I am – Hercules!!


CBS is billing tonight’s edition of “The Amazing Race” as boasting “the most memorable pit stop ever.”

Two twentysomething contestants – deaf college grad Luke Adams and Amazonian marketing assistant Jennifer Hoffman – get into physical confrontations, and Jen’s language turns mean.

“I called him a bitch because it was a bitch move,” says Jen. That’s just the start of the unsportsmanlike behavior that continues well after Phil Keogan informs the contestants of their weekly rankings.

Tame stuff compared to the blows we’ve seen traded recently on cable’s “The Bad Girls Club” and “The Road Rules/Real World Challenge,” to be sure, but unusually uncivilized for “Race.”

The pit stop becomes memorable when Jen, Luke and their teammates arrive at the episode’s finish line almost simultaneously, and host Keogan adds fuel to the fire with uncharacteristically Probstian episode-ending inquiries.

The big destination this week is Guilin, China, where absurdly fabulous Chinese-American Tammy Jih and bossy big bro Victor come to regret not paying closer attention in Chinese school when they discover which tasks will soon be assigned them. The good news is Tammy & Victor both speak Mandarin, and Tammy visited Guilin earlier for spring break.

It’s an especially tricky week for dwarf stuntmen brothers Mark & Michael, penalized with an extra cosmotological task and forced to start in last place for rule-breaking.

There’s also a vicious bird attack, the teams have to choose between choreography and calligraphy, and the redheaded cheerleaders run into trouble when they, rather predictably, choose choreography.

I remind everyone that the people who complain most about reality shows are always the ones most often caught by their moms masturbating to “American Gladiators.”

8 p.m. Sunday. CBS.

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