First comment and... oh no! I'm eliminated!

---> I get mentioned in a B-Side recap!

YAY! Wait... am I eliminated too? WHAT?

Great recap, B-Side. I'm so glad the Race is back because it's my favorite. I just wish CBS had waited until Survivor was over or showed the Race and then Survivor. Hard to concentrate with two reality shows I like.
Anyhoo, I hated the surprise Philimination. That was not a needed surprise nor an interesting twist. I was afraid the Beards constant references to Allah would get annoying (just as Christians constantly mentioning God gets tiresome) but now we'll never know. No, it would have gotten annoying.
I agree that Team Karma were very sweet and I was verplempt when they were gone but at least it was at the pit stop.
The exdruggie models seem rather Jeric like. You know, a little on the fey side (not that there's anything wrong with that). I also think I heard enough about their drug addiction in this first episode. Surely, they won't continue to bring it up as the race progresses, right? Yeah, right.
I'm still trying to figure out how two guys with Korean ancestry ended up with Saxon names. Do you suppose Win/Win's parents are into Renaissance fairs?
Well, my favorite team was eliminated first but there are a couple of others I'll probably end up rooting for. Just have to see how things go.
Phil and the Race are back- does it get any better?!?

Another white boy team wins another leg of the Amazing Race...

Anyway, did anyone else get a good chuckle out of the very beginning, post de-planing as they jogged up the path to Phil with the Muslim guys leading the way - they were giving glory to Allah all the way by pointing their fingers to the big guy in the sky.

Fine.

But the teams behind them took it as though the guys were claiming, "We're Number 1!" so all the teams started praising Allah, glory be to God!

Eh... it WAS funny, I swear. Ok, if that wasn't, then someone fell down again at the very start, just as is tradition now on AR.

Go Kentucky!

Is Phil bullfighting in the no-eyebrow picture?

Not enough good looking guys on this season of AR. Actually, there are no good looking guys and too many cheerleaders and beauty queens.

I assumed the single mothers would be the first ones out, but nothing too shocking in this episode (besides the 2 damn eliminations potentially making this seasons 1 episode shorter!?). They'll probably be the next to go, although the Win's are doing much worse than I thought they would.

I guess I'm the only one to hates Kentucky, give them a few more weeks and it will be Lake and Michelle all over again, just more disgusting to look at. Looks like the CBS website had to photoshop some 'people teeth' on to Mary.

Excellent recap of an excellent show. AR is the best.

Here's another nice quote from this episode... Rob had this to say about his relationship with Kimberly: "99.9% of the time, I'm in love with this relationship. The 1% that I'm not is when we take tones with each other."

Wow, an extra .9% of love! How sweet.

Pretty much agreeance on everything B-Side.

What the eff was the point of the surprise Philimination on the very first episode. Like why bother having anyone on for 1/2 hour. Shocking for the racers, but pisses off about 99% of the viewers. And poor team Karma. Oh well, that was a big bite out of diversity this season.

Loved the hillbillies!!!! Hated that whiny one-legged girl, and her enabling boyfriend. wtf does "recently dating" mean? Hated the bickering couple. And having cheerleaders AND beauty queens is redundant, though I don't miss not having fogeys. Everyone else was alright, so far.

I don't like them, but it's hard to begrudge the white boy winners. They did figure out dastardly paving conundrum first. Though I will not be pleased if they wind up being shockingly competent like Jeric were most of last season.

Great re-cap B-Side. Not only are there too many cheerleaders /beauty queens (same thing, as far as I'm concerned), but the two most ethnically diverse and interesting pairs were gone in the first episode. The cast is already way too white bread for me. I think I'm rooting for Win/Win and Lyn/Lyn, if only for the alliteration. So, any bets on our first view of the Phil Package?

You realize that isn't a helium canister, right? It says NOS on the bottle, which is a brand for nitrous oxide used in cars. I suspect he isn't holding it because he's about to install it in his car..

L.O.V.E the Kentucky Wildcats.....

I haven't quite figured out who I will hate this season.

Maybe the hydraulics? Or the cheerleaders?

Oh hell- I'm rooting for the girl with the artificial leg. Unless she does something really nasty like kicking a puppy with that bad boy, I'd like to see her get a "leg up" (thanks J!) and put the two-legged to shame!

OK. So we all heard the Muslim dads praising Allah. But didn't I hear them say "thank God" a few times? So which is it?

I was really expecting B-side to include a count of the number of times the teams said "Thrifty" at the Seattle airport.

What the hell was up with the Thrifty?

I like the midpoint elimination. Makes 'em race harder! It makes things more intense which is exactly what both of the last two races lacked.

To Steve "besides the 2 damn eliminations potentially making this seasons 1 episode shorter!
Actually, it will not be shorter, I was saying from the beginning (surprised B-Side did not pick it up) that there were 12 teams this time (instead of 11) and that there were only 8 elimination pit-stops. Without the extra elimination, there would have been 4 teams in the final leg... and we all know there should only be 3.

With that being said (so BB of me)I really liked Team Karma and am sad to see them go already... too bad it was not Kimberob... I hate them!!!

Welp, the Indian couple were my favored team and they're gone right off the bat.

Anyhow, I agree that they needed at least one team of cute guys. The rehab'ers aren't cutting it for me.

I didn't mind the surprise Philimination. Though I think it would have been more interesting to keep the team and just take their packs.

Looking forward to a new season and your excellent recaps B-Side!

PHILDEATH/PHILPLUNGE/PHILPARKA!

First season for me, so I'll keep my comments short while I sort out a few things.

First off, kinda glad the Beards got eliminated early. Was afraid too much snark would get you in the Pope's position, J-Unit.

Second, although I ordinarily scorn chirpy, dense cheerleaders, I'm adopting them for the hell of it. Started out giving Sarah the sympathy vote, but I think she and Peter are going to be 'UUUUUGE arseholes and schemers. They're going to get a lot of mileage out of that leg, if you know what I mean.

I, too, regretted losing the amiable Indians right off the get-go, but that's the nature of these games.

Couldn't agree more that Robberley is going to be the stick in everyone's eye, with the Boyfriends close behing. Was ready to snark on the Beauty Queens until they showed they had more moxie than anticipated, so I'm kinda sorta rooting for them, too. They went about their business efficiently and cheerfully.

Can't stand the Kentuckians, sorry. Don't really know why, either, except they probably smell funny, too.

The Models are showing early promise but they remind me of a bad skit of Abercrombie and Fitch on "Mad TV", so I'm booing them, too.

In all, I look forward to a great season. Honestly, I still wouldn't be a viewer if you hadn't hooked me with "BB" and "Survivor" last year. Now TVG is must read material every day.

This first show was great, made even greater with TVG's great snark. Let's have some fun!

As a Rhode Islander, I'm ashamed of Duke and his mom jeans. The reality show powers that be have a knack for picking less than stellar representatives from our state. I give you Richard Hatch, Krisily from The Bachelor, and just for the hell of it-James Woods. Conservative tightass Elisabeth Hasselbeck also came from RI.

At least the other half of Duke's team seems like she's a sweetheart. I can root for Lauren. Dukehead needs to do something to redeem himself during this race!

I loved the mid-leg philimination. It keeps the racers guessing and forces them to give their all on every part of every leg of the race on this and future editions. Plus, I was even more thankful for the surprise philimination when it turned out the Muslim fundamentalists were out of there. I'm not singling out the Muslims, I would have felt the same whether they were Christians or Jews too. I can't stand it when people try to make the race all about their religion. And when that guy refused to touch the cheerleader I could not believe how well she took it. She should have told him he could go to his mythical hell right then and there. Also being from Birmingham, AL I cringe every time it shows Lyn and Karlyn. They are an emabarassment to my city and state and we already have enough of those without putting them on national television. All in all it was a great first ep, and I can't wait to see the rest of the race unfold.

Wow - fantastic recap B-side. You had me in tears with your "slackjaw yokel" and "Lesbian Mending Lobster". The teams ALL seem to have a bit to offer - although Dave and Mary and their phenomenal teeth have my heartstrings. I was just amazed that she persevered to climb that wall. Amazed because I NEVER could have pulled my middle age fat ass up that rope. I hope they go far. She's a trooper!
Can't wait until next week, looks like Peggyleg will be crying in the mud! AND let's hope we'll see some of that Philpackage......tada!!

I liked Team Karma a lot; so sad that they are gone. REALLY didn't like the Muslim brothers; got a huge Weaver vibe off those boys. And, yes, I do watch TAR for the pleasure of watching conflict between teams as well as enjoying the "sport" of it, but I was just not looking forward to another season of absolutely hating a team because of their pushy religious views. Like theseekercdc said, I have a short fuse when it comes to religion being shoved in people's faces; doesn't matter what religion.

But sad about the Indian couple. They seemed really great and were a potential favorite of mine.

I'm a bit ashamed to admit it, but I'm kind of excited that having the cheerleaders will drastically increase the potential "Bring It On" references. How can you go wrong with a cheerocracy? And I don't even like cheerleaders.

I'm happy that Vipul of the People was Philiminated...but only because it allows me to retain the wonderful memory of them as they are instead of possibly ruining it when they get tired and frustrated and just snap. It's tough to maintain that sweet, innocent persona if you last too long in this race.

Wow, frankly I didn't see the Muslims long enough to notice them "shoving" their religion in anyone's faces. If it's their belief not to shake hands, then so be it, no offence was intended, which was clearly apparent to the cheerleaders.

The thing that made the Weavers so awful was partly because they had specific prayers for every crappy little thing they did, which was more just plain silly, they were shockingly ignorant, but mostly the fact that they were colossal nasty hypocrites.

Didn't see any of that in the Muslims that even begins to compare to the Weavers.

Peter = SO gay.

I liked the mid-leg elimination.

Bummer that that 2 of the diverse teams were eliminated in the first ep. :(

It's gonna be a great season. *crosses fingers*

"premature Philimination?" that just sounds dirty...and NOT something I want to happen again!

I have to say, when they first introduced the teams, I thought that the Muslims and the Indians would have a great advantage over the other teams when they go to the Middle East and India (assuming they do). Now I guess we'll never know. I did like Vilpul and Arti, though. They did seem nice.

I do have to say bravo to B-side, I highly enjoyed your recap. The picture captions made me laugh so hard I think everyone in my office is now scared of me.

You can tell this season will be different just from the fact that they are going around the world, going west, instead of south then east. It's already off to a great start!

B-Side, your recap was absolutely great and had me stifling my laughter in the office.

Although the Boyfriends (hate the "Description" given to the teams), were hardly seen, I find that they look like Tweety and Sylvester.

Sorry, I'm not a fan of Coalminer and Wife. Shrill is an understatement!

And, it's so early for Lyn/Lyn to be bad talking Recently Dating. The poor girl is at a disadvantage but was able to scale a wall nonetheless. (May change my tune in a few eps.)

Wow...Peter and Sarah seem to be taking a lot of flack. Well, personally, I like them. They're my favorites, along with Duke and Lauren and Win/Win. Although Win/Win turned out to be sadly imcompetent...you'd think that being smart and buff would help you pull ahead, but apparently not...

I officially can't stand Kimberob, Lyn/Lyn and the Models. They just annoy me a lot.

~Georgia~

I'm so happy Phil & the Race is back! I didn't mind the surprise elimination though I would have liked Bilal & Sa'eed to stick around at least another leg. I was disappointed that Vipul & Arti are already out! I thought they were adorable! I have no clue who I'm rooting for now...

Excellent recap, B-Side.

Oh. My. Gawd.

I am having a Philepilepsy!
Though I was no fan of the Muslims it was sad to see them go so early. Expect the unexpected indeed! Picture me with my lower lip on the floor.

I see Phil has been taking some pointers from the Chenbot. That explains the 'Expect The Unexpected' phrase and jerky Ready-Set-GO jestures. The Phil is having a Philfunction. Ok. I'll stop.

Hated to see the Indians go too. I was so looking forward to the other contestants asking the Indians if the Muslims were out of their minds or if they are all that way.

Wow 3 minority teams on TAR. A record for any reality show. Congratulations CBS! Having 2 of the 3 teams eliminated in the first show!?! I blame the white man! Thanks CBS! LOL

My favorite teams are...uncharacteristically...

The Too Wong Foo brothers
The Fighting Hilllbilly's
and
Team Bionic Woman

Teams I can't stand:

Team Diary Of Angry Black Women
Team Cheerleaders
Team Incest Brothers or more commonly known as Team Gay
Team Dumb Blondes

Twists and turns.....a race like no other...maybe those Beards will be back...

While I feel incredibly sorry for Sarah and her short log, you signed up for the race, don't expect special treatment...furthermore, peter is gay, gay, gay and sara (missing leg or not) is extremely annoying...I wanted to turn off my tv during the detour when she was trying to help him with the pattern - SHUT UP. then when peter finally finds the cab, she runs up and says cab, cab at least 30 times...what a bugger!

Thought it was an interesting premiere.

Lyn/Lyn was annoying, harping on teams just for the heck of it.

Didn't like how Lefty was playing the handicap card so early in the game. I mean, hey, throw it out only if it really is a dire Philimination leg. Hah, get it, leg! Her recently dating boyfriend needs to face the music and come out of the closet, just like Rob.

And yet another bland, boring, male model team wins a leg.

Win squared made me wince. I know that Asians are usually pegged as the 4.0 study card carrying types, but they totally went to the opposite end with their workout bio.

The coalminer couple is growing on me - so middle America!

But then CBS disappointed me with all the models/beauty pageant queens/wactors. I guess people in those fields are more likely to be the types of self-loving idiots to parade around on TV to boost their careers. Gosh, I wish I could be one of them....

I'll miss Team Karma. The beards could grow tired, as will, doubtless, the coal miners, and the requisite "yelling couple."

I could also do without Team Zoolander, although they will certainly provide for fun addiction references for all.

What this race needs is some KAN-KO-WEE-GO!

I'm not sure if this phenomenon has truly sweeped the entire nation, but it appears as if every man in America has purchased at least three of those Old Navy t-shirts... the ones that are one solid color with a contrasting color band around the sleeves and neck opening (like the orange and blue t-shirt one of the gay guys is wearing in the pit stop photo). The gay guy wore two different color combos of this shirt just in the first episode. I just can't get away from these t-shirts... they're everywhere!

Great recap B-side. Look forward to reading em as the season goes on.

I like the fact that they are headed east first.. I also hope that the "suprises" this season include some seriously difficult challenges. Last season some of the tasks were really not too hard. This show is so much more fun when everyone is under as much pressure as possible.

the teams:

I really disliked the junkies... No real personality just harping on their past. I hope they are gone soon.

The single moms seem to be one of those teams that just wont last physically.

The HillBillies could be one of those teams that totally melts down. Her performance at the wall climb may be a preview of the meltdown.

The gay guys were just a little too much... if they settle down a bit they could be ok.

The Miss Americas could be fun to watch melt down like the last beauty queen on the race. It will be great to see em with giant zits and bad attatudes....

The chear leaders are also contenders in the quick exit contest. They did turn out to be pretty physicaly fit...

HomoPhobe and his hot daughter could be fun to watch. I thought he might be an ass, but he did a respectable job on the first leg.

I am hoping that the dullard, LA couple with relationship problems lasts a long time only because I would love to watch em suffer. Dont want em to win, but a late exit would allow both of thier inner ass holes to blosom.

I was really sad to see the Karma twins go out... They would prob been my favorite team. I didnt really care one way or the other about the Muslim guys... We will never know if they would have become a pain after a while.

Right now I am rooting for Bionic chick and the San Fran Orientals.

Did anyone else get a Myrna/shmyrna vibe of of the one legged gal? When she was climbing the wrong stairs it just reminded me of myrnas problems in egypt.

Over all it was one of the better race starts... I liked the idea of the early elemenation. too many teams just kind of dog paddle during the early legs. This will light a fire under their butts.

The premature Philimination was definately a shocker. I could imagine tv screens across America going "Whhhaaaa!!?!" when that happened. It is still way to early to pick out a favorite team, but I did like the Indian couple. They seemed like the most normal people in the race. I think the Win/Win should do ok, and part of me is cheering for the coalminer and his wife. I am from the south (yikes), and I have family like that. It's nice to see that part of the population represented on television too. All in all, it is a good cast this year. Just wish more of them were able to stick around.
But with the elimination, does this mean that the season will be shorter? Since they started with 12 teams, by knocking 2 off now they are back to their usual starting number. But they'll have to bust this out a few more times over the course of the race, so maybe there will be an early elimination on the non-elimination legs, or will they just not have as many episodes? Gosh, wish I worked at CBS so I could take a look at the Amazing Race schedule.

Hope everyone had a great PhilSummer(TM). I thought the Muslims were going to be a good team, a little Weaveresque, a little Jeric. Look, I'm no Muslim, but I think CBS was not going to let them win. Come on, a Philimination 45 minutes into it? We need more PhilWalk (TM) and less unfair Philiminations. Maybe I was the only person in America pulling for the Muslims, but now I guess I'll go for the cheerleaders. They were pretty hot and perky.

Re: the "Quack! Quack!"
Just thought I'd mention...

They were actually speaking Mandarin (or at least, to the best of their ability):

"Kuài! Kuài!" ("快! 快!")

...which translates to "Fast! Fast!"

That's everyone's Chinese lesson for the day.

When the first of the Lyn/Lyns was scaling the wall, there was a shot that looked like she was a third of the way up the wall. Then they cut back and she was really only 6 inches off the ground. Ba!

I love the Kentucky trainwreck. And in our parts, we call them "Summer Teeth." Some 'er there 'n' some ain't.

I recall seeing Sarah's story on ESPN last year when she was competing in the IronMan and I thought, "Good for you." Then the very first thing she does in the race is whip out the handicap card when boarding the plane? Ugh. Sorry, Eileen, you just lost all that respect.

I read somewhere that Phil said that there's a "pain in the ass team." I was trying to guess which one he was talking about throughout the episode and kept changing my mind.

At first I thought the Winners after seeing their watergun stunt (yeah...what the hell was that?), then I thought Petrah with their disability card (which I don't really have a problem with) and the annoying "support" he was giving her (which I do have a problem with). Now though, I'm not too sure who it is but I wouldn't be surprised if it's Kimberob. Previews for next week showed them bitching quite a bit. Can't wait.

Oh, and Sa'eed had quit his $60,000-a-year job to be on the race. "I was so sure we were going to win." Eh...not so much.

I really like the girl with one leg, but then again, I loved Rob and Amber.

The hill-people are really annoying.

"Wow, frankly I didn't see the Muslims long enough to notice them "shoving" their religion in anyone's faces.

Didn't see any of that in the Muslims that even begins to compare to the Weavers."

Chronic--I think that what people meant, and it's certainly the way I felt at the time--isn't that the Muslims were shoving their religion in our faces, it's more that we were annoyed that they will.

The Weavers were at their most insufferable when they kept praying every three minutes...well, except when they were being terribly hypocritical.

My friends and I joked "doesn't God and Jesus have anything better to do than help the Weavers find the next Detour?" It could have gone that way with the Muslims really fast....but I guess we will never know, unfortunately. I thought the premature Philimination was nasty and totally against all of the rules displayed up until now.

I didnt like the mid-race elimination. I thought it would have been better if the last team got to leave super early, like 6:30. That would have been a good twist.

I don't disagree. Like you said, we'll never know. I just thought they'd been judged too severely based on what we actually saw. That one comment about the handshaking was just plain out of line, and I was a bit surprised to see no one take exception.

For the record, I'm not a big fan of religion at all. But if they want to mention God, Allah, or whoever all the time, I'm cool with that. It's that Weaver bullsh*t of praying to pass a car, or Rolly to find the cluebox, etc etc that gets on my nerves. Being compared to hypocrites like the Weavers is quite the scathing indictment and one that should not be thrown about lightly ;-)

LOL Ronald_D (#35), I, too, miss the KAN-KO-WEE-GO, though not the Lake... I started out thinking that the Win/Win bros would do great, but here I am wondering if I should have picked them as winners. They looked buff and they are purported to be smart, so what's the deal?? Don't they know about airport regulations? I find them to be naive and a bit dim, unfortunately. I hope that impression changes as the race goes on.

More PhilPackageTM please!!

Great recap B-Side I was hurting by the time you finished just the introductions.

I absolutely loved the early Philimination. It would be great if they had the budget to cast 25 teams and you could have shows where you could eliminate people at random places not just at pit stops. There could be episodes with one, two, three eliminations or none you would never know. That would keep the racers one their toes and racing hard all the time. Since the beginning of the show there have been very few changes or surprises. They have limited the number of roadblocks that a person on the team can do, reduced the number of fast forwards and added the yield. With prospect of never knowing when you could be eliminated the teams would never be able to play (escape the bear) where really everyone is a winner as long as you don’t come in last. Another rule change should be that if a really cute team comes in last (like the beauty queens or the cheerleaders) they stay in but must race naked (well they get to keep their passports). This is just a slight change of what happens to the teams that come in last in a non-elimination leg.

I was glad the beards were eliminated not because they were Muslims but because they asked for help from God. The Weavers monopolized so much of God’s time on the Family edition that all the people praying that Katrina would not hit the gulf coast were denied their prayers.

I liked that the teams headed east first this time. You can keep them away from an English speaking country till they get to London.

Sarah is going to be very disappointed when Peter comes out of the closet.

Sarah didn’t lose a leg she never had one or a functioning one to begin with give her a break and let her milk her gimp status for all its worth. You get on the plane first but it doesn’t give you a better seat or get you off the plane first. You have probably noticed she does not have the bionic woman’s leg so she good for distance and not speed or climbing obviously.

I'm rooting for the beauty queens. I know Kandice (she is originally from GA) and she is anything but dumb. She is a straight A student at NYU and the lead rockette. I think they are going to surprise a lot of people. I also like the cheerleaders because I'm a gamecock fan and they were the captains of the cheerleading squad there! Go Gamecocks!!

"Peter promised that he'd cry when Sarah makes it over the wall, but it turns out he was just a lachrymal tease."

Awesome!

I'm from Birmingham, and I love Lyn^2. I hope they keep telling it like it is and keep racing hard and win win win.

Heck, they were in the top 4 teams for most of the leg -- until they hit the Wall.

Peter and Sarah = Team Tripod

The hillbillies, lyns x 2, and the Bickersons will all make for good TV but I doubt they will last long.

I REALLY want a relapse for team Betty Ford.