Hooray for the Good Americans!

----- Amazing Race Spoiler Alert !!! ----- Congratulations to possibly the nicest and most deserving team ever to win The Amazing Race! It was a great finale that restored my faith in humanity. (Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was great to see a deserving couple win.) I'm guessing some will complain that Chip and Kim played dirty w/the yield and by deliberately misleading the "dating Christians" about which flag was correct. That's true, but what separates Chip and Kim from some of the other teams is that they never seemed to do anything just to be mean or for personal reasons. As a commenter on The Yin Blog said, they never did anything out of malice. They also showed the most enjoyment and real enthusiasm about the places they got to visit, and I think they showed the most respect for the people in those places. Whereas many of the other teams made derogatory comments about the local people or culture in different places, Chip and Kim just drank it all in with smiles and appreciation. In all, I felt like they played a positive game, a fair game. They helped other teams when they could afford to, and they didn't when they couldn't. In my book, they won fair and square. Congratulations, Chip and Kim! Kudos also to the show's writers/producers or whoever designed the final challenges and everything. The boats and flags and climbing wall and kayaking in the Phillipines was brilliant because it was all done in close quarters where teams could see each other most of the time and know when they were behind, which made for high drama and spirited competition. It makes me wonder if the game should try some new things next time around. For example, airports always cause everyone to catch up with each other; why not do less with airports and more on one island or in one city or country, leaving teams on their own to decide how to get around? Of course, Survivor is just one island, and is it just me, or is that show losing its luster—especially compared to the Amazing Race? What to say about the other teams? Apparently Colin proposed to Christie on tv this morning, and she accepted because he's supposedly really not the guy he appears to be on the show:

Guinn told co-anchor Harry Smith, "Christy and I, we have a rotten edit: I'm a raging lunatic psycho and Christy just puts up with it - which couldn't be farther from the truth. We actually have a wonderful relationship and I'd like to just state for the record that I am the luckiest man alive being with Christy."

Hey, whatever works. They did make it through seemingly happy with each other, so perhaps they're the perfect couple. And there's no doubt editing can really skew how an audience perceives someone on a show like this, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. See also: Coverage from RealityTVWorld.

Posted September 22, 2004 12:38 PM | tv land