‘The Amazing Race’ Season 31 premiere recap: Who went home in Leg 1?
The Amazing Race is back and this time it is one big reality showdown for the $1 million grand prize.
The show returned for its 31st season on Wednesday night, featuring players from Survivor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race. As a reality show guy, this season is right up my alley.
Host Phil Keoghan welcomed the 11 teams as the race kicked off in Los Angeles, California. Prior to starting the race, Phil instructed the teams to dig through a giant sand octopus and search for their first clue. As the teams found and opened their clue, they learn that they are jetting off to Tokyo, Japan.
Once in Tokyo, some of the teams are surprised to learn the signs aren’t in English. You think that they’d try to pick up on a few new languages before leaving, knowing they’d be racing around the world. Anyway, the teams must head to either Tokyo Tokyo Restaurant or ABC Lock & Security. However, they must be quick because there are a limited number of clues at each spot.
Survivor‘s Rupert and Laura were the first to get their clue and it featured the first roadblock of the season. The teams must find 12 chocolate Japanese sandals but they have to bite into it to see if it is made of wood or chocolate. The Big Brother teams had the best and the worst luck at this task. The best was Jannelle, who found the chocolate sandal on the first try, but the title of the worst belonged to Victor, who took 43 attempts before finding it.
The teams made their way to the second part of the roadblock, which saw them scale a 20-foot toy mountain to get their next clue. The only thing was the slope was very slippery. Oh, and the teams would be wearing unitards and giant wigs because of course they were! Once they completed that, it was off to meet Phil at the pitstop and the last team to check in would be eliminated.
The Amazing Race‘s Leo and Jamal, Colin and Christie, and Tyler and Korey were the first three teams to check in respectively. Big Brother‘s Rachel and Elissa were fourth followed by Amazing Race‘s Becca and Floyd in fifth.
Meanwhile, Rupert and Laura were having some real issues finding the toy mountain to complete the final challenge of the night. They wandered the park for two hours. Let that sink in, two hours! You’d think they would have asked someone for help or directions. That’s just awful.
Back at the pitstop, Big Brother‘s Nicole and Victor finished sixth and Survivor‘s Chris and Bret were seventh. The final Big Brother team of Janelle and Britney came in eighth and Survivor mean girls Corinne and Eliza came in ninth.
With just one spot left in the race and two teams remaining at the final challenge, things were getting tense. Art and JJ arrived at the toy mountain but Art was having some real trouble. He kept slipping off the mountain and his foot began to cramp up bad, so they took a four-hour penalty. This bought Rupert and Laura time to find the challenge and complete it, ensuring their spot in 10th place.
Art and JJ go to meet Phil and he tells them they have been eliminated from the race. Who would have thought that an Amazing Race team would be the first to go? Crazy!
What did you make of the episode? Tell me in the comments below!
The Amazing Race airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on CBS.