this is the thread where we talk breathlessly about the best TV show on North American television: THE AMAZING RACE!

Jon inexplicably says: "Can you please fetch me some water?"

dude this was the funniest exchange of the whole episode! jon was talking about how abrupt chinese is, and from there they started saying random english phrases abruptly. they were schticking.

can you say 2-hour premiere 2nite? I CAN!

You will all bow to the awesomeness of Rob and Amber, who are vying with the gay boyfriends and the mother-gay son combo for the most entertaining team. The hillbillies and the blondes aren't far behind.

A few of the teams are able to speak Spanish.

I am very sad that the hillbillies lost out, partially because of the potential entertainment factor and partially because of how evilly ironic it would have been for the POW to get cut on the very first episode. I am also intrigued that the two biggest "stories" (in-vitro Enron casualty couple and "help the troops" ex-POW) are at the back of the pack; I wonder if the producers allowed for this possibility when casting the race?

Also, imagine a celebrity Amazing Race with the proceeds going to charity! It's too bad MTV can't swing the budget to do a RW/RR Amazing Race (although they kind of had a mini-version with Battle Of The Seasons).

I love those two girls that came in first! They spoke Spanish very well, and even when they got angry at each other, they were sweeties.

That dude Rob is an ASSHATFACEJERKWAD and I hope he loses and they let his girlfriend keep going. Say "suck it up" one more time dillhole!

But they're evil! They're all kissy-kissy when things are going well, and then when they were doing the llama they showed no team spirit when it actually mattered. I suspect they're sort of a Chuck & Buck-style couple.

REAPPLY ONE CARRYING STRAPPY DEALIE

Poor Bianca-and-Loveress are going to have difficulties when they hit a non-Spanish-speaking country.

I bet the producers were bumming that the hillbillies lost.

I'm bummed that the hillbillies lost. Maybe they can drop them in a Cessna on LOST island or something! They need more fat people, so they can turn to cannibalism when the boar/rat/fish runs out!

Yeah, I hated that. It was such a "Ooh, feel sorry for me and let me win the million dollars" move.

"We'll take it."

Oh, thanks, we can all breat a sigh of relief now asshead. We were all worried you were going to refuse NOT GETTING ELIMINATED in the first round.

Deanna + (I forget her partner's name) : their CONSTANT harping on about Rob & Amber ("Robandamber are ahead of us now, where are Robandamber, we're two minutes behind Robandamber ...") is 10000000000000X more annoying than anything Rob and Amber could possibly do.

I like the out gay couple Lynn and Alex, I feel they are this year's Oswald and Danny. I loved those guys.

I like Rob and Amber. I am actually pulling for them. I was on the fence about them before, but everyone's obsession with them is pushing me towards them.

I'm happy with this season so far...There are a few times I can see liking.

Ray and Deanna are Jonathan and Victoria (from last season) waiting to happen. Ray is a bit psycho.

Definitely. The producers seem to think now that they HAVE to have this sort of a team on every season now. Unfortunately, they didn't pick a real interesting cockface this time around; he may be a monstrous jerkoff, but it's not really translating through the TV all that well -- he's coming off rather bland in fact.

- There was an eating Roadblock where the racers had to eat 4 pounds of meat; failing to do so would give you a 4 hour penalty from the arrival point of the next team at the Roadblock. Rob bailed on the task pretty quickly, then talked TWO other teams (Ray & Deana, Meredeth & Gretchen) into bailing as well, in the process ensuring at least an hour and a half lead over said bailing teams and pretty much guaranteeing that he and Amber would not be eliminated this leg.

- Lynn and Alex won the leg narrowly over Uchenna and Joyce; Uchenna out-ate Lynn on the Roadblock but U&J got lost on the way to the Pit Stop.

- Susan and Patrick continued to suck ass by first not figuring out how to get out of Santiago for an hour, then by Patrick being the second-to-last person to arrive at the Roadblock and then verge on wimping out of eating the meat.

- Patrick only ate the meat after Bianca and Debbie finally showed up and Bianca totally shamed him by chowing down so quickly that she cut a two hour lead down to something on the order of 10 minutes. Alas, it still wasn't close enough and the secret lovers (yes, that's what they are) were PHILIMINATED.