"The Amazing Race" Premiere SnapCap: And They're Off!

And they are off! The 19th season of The Amazing Race sent eleven teams of two out on a racearoundtheworld for One! Million! Dollars! I had my vodka chilled and ready to go for my own personal TAR Drinking Game. You do a shot every time someone calls their teammate “babe,” you do a shot every time someone says they can't do a task, and every time someone says they're quitting the Race you do a double shot. When Brent and Caite were Racing a few seasons back I almost died of alcohol poisoning.

Each of the teams has a pre-existing relationship, and the teams this season are:

Ernie & Cindy, engaged
Jeremy & Sandy, dating
Justin & Jennifer, siblings
Ethan & Jenna, dating couple and this season's stunt casting, as both are winners of Survivor
Amani & Marcus, married
Laurence & Zac, father/son adventurers
Andy & Tommy, pro snowboarders
Ron & Bill, domestic partners, flight attendants and designated AfterElton Bait™
Kaylani & Lisa, former Las Vegas showgirls
Liz & Marie, twins
Bill & Cathi, grandparents

This Race threw some new twists at the Racers, including a “Hazard” that only one team would have to perform. At a Los Angeles Buddhist temple, teams had to search among hundreds of umbrellas looking for one that had the letters TAI on it. Combined with the letters WANPEI above the umbrellas teams figured out they were flying to Taipei, Taiwan. Former showgirls Kaylani and Lisa were the last to find the right umbrella and incurred the Hazard. They also almost incurred an early end to their Race when Kaylani lost her passport at a gas station. Luckily a good Samaritan delivered it to her at the airport (after Tweeting about it, which makes me want to follow him) so they could join the other teams in Taiwan

Kaylani and Lisa

Once in Taipei teams had to search for an electronic billboard. The billboard was in Race colors with Chinese characters on it, but they were only told to “look up” for their next clue. The Amazing editors had endless fun inserting shots of people walking right past the billboard and one team, Bill and Cathi, went what looked like miles out of their way. The characters were the name of a Confucian temple, where teams encountered their first Roadblock, which is a task that only one member of the team may perform. Here Racers had to listen to a proverb by Confucius and recite it word-for-word to a monk to receive their next clue.

From the temple all teams except the showgirls were sent to row with a professional dragon boat team. One teammate rowed and the other banged a drum to keep time. The showgirls first had to do the Hazard, which required one of them to do an indoor bungee jump. From the dragon boats teams were directed to the first Pit Stop. Dating couple Ernie and Cindy were the first to arrive and received the “Express Pass”, which will allow them to skip a task later in the Race. Domestic partners Ron and Bill came in 8^th, toward the back of the pack but a respectable first Leg finish. Bill and Cathi, seemingly hours behind the other teams, arrived last but in another surprise twist were not Philiminated. This was the first Non-Elimination Leg and Bill and Cathi will have to perform a “Speed Bump”, an extra task only they must do, on the next Leg. In another surprise twist, Phil announced that for the first time ever the next leg would be a Double Philimination. The last two teams to arrive at the next Pit Stop will be Philiminated.

And now, the Amazing SnapCap!

BEEFCAKE: Pretty much every guy on the show is hot, including, nay, especially Phil, who can eyebrow-pop better than anyone else on Earth. Even the snowboarders, who I feared would be douchey, were presentable (although that crack about Marcus's pink shirt? Douchey). I'm hoping that the race has one of its patented underpants challenges before too many of them are Philiminated.

The snowboarders

HEART/DRAMA: Even though I knew it would probably turn up, that missing passport totally stressed me out. Two teams have gone home on previous Races after losing their travel documents, and I wouldn't put it past the Amazing producers to see someone busted out of the Race before leaving American soil. And how nice was that guy who brought her passport to the airport? It looks like we have a minimum of teams who are racing to prove their relationship is solid, always a reliable source of drama, so we may have to look elsewhere. With no Philimination we didn't get a full-on “I love my partner, I wouldn't Race with anyone else” speech, but with a double Philimination next week we'll make up for it. I could live without the manufactured drama from the various Racers who are concealing their backgrounds, especially the Survivor pair, like people aren't going to recognize you?

AFTERELTON BAIT: Domestic partners Ron and Bill ran a pretty solid leg and looked cute as buttons doing it despite the unsightly sweat stains. Still don't know which one is which, though. And it may be just me, but I'm getting a bit of a ping of the gaydar from Justin.

CHALLENGES: From the deceptively difficult Roadblock to the needle-in-haystack-plus-word-puzzle of the umbrella-opening, the challenges on the opening Leg were above average for the Race. I'm always happy when the clues aren't just “go here, do this” but actually make the teams think so the balloon billboard was great. The dragon boat racing looked dramatic but ultimately wasn't that challenging and the Hazard was nothing but a renamed Speed Bump.

TRAINWRECK QUOTIENT: While the potential for trainwrecks is always high on The Amazing Race, most of the teams managed to keep it pretty well together for the first leg. With the obvious exception of the twins who bragged about how their communication from birth would be their advantage yet couldn't stop arguing at the Roadblock and the showgirl who came close to freaking at LAX when her teammate lost her passport. Surprisingly Bill and Cathi maintained their cool despite wandering from one end of the city to the other looking for their clue to the temple.

What did you think of the opening Leg? Who are you rooting for?