of the season last week, one team will definitely be ousted on Wednesday’s episode of “The Amazing Race.” Will it be lucky losers Chris Hammons and Bret LaBelle, who were saved by the NEL, or another duo? The remaining nine teams are staying put in Ho Chi Minh City for Leg 4. Chris and Bret have to complete that pesky Speed Bump on top of the regular tasks if they want to survive this week. The “Survivor” alums haven’t really adjusted to the freneticism of “Race,” so on paper it doesn’t sound good for them, but anything can happen on a new leg. The Detour options are to row a basket boat to collect an item or to build a water basket. Get all of your “up sh– creek without a paddle” jokes out now. The Roadblock is to complete a training course on a scooter, and judging by the preview, some of these guys need training wheels. SEE This week’s ‘Amazing Race’ Roadblock spins racers right round, baby and out of bounds [WATCH] And let’s not forget the piece de resistance of the episode that CBS can’t stop hyping: the taxi duel between Corinne Kaplan and Eliza Orlins, and Rachel Reilly and Elissa Slater. It’s so bad that the “Survivor” ladies “really hate” the Reilly sisters. Hail have no fury like Corinne and Eliza scorned (#sorrynotsorry). Below, check out our minute-by-minute blog of the May 8 episode. Keep refreshing for the latest updates! 9:00 p.m. – Becca and Floyd, aka Team Fun, were the winners of the last leg and are the first to depart for their next destination: Saigon. They’re heading to an area called Snow Town to partake in their next challenge with the other teams close behind. Let’s race! 9:05 p.m. – Corinne and Eliza are humiliated that “Survivor” teams aren’t better than “Big Brother” teams on this race. Will they finally be able to take one of their rivals out? When the teams reach Snow Town, they’re forced to spend the night, so we kick off the competition in the morning with everyone on even footing. Each team sleds down a snow hill to snag their next clue. 9:15 p.m. – Team Fun maintains their lead and races off to the College Transportation Center to find their next clue. Meanwhile, Chris and Bret have hit their speed bump and will have to fill a cooler full of snowballs and transport them to College Transportation Center. That doesn’t seem so hard! A rivalry is in full swing as Corinne and Eliza get into a battle for a taxi with Rachel and Elissa. Both duos are snarky and petty, wasting too much energy on each other. Perhaps it’s karma, but Corinne and Eliza’s cab driver got lost and their complaining hits a new high. Teams finally arrive at College Transportation Center and Leo and Jamal aka The Afghanimals have taken over the lead. At the Road Block, teams will have to master the skills to earn a scooter license by completing a training course. 9:20 p.m. – Jamal takes on the Road Block for the Afghanimals while Elissa hits the course in second place. Both seem to be struggling, but a handful of teams can’t even catch a cab to the destination. That might be the break Chris and Bret needed because they just finished their speed bump and are back in the race after snagging a taxi before other teams. Meanwhile, Victor and Nicole have reached the Road Block now so three teams are now competing for first place. 9:25 p.m. – Jamal finishes the course and after a tough last leg, the Afghanimals are back in first place. They’re headed to Binh Quoi Village to find their next clue. On her seventh attempt, Elissa earns her scooter licence and her and Rachel are in second place. On just his third attempt, Victor launches himself into third place and we have a race! In the back of the pack Tyler and Korey as well as Janelle and Britney still can’t get a cab. 9:30 p.m. – The Afghanimals are the first to reach the Detour, where they must paddle a basket boat to collect fish OR build an irrigation wheel under the watchful eye of a local farmer. The Afghanimals decide to build the wheel while other teams try to chase them down. Rachel and Elissa arrive at the same challenge and seem to be studying the model more than the Afghanimals did so perhaps that will help them. Meanwhile, a slew of other teams finished the scooter challenge, but Corinne/Eliza and Tyler/Korey are still struggling. 9:35 p.m. – Colin/Christie and Victor/Nicole get to the Detour and have chosen to hit the paddle boats so we’ll see which challenge looks easier. Rachel/Elissa are reconsidering their choice to build the irrigation wheel, but think their experience building toys for their kids will be a benefit to them. Back on the scooter course, Tyler/Korey have finally advanced and Corinne/Eliza are officially in last place. Eliza is in tears. Corinne is hugging her and trying to talk her off the ledge, but Eliza is a mess. 9:40 p.m. – Despite successfully completing their irrigation wheel, it’s taking the Afghanimals forever to fill their water jug. Rachel/Elissa have nearly completed their wheel, but lost one of their ties so had to go back for another. That led for some teams in the basket boats to pass them up and Victor/Nicole are now in first place heading to the Pit Stop! They’ll be heading to Tam Vu Park to meet Phil with Colin/Christie hot on their trail. The Afghanimals finally complete their challenge, but Rachel/Elissa have some structural problems and Rachel begins to panic. Elissa tells her to remain calm, Corinne/Eliza aren’t even there yet. 9:45 p.m. – It’s a foot race to the finish line, but Nicole is apparently not in running shape. After respectable finishes in each leg so far, Colin and Christie have finally come in first place. They’ve won a trip for two to the Dominican Republic. It’s been 15 years since this duo last won a leg of “The Amazing Race.” Wow! Next, Victor and Nicole claim second once again. Back at the Detour, more and more teams finish the basket boat challenge and Rachel is freaking out! 9:50 p.m. – With most teams heading to the Pit Stop, Corinne/Eliza finally arrive at the Detour. They’re relieved Rachel/Elissa at the irrigation wheel so they decide to do the basket boat challenge and attempt to pass them. This rivalry has reached a head and perhaps Rachel was right – they should have switched challenges before Corinne/Eliza arrived. 9:59 p.m. – It’s Rachel/Elissa vs. Corinne/Eliza and both teams are struggling. Rachel/Elissa are trying to fill their jug with an irrigation wheel, a task Rachel compares to “watching paint dry.” They see that Corinne/Eliza are just finishing up as well and it will be a battle to the finish line. Rachel and Elissa get their first and Rachel is in tears saying, “We are so blessed.” Corinne and Eliza are just behind them and Corinne snidely remarks, “I guess we are not #blessed.” Corinne and Eliza have been eliminated from the race. More than anything, they were disgusted they lost to Rachel and Elissa and have no interest in speaking to them ever again. Corinne/Eliza then go sob on a bridge and talk about how much they hate Rachel/Elissa. That’s a wrap! Results of Leg Four: 1. Colin & Christie (“The Amazing Race”) 2. Victor & Nicole (“Big Brother”) 3. Chris & Bret (“Survivor”) 4. Becca & Floyd (“The Amazing Race”) 5. Tyler & Korey (“The Amazing Race”) 6. Leo & Jamal (“The Amazing Race”) 7. Janelle & Britney (“Big Brother”) 8. Rachel & Elissa (“Big Brother”) 9. Corinne & Eliza (“Survivor”) SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions<doc-sep>
The Amazing Race S 31 E 4 Close this dialog window Streaming Options Well. Let it never be said that combining the CBS reality forces of Amazing Race, Survivor, and Big Brother didn’t bring a different, uh, energy to season 31. Almost uniformly, every team that exits The Amazing Race leg-by-leg, season-by-season is sad to see their experience come to an end, but proud of how hard they worked, and thankful for the places they’ve been and the people they’ve met… BUT NOT TONIGHT, PEOPLE! Fair warning, there are earlier spoilers than usual about this leg’s eliminated team ahead: Eliza and Corinne did not take their loss at the end of Wednesday’s episode with the normal grain of TAR positivity. Especially because they had to stand on the mat with second-to-last-place finishers Elissa and Rachel, whom Team Villain had declared their mortal enemies at the beginning of the leg, with plans to (gasp) unfollow them on social media, and everything. Many teams this episode seemed to note a kind of social hierarchy of the three participating series in season 31 which went, top-to-bottom: TAR, Survivor, Big Brother. Victor and Nicole themselves admitted that they want to earn their stripes as a TAR team, not just a Big Brother team, and Corinne and Eliza simply could not believe that as a Survivor team, they’re consistently beaten by Big Brother teams. But leg after leg, the teams’ original competition experience doesn’t seem to have a whole lot to do with how the rankings shake out. (For the record, O.G. TAR teams are very Don Draper about it: We don’t think about you at all.) But skill level aside, it must be said that Corinne and Eliza certainly brought their uniquely-Survivor mentality to this race: they were endlessly supportive and positive within their own team, and…that’s it. Everyone else was not only their competitor but their enemy. I can’t say I love that attitude infiltrating my TAR safe space, but for one leg of one season, sure, it was an interesting twist on the game. I mean Corinne literally said following Team Villain’s elimination and the declaration that they don’t respect themselves: “I’m not a positive person. I don’t know how to spin this.” That has to be a TAR first. Plus, it went along swimmingly with the rather overcast tone that followed most of leg 4, which remained within the overwhelming urban confines of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Team Fun were the first to take off in the pouring rain toward Snowtown, an indoor winter activity facility that didn’t open until 6:30 a.m., putting all the teams back on an even playing field. The rain may have let up a bit throughout the day, but the motorbikes most definitely did not. After sledding down a snowy hill to a polar bear holding their next clue (and sometimes directly into the person wearing the polar bear suit), the teams had to find a cab to take them to the COLLEGE TRANSPORTATION CENTRAL. Which was particularly hard because every street in Ho Chi Minh is swarming with motorbikes. But hopefully all that time spent trying to wave down taxis provided some good observation time, because that could be helpful in the next ROADBLOCK: DRIVE YOURSELF CRAZY. One member of each team must master a figure-8 motorbike course complete with speedbumps in order to earn a scooter license and their next clue. Certainly, the hardest part of the course is not being able to touch your feet down while driving through the obstacles, which seemed to be everyone’s first inclination (y’know, because of the human instinct not to want to fall over or whatever). Standouts were Colin, who I think completed the course on his first try because, as Christie tells us, he has a dirt bike he rides with their son at home. Victor was also quite good because he said his size helped weigh the bike down and keep it steady. That size discrepancy could explain why Eliza had such a difficult time getting through the course, but it mostly seemed to be nerves and a fear that she wouldn’t be able to do it from the very beginning. She did make it through though, leaping with joy as she got it on her 10th try. As for the Afghanimals and SisterSister, even though they did quite well on the motorbikes and departed the Roadblock first, they made a classic TAR error in choosing their DETOUR: IRRITATION vs. IRRIGATION.