Yay TAR! I only caught the end, stupid tar with its changing name, but the cast looks like it should be super fun!

Does Carla from Top Chef live in D.C.? If so, I think she might be at my Starbucks right now.

Shout out "hootie" and see.

WHAT MEGAN SAID.

agreed.

she does live in the DC area.

I agree - she is from the DC area.

I had stopped watching Top Chef by the time she was on, but I'm just saying. Pretty strong resemblance.

Carla sighting? So cool!

I'm so happy that TAR is back I just don't even know. And so far the only people I am completely unhappy with are Margie and Luke. I barely remember Amanda and Chris (but I'm down for anytime I can hear Phil say "Amanda") and I wasn't in love with the cheerleaders, but they weren't terrible. And there are so many people back to love. The Cowboys and Justin and Zev and Flight Time and Big Easy and Kent and Vixen. Heck, I was even mostly glad to see Jen and Kisha back and the Cristina part of Ron and Cristina at least. And actual challenges that are not just "Go here. Do this. Now get in this car and drive." Good times.

AI: Has been so, so good. I think adding SYTYCD Vegas round onto the end of Hollywood Week and making the kids do a second Group Night with an imposed Beatles theme is some kind of evil genius. There are still too many 16 and unders, but there are also some kids to like. And I'm still loving the crazy of Steven Tyler and JLo is quite a good judge (and the bitch looks FABULOUS!). I hope they can keep it up.

ANTM: As long as ALT is down, I'm down. I'm not ride or die for Tyra like I am for AI, but ANTM still provides enough fun brain candy to make it worth space on my DVR. Plus, I've seen pictures of Nigel all over fashion week with hair and he looks straight up busted and insane and I'm so praying that either ALT or one of the Jays will tell him something about himself should he choose to show up on set rocking that ill advised peach fuzz on his head.

TAR: Yay, teams!

Loved that there was a totally accidental (passenger heart attack? OK, that wasn't so good) reversal on the flights because no matter how competent teams are, chance plays a big part, too.

Mallory grew on me through the last season, so her confusion on the non-finish mat was pure comedy gold.

Jet lag must be hitting a bunch of the teams hard -- I can't believe so many of them ran off without having translated all the flags (aside from the teams that combined their messages and got them screwed up). It's the only explanation why the cowboys are so far behind, though perhaps there's a bunch of editing also at play....

Here's hoping Keisha and Jen took lots of swimming lessons before they took on this season. And all the teams brushed up on their stick shift driving.

All teams being of proven competence should make for some close finishes, or so I hope.

I couldn't believe that pack of teams were so unfamiliar with the idiom that they couldn't make the leap once they had most of the message.

I'm not sure the cowboys have even figured out that there's a message at all yet.

Here's hoping Keisha and Jen took lots of swimming lessons before they took on this season.

Doesn't sound like it.

I love that the clues/tasks so far seem like actual challenges. I wonder if there's a similar dynamic to what we're seeing on the current Top Chef - as you say, they've all come in to this having cleared the competence bar, so the show is able to step things up to really challenge them.