The 'Race' is On and A 'Cold' Line is Drawn! Plus, 'Alias,' 'The West Wing' and Nielsen Wednesday

And they're off! The next set of 11 teams vying for a million dollars via a race around the world left the starting gates last night and headed off to Brazil. Instantly, I was excited because I knew this was a return to The Amazing Race I'm used to and love. In fact, it threw me off a little when we learned that the teams would be leaving the country in the first episode because I was thinking they would stick around for a while. Family Edition must have messed with my head. Since we don't know the teams too well yet, I'll just post some initial reactions to each of them. Also, since I'm so scrunched on space and time today, I won't be doing a recap. But, the episode recaps for The Amazing Race will return next week. In the meantime, here are my initial reactions to each of the teams:

LAKE/MICHELLE - I am NOT liking Lake at all. He's rude, demeaning and refuses to read the clues thoroughly (and then claims that he's only partially at fault when things go wrong). When he told his wife to "Shut the **** up!" I about lost it with him. Can this guy be any more obnoxious and horrible? Is he trying to channel Jonathan from Jonathan and Victoria?

DANIELLE/DANI - There isn't really much to say about a team that agrees to being called the "Double Ds" (it's a play on their names, but I think we all know the other meaning). It annoyed me that this team decided to try to use their looks and low-cut clothing to complete the Detour, so I was glad when it didn't work.

BJ/Tyler - Definitely the fun team of this edition. They don't seem to take anything too seriously, which has been working to their advantage.

RAY/YOLANDA - This is one of my favorite teams. They work very well together and they seem to have a great relationship. I'm interested to see how things develop since they have been long-distance dating their entire courtship (a staggering 5 years!).

JOHN/SCOTT - This is a fun team as well, although they did bicker a bit on the first leg. I liked that John was able to conquer his fear of flying (even lifting off in a helicopter!).

DAVE/LORI - The self-proclaimed "Geek Team" of the race. They have a very loving relationship that borders on a little too PDA for me at times, but it's nice to see a couple get along so well on this show because we usually see the opposite. Although, the race is still young. We'll check back in with them closer to the end when they're stuck in a taxi facing elimination with a driver that doesn't know where he's going.

ERIC/JEREMY - This is another team that I don't like. Yes, they're funny, but they lost so many points with me when they said that they want lots of money, but don't want to work for it. This team will forever be known to me as Team Slacker because of this proclamation.

FRAN/BARRY - This is the token "older team" that seems to have become a staple of each season. I actually like these teams, so I'm all for TAR bringing them onboard each season. They tend to prove that muscle and youth aren't the only determining factors on who succeeds in the race.

LISA/JONI - These two sisters are hysterical! The one who wet her pants had me cracking up. I want them to stay around just for the comic relief.

JOSEPH/MONICA - Better known as "MoJo" (it's a combination of the first two letters of each of their names). I (heart) this team. They remind me JonVito and Jill from several seasons back who are possibly my most favorite team ever! I have high hopes for this team. Monica has a few stress issues, but I'm hoping she can keep it together.

WANDA/DESIREE - Another one of my favorite teams so far. They work well together and they seem to be very on their game.

In the end, best friends John and Scott landed in last place and were eliminated from the race. What did you think of the premiere? Are you happy to have the real Race back? How about the teams? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.


And now we move to a more debated hot topic at the moment with last Sunday's episode of Cold Case. We finally met Lil's mystery motorcycle man, but it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. The rumblings on the Internet stretch from happiness to complete hatred regarding the storyline. It seems a line has been drawn between thinking it worked and thinking it didn't. I find myself somewhere in the middle. I was disappointed because I was hoping that this new relationship would be more of...well...a relationship. It didn't come across that way to me, though. I really wanted Ray to just kiss Lilly or something, but it never came to fruition. I'm holding out hope that we haven't seen the last of this storyline, but the actor (Brennan Elliot - see below) is not listed in the cast list for the next two episodes, so it doesn't seem too promising. I did like the way the case seemed to parallel Lilly's life, especially with the whole "Bad Boy" thing. Roween seemed to lose herself with Julious and even went as far as to agree to the robbery. Lilly seemed to do the same thing back when she first met Ray and they almost got married. Both women had a sensible side that kicked in when it needed to, and neither went through with their plans. Roween tried to help Phil, and it ended up causing her death. Lil moved on, but she obviously got back in touch with Ray recently since the two seem to have been hooking up prior to this episode, but I think she realizes that she and Ray more than likely will not end up together because their lives are just too different. Their scene in the interrogation room seemed to sum it up perfectly - she cares for him (maybe more than she's willing to accept), but she's trying to keep herself from getting close to him because she has been burned too many times. I did like the way we saw a different facet to Lilly, but she still remained within her normal perimeters. For instance, she told Scotty she needed another minute with Ray, but she also told Ray that she couldn't blow off work to hang out with him. It was a nice contrast to the "new" and "old" Lilly. We also got to see her actually happy with someone, which was something that we really didn't see with Kite. Oh, and Kathryn Morris just earned a tremendous amount of brownie points with me (As if she needed more with me - we all know I think she's fabulous!) for this tremendous transformation. She went from:

"Oh crap!" she tells Scotty after seeing Ray pull up on his Harley

To:

A smiley, flirtier Lilly

All in the course of a few steps as she said goodnight to Scotty and walked forward to meet Ray. It was also the moment when we all realized that she and Ray had a little secret thing going on. She had me fooled until the big smile in this scene, and then it was all clear. Overall, I enjoyed the episode. I just hope we haven't seen the last of this little mini-relationship between Lil and Ray.

About Last Night... Fox won the first hour of the night with American Idol, followed by CBS' NCIS and NBC's Deal or No Deal. At 9, Fox continued its dominance with the last half hour of American Idol and comedy The War at Home, followed by CBS' premiere of The Amazing Race and ABC comedies According to Jim and George Lopez. The final hour of the night went to NBC's Law & Order: SVU, followed by ABC's Boston Legal and the final hour of CBS' The Amazing Race. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - The ten remaining guys perform tonight on Fox's American Idol. NBC continues its week-long every night run of Deal or No Deal. Over on UPN, find out what some of the former contestants are doing now on America's Next Top Model: Where the Girls Are.

@9 p.m. - Fox premieres its latest comedy Free Ride at 9:30. The show follows the antics of a recent college grad who moves back home. UPN repeats an interesting episode of Veronica Mars as Veronica helps Keith determine who is haunting the bus crash victims' families.

@10 p.m. - Barbara Walters airs her annual Oscar special on ABC. Tonight, she interviews George Clooney, Patrick Dempsey, Matthew McConaughey and Mariah Carey.



QUICK CUTS

*We finally have a return date for ABC's Alias! The spy caper will return later this spring to finish its final season. The show will come back with a two-hour episode on Wednesday, April 19th, and will occupy the 8 o'clock timeslot for the run of its final episodes. ABC also announced Tuesday that current timeslot occupants, George Lopez and Freddie, will end their seasons earlier than expected to make room for Alias. Invasion, which will take a four-week break to make room for The Evidence beginning March 22nd, will also return April 19th.

*Rob Lowe is returning to NBC's The West Wing later this spring. The actor will reprise his role as speech writer Sam Seaborn for the final two episodes of the political drama. Joining Lowe for at least one of the final five episodes will be Mary-Louise Parker, Deavere Smith, Emily Proctor, Marlee Matlin, Gary Cole, Tim Matheson, Timothy Busfield and Annabeth Gish. The show will end its seven season run this spring on NBC.

*And finally, it's Nielsen Wednesday! NBC won the week in total viewers, but Fox won in the 18-49 year old group. NBC was led by its Olympic coverage, which grabbed the 4th, 5th, 8th and 10th spots. Fox was led by that ratings jauggernaut American idol, which found itself in 1st, 2nd and 7th place. Dancing with the Stars - finale(#3), Grey's Anatomy (#6) and Dancing with the Stars - Thursday (#9) rounded out the top 10. For the list of the top 20 shows from last week, click on over to USA Today.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the return of the Scrubies and a photo tour of the Veronica Mars' set! And be sure to tune in later this week and next for more on my Veronica set visit. I have plenty of pictures and stories to share with you. I also have some scoop on America's Next Top Model that I will share with you next week before the big premiere. Plus, all the latest television news!

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