the big train

Debuts tonight on NBC at 8:00 Eastern/7:00 Central
Will continue to air on Mondays

Hosted by Laird Hamilton

Teams

Young Professionals


Drew and Taryn are a brother and sister duo who have teamed with their childhood friend Chandra for a shot at fame and fortune. Having known each other for so long, the three don’t hold back and are very competitive. With intimate knowledge of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, these Young Professionals will either thrive under pressure…or self-destruct!


Geniuses


Charles, Francis and Sam met as students at Southern Methodist, where they all still attend college. According to their IQ ratings (and near-perfect SAT scores), the three friends qualify as geniuses. Charles is the most conservative and attends SMU on a full scholarship. Francis is witty and sarcastic and thinks he knows everything about women. But it’s Sam, half-Indian and half-Filipino, who is the self-proclaimed ladies man. Will brains beat out brawn in the hunt for the gold?


Brown Family


These three brothers used to play college football and are competitive by nature. They plan to make up for their large size by relaying on their brains, wit, humor and lifetime of playing competitive sports. They are a team of real-life treasure hunters/mystery solvers who enjoy discussing Einstein’s theories of the universe for fun.


Southie Boys


These Boston boys have a great history. Twins Matthew and Martin, both firefighters on opposite sides of the country, grew up in South Boston with their pal John. With their good looks, Irish charm and thick Boston accents, these guys seem to be able to sweet talk their ways out of any potential trouble.


Miss USA


Beauty AND brains, that’s what team Miss USA is all about. Don’t pre-judge these pageant women. Melissa was the president of her own company. Kristen has a degree in journalism. Kaitlyn is studying to be a veterinarian.


Ex-CIA


They met as CIA interns, but will their top-secret skills give the Ex-CIA team an edge? Jacob, Mark and Todd are brilliant, but also know how to have a good time and used to share a “party house.”

Computer whiz Todd is definitely the confident ringleader among the trio. Mild-mannered, opinionated Jacob is doing the Hunt for his 80-year-old parents and his nine older siblings. Mark is the self-described mediator between his outspoken teammates


Grad Students


Twins Jessica and Melissa are best friends with Kat. All three are bartenders, marathon runners and college graduates from San Diego, California. All three also happen to be gorgeous.

They’re banking on their competitors underestimating their intelligence, giving them an advantage on the Hunt.


Air Force


These dynamic Air Force officers met their first year of basic training. Matt and Brooke quickly fell in love and have been married for five years. Matthew Z. is godfather to the oldest of their two children.


Fogal Family


They look like the perfect California family. Brad, a senior pastor at the local church. His wife: blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Margie. And their daughter: cute Kayte with her casual style.


Wild Hanlons


The Wild Hanlon family is unlike any family you’ve seen on reality television. Proud mullet-wearing Pat owns a successful carpet cleaning business. Big brother Ben has a huge smile that hides his quick temper. He also has his doctorate in medical administration and is an Air Force veteran. Pat’s son Josh seems soft-spoken, but can hold his own against his dad and Uncle. Other teams might think the Hanlons are “hicks,” but they are a clever team with hearts of gold.

Perkinsun Dzees

Anybody else really pumped for this show? It looks like AMAZING RACE with a sprinkle of the DAVINCI CODE. I think this could be the best new Reality show out there.

I saw some preview clips of the show and could swear I saw Jaime Pressly and Lisa Kudrow (though Kudrow looked a lot hotter than usual) competing on the Miss USA team. If so, then I'm rooting for them.

The Geniuses will prolly take it all. I mean, with a name like the Geniuses, how could they not? They've gotta be the smartest guys on the show, right?

FinkPish

You just got beat: http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=469135

Perkinsun Dzees

That's just a poll about who's gonna get eliminated in the first episode.

This is a real thread, baby!

Goldberg74

I wasn't planning on watching this, but after reading the descriptions of the teams. I might.

illini420

Ok, I'll only say this because it happened on the Amazing Race family edition last season, but come on, do they intentionally cast african-americans that are named "Brown"? I guess technically the Amazing Race family was the "Black" family. Anyone?

DJariya

Although this totally looks like an Amazing Race rip-off, I will definitely try it. Need something to add to Monday nights besides The Closer.

Stillwater

The show is okay so far. A little too-Amazing Race-ish, but it has potential as the cast gets thinned out.

SunMonkey

The online component of it sure is buggy. The game keeps looping and will not let me get very far into it.

So far the show seems pretty slow, but it's only been a half hour....

BDB

is it in HD?

cdollaz

The editing sucks.

redtornado

The first show was alright. Didn't blow me away, but kept me interested. I'll probably keep watching it.

And, yeah, one of those Miss USA girls is a dead ringer for Jaime Pressley -- but even better looking. She is way hot. I hope that team sticks around for awhile.

Flay

I solved the online portion. Seems very vague. It's an easy game, but if anyone needs some help, just ask.

SunMonkey

Awesome. I love dumb "Geniuses."

aktick

That was the first thing I thought when I saw the name/team. They must not think the viewers are too smart, so they have to "color code" the teams.

cdollaz

Why do shows like this keep casting fat asses?

SunMonkey

Well, it was an interesting show. I didn't much care for the first half of the show (actually the first episode) since as it was really just a trickier form of race from point A to B with very little problem solving skills used. However, if they conitnue to have solutions to puzzles have multiple answers, and not make the clues too easy to figure out, then it will certainly make for a fun race.

I think I will tune again tomorrow to give it at least one more episode.

Groucho

Not bad. The second half was a lot better than the first.

chowderhead

I really enjoyed the episodes and I thought this was much more a thinking person's Amazing Race akin to season 1 where there were clues to the destinations of your next clue and multiple possible solutions. The stillwater Washington clue should have been open ended in that whatever answer the teams said is where they would be going instead of is it here? No. Is it here? no. Is it here? yes. But other than that minor point... this show at least forces you to solve clues instead what TAR has devolved into a race to point A, go to point B, do this at point C. Bunch and see who comes in last.
I enjoyed it quite a bit though the dude on the cell phone got annoying. Pairing up teams like that guaranteed a close elimination.

Edit: it really also seemed like they do a nice job casting the show. Many of the teams are stacked with both athleticism and either book/street smarts or puzzle solving abilities

Edit2: The Hanlons were funny as heck and should provide comic relief until they are eliminated.

the big train

Overall it was very good. As much as I liked the idea of having the teams separated, it just didn't work very well cutting back-and-forth between Alaska and Hawaii. While the Hawaii portion was enjoyable, the Alaska portion was pretty dull.

Everything from when the teams met up in Lincoln was excellent. The buses going in the wrong direction was brilliant.

From the previews it looks like it should only get better.

JasonF

NBC's got Game 7 of the Stanley Cup tomorrow. The next episode is a week from tomorrow.

I give the 2-hour premiere a B. The editing when they were cutting back and forth between Alaska and Hawaii was pretty bad, and I would have liked to get a better sense of how the teams in Alaska decided that "Dig" meant "dig into the ground about a foot below one of these cairns." But all in all, it was pretty decent. I particularly liekd when the two groups of teams met each other in Lincoln.

SunMonkey

Even better! Go Oilers!

If I would have thought for a second, I would have realized that two were on the same channel. I think they planned on it airing it today as the online game has today's date for the next installment. That is what threw me off.

das Monkey

I really liked this. It was just like The Amazing Race, except really annoying with crappy editing and puzzles a child could solve. Oh wait. Did I say I liked it?

das

DRG

My thought too. It was entertaining, although I was hoping the challenges would be a bit more in-depth... something along the lines of The Mole (pre-celebrity edition). Instead of simple challenges and a lot of hopping around from site to site, they should have more in-depth puzzles and stay in a smaller area each episode.

I was also hoping for more actual 'hunting' of artifacts. Hell, the Mullet dude at least went exploring and wandering in nooks and crannies, even though he ended up looking foolish because it wasn't nearly as complicated as he was thinking it was. But the show SHOULD have been about crawling through weird nooks and crannies to find the clues and whatnot.

Another complaint is that the players were in such close proximity to each other in some cases that they didn't have to solve the puzzles, they could just watch or listen it to the other teams.

sikegrad

I was really annoyed that all you had to do was hear what the other teams were doing in order to solve the puzzles. Excellent move by the Geniuses to help out the Hanlons in order to keep a perceived weaker team still in the game. I really did like the aspect of the 2 answer system to throw a team off too. I'll be adding this show to my Monday night schedule after seeing the season preview clips.