The Amazing Race: “Double Your Money”

Can you believe it’s time for yet another installment of The Amazing Race? Why, it seems like only yesterday that… um… whoever it was crossed the finish line first and won the million bucks. But let’s not dwell on a past I can barely remember when there are 11 new teams to meet and pre-judge! And they are:
- Josh and Brent, life partners you may know from Planet Green’s The Fabulous Beekman Boys. I have no idea what that is.
- Natalie and Nadiya, twins with very similar names, because CBS has to make life difficult for those of us who get paid to keep track of who did what.
- Rob and Kelley, married monster truckers. Who wants to bet that this team will suffer some sort of ironic vehicular mishap along the way?
- Trey and Lexi, dating Longhorns from Austin. Trey describes himself on the CBS website as “a physically fit Chris Farley.”
- James and Mark (or Abba, as he apparently wants to be called). If you can tell which is the former Megadeth member and which is the entertainment lawyer, maybe you should be doing this job.
- Abbie and Ryan, dating divorcees. I’m predicting a lot of yelling.
- Jaymes and James, male strippers. Now you’re just messing with me, Race. Let’s just call them Team Magic Mike.
- Rob and Sheila, engaged couple. “Rob lacks tact and can be very insensitive,” says Sheila on the website. Oh boy.
- Caitlin and Brittany, bubbly blondes. I can’t tell them apart either.
- Gary and Will, best friends. Will is not a tall person.
- Amy and Daniel, dating couple. Amy is a double amputee.
For some reason, the teams arrive at the starting line in Pasadena in some kind of psychedelic acid-hippie bus. I don’t know if this was a movie tie-in I missed or just some random production element, but, whatever, it’s quickly over with, never to be spoken of again. Phil is waiting, eyebrow arched, to spring the first new twist of the season: If the team that wins the first leg also wins the last leg, they will win double the usual million-dollar prize. (Which, when you calculate inflation since the Race debuted in 2001, is just a 51 percent increase over the first season prize.) The race begins with teams rappelling off a bridge and collecting their first clue, which tells them to fly to Shanghai, China.