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Reality Fan Forum has in fact exclusively confirmed that the duo is in the race and are listed as the noted engaged couple.

Brendon (right, green shirt) and Rachel in front of him in the hat.

Reality Fan Forum also mentions that not only did the couple want to appear on the show, they were also recruited to be apart of the cast.

And just like that, Jet and Cord catapulted from currency-confusing cowboys to leaders of the pack. On Sunday, the 10 remaining teams on the sixteenth installment of The Amazing Race traveled to Puerto Varas, Chile, for the second leg of the race, where teams struggled navigating the Chilean bus system, dressing llamas or themselves as flying condors, and running around the Weisser Family Farm searching for German baking ingredients.

Once again, mistakes abounded. Jeff and Jordan ended up going to the wrong bus station; Dan and Jordan got lost as they struggled with a manual transmission; Louie andMichael drove right past the final task and ended up 19 miles out of the way; and most teams wasted a day in one bus terminal while Jeff and Jordan, Jet and Cord, and Brent andCaite slipped away after finding a better option. When all the dust settled, Jet and Cord were triumphant while Jody andShannon had to pack for Elimination Station.

Before I crown the biggest mistake, I have to give the cowboys some love. Instead of waiting around for a direct bus, they were smart enough to look for other options. Jeff and Jordan did the same thing, but the cowboys did not rest on their laurels, patting themselves on the back with their great strategic move. They kept vigilant and pulled ahead of every other team. Once they got the lead, they never looked back. Let’s be honest: who thought Jeff and Jordan and Jet and Cord would be the two biggest threats?

I love the fact that Jeff called Jordan out for not knowing how many eggs were in a baker’s dozen! Not only was it endearing, but I’ve recently realized that many otherwise smart people do not know things that most of us take for granted. Is there really such a thing as common knowledge anymore? I quizzed a group of over-achieving high school kids a few weeks ago and was shocked at some of the answers. Who was the white guy Pocahontas had a crush on? (No, not Christopher Columbus.) Who invented the light bulb? (No, not Thomas Jefferson.) Who is Chekhov? (Really? Watch season 14 again.)

Enough suspense … the award for the mistake of the week goes to Shannon! Let me explain. There is no question Jody is the world’s coolest grandmother. I don’t know many people who can handle getting kicked in the head by a cow. She carried her own weight, is not afraid to try new things and has endurance many 30-somethings would envy. As Jody put it, the roadblock proved that septuagenarians “can do physical things.” But what I don’t understand is why — since Jody and Shannon were likely in last place — did Shannon let her grandmother do that roadblock? The one thing Jody did not have was hustle. Slow and steady does not win when you’re in last place. I’m all for proving you can do it, but when you’re hoping to avoid elimination you need to scramble, unless you’ve already resigned yourself to leaving the race. I’m not saying hustling would have made a difference, or that Shannon would have done a quicker job, but it did seem like the team as a whole never understood the urgency of being in a race. If I were Shannon, I would have told my grandmother she can prove herself on the next task! And since Louie and Michael did fall into the back of the pack, hustling could very well have made a big difference. –Victor Jih

“Everybody ready? All right. The world is waiting for you. Good luck. Travel safe. Go!” And with those iconic words from Phil Keoghan, the eleven teams in the sixteenth installment of The Amazing Race took off from downtown Los Angeles to LAX via public transportation. Their destination? Santiago, Chile, where cable-walking, a funicular, and colorful house-painting await. This season features a Big Brother crossover couple, a former Miss Teen USA contestant seeking redemption from national humiliation, and a 71-year-old grandmother out to prove that the oldest are not the slowest.

I said in my pre-season blog that decision-making under difficult circumstances will separate the winners from the losers. I swear I had no idea the opening leg would be so dominated by bad decisions! In a mistake-filled start to the competition, the truly endearing Big Brother pair Jeff and Jordan emerge victorious while — spoiler alert — high school sweethearts Dana and Adrian fail to complete the leg and are the first eliminated.

So, with so many contenders, who made the most questionable decision this week? It was not Jordan, even though she nearly purchased tickets to China instead of Chile. With so few countries in the world starting with CH, you can almost forgive that mistake. And I’ll be the first to eat my words. I didn’t think Jeff and Jordan would have what it takes to race but at least for now I was wrong. It was fun to watch Jordan ask for seats at the front of the plane, and Jeff had the best move when he got Brent and Caite to help them surge into first place at the house-painting task. What was challenging about the final task was not the painting but finding the location of the houses. As usual, the powers that be give the teams an ambiguous clue to search on “Templeman St.”, which appears to run in many different directions. Instead of running in circles themselves, Jeff gets Brent and Caite to tell them the one place they haven’t looked yet (no duh — if you haven’t found it, it’s where you haven’t looked) and leaves them in the dust.

So if it’s not Jeff and Jordan, who then? It’s not Jet and Cord, even though they decide to purchase Brazilian dollars instead of Chilean dollars. It’s not Steve and Allie, who decide to run into a random person’s house and start painting their walls. It’s not Brent and Caite, who fail to read the clue and walk instead of ride. And it’s not Dan and Jordan, who — after three seasons in a row of people losing things –lose a brush. None of these mistakes proved fatal. Rather, they taught teams some valuable lessons.

The most questionable decision belongs to Dana and Adrian. They decide Adrian should do the cable-walking task, even though he is by far the heaviest person to attempt it. This was fatal as Adrian found it increasingly impossible (with fatigue) to complete. It’s easy to criticize knowing the outcome, but as a student of the Race, the more interesting question is whether they should have known in advance that having Adrian do it was the wrong decision. Would ordinary people looking at the cable-walking task have known that being light on your feet would be more important than being strong? I honestly don’t know. The clue itself said the task called for the “balance of a cat and the courage of a lion.” I don’t think “balance of a cat” when I see Adrian, but he does have the “courage of a lion.” – Victor Jih

Popular topics this week are:
Idol:
The Top 24′s Singing Theme Is…
Chris Golightly Is Disqualified; Wants Spot He Deserves!
Who Should Replace Cowell?

Survivor
Insider Tells Parvati About Russell!
James Turns Into Asshole!

Jeff and Jordan on The Amazing Race
Episode One Discussion – Dana Finishes Task After Elimination!

Celebrity Apprentice – Starts March 14!
Early Favorites Leads To Popularity Contest?

Worst Strategic Move of the Episode Nominees

The Cowboys trading in their cash in LAX for Brazilian currency – In theory, swapping out currency ahead of time is not a bad idea. It could potentially save time while entering your destination country. There is just one key element to that choice: you must pick the right currency! Again, in theory this was a great idea – it just didn’t work out the way they planned.

Brothers Dan and Jordan talking trash so much – In a game like this you really are left to your own devices. In Big Brother, it is pretty much a given that everyone is talking trash on everyone at some point, but in this game, talking trash seems to be the last thing you want to do. I would think that it would make the other teams be very cautious of you and maybe not want to help you. Although I have to admit, they did talk trash in an extremely humorous fashion!

The father and daughter painting the inside of the house – I don’t understand why they thought that this was a good idea. The clue for the Road Block said that it was a beautification project that the city was doing. Why would the city have a beautification project for the inside of a house that hardly anyone will ever see? I just feel that they didn’t think this one through entirely. Thankfully, it wasn’t something that cost them the race.

Team Teen South Carolina not following the directions – Why did they not take the trolley thing down the mountain side? It said in the clue that they had to take the trolley thing, so I really don’t understand why they didn’t do it. I fully understand that they came to the mat in second place and this seemed to be a non-issue, but it deserved a mention because it could have caused them to be eliminated from the race. We never know just how close the racers really are to each other and this kind of mistake later on might cause their demise. I hope it was a tough lesson that they will take to heart.

The brothers also getting a time penalty – The reason this is mentioned is basically for all of the same reasons as mentioning Team Miss Teen South Carolina, above, even though the brothers had a somewhat different issue in losing the paint brush. While it is not something that caused them to be eliminated from the race, they need to be more careful in the future.

The husband/wife team not making the proper choice for the cable Road Block – This choice single-handedly caused them to lose the race. I can’t help but think that if they had chosen the wife to do the cable challenge, it would have ended a lot better for that team.

And the winner is… The husband/wife team not making the proper choice for the cable road block! This was, hands down, the worst move we saw. Like I said, it is what caused their elimination. It is for this reason above all others that I had to select it as the worst strategic choice of the episode.

Best Strategic Move of the Episode Nominees

Dan & Jordan pointing out Jeff and Jordan’s BB experience – I ask for you to metaphorically set your JJ love aside and look at this as though you were running the race, because if you were in TAR 16 and saw Jeff & Jordan there, I doubt you would just hand the race to them. This could potentially be a good strategic move because the other teams may not have had a clue that they were on BB. Letting the other teams know that Jordan & Jeff were already on Big Brother and that Jordan won might make the difference down the road of whether or not JJ are U-Turned and eliminated or not.

Jordan doing the cable challenge – Jordan stated that Jeff was afraid of heights. So her doing this challenge instead of him was a great choice. While I have no doubt that Jeff could have done the challenge, his fear may have slowed them down some.

The teams on the delayed plane switching their tickets to the Miami flight instead of keeping the Dallas flight – Once the teams who were on the first flight learned of the mechanical failure, it seemed like they hit a snag right at the beginning of their race. Thankfully, the teams realized that they had to work fast and they switched their tickets to the same flight as the other racers.

The cowboy team never giving up and gaining a ton of ground – The cowboys seemed like they had really landed at the bottom of the barrel. They exchanged their money for the wrong currency and thus were not able to board the bus. However, they remained calm under pressure and were able to overcome this obstacle and finish at the Pit Stop in a respectable position.

And the winner is… The teams switching their tickets to the Miami flight instead of keeping the Dallas flight! This move single-handedly prevented the first three teams to get to LAX from becoming the last three teams to leave LAX. If the teams had hesitated in their reaction to the mechanical failure, not only would they have missed their original flight due to mechanical problems, but they also might have missed the flight to Miami with the other teams. This could have been potentially made them many hours behind the other teams. Congratulations to them for reacting quickly and saving their positions in the race!

— aaand we’re going to post them up for you

I’ll post his comments about Jeff and Jordan first, and the entire blog after the cut.

I can’t tell much about the teams from the brief web bios, and I don’t want to prejudge anyone. But I am curious to see what kind of decision-makers Jeff and Jordan of Big Brother fame will prove to be. It’s one thing to be good at making strategic interpersonal decisions in the comfort of a gilded cage. It’s another to be able to make time-pressured, competitive decisions in completely foreign contexts. I’m very curious to see how they will fare, and I’m not singling them out because they beat my sister and me as “America’s Favorite Duo” in last year’s Fox Reality Channel Awards!

One year ago, millions of Americans watched as my sister and I, and ten other teams, lined up at the Los Alamitos Air Force Base to start our race around the world. This Sunday, a new crop of eleven teams get their chance to do the same. I’m jealous. In a new twist, the teams will start in a…

… random park in downtown Los Angeles and have to make their way to the airport as quickly as they can… taking public transportation. As one team puts it in the preview, “Who rides public transportation in L.A.?”
I remember the feeling of excitement as you line up, completely unaware of what is about to unfold or what your first destination will be. I remember stressing out because, even though I had lived in L.A. for over a decade, I had no idea where Los Alamitos was or how to get to the airport. You would think all of us would have our eyes on the prize — one million dollars — but the truth is, the one thought going through every racer’s mind has nothing to do with the prize, but, “Please, don’t let us be the first team eliminated.” No one wants that honor. Even beyond the first leg of the Race, most teams never think about winning the whole thing — just not losing that particular leg.

So what does it take to be successful on the Amazing Race? It’s part luck, it’s part savvy; it’s part life experience, it’s part having a curiosity about the world; and it’s part having a strong relationship. But in my opinion, the most important component is being able to make good decisions under bad circumstances. The Race is designed to put ordinary people in extraordinarily difficult situations of fatigue, stress, and time pressure. How you react in that artificially intense situation is both what differentiates winners from losers and what makes the show so entertaining to watch as a viewer.

I’m excited to watch this season unfold with all of you. Each week, I’m going to share my thoughts on what I think the most questionable decisions were that leg. I feel particularly qualified to talk about bad decision-making because for those of you who watched my season, you’ll probably remember me as the idiot who dragged his little sister up the mountains of Romania for four hours — nearly taking us out of the race in the third leg! A bad decision of that magnitude would normally spell disaster except we were lucky another team made an even worse decision, stranding themselves in the wrong country.

For the current racers lurking out there in cyber-land, don’t worry. This will all be in good fun. And let’s all be honest, what is fun about the Amazing Race is being able to speculate how we as viewers would react if we were in similar situations. Would we have made the same mistakes? Would we have approached certain challenges the same way? Would we have been equally confused? Of course, we get to make these decisions in the comfort of our living rooms, eating chips, and with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight. But who says life is fair?

I can’t tell much about the teams from the brief web bios, and I don’t want to prejudge anyone. But I am curious to see what kind of decision-makers Jeff and Jordan of Big Brother fame will prove to be. It’s one thing to be good at making strategic interpersonal decisions in the comfort of a gilded cage. It’s another to be able to make time-pressured, competitive decisions in completely foreign contexts. I’m very curious to see how they will fare, and I’m not singling them out because they beat my sister and me as “America’s Favorite Duo” in last year’s Fox Reality Channel Awards!

Let me know your thoughts! I always love talking about the Race and will try to answer some of your questions. Also, I have a contest with Stephen Fishbach (who writes a similar blog for this season of Survivor) to see who will get the most comments. I have to beat him in something. At some point, he has to run out of quotes from Machiavelli and Sun Tzu — don’t you think?

Victor Jih