Alas, strong season leads to an Amazing Race hiatus

Season 28, Episode 12, the finale:

China/California – The Amazing Race gets no respect.

CBS has announced its fall lineup and the Race is nowhere to be seen, its 8 p.m. Friday slot filled by a revival of MacGyver, yes MacGyver.

Matt and Dana pick up a clue in the finale 

Word from the network is that the Race, which has been renewed, will show up sometime. But when, where? It’s a mystery.

Giving the show the brushoff seems particularly offensive since the just completed Season 28 was so good. 

It had a fairly trite organizing principle – the racers were already social media sensations, thus they shared a digital bond and celebrity. 

Korey with chickens, Episode 10

However, except for constant reminders that the world is organized by hashtags, the racers' virtual lives soon took a back seat to their Amazing Race lives. And, turns out they were appealing; the challenges were tough; the scenery was sensational.

As the episodes unfolded, no team, with the possible exception of the Frisbee boys, Brody and Kurt, looked like odds-on favorites.

And the boys bit the dust in the 10^th episode, the victims of some gamesmanship by Burnie and Ashley, who, sweet justice, lost out in the 11^th episode.

That left Tyler and Korey in the favorite’s position for the three-team final. They went up against the dancers, Dana and Matt, and

Gnome, Cole and Sheri on bikes, Episode 6

Team Alabama, Sheri and Cole, a mother and son duo that grew on Race watchers as they episodes ticked by.

The finale is always a bit of a crap shoot. One bad cab driver can destroy the best of teams, just as one leap into space can freak out a contestant at a time when he/she can’t afford to freak out.

The finale's leap into space undid Tyler. He had to jump straight out and grab a clue, which would have been hard enough if he were just a

Tyler and snake, Episode 9

few feet off the ground. Alas, he was about 6 zillion stories up in the air and a bungee cord or some such strap was not enough to ease his nerves.

So it took him three tries to get the clue, which he didn’t mind that much as his leap instructor was hot. Nonetheless, valuable time was lost, and he and Korey finished in third place, guaranteeing $30 for their pool sponsors, Emily and Drew.

Sheri got the clue in two (leaps), and she and son Cole went on to a respectable, indeed a wondrous, second place.

I’ve written earlier about what a sweet surprise the Alabamans were. Never has a team flirted with disaster and still cheerfully

Camel, matt and Dana, Episode 8

survived as often as the they did. For their efforts, the canny poolsters Emily and Denny Showers receive $50.

The dancers, Dana and Matt, didn’t implode as I thought they might. Indeed, they seemed to coast to first place and the $1 million, a victory that earned $100 for their Pool backers, Team Walkworth.

In part, the dancers won was because the challenges played to their athleticism – Matt got the leap in one try. But they quickly found the hard-to-find boat in Santa Barbara, and Dana was well-prepared for the memory challenge at the end. They could not be stopped.

Speaking of stopped.

Here we are at what could be a long, long lull between Amazing Race seasons. Shame on you, CBS. 

Overheard:

Korey: His (Tyler’s) future husband is going to help him jump off a building.

Sheri: Oh my god, I don’t know if I can do it.

Korey: Throughout the race we’ve been a two-try kind of team.

Korey: OK.  Maybe we’re a three-try kind of team.

Cole: If  you’re afraid of heights, people, don’t make it to the finale of the Amazing Race.

Phil:  Eighteen cities, 10 countries and more than 27,000 miles.

Matt: We’ve always said we’d rather be passionate than boring.

Sheri: We did it with a good spirit and had a great time doing it.

Cole: Hey, we finally got a second.

Tyler: We had so much fun.

Korey: Tyler and I met in college. Even though he’s four years younger than me, I look up to him so much.

Order of finish:

1 Dana and Matt

2 Sheri and Cole

3 Tyler and Korey

Season 28, Episode 12 preview:

Indonesia/Shenzhen, China – At last, closure is upon us.

And, against all my expectations, I’m sorry to see this season end.

Sheri in search of the Eiffel Tower

I confess. To me, the premise of Season 28 smacked of desperation. Put together teams made up of millennials (mostly) who have lots of social media followers. In turn, they’ll bring their fans into the Race audience. All will be well.

Because I’m not a millennial, and because I hadn’t followed any of the YouTubers and gamers who made up the cast, I was, of course, a little huffy puffy about the whole arrangement.

But, along the way, something happened. The racers themselves emerged, for the most part, as interesting, even fun, couples.

Boll Weevil monument

Beyond, that an older (by Race standards), emotive, stay-at-home mom has stolen the show.

Yes, as we go into tonight’s finale, all eyes are on Sheri LaBrant, 45, of Enterprise, Ala., a town best known for its Boll Weevil monument.

Sheri and her son, Cole, a cheerful piece of work, have consistently placed next to last or even last (they were twice non-eliminated). Yet they have somehow survived and are among the three finalists, joining the heavily favored team of Tyler and Korey and the not-so-heavily favored team of Dana and Matt.

Team LaBrant would be back home in Alabama were it not for Sheri who, among other feats, has talked Cole across a snowy mountain pass and (last episode) shown him how to ride a motorized unicycle in the pouring rain .

Sheri and Cole unicycling

She did have trouble once changing the oil in a taxi cab, and there were times when she’s just started to cry, but, mostly, she been quick to laugh at herself even as she predicts that the end is near.

And so there Sheri and Cole were in China yucking it up in the cab on their way to the pit stop,  convinced they were doomed. Then magically, in a wonderful Amazing Race moment, they came up the

Burnie smiles; Ashley stares, at the pit stop

steps ahead of Ashley and Burnie and jumped on the check-in mat for third place, the other racers, laughing and cheering them on. It was a finish for the ages.

Why did Ashley and Burnie lose (taking poolster Allison Chanler with them)? They lost some time trying and failing to ride the unicycles. They seemed to get stuck in traffic on the way to the finish.

And maybe karma was at work, as Burnie was playing the jerk card earlier in the episode, over-thinking, over-gaming, over-talking. By the end, Ashley looked dazed, gazing at Phil with a blank, where-am-I stare. So it goes.

Korey and Tyler on the run

Who will win? Tyler and Korey keep saying they will, so probably they won’t. Dana and Matt could explode, given her short fuse. That leaves Sheri and Cole (#comebackkids) $1 million to the good. If so, I bet that Enterprise will take down the boll weevil statue and erect a monument to Sheri LaBrant, the woman who put the town on the map.

Afterthought:

Maybe CBS knew what it was doing by throwing together an all-star social media cast for Season 28. The ratings have been down some from last year, but the Race is finishing first in its time slot and doing the best with the coveted 18-49 demo. Last week, it topped Adele Live by almost a million viewers. No wonder the show has been renewed.

Overheard:

Cole: We just aren’t really up to par with these other teams.

Cole: I’ve eaten Chinese food. I’ve been to China Town in Alabama. That’s as Chinese as I’ve gotten.

Sheri: Golly, golly, this is going to be tough.

Dana (to Matt): I swear, just pee yourself.

Burnie: Tyler lied to me again.

Cole: I think my mom might be lost.

Dana: I don’t want to talk any more; I just want to hang these damn things on the wall.

Tyler: That is a smidgen.

Korey: I have my degree in smidgens.

Matt: I just want to see Phil and hear any number other than 4.

Phil: Tyler and Korey, you guys should be singing in the rain, you are team number 1.

Burnie: Where is this dam pit stop?

Cole: You never know; anything can happen with this show; it’s crazy.

Order of finish:

1 Tyler and Korey

2 Dana and Matt

3 Sheri and Cole

4 Burnie and Ashley

Who's favored now?

Season 28, Episode 11 preview

Indonesia – Four teams remain. What happens next?

All bets are off:  The favored Frisbee boys, Brodie and Kurt, are gone, thanks to some strategic gamesmanship by the other teams

Brodie and Kurt apply face cream

when Tyler and Korey, backed up by Burnie and Ashley, finessed a Double U-Turn to guarantee the lads a last place finish and a ticket home. (And out of the pool: Team Bushnell.)

The boys had said about 100 times that there was a target on their backs; turns out they were right.

Thus, a team that had taken four firsts and two seconds is gone. The only consolation is that Brodie can stop off in L.A. on his way home and meet up with Blair, a previously eliminated racer who has stolen his heart. Giggle giggle.

Cole and Sheri give directions

Sheri and Cole will survive; they always do: This mother/son team may be the weakest (on paper) ever to be this close to the finals. Or am I wrong? She’s good and it turns out he’s brave, as shown when he overcame his fear of heights to jump four stories down into the ocean and thus grab a fourth place finish, just enough, as always, to go on.

Dana and Matt will quarrel: They’re overdue. There was only one barb from Dana (“Shut up Matt, seriously, shut up”) as they stumbled into third place, Dana carrying one chicken at a time. A

Dana and Matt talk snorkel

return to their old sniping ways, rather her old sniping ways, would freshen things up.

Burnie and Ashley will take a first: They’ve finished second five times in a row. Need I say more?

Tyler and Korey will barely escape elimination: They’re streaky. They’ve won two in a row. They've been on fire with the jokes. They’re due

Tyler and Korey on a coconut run

for trouble, but not the sort of trouble that gets them the heave ho. They’re too funny to send off.

Overheard:

Ashley: We are currently the most consistent team.

Cole: No doubt we’re getting second in this leg, and by second I mean first.

Dana: A lot of the times we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot.

Tyler: They were not sarongs.

Korey: They were definitely so right.

Korey: How are we going to catch a chicken?

Tyler: Just be kind to them.

Korey: I hope it doesn’t cock-a-doodle-doo on me.

Dana:  I’m from New York, I only know how to hold chicken after it’s cooked.

Tyler: We love ‘em (Brodie and Kurt), but if we want a chance in the finals we’ve got to do it.

Brodie: Green slime everyone knows is a good luck charm.

Tyler: The fall itself was fine; landing was a little rough… My butt has never hurt that much.

Brodie: We felt like we didn’t have control.

Order of finish:

1 Tyler and Korey

2 Burnie and Ashley

3 Dana and Matt

4 Sheri and Cole

5 Brodie and Kurt