The Amazing Race ......season 22

7 Things to Know About the 'Amazing Race' Season 22 Premiere
Thursday, February 07, 2013

John Kubicek
Senior Writer, BuddyTV

The new season of The Amazing Race begins Sunday, February 17 at 8pm on CBS, and as always, its tense, exciting, visually stunning and full of colorful characters.

Season 22 brings a new twist, new locations and new adventures. Here are seven things about the first leg to get you excited for the show's return.

The New Twist Will Cause Drama

The twist for season 22 is that the winners of the first leg not only get an Express Pass, but they get a second Express Pass that they must give to another team at some point before the end of the fourth leg. There's a lot of thought and strategy regarding this twist that will almost certainly end in drama, especially because of an early alliance.

Sandcastles = Haystacks

The cruelest Roadblock in the history of the show is the one where contestants had to unravel massive haystacks to find a clue. The season 22 premiere features something similar where teams must dig through 400 sandcastles to find a clue. The twist? If it doesn't contain one, they must rebuild the sandcastle before moving on. As is always the case, there's plenty of schadenfreude as some teams look for hours while others show up and quickly find it.

Chuck's Hair Is the Star

There's no denying the star power of Chuck's hair. It's like Kenny Powers, a perm mullet that is utterly ridiculous, especially on a grown man who loves to hunt and practice taxidermy so he can remind himself of his many kills. With any other haircut that might be creepy, but with Chuck it's kind of hilarious.

Max and Katie Are Likeably Unlikeable

Every season of The Amazing Race has a couple that is sure to explode at some point, either on each other or on another team. This season that honor will almost certainly go to Max and Katie, who were married just three weeks before starting the Race. Their introductory package includes a segment where she takes a cigar out of a humidor and gives it to him to smoke, which tells you everything you need to know about them. But unlike past couples, these two know their weaknesses as revealed in this awesome confessional:

Katie: "In our everyday life, we don't have many friends. I don't care."
Max: "Her likeability factor is low when it comes to strangers."
Katie: "It's probably a zero."

That kind of self-awareness actually makes me like them.

15 Seconds of Joey Is More Than Enough

Joey is a YouTube star, because apparently we live in a world where that is considered a career. He's very bubbly. At one point he's being his typical "Hey everybody, look at me!" self and one of the twin OB-GYNs simply mutters under his breath "Stop talking." I agree. If Joey and Meghan last the whole Race, he will become unbearable. Heck, if he lasts more than two legs, he will be unbearable.

Lance Armstrong Isn't the Only Cyclist with Testicular Cancer

Dave and Connor are a father and son who are both cancer survivors, and son Connor is a professional cyclist whose testicular cancer is in remission. Has anyone done a study on a correlation between cancer and riding a bike? All jokes aside, they are a very inspiring pair, although if every single interview with them is going to be all about how inspirational they are, it could get old very fast.

Bates and Anthony Will Be the Fan Favorites

In terms of pure likeability, no one comes close to former professional hockey brothers Bates and Anthony. They're charming in that dopey, loveable kind of way that makes you immediately want them to succeed.

Some of these people are "famous" in an internet way. Never heard of any of them but it looks like a pretty good crew.

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/the-amazing-race/the-amazing-race-first-impress-48971.aspx

There wasn't anything really "amazing" about the first ep., just a solid performance by most of the teams and a demonstration by the firefighter team as to their incompetence at paddling an outrigger canoe.

'The Amazing Race' Premiere Recap: Bora Bora Ain't Bora Boring
Sunday, February 17, 2013


Emily Steck
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV

The start of a new season of a reality show feels a little overwhelming at first because of all the new faces. Sure, The Amazing Race has a reliable formula -- teams compete in challenges and travel across the road for a chance at $1 million. Yet, the rules have been sort of violated this episode.

Amazing Race Season 22 First Impressions: Who Are the Teams to Beat? >>>

The familiar: we launch from Los Angles, the City of Angels. Too bad there is nothing angelic about Hollywood. The rules for this season are mostly the same, except the first team to arrive at the end of this challenge will get an express pass for themselves and another team of their choosing.

Also, Ford Fusion product placement! With our host in the car with them. It's like the Jetsons up in here.

The teams make their way to the airport to Bora Bora and have a little meet and greet. The first five teams already make an alliance: the winner will give the second express pass to the second team in the alliance to win.

After some fun escapades with skydiving -- which is a great way to start off the season -- the teams arrive to a giant sandcastle graveyard. Where one team member goes skydiving, the other must search through the sand for the clue, then rebuild the mini castle. Me being afraid of heights, I would have taken skydiving. And from here, they build a special canoe to race to place.

Unfortunately, it takes forever to build and search. After great difficulty, three teams are left, stuck in the hot sun for hours and hours. So emerges another alliance: an alliance to take a penalty. I'm not sure if this is really smart playing or really dumb. I just know I'm kind of offended. Look, I'm sure it's hot out, but you could play it out, teams. It's an alliance in bad spirit that doesn't work for everybody.

So now, it's this week's segment of Let's Catch Up with the Teams! Of course, this week we'll just be meeting the teams:

Chuck & Wynona: a cross between redneck and country. Also, Wynona really wants a vodka and 7-Up. Just in case you didn't know. These two are amusing, at the very least.

Anthony & Bates: pro-hockey players! What are the chances anyone recognizes them? Slim, I'd guess, since hockey was so not last year (yay for the end of the strike!?). They are in second based on pure luck, messing up the first alliance.

Mona & Beth: working soccer moms/roller derby girls. Whip it! Real good. Except, Mona makes a really silly mistake signing up for the last plane. Hopefully, that will be their last one.

Max & Katie: newlyweds + 3 weeks of marriage = worst honeymoon ever. Also, they are contenders as potential villains.

David & Connor: father and son/BFF duo. Both had different penile cancers. One's even a pro cyclist now. There must be some kind of support group that doubles as a cyclist recruiting agency.

Jessica & John: SoCal daters and first placers. They happen to win the Express Passes because they come in first. They feel like strong competitors and, most important, people I'd actually hang out with.

Idries & Jamil: doctor twins from the Windy City. Clones, actually. We spend a lot of time on them this episode, which makes me miss the Twinies from last season.

Pam & Winnie: best friends. As boring as their backstory is right now, I could be friends with them. They might be more fun in coming weeks.

Joey & Megan: YouYube sensations. Anyone familiar with their YouTube channel? Is it any good? Does this count as fame? They don't get much air time this week, but I'm sure they will play up that YouTube thing next week.

Caroline & Jennifer: country singers from Nashville. Also, one of them is related to Daniel Boone? Random Trivia Alert!

Matthew & Daniel: firefighters. We don't learn much about them. They get screwed taking the penalty, and are eliminated.

If you have any nicknames for the teams or heard any I've missed, please post in the comments! What did you think of the teams thus far? Did the challenges look hard? What did you think of the alliances? Were you annoyed with the bad spirit alliance?

Compete in Fantasy TV: Make your picks on who you think will be going home. Hurry, you have until February 24 at 12pm PST to cast your vote!

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/the-amazing-race/the-amazing-race-finale-2-winn-50027.aspx

So the hockey players won, not a big surprise given their physical advantage over the 2nd and 3rd place teams. A pretty good season, not the best, or the worst.