"The Amazing Race": All the wrong notes
Have you always wanted to hear a crop of reality show competitors sing out of tune in poorly-pronounced German? Then it's a good thing you watched this week's "Amazing Race"!
Teams went to Vienna, Austria, during Sunday's episode, where the aforementioned laughable (and, in a few cases, pity-inducing) challenge had hopefuls channeling their inner choir boys.
Everyone has to take the train from Gdansk, Poland, to Vienna, connecting in Warsaw. Leo and Jamal and Ally and Ashley -- hereby dubbed the "Ice-ghanimals" -- get on a later train to Warsaw, but the layover is long enough that they catch up to everyone else.
For some reason, Leo and Jamal decide to lie about U-turning Brandon and Adam during last week's leg. Everyone sees right through it, and there's really no point -- you do what you have to do to stay in the race, and that's that.
After the train arrives at 6:40 a.m., teams make their way to the Vienna Opera House, where a man dressed as Rigoletto leads them up winding staircases to the costume department and hands over their next clue.
It's a Detour -- Light Brigade or Masquerade. Light Brigade requires teams to construct an elaborate crystal chandelier -- but, if they do it incorrectly, it will crash to the floor and they won't get a chance to try again. So it's not surprising that everyone chooses Masquerade -- putting on intricate decorative masks and then finding matching ones being worn by a waltzing couple.
But, teams also have the option to complete a Fast Forward -- which, the clue warns ominously, is "weather dependent." Jason and Amy decide to risk it, but the challenge involves bungee jumping off the highest structure in Vienna, and the weather is too windy for it. Amy wants to wait 10-15 minutes to see if the wind will die down, but Jason wants to get back to the Detour as quickly as possible. Finally, they go back and join everyone else at the Masquerade challenge.
Once they all picked out the correct masks, it was time for the aforementioned Road Block choir-boying. One member of each team had to learn a song in German with a vocal instructor and sing it with the Vienna Boys' Choir, being judged on correct pronunciations and musicality.
Perhaps not surprisingly, everyone does poorly, earning smirks and laughter from the young (and very talented) singers as they butcher the words, the melody, or both. No one gets it on the first try, but eventually the choir director deems each of them "acceptable" (or "pretty good") and they get their next clue -- which tells them to go to the garden maze at Schonbrunn Palace.
Nicky and Kim finish on the earlier side, and almost take Jason and Amy's taxi -- the driver takes the couple's backpacks out to let them in -- but the women decide they shouldn't mess with another team's taxi. Marie, however, has no problem doing it, or telling her punching bag of a teammate that they should lie about it later.
Jason and Amy find a new taxi fairly easily, but spot Tim and Marie's backpacks in their old cab when they get to the palace and are none too pleased about it. This leads to a very tense confrontation at the pit stop in front of a very uncomfortable Phil Keoghan.
It comes down to Tim and Danny and Ally and Ashley for last place, after both needed numerous tries to get the choir challenge right. Ultimately, it was the Oklahoma guys who finished last and were eliminated from the race.
Tell us: Are you sad to see Tim and Danny go?