The 15th season of "The Amazing Race" races to a conclusion on Sunday (7 p.m., Ch. 2), and it seems certain to be an unsatisfying ending in some way.
Because it won't be easy to root for any of the three remaining teams. They're all annoying.
If you've never watched the show, hey, what the heck is wrong with you? "Amazing Race" is not only the best competition/reality show on TV, it's one of the best shows. Period.
The premise is simple. Two-person teams race around the globe, completing various tasks in various exotic and/or interesting locations.
Well, except maybe for Sunday's finale, in which the final three teams will be racing to and around Las Vegas.
With the exception of a couple of non-elimination rounds, the last-place team in each episode is bounced from the race.
What happens with this show is that viewers get caught up in the competition. There are teams you love and teams you love to hate.
Clearly, some of the contestants are cast because producers know we'll love to hate them.
What also happens is that the pressure of the race gets to a lot of these people. Their true personalities emerge. And a lot of times those true personalities aren't particularly attractive.
Such is the case with the three remaining teams:
Married couple Ericka Dunlap and Brian Kleinschmidt are only half annoying. Ericka's half. She's Miss America 2004, and she's a high-maintenance queen who doesn't want to get wet; doesn't want to get cold; doesn't want to get dirty; doesn't want to break a nail. And she whines about everything.
Brian seems pretty nice — and incredibly patient. But he unnecessarily plays the race card by whining about the trials and tribulations of being an interracial couple. Which, at least from what we've seen on TV, hasn't played any role in the "Race."
Dating couple Meghan Rickey and Cheyne Whitney have been a deceptive duo. They don't seem particularly bright, but they keep finishing first in episode after episode.
They're supposed to be the epitome of young love, but they get on each other's nerves — and on viewers' nerves. Meghan in particular has been a bossy, whiny brat with annoying frequency.
Brothers Sam and Dan McMillen haven't always been the sharpest tools in the "Race" shed. There was the time they had the foresight to have brought a calculator along, which should have made a math-related challenge a cinch. But they had no clue how to do the (simple) math.
Another team helped them in return for use of the calculator.
Pegged as the "gay brothers" by the show, Sam and Dan have sibling-rivalried themselves into a corner as the Brothers Who Can't Stop Fighting. Their constant carping and arguing has made them hard to watch.
If I want to watch young adults fight with each other, I'll just spend time with my children.
I love "Amazing Race." I've seen every episode in all 15 seasons. And, overall, this has been a good season.
But given the three teams involved, the prospect of watching Sunday's finale is far less appealing than usual.
"THREE RIVERS" RUNS DRY: CBS has pretty much canceled this low-rated medical drama — one of the more expensive failures of the season.
"Three Rivers" is on indefinite hiatus. CBS has indicated it will complete production on the 13 episodes originally ordered, but there's no word on when the five that haven't aired will be scheduled.
Speculation is that the network will burn off unaired episodes on Saturday nights.
Not only was "Three Rivers" failing badly in the ratings, it was dragging "Cold Case" down with it. That crime drama is sliding up an hour on the Sunday schedule to 8 p.m. — the time slot it used to occupy.
For the next few weeks, CBS will air repeats of "NCIS: Los Angeles," "Criminal Minds" and "Cold Case" on Sundays at 9 p.m. It's a stopgap measure until the network finds a more permanent replacement for "Three Rivers."
e-mail: pierce@desnews.com