If “The Fabulous Beekman Boys” was on a Viacom owned cable network, the conspiracy suspicions about the surprising win of Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge on “The Amazing Race” Sunday might make sense.
Otherwise, it’s a classic come from behind victory from a team that never finished first, consistently finished near the back of the pack, and even finished last once (only to be saved by it being a non-elimination stop). They seemed like such a hapless team in challenges, having given up entirely on a swimming one and complaining about a sore ankle for most of the race.
Suddenly back in the race as part of the top four teams, and then the top three as the annoying twinnies Natalie and Nadia Anderson, all caught up from their own non-elimination scare, simply took a wrong turn and were suddenly out of it. But before they left, they made fun of Josh’s ankle, noting that he was running with the best of them and might have been faking. Indeed, Josh was running so well that even home viewers might feel the same.
After all, daters Trey Wier and Lexi Beerman had finished first a number of times and were seemingly ahead for the finale as well. Chippendales dancers Jaymes Vaughan and James Davis had surprisingly become a team to cheer for, when they revealed they were gunning for the money to help family medical bills and they weren’t at all annoying as they seemed like they’d be.
But all the other teams had been involved in an open alliance that seemed to make no sense in the final legs. Certainly it crushed the competitive spirit as they all consulted and helped each other in the final destinations. It also made the Beekmans, so named after the estate where they goat farm (and the show that chronicles it) feel more like outsiders. (The twinnies were already calling them “the gays”).
And though the Beekmans had one misstep as they made it back to New York, delivering pizzas to a wrong address and having to do it over, they excelled in the skills that allowed them to identify flags and languages of every one of the nine countries they visited. So boom: the $1 million prize.
And though they furiously tried to make it look competitive, there was nobody on their tail as they made their way to the victory line. Chalk it up as another reality show in which the established reality stars come in to win it all.