New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Five teams remain in the competition, and that means that independent of today’s power rankings, all the duos have a 20% chance of winning a million dollars. Those still aren’t very good odds, especially for Tim & Marie. They would blow all their money on attorney fees after the ill-fated Vegas elopement celebration. Alternately, Tim would blow all his money on attorney fees for his murder trial. Or maybe not. No jury would convict someone for killing her, right?

1) Nicole & Travis

Team Doctors in Love have won half of the last six legs, including the most recent one. While there is no guarantee that they will win The Amazing Race, they have established themselves as the prohibitive favorites. Then again, past performance is not an indication of future results. Every team racing today has exactly the same odds of being eliminated tonight as they do of winning the competition. That is the humbling nature of The Amazing Race. Yes, the doctors will start tonight with a time advantage against their competitors, but if the show bunches people during the first challenge tonight, even that bit of leverage vanishes. Being the best team on The Amazing Race is a bragging right rather than a huge asset as we approach endgame.

2) Jason & Amy

My stated opinion is that there is a dramatic difference between the top two teams and the other three duos. Still, I want to stress the math again. The teams I have not mentioned are 50% more likely to win than the ones who are good at The Amazing Race. Look no further than The Fabulous Beekman Boys two seasons ago for a reminder of how anybody can win this game. For that matter, recall last season’s odd circumstances wherein Max & Katie finished first in three of the last four legs and finished second in the one they failed to win. They still didn’t win The Amazing Race because their second place result occurred during the last leg. Keeping all of the above in mind, Jason & Amy seem well positioned to win The Amazing Race if the doctors slip up along the way. The Massachusetts couple has finished in second place during consecutive legs, and five out of the last six legs. They may be the most consistent silver medalists in the history of The Amazing Race.

3) Leo & Jamal

I have to give the most irritating team this season (in a tightly contested battle with the fourth place entrants in this week’s power rankings) credit for their performance last week. Despite facing a U-Turn, the self-proclaimed Wild and Crazy Guys (wait, that’s someone else who did the shtick first) finished in fourth place. They managed this slotting in spite of their reluctance to do one of the challenges. They started it, left and did the other one, then were forced to come back and perform the task to completion. Not only were they victims of the U-Turn, they basically did two and a half detours on the same leg. They accomplished this without losing their cool, which is uncharacteristic of this particular tandem. Leo & Jamal seem more motivated than the rest of the second tier competitors so I am bumping them up to third despite my personal dislike of them.

4) Tim & Marie

Stating the obvious, Marie is a psychopath. A detailed explanation of how the woman is not in prison right now would be appreciated. She has feuded with so many people by this point in the season that I am a bit surprised nobody has tried to smother her in her sleep. I blame Tim’s lack of ambition for this. Anyway, the exes emerged victorious in their feud with their friends Nicky & Kim. I say friends because Tim played baseball with Kim’s husband, David Dejesus. He formed an alliance with her after this realization, and he held tight to it right up until his heinous witch of a partner decided she couldn’t be buddies with a pair of girls who are prettier than her. So she invented a reason for her new blood feud and the women were targeted for elimination. Marie really ought to be a Real Housewife of somewhere. She has The Bitchy down cold. I still maintain that her implosion is a certainty but I had to drop the other remaining team into last place for obvious reasons.

5) Ally & Ashley

Everything I said about the hockey dancers last week still holds. Both of the teams slotted directly above them are so combustible that I struggle to imagine either duo winning. If one of the two good teams struggles, I absolutely believe Ally & Ashley’s chemistry is such that they could pull an upset. The problem is that they have to reach the end for such a scenario to unfold. The ice queens have finished second to last in four (!) consecutive challenges. On the one hand, they seem invincible at this point as nothing short of a stake to the heart will kill them. On the other hand, people can only cheat death for so long. Based on performance thus far, Ally & Ashley are not only the worst remaining team but one of the worst ever to make the final five. On the plus side, I say again that past performance is not indicative of future results on The Amazing Race. They are just as likely to win as Nicole & Travis, which is a bit maddening.