The Amazing Race Season Premiere

The Amazing Race needed every bit of its 90 minutes for the exciting season premiere on Sunday, September 26, 2010. Eleven teams made their way in lobster boats to the spot in Gloucester, Massachusetts where host Phil Keoghan waited to greet them. As the lobster boats proceeded to shore, the eleven teams were introduced.

The Amazing Race teams consisted of:

1. Brooke and Claire, Home Shopping Network hosts and friends
2. Chad and Stephanie, dating couple from Miami, Florida. Chad hopes to propose to Stephanie on the race.
3. Katie and Rachel, beach volleyball teammates from New Jersey
4. Connor and Jonathon, Ivy League A cappella Singers
5. Kat and Nat, doctors
6. Michael and Kevin, father and son Internet sensations from Sugarland, Texas, who have made videos that millions subscribe to.
7. Nick and Vicki, tattooed dating couple from Las Vegas, Nevada who may party and drink, but who are athletic.
8. Ron and Tony, long time best friends from Los Angeles, California. Tony is a large, gentle, well-educated man.
9. Jill and Thomas, dating couple from Marina Del Rey, California. Jill is a hairstylist, and she wants to prove to Thomas that sometimes she's right, too.
10. Gary and Mallory, father and daughter from Kentucky. She's the reigning Miss Kentucky 2009, and she and her father like to hunt, fish and shoot together.
11. Andie and Jenna, mother and daughter recently reunited after Jenna's adoption at birth.

When all had arrived, Phil let the teams know that this would be the most grueling season ever on Amazing Race. Therefore, the prize for winning the first leg of the race would be something brand new and very special. The team that got to the pit stop first on the very first leg would receive an Express Pass. The team that won this pass would be able to use it before or during any task up to the 8th out of 12 pit stops to just skip that task and go to the next one. All the teams appeared to grasp the significance of such a pass and were determined to win it.

The teams all got in the cute little smart cars waiting for them and took off for Logan Airport to fly to London, England, having been warned that only the first three teams would be on the first flight, which left half an hour before the second flight. From London they must proceed to Stonehenge. Ron and Tony use a compass, saying that navigation is their strong suite. Stephanie mentions having seen Stonehenge - on television, that is. Thomas is just happy to be going to London since "they speak English there." Vicki had never heard of Stonehenge, but someone told her it was "a bunch of rocks."

Connor and Jonathon get lost going to the airport and hope they'll actually make it out of America before they are eliminated, but most of the teams find the airport . Ron and Tony are the first team on the first flight, and Jill and Thomas are second. Chad and Stephanie got mixed up and waited in the wrong line, but an airport employee set them straight, and they managed to beat Rachel and Katie to the line, snagging the third spot. Everyone else was on the second flight.

At the airport, everyone began introducing themselves, and began nicknaming teams immediately. When Connor and Jonathon arrived, they were tagged "Team Glee," with Jonathon being pegged as a Harry Potter look-alike. They were immediately mobbed by blond girls on the various teams, greeting them, although later one of the girls called them nerds. Mallory, the perky, blond, is dubbed "Sunshine," which seems to tickle her immensely. Stephanie is called "Tinkerbell" due to her cute, pixie haircut, and Andie and Jenna were referred to as "Gilmore Girls," after the popular t.v. show of the same name.

When the teams arrive in London, they have a hard time remembering to drive on the "wrong" side of the car. Claire did fine and the others figured it out, all except Andie, who stripped the gears and ended up sitting in rush hour traffic getting honked at before she finally remembered to let off the clutch. Kat helped Nat, who is diabetic, check her sugar. It was well over 300, which didn't seem to worry either of them.

Nat and Kat, the doctors, were the first team to Stonehenge. Their clue was to find "the opposite of Nor'Easter. Eastnor Castle was their destination, and the teams did not have an easy time finding it, what with driving on the wrong side of the road, quaint accents, roundabouts and stick shifts on the left. Rachel couldn't navigate the hill, and when Katie got out to push, she suddenly got it in gear and zoomed off, leaving Katie to run up the hill after her. Ron and Tony got very lost and began traveling in the wrong direction, while Mallory and Gary got a flat tire just as they pulled in to a gas station for directions. Connor and Jonathon, who had planned to work with them, drove off, leaving a disgruntled Mallory gamely trying to help her father change the tire. This was not, she said, the way she pictured her day in the English countryside.

Jill and Thomas made it to Eastnor Castle first. The teams had to climb a wide, wooden ladder while "peasants" yelled angrily and threw muddy water all over them repeatedly. Once they reached the top, they had to grab a flag from the battlements, and find the boats on the lakeside, then paddle across, using ropes to guide them. The boats turned out to be tiny, round coracles, and the teams found they had a very hard time balancing. Team after team capsized or slowly sank time and time again before they figured out the hang of it. Each time they had to go back to the beginning and try again. Jill and Thomas were the first to figure out the slow, steady balance required to navigate all the way across. Once they were over, they had to find a lot of knights jousting in a tournament. One team member had to find the horse with the colors of their flag and ride with the knight to their next task.

Meanwhile, Ron and Tony are still driving in the opposite direction, while Andie and Jenna are trying to find Norwest Castle instead of Eastnor. Other teams are having a great deal of trouble with the coracles. Chad and Stephanie, who had planned to "crush the competition" took more than 12 tries to make it across. Nick and Vicki, who had a very difficult time finding the castle, finally got to the top of the wall, only to puzzle over what a battlement was. They went around asking peasants if they were battlements, so they could get their flag. Once they finally got it, they followed the marked path to the lake quite easily, but did not recognize the tiny, round coracles turned upside down as boats.

The teams who made it across and found their knight rode to a field of smallish catapults, like giant slingshots, where they were told to fit a watermelon in to the sling and fire it at a standing suit of armor until they knocked it all apart. Claire and Brooke were excited at first, since Claire had grown up on a ranch, but soon realized the task had little to do with that. Claire pulled and shot manfully as Brooke attempted to motivate her with focus techniques. After many, many tries, Claire's melon hit the catapult itself and slammed forcefully back toward her, exploding against her face. She fell to the ground holding her cheek and complaining that she couldn't feel her face and had the worst headache ever. Brooke calmly informed her that she'd just have to keep trying, while Claire explained that she couldn't even see straight. "Well," Brooke cooly reminded, "they don't call it the Amazing Race for nothing." Claire got back up and tried again, impressing Rachel and Katie, and hitting the armor on the second shot. She and Brooke ran toward the finish line with Claire chanting "I can't feel my face," and Brooke excitedly telling Claire how proud she was of her.

When Michael and Kevin reached the lake, they began trying to paddle over in the little coracle. They were hilarious as they made attempt after attempt, slowly sliding to one side, then the other, then sinking back down in the water. It wasn't until Mallory and Gary climbed in quickly and easily spun off across the lake as if they did this for a living, that Kevin and Michael were able to get the hang of it; even then Kevin whispered encouragement to his father all the way across. At the melon catapults, Gary calmly did the task while Mallory stood admiring the court jester, juggling while balancing on a large ball, who gave the teams their clues.

The pit stop was hidden on the very large grounds of the castle, and Chad and Stephanie wandered all around the grounds, even going in the castle at one point, totally unable to find the pit stop. Jill and Thomas find it first, winning the Express Pass! The teams after first are Nat and Kat, Claire and Brooke, Connor and Jonathon, Katie and Rachel, Mallory and Gary, Kevin and Michael, Chad and Stephanie,Andie and Jenna, and Nick and Vicki. Ron and Tony came in last and were eliminated from the race. Ron talked about what a blessing their long friendship was and what a blast it was even having this short time together on the Amazing Race.

Tune in next week when the Amazing Race teams go to Ghana in their quest for a million dollars!

Sources:

Watching The Amazing Race on CBS

CBS, The Amazing Race

Wikipedia, Coracle

Eastnor Castle website