The teams racing around the world

I love The Amazing Race. I have watched all the past 15 seasons (my short post on Season 15 is here) and I simply love the concept. The show could have even encouraged my travels! After a long wait (well, not really that long since the last season just ended a couple of months ago), Season 16 is finally here! However, the first two episodes made me wonder - why did the producers cast teams with questionable intelligence (trying not to be rude here). Here are the six teams which started me wondering...

Brent & Caite - Dating Models
Caite was THE former Miss Teen South Carolina who made a complete fool of herself when she tried to answer the question "Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?". You need to watch her attempting to answer to believe it. She proudly said that she will prove her intelligence in the course of the show. But guess what - she and her boyfriend received a penalty in the first episode for not reading the clue correctly (or rather, for not knowing what a "funicular" is).

Jordan & Jeff - Newly Dating
They met in another reality TV series the (U.S.) Big Brother with Jordan eventually winning it. On their first task, the teams were supposed to travel to Santiago, Chile. Jordan kept referring to Chile as China, and even requested for two tickets to China from the ticketing counter agent! Luckily the ticketing agent did not produce two tickets to Shanghai, China. In the second episode, she proudly spelt San Jose as San H-O-S-E.

Jet & Cord - Brothers / Cowboys
I wonder if those are their real names. But from the hats that they are wearing, they are definitely showing people that they are cowboys. After knowing that they are going to Chile, they exchanged their U.S. dollars for "Brazilian money" as it was the "closest" thing to "Chilean money" that the counter has to offer. Yes, they are both in South America but two countries being close to one another would not mean that they use the same currency!

Steve & Allie - Father / Daughter
The father and daughter team confidently went into a partially renovated house and painted the walls, much to the confusion and amusement of the construction workers. They realised they were in the wrong place when the construction workers could not produce a clue for them!

Louie & Michael - Detectives
Well, they tried to paint over a graffiti on a random wall, and kept insisting that their paint is the same colour as the wall.  Well, they're not the same! They also seemed to have problems with directions. Maybe they were too used to chasing cars.

Joe & Heidi - Married
They managed to irritate everyone by saving spots for their alliance Carol and Brandy. My question is this: After watching the last 15 season of the race, is forming an alliance so early in the race, and irritating everyone else a smart move? They had not shown that they would be helpful to you in anyway, and yet you would rather made everyone hate you for that. Well, based on the second episode, Carol and Brandy had definitely not proved their worth.

As for the rest of the teams, let's wait for future episodes for more memorable moments.

The first team that was eliminated was the high school sweethearts, Dana and Adrian. They were eliminated when Adrian failed to complete their first (and only) roadblock. He fell twice during the cable walk, and was unwilling to try again. Yes, I understand it could be scary (I am not sure if I would be able to complete the task), but you were in The Amazing Race. You auditioned and actually got a spot in the race. I definitely think that you owed it to yourself and your team mate to try your very best.

I guess the producers need teams with interesting personality to make the show interesting. However, I personally prefer to travelogues than the dialogues of the teams. And for that, I am patiently waiting for the next episode.

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