::bomp::
It start tonight?
9pm, baby 
And once again, one of the best shows on TV won’t get noticed because of crappy advertising. Way to go, CBS.
Nah, they’ve been promoting it pretty well, I thought – have you watched any CBS over the last couple weeks?
They’ve been running quite a lot of ads, actually. Let’s hope it works!
bouncing
Hmm…maybe not. I pretty much only watch Survivor on CBS, and I missed it last week. Maybe that’s why. Good to hear, though, thanks!
2 hours long, my VCR is set.
Yeah baby yeah!
One note: I read this morning that the show is getting so well known internationally that they occasionally use decoy contestants in order to cut down on spoilers.
Could I be any giddier? I have purposely avoided reading anything so I could come into the show without any pre-conceived notions about the teams. Remaining blissfully unaware should be an interesting change to how I usually go into this show.
As it is, I’m sure I’ll still dislike most and watch my favorites fall by the wayside prior to the finale. Thankfully, AR5 actually veered from that formula.
The alarm goes off at 5:45 am, LilMiss and I groggily face the day. Slowly moving around, attempting to become lucid, I hear a squeal eminate from LilMiss’s room.
“MOM! Do you know what tonight is?!?!”
Uh…I don’t even know if I’m human or what decade it is.
“It’s AMAZING RACE NIGHT!”
Yeah. She’s addicted. Blame me.
One of the previews shown last night made us giggle- I think the wrestling pair have a fast and furious meltdown. Heh.
Aw heck, should I have spoilered that? Sorry!
What do you mean by ‘decoy contestants’?
I am quite excited myself. usually, though, the first couple of weeks are a wash for me, as there are too many people/personalities to keep track of. If I were smart, I’d tape it and rewatch the first few weeks at a later date.
Notice I said if .
Allright, already! Fine, I try the damn show out!
Sheesh…between the commercials, the Emmy wins, the raving co-workers, and now the Dopers…ok, you win! I’ve yet to find a reality show that didn’t suck rocks, but I’ll give this one a try.
If I waste two hours of my life tonight, I’m holding each of you personally responsible. 
It’s a whole night of travel reality. Branson then TAR. Woo!
Dude, Gilmore Girls is the lead in.
/obvious/
No way, “dude.” NCIS is the lead-in show. CBS all night. You get your slightly cheesy cop/lab tech show, then your awesome reality show. What more could you ask for?
Aw crap, I woke up early to be the first to start this thread, but somebody beat me to it. Anyways, I made a pseudo-statistical analysis of the previous races based on age, gender & relationship, in order to predict what this season’s outcome will be. Here are the average finishes for previous races:
Gender:
Male/Male (17 teams) = 4.76
Male/Female (27 teams) = 6.44
Female/Female (13 teams) = 7.62
Relationship:
Friends (21) = 5.81
Dating (12) = 6.42
Married (9) = 6.11 *
Separated (3) = 5.00
Siblings/Cousins (7) = 5.86
Parent/Child (5) = 8.80
Age: **
20s (16) = 6.13
30s (16) = 5.82
40s (9) = 6.44
50s (3) = 7.33
60s (2) = 8.50
- Includes Bill & Joe and Chip & Reichen. (Danny & Oswald were counted as friends.)
** Does not include Season One since there are no bios on CBS’s website.
So for this season, here’s how the stats lay out:
Avi/Joe (M/M, friends, 30s; statistical chance = 5.46)
Ehh…probably not. Still, they should make the top five pretty easily.
Adam/Rebecca (M/F, separated, 20s; statistical chance = 5.86)
Hmm, same stats as TAR5’s last place finishers…maybe it was a mistake to separate the “separated” couples from the rest? Probably. I predict they go out early, but they might get as far as 4th or 5th.
Lori/Bolo (M/F, married, 30s; statistical chance = 6.12)
Looks to be this year’s comic relief team. They should do about as well as the Clowns (4th place).
Freddy/Kendra (M/F, dating, 30s; statistical chance = 6.23)
Blehh, too pretty. That said, they’ll probably make the Final Three.
Kris/Jon (M/F, dating, 30s; statistical chance = 6.23)
“Long Distance Dating” couples rarely do well. I predict they will put gasoline in a diesel car by mistake in Spain somewhere…
Hayden/Aaron (M/F, dating, 20s; statistical chance = 6.33)
They’ll probably do well but I predict they’ll have a dramatic blowup late in the race which ruins their chaces. Either that, or they’ll win. Even chance. 
Jonathan/Victoria (M/F, married, 40s; statistical chance = 6.33)
Hmm, married entrepreneurs from Southern California. Isn’t that who won last year? No matter, it won’t be them this time. Final Three potential, though.
Meredith/Maria (F/F, friends, 20s; statistical chance - 6.52)
Cute blond female teams always seem to do better than the other all-female teams. Will place 5th or 6th, and I hope they’re not as annoying as they look.
Lena/Kristy (F/F, siblings, 20s; statistical chance = 6.54)
Brunette team. They’re hosed. 8th place or worse.
Don/Mary Jean (M/F, married, 60s; statistical chance = 7.02)
This year’s lovable older couple, they’ll win lots of hearts and go out on leg 2 or 3.
Gus/Hera (M/F, parent/child, 50s; statistical chance = 7.52)
One of these days a parent/child team is going to surprise everyone and place higher than 9th place. But it won’t be this team. (Or will it??)
KGS? Did you do the statistics? Just wanting to be clear… you willingly and of your own volition did statistical analysis of a game show? Dude. I am in absolute awe of you.
Woo Hoo! It’s Amazing Race Night!!
“Numfar! Do the dance of joy!”
They advertised this constantly during the second run of “The Biggest Loser” on USA last night. Just saying.
Oh my god, I completely forgot it was on tonight. Thankfully I set my Tivo to Season Pass it a week and a half ago. Now I can’t wait to get home from work tonight.
I’ve got no opinions at all on any of the racers yet, though I am concerned that they might have gone a bit too generic with the teams this time around. I recall reading that they were casting younger for this race and that isn’t necessarily make for distinctiveness.
It’s going to be hard to top last season, but if they can do it we’ll have a great race…