Really? That's how it ends? Yuck.

The race's all-star edition ended with a groan, not even a whimper, when the least-interesting team in "TAR" history took home the million-dollar prize. Eric and Danielle --- the only "new" team to race this year --- crossed the finish line at San Francisco's Botanical Gardens first, narrowly beating out the beauty queens, Dustin and Kandice.

Even the producers/editors seemed bored by the finale, which was perhaps the least tense, least competitive I've seen in the show's history. All the teams were on the same flights into SF, there was no taxicab drama on the way to the finish line...it was just uninspiring. The final task that decided who took home the win was basically tested how well the teammates gossiped about the other teams. Blech.

I was rooting for the BQs, but would have been OK with Charla & Mirna winning. Charla's pretty awesome, and the idea of harpy Mirna with half a million dollars tickles me for some reason. But Eric & Dani? REALLY? I thought even including them as "all-stars" was being generous. Danielle was part of a useless team that got nixed within the first three episodes of her season, Eric was clearly the weak link in his original team. They had a totally faked-up showmance (seriously, did he ever once act like someone who was romantically interested in her?), raced poorly more often than not (especially useless Danielle), treated each other like crap, and used nasty homophobic slurs on more than one occassion. Only Freddy & Kendra and Flo (of Zack & Flo) made for less appealing winners. But at least Freddie & Kendra raced well.

It also looks bad for the show in general, as in a finale in which five of the final six competitors were women, somehow the one male managed to win. This show has never had two women win, and has been criticized for unfairly favoring the buff, young male types (and if you look at who's won, more often than not that's exactly the case). This was probably as close as it we'll ever get to an all-girl win, and we lost out so Eric & Danielle could get a million dollars. VOMIT!

The only saving grace: Eric calling ex-partner Jeremy and telling him he won, and then Jeremy totally frat-boying out, saying that he's now rich, and that he's going to give Eric spankings when he gets home. Um, what straight friend assume that he's entitled to half of another straight friend's winnings, and then offers to celebrate by slapping him repeatedly on the buttocks? Jeremy, you totally just let your pink card show on TV. And nobody cares about poor Danielle. As it should be.

BOOOOOOOOO!