Amazing Race 31 episode 1 recap: How did Survivor teams fare in the premiere?

Survivor teams join up with Big Brother teams in invading The Amazing Race 31’s all-star teams on the race. How did our favorite teams fare in episode 1?

CBS has never really taken full advantage of their reality television lineup before. Despite having Big Brother players on Survivor and The Amazing Race (and some version of vice-versa across the platforms), nobody thought to have players from all shows compete in one place. Thankfully, The Amazing Race 31’s episode 1 is here to test the waters.

As the teams arrived at the starting line, Rupert was talking trash early about how the Survivor players would fare (while admitting Blood vs. Water didn’t go well for him and Laura). That proved true at the first challenge, with players searching for a clue in a giant sand octopus to their next location; Tokyo, Japan. Eliza and Corinne found themselves struggling early, but the airplane hunts being a small factor in the modern game, it wasn’t too much of a mitigating factor.

A lot of The Amazing Race 31 episode 1 was telling the audience of these teams’ backstories and how they operate as a duo. Early on we learned about the more iconic TAR and Big Brother teams including how the seasoned racers. However, the first Survivor explainer after the game started was Chris and Bret, talking about how Bret came out to Chris after he was voted out while throwing barbs at each other.

However, the bigger dress down was Corinne and Eliza, with Corinne explaining exactly why they’re going to be the villains of the season by showing her scathing speech to Sugar from Survivor Gabon. The two seemed to be bonding through their single lifestyles and sharp barbs at other teams, throwing insults towards Rupert, being wary of the Afghanimals’ underhanded games and throwing shade at the Reilly sisters’ lime green outfits.

When the teams arrived in Japan, the Survivor groups seemed to be lost … in translation. Finding directions for where to go was hard when nobody spoke English and the culture shock was immediate. Despite that, Rupert and Chris’ teams were the first two to find the next clue, directing them to the Edgeof Shibuya fifth floor.

Finding the building itself was a bit of a stretch, with Laura and Bret’s teams losing their clue advantage. It led to the first Roadblock of The Amazing Race; pick from a series of shoes to figure out which one was chocolate a la Japanese game shows. Only one player each would take a bite, but both would eat to a certain length of the shoe to advance and receive their next clue.

The Big Brother and Amazing Race teams had a huge leg up, with Victor and Nicole’s team going 41 failed bites deep before the fourth-place team even showed up. Chris arrived at the Roadblock in 8th place as the first Survivor team, showing just how far behind they were.

Chris took only a handful of tries before biting his teeth into a chocolate shoe, letting them leave the building and head to the second Roadblock. Both Laura and Eliza’s teams arrived at the first Roadblock at roughly the same time, while Art and JJ (the border patrol team) struggled on the streets of Tokyo.

Laura took the Roadblock patiently and unworried despite the circumstances, which could not be said of Eliza. It was a guessing game using luck rather than skill, and since Eliza and Corinne couldn’t find the Roadblock early, they were at risk of becoming the first ones out of The Amazing Race 31.

Eventually, Laura did find the shoe she needed as she and Rupert headed to their next challenge across town. This left Corinne and Eliza freaking out, as they were in a spot where they could have been in the last place at the time. However, on their 39th attempt, Eliza finally found the right shoe, although she started to cry in the cab about how they could have lost their shot.

Bret and Chris arrived at the second Roadblock where the other player had to climb up a slippery slope in order to obtain a clue to the first pit stop of the season. Bret had to go up since Chris did the other Roadblock, and he made it up to the top in a fairly quick fashion! Unfortunately, Bret didn’t know what to do when he got to the top of the slippery slope and Chris couldn’t help him without the two suffering a time penalty.

Bret got it together once he arrived at the bottom of the slide, so he struggled his way to the top again to retrieve the clue this time. He was somehow able to outmaneuver the slide over the much smaller Britney from Big Brother 12 and 14, which has to be a moral victory for the best-performing Survivor team of the premiere.

Atago Jinja was the first pit stop on The Amazing Race 31, with the Afghanimals being the first to complete the second Roadblock and take the leg. Japan was the location that took them out of the game the last time they played, so for them to win the leg and earn the Tahiti vacation was a huge redemption for them.

While the majority of other teams already arrived, Bret and Chris were happy with their 7th-place finish on the first leg of the race. Considering how the other teams fared, you know they’ll take what they can get.

The real tragedy of this premiere was that Rupert and Laura were quick to arrive at the park for their Roadblock, but Rupert wouldn’t listen to Laura’s instructions as to where to go. This caused them to get lost trying to find their next clue. In fact, Rupert’s ignorance caused them to stumble around the park for more than two hours before eventually, Laura was able to get Rupert to listen to her suggestions.

However, they were granted a gift. Art and JJ arrived at the Roadblock for Art to encounter all sorts of problems. His legs started to cramp up, he struggled to get more than a few feet up the hill and he kept falling down. Producers even had to spray that soccer healing spray to improve his legs. As such, JJ opted to take the 4-hour penalty instead, hoping Rupert and Laura would be too far behind.

Once Rupert did arrive at the Roadblock, it looked to be his last stand in the game. Knowing he and Laura would be eliminated, he instead took a slow, meandering, but steady climb to the top of the slippery slope that was their version of Mt. Fuji, securing the clue to their first pit stop. Rupert would not come last again as he did in Blood vs. Water.

Here’s where the Survivor teams fare after the first leg of The Amazing Race 31:

• Bret LaBelle and Chris Hammons: 7th place
• Eliza Orlins and Corinne Kaplan: 9th place
• Rupert and Laura Boneham: 10th place

The Survivor teams are going to have to pick up the pace if they want to start thriving, as the remaining Big Brother and Amazing Race teams are kicking their butt. Plus, with a U-Turn Vote introduced this season, they will have the upper hand knowing the social game from Survivor allowing them to influence the action.