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Did Chelsie** deserve to win? Absolutely! Was I rooting for Makensy**? Also absolutely. I was slightly turned off by Chelsie basically declaring herself practically the greatest B.B. player ever. She claimed she won when she had to. Well, she didn't win the final HOH, which is arguably the most important one to win. I was waiting to see if Julie would pull the Jeff Probst/Survivor move and ask the jury who they would have voted for if Makensy had brought Cam to the final. I can't believe it would have been anything other than 7-0 for Makensy. I thought she was gracious in defeat. **How often must each of them have to explain to people how to spell their names? Sigh...

I thought I heard at the beginning someone (Julianne?) say that, because it was hair metal night, they could add something "extra" or "special" (or something like that) to the dances. Whatever they said, my takeaway was that they weren't going to be super strict about no lifts, technique, etc. Did anyone else hear anything like that? (I almost always am multitasking while watching, so I can never trust my memory 100%.) Gene was terrible. It seemed like when his first score was high (a 9) and all the other judges had lower scores, he then overcorrected by underscoring several pairs. His scoring was all over the place and his comments were not helpful and were generally observations on each woman's looks. Yuck!

Ugh…. Tucker’s gloating. I’m so annoyed he won.

I believe so that the Islanders in the other place (Casa or the Villa, as the case may be) will immediately know who was chosen and it might stir up drama. All the girls know that Kordell is the shortest boy, for example.

Yes, to all of this! I'm frustrated with the entire season. I miss the old days with 12-hour pit stops (this season, they clearly just start each episode in the morning), with teams leaving in the order they arrived (I can't stand the bunched starts), with a clearly established amount of money for the leg (I can't even remember the last time I heard, "We have $X for this leg of the race" -- has it happened at all this season?). The rally car/map challenge was boring -- once it became clear it was about putting 9 puzzle pieces containing only lines that clearly needed to line up. Some of the attempts were pathetic. I feel like this entire season has a lot of teams with that seem to be thriving with little athletic ability and that are not mental giants! Knowing Spanish has been a huge advantage this season -- it seems pretty unfair. Part of the charm of the Amazing Race is jumping from country to country, the language and culture differences, etc., except we've pretty much had none of that this season....

I was greatly amused by Jay's sulking. Flat-out denying what everyone witnessed....including Olivia, who admitted to participating in whatever went on...was pretty ridiculous and just made him look like a liar on top of being a cheater. I was impressed by Melissa's apology to Raven (for throwing the drink at her), which seemed very genuine. Will it stop Melissa from going off on someone again? Probably not, but she did seem contrite. Berna seems like a very high maintenance friend. It was sweet to hear Tori singing Jordan's praises when it came to the greatest Challenge champion ever. And, it's interesting that the consensus seemed to be Laurel for greatest female champion ever. I think Evelyn should have been mentioned in that conversation. ETA: For a split second, when they asked Cara Maria for her thoughts, I almost thought she was going to say herself (and, legitimately, a good argument could be made that Cara Maria has performed better than Laurel). I think she just didn't want to come off as egotistical.

Despite her gratitude for the experience, Katie confirmed that she and Vince are no longer dating. “That’s what everyone wants to know,” she said in an Instagram Story Q&A on Saturday, December 9. “No. That being said, if I’m ever asked to go on reality TV to date again, please just cancel me. Three times and [it] doesn’t work out? Maybe reality TV isn’t where your husband is, just a thought.” https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/katie-thurston-ends-vince-xu-091736369.html#:~:text=Despite her gratitude for the,Q%26A on Saturday%2C December 9.

For anyone else whose DVR, like mine, cut off before the nominations were revealed: Felicia and Cirie are on the block.

What I heard them say was the last three couples were "not necessarily the bottom three," but that the final two were the bottom two.

Perhaps I'm not following the drama -- entirely possible.... I generally multitask when watching. But, what exactly was the great sin that Bergie committed against Victor? I get that Victor is embarassed that Carmen is, essentially, choosing Bergie over him (which has to be a huge blow to Victor's ego), but Bergie going to confirm with/confront Carmen about what Victor said seemed like a logical thing to do. So, if I'm following, Victor told Bergie what Carmen (allegedly) said about only being interested in a friendship with Bergie, and Bergie is (1) supposed to 100% believe Victor (who is not exactly an uninterested, neutral party in all this), and (2) never breathe a word of this to Carmen because "guy code" (or whatever)...? Oh, and (3) Bergie is supposed to feel 100% indebted to Victor and the rest of the guys for their initial coaching on how to interact with the gals? (For my money, Hannah's been giving Bergie the best advice.) In any event, while I appreciate the dramatic! need for a cliffhanger ending, I'll be floored if the result is anything other than Carmen staying. ETA: Although it would be interesting to see what Bergie would do if Carmen is dumped by the rest of the islanders. I could see him possibly leaving also, since he was willing to do so on Day 1 and therefore seems like he might have come on the show less for the "exposure" than the others.

I was out of the country until this past weekend, so I binge-watched to get caught up. I pulled up the show on Wikipedia because I kept getting "Kay Kay" and Kassy" confused. Boy, this cast seems even younger than in past years: Anna Kurdys 22 Boca Raton, Florida entered Day 1 Carmen Kocourek 22 Milwaukee, Wisconsin entered Day 2 Carsten "Bergie" Bergersen 23 Cottage Grove, Minnesota entered Day 1 Destiny Davis 27 Florissant, Missouri entered Day 1 Hannah Wright 24 Palm Springs, California entered Day 2 Harrison Luna 26 Adelaide, South Australia entered Day 4 Kassy Castillo 22 Zachary, Louisiana entered Day 1 Keenan Anunay 23 Washington, D.C. entered Day 1 Leonardo Dionicio 21 West Hartford, Connecticut entered Day 1 Marco Donatelli 22 Girard, Ohio entered Day 1 Vickala "Kay Kay" Gray 25 Palestine, Texas entered Day 1 Victor Gonzalez 28 Atlanta, Georgia entered Day 1 Jasmine Sklavanitis 24 Mount Morris, Illinois entered Day 1; dumped Day 5 I agree with others re: the red flags with respect to the "body counts" of some of the Islanders. I didn't vote, but that was a tough one. Marco and Hannah and Leonardo and Anna are immune; otherwise I probably would have been leaning towards Leonardo and Anna going, because they're probably the couple I would miss the least if they were gone. I kind of want Bergie and Carmen to stay, just to see what happens if they end up coupling.

I love Steve Zahn, but will see how I feel about him in this role as the cult leader. Loved the car chase -- especially since Gideon couldn't turn his head. The shoe fight was so juvenile, but also hysterical. I still love goofy BJ, so oblivious.

So glad the show is back! It took me a second to recognize Kristen Johnston.

Original air date 2023.06.18

Original air date 2023.06.18