The 29th season of The Amazing Race finally premieres on Thursday, March 30 at 10 PM. Not content to leave the basic formula well enough alone, the producers are pairing up complete strangers to run the race. That’s right, not just half dating, half blind date; all the contestants have never met each other before the race began.
Preview: TAR 29 - Season Preview - YouTube
After nearly a year hiatus, Amazing Race is back. Season 29. This time on Thursdays, at 10 pm Eastern time. :eek:
It looks like this time slot will be death sentence for TAR. I remember all the complaints when it was on Sunday nights, delayed by football games and starting at 8:30 pm. The original plan was for TAR to debut in April, but CBS moved it up a couple of weeks ago, perhaps because of the death of Bill Paxton?
The big twist is that all the teams will be strangers. No one will know who their partner is. Apparently the first challenge will be the winners of the challenge will pick their partner.
That is going to make a preseason Team Taxi assessment very difficult. Its also going to make labeling the teams difficult (The Cheerleaders, the Moms, the Nerds, etc).
Meet the Cast with pictures and very brief bios. Young demographic, they all look like they are athletic and fit, and only one person over 40 yrs old.
On Your Mark
Get Set
GO!
I’ll say it: I’ve been wanting this formula of racing with strangers for a while now. Part of it was because the casting for a while became full of annoying narcissists or people who wanted to show the world that because they are/have X, they can still compete. The only other formula (besides the original) would be to see it be more of an “Olympics” style competition where teams from around the world would compete against each other.
I can’t tell if this will be really interesting or fail horribly. I hope it’s interesting. Does anyone know if the people picked each other or if they were randomly put together? I saw a commercial this morning making it look like they got to chose.
I think what might be a big twist would be to have teams and then split them up and randomly put them with someone else.
[spoiler]They’ll run the first task individually and they’ll get to pick in the order they come in.
Here’s a much longer sneek peak, of what appears to be the first 2 minutes of the episode: https://youtu.be/lswhO3_AkFI
[/spoiler]
I hope this works, but I’ll have to admit, one of my favorite things about TAR is watching fatigue and stress inspired breakdowns between people who’ve known each for years. Tears and screaming preferred.
I’ve always watched it on VOD. I feel like time slot isn’t the crucial element it once was for this type of program.
Thanks to our esteemed mods for merging these two threads.
TAR has survived football pre-emption and the Friday night death slot. It’s even survived the 10 PM timeslot. What’s more troubling to me is delaying the season premiere until this late date. The latter really speaks of a lack of support from the network.
TBH, I’m surprised it returned, if only for a hiatus replacement.
I’m thinking it’s not the game itself as it is the cost to play it. The liability insurance may not be as bad as it was for say, Wipeout, but I’m betting it’s up there.
And, of course once again I won’t be able to watch it because of my work schedule 
Yeah, I was trying to figure out how the contestants were selected. Are they teams that are split up at the beginning? Did they audition teams and then only pick one team member? Did they do individual auditions instead of team auditions?
It would be more interesting if the selection process were challenge-based, but I’m certain the producers have intentionally paired people up based on who doesn’t get along, because as we all know, that’s what network producers think is good TV.
From what I have heard, there is an individual challenge and the winners get to pick their partners.
Phil said in an interview that one of the biggest casting challenges has been finding a great pair of contestants willing to race together. One would have a compelling story but their partner was just there. So they’ve cast a bunch of strong individuals instead with this format. He goes on to say the season really takes off in episode 3 when the honeymoon period wears off for the racing pairs.
Not a bad start, I suppose. It will be interesting to watch the team dynamics develop.
Lesson learned: if Phil offers you a ride to the airport, don’t take it!
Interesting start to the race. Not only have the contestants not met each other before, but one team got the only Express Pass completely at random. Plus the last team, that didn’t get to pick, got driven to the airport by Phil himself. The latter didn’t seem to help them much; they are way in the back of the pack.
This early there are still too many teams for me to keep track of them all. But there are already some standouts. Team Prosthesis looks really strong. Team Drama Queen (aka bitchy gay guy) also looks strong if they can just keep it together. Team Fun Meter also looks like they’ll be fun to watch.
We have lately been half watching TV/half sitting on our laptops, but this episode we both were actually watching TV like people used to do. There seemed to be a lot less stunt casting or cewebrities as there has been in the recent past too.
Here’s the list of teams (copied from Wikipedia)
Seth → Olive #TeamAmerica
Matt → Redmond #TheBoys
Shamir → Sara #TeamSandSexpress
Scott → Brooke #TeamBrookeandScott (or #teamwillandgrace)
Becca → Floyd #TeamFun
Vanck → Ashton #TeamVanck&Ashton
Tara → Joey #TeamMom&Dad
London → Logan #TeamLoLo
Jenn → Kevin #LongHairDon’tCare
Michael → Liz #TeamLizandMike
Jessie &⟷ Francesca #TeamSwoleSisters
This is one of the rare times where I didn’t have an immediate visceral reaction against a team or person. Sure there were a couple moments, but there were some great moments like TeamFun and TheBoys.
TeamVanck&Ashton. The most cringeworthy team. I kinda love it but it’s that whole Fremdschaeme thing.
I was pleasantly surprised at the team dynamics. Seems like we can already see who will do well and who is danger.
Team Asian Math Guy and Blondie seem destined to go down in flames, but maybe they’ll figure it out. Team Cop and Fireman Lady look strong, as do the The UpperBodyStrength Guys.
Team Will and Grace will work it out.
Team Fun is actually fun to watch.
Beard needs a chill pill.
Elimination spoiler:
Team Hair was doomed from the start. Probably fine if paired up with others, but together, it really was TeamDon’tCare about anything. Too bad. They could’ve been fun to watch.
I thought it was a great start. There’s only one obvious disaster and a couple weaker teams. Most of them look pretty legit. Seth & Olive are a clear powerhouse team, and Matt & Redmond look good, too. I thought the right team went home. They brought it on themselves.
If Phil can avoid the urge to hint at romance, it should be a great season!
My daughter knows Floyd of Team Fun - they are in the same class at U of Colorado. She says he is incredibly smart (Econ and Applied Math) and positive. He is the President of all kinds of clubs and councils and is the drum major in the marching band.
Did Fun Girl call him “Urkel” when she picked him? I swear that’s what I heard, tried to see if that’s what closed captioning said, but TAR’s CC still sucks after all these years.
And didn’t the woman in Team Long Hair say something in her intro about trying to get by on her looks? I guess that didn’t work out so well.