The Amazing Race: Tenthennial Extravaganza!

Phil tells the teams that this season will be different. This season will have twists and turns, and surprises they won't expect. But do they listen? No. And yet it's true. The theme song is slightly different, they go backwards (i.e. west) for the first time, and the first team is eliminated halfway through the first leg! I know! This effectively puts the fear of Phil into these teams. Phear!

But not everything has changed. The teams still have tasks to perform, some with their own pros and cons. This week's Roadblock is one of those gross eating challenges, in which racers have to eat fish eyes - out of fish heads. Ew! And yet, the worst part of this Roadblock seems to be figuring out how to use chopsticks, because no one freaks out while doing it. If anyone were to have problems, it would be the beauty queens, but the one who does it just says it's "actually, really not that bad." Teams actually struggle more at the pit stop, because Phil decides to make them rappel up the Great Wall of China before they can check in. What happened to Phil? He's mean all of a sudden!

Anyway, here's a rundown of the teams, in order of check-in, including the two (!) eliminated:

1. Tyler and James - friends/models/former addicts: The requisite "buff young guy" team. I actually think they might be Eric and Jeremy under different names. Seriously, the only thing I can remember to tell you about them is that they called the Forbidden City "Ninjaland." Which would be an awesome theme park, but would maybe be more suited for Japan.

2. Duke and Lauren - father/daughter: Duke initially turned me off a bit, because his first interview was about his "disappointment as a father" when he looks at her (she's a lesbian and he's trying to deal with that), and then things got worse at the airport, when he joked, in response to another team's question as to whether they were dating, "I've been trying to ask her out for years." Ew. But I ended up liking them, because they're very encouraging with each other, and Lauren even teared up watching her dad scale the Great Wall. There's hope for them yet.

3. Peter and Sarah - friends/recently dating: Sarah's the one with the prosthetic leg that you've probably seen in the previews. They seem like a smart team, or, at least, smart enough to take side roads to avoid a backup on the highway while driving to the airport. But they get very stressed out when things don't go their way (including, it seems, next week).

4. Dustin and Kandice - friends/beauty queens: I can't tell them apart. They look exactly the same: same long blond hair, same eyes, same face, even, I swear. It's possible that one of them has curlier hair, but I couldn't say for certain.

5. Rob and Kimberly - dating: They yell a lot.

6. Kellie and Jamie - friends/cheerleaders: They interview at the beginning about how they could "have a conversation with a doorknob," and it turns out that it would be pretty even in terms of intelligence, because these girls are box-of-rocks dumb. They're the ones who ask Duke and Lauren if they're dating, and they go on to wonder if Muslims believe in Buddha. But as long as they're not asked to figure anything out, they might be all right.

7. Erwin and Godwin - brothers: The jury's still out on these guys. They could be fun, or they could be annoying. It was pretty funny how their water pistols got confiscated in the airport, though.

8. Tom and Terry - dating: They could be the new Guido. Their first interview is about how they don't want to be friends with anyone, but they haven't done anything specifically evil yet. I did have to laugh when they mocked the cheerleaders' clapping routine. So we'll see.

9. Lyn and Karlyn - friends/single moms: They don't like Peter and Sarah. They were rappelling for themselves and their kids. That's about all I've got.

10. David and Mary - married parents: They also argue, but not as much as Rob and Kimberly. And sure, Mary would rather hug Phil than her husband, but I think that's a pretty common reaction, so we'll let it slide.

Eliminated #1: Bilal and Sa'eed - friends/Muslims: This was a surprise, not just for how early the elimination was, but for how heavily they were promoted as the first Muslim team to run the race. Every other team said how nice they were, so we'll trust them, because they spent more time with these guys than we did.

Eliminated #2: Vipul and Arti - married: This was a heartbreaker. We didn't see much of them, but they were really sweet with each other, even when things weren't going well, and that's always an attitude that I like to see on the race.