The Amazing Race has started season 25 and this writer has been watching since early in the first season. It's always great to see people run around like chickens with their heads cut off or arguing about something that doesn't really matter, but when pairs are racing for a million dollars, situations tend to get tense rather quickly. So it's time for a quick breakdown of the episode, and then it will be a breakdown of the teams. One thing that the Amazing Race did correctly this season is assign teams their own unique hashtag for the first time. That is absolutely fantastic. It will make it easier for everyone to follow or trash specific teams that make good or horrible game moves.
One key thing to note is that the winner of the initial leg of The Amazing Race no longer received a double express pass, one to use and one to share with another team, but instead got an item now dubbed "The Save." This means that it essentially counts as being saved from elimination if you come in last on a future leg. This is crucial because anyone can stumble at any time.
So, this episode started the 25th season of The Amazing Race, so they started in Times Square and even had some fans around to see the teams getting ready to start. This was unusual since they are normally in a clandestine location. They also started at night and then got route information to go to where the first race ended. That race ended at the Unisphere in Queens. Once they teams were directed to travel to JFK airport in order to catch one of two flights to St. Thomas of the Virgin Islands. From there they flew on a sea plane and went to a place where they could do some actual water and beach activities. The first of these was to climb up a rope net and then do some actual rock climbing.
Then when they reached shore, they started what was the most difficult task of the episode, which is a Road Block. If you haven't seen the show, a road block is a task that only one team member can perform, and they need to be balanced between the two people on the team. This road block gave contestants directions on where they could find some of "Blackbeard's treasure." They had a compass, a shovel, and coordinates they needed to follow to dig in the right location. This was a pretty old school compass, so many teams had absolutely no idea about how to use it. Once they completed that they were taken to the pit stop at Fort Christian. Now it's time to look at the teams and the order they completed the course in this opening leg. As a note, there was no detour on this leg of the race.
#TheDentists--Misti & Jim (1st)
This is a husband and wife team that are both Dentists. Jim said in his preview video that they were planning on being the most dominant Amazing Race Team of all time. That distinction is currently held by Rachel & Dave from season 20. They came in first on 8 of the 12 legs of the race, finishing no lower than 6th on any leg. They at least started out on the right foot, with Jim being the only person who knew how to use a compass, and showing some other contestants how to do so as well.
#CollegeSweethearts--Tim & Te Jay (2nd)
It seems like The Amazing Race has always had a homosexual team in the race. This would be this year's team. They were at the front of the pack the entire time, which is typically a good sign for a team to stay in the race for the long haul.
#TheCyclists--Kym & Alli (3rd)
These two ladies ride their bikes down the streets of New York City in between the cars. Not only is that one of the craziest things that could be done, they race that way. Adrenaline challenges will be nothing for them, but they could potentially stumble on a difficult mental challenge later on in the race.
#TheWrestlers--Brooke & Robbie (4th)
They are a dating couple, and they seem to not have a strong emotional center, because they were constantly bickering about what was happening in the race. Not about each other yet, but don't be surprised if that comes when they are somewhere that English is not commonly spoken.
#SoulSurfers--Adam & Bethany (5th)
Yes, this team has the featured Bethany Hamilton, which is someone who would be familiar after watching the movie Soul Surfer. She is missing one arm from a Shark attack from 10 years ago when she was 14 years old. They will clearly be rooted for by a majority of people because they are already familiar with her side of the pairing.
#SweetScientists--Maya & Amy (6th)
This was about as unfeatured as a team could get on a specific episode. They were hardly seen or heard throughout the episode as they are two geeky girls who are both getting their Ph.D. in Food Science.
#TheDatingCouple--Dennis & Isabelle (7th)
Wow, that was probably the worst hashtag name that any team could come up with. Dennis seemed to be freaking out whenever things were not under control. Hopefully they can calm down as they get more legs under their belt.
#MomDaughter--Shelly & Nici (8th)
This is the last team that actually found the treasure that was buried. They are both flight attendants and everyone thinks they look just like sisters. That's nice and all, but pick up the pace a little in order to get out of the bottom half.
So, just to be clear the final three teams agreed to all take a penalty if they made it to the pit stop and were not eliminated. This is a four hour penalty and they were already far behind the other teams. This is not unprecented though, as it happened in season 22 when people were trying to find clues buried in sand castles on the beach.
#TeamNashville--Keith & Whitney (9th)
Both of these people are from Survivor. CBS does this with many of their reality shows. They link people from one show to another in order to get more of a cross section of their audience.
#TheFirefighters--Michael & Scott (10th)
These two firefighers are from Boston. One of them stated he was near the Patriot Day bomb when it went off during the Boston Marathon. They seem like good guys and hopefully they can climb out of the last team still on the show.
#MiamiRealtors--Lisa & Michelle (Eliminated, 11th)
These two girls were the ones that CBS brought on that were more eye candy then much of anything else. They were near the back of the pack the entire time and then were eliminated in the run to the finish line. They stated they were bringing 12 pounds of makeup with them on the race and had poofy pink neck pillows for the plane. They wouldn't have done well in most of the foreign countries they could have visited.
That is it and there will be many more as The Amazing Race continues throughout the season.