It Begins!

Oh man, I wait every tv season for the next installment of The Amazing Race. This show is *amazing* and here's why:

1) Teams travel all over the world and we can watch it from the comfort of our own homes. I've seen amazing things while sitting under my down blanket and munching cookies. It's the best kind of travel ever. Are there delays? Yes. Travel stress? Yes. Do I feel any of it? No...I sit and watch how crazy it looks when someone else feels it.

2) The teams. The format is such that they start with 11 2-person teams and each week (except for 3 installments) one team gets eliminated. But the teams chosen range from your "Average Joes" to "some of the weirdest freaks ever to be broadcast on prime time." This year my favorites include a 23-year old and his grandpa, 2 lesbians who are married and are ordained clergy (nothing like stacking up the interesting social factors), and a Goth couple from Kentucky (is there such a thing?). Then, of course, there are the dating couples and the "blonde bimbo" teams. Awesome.

3) Mix the above with this element of competition and things get interesting. Often the travel woes make the competition exciting and nail-biting. The best way to watch this show is to pick a team at the beginning and root for them--it keeps you invested in the competition. Oh, and if it's possible to watch with others it only ups the excitement factor. If you're totally not into the first couple episodes, don't panic. Right around the 4th leg, everybody's exhausted and people start saying incredibly mean and/or funny things to their partners. Tears start rolling and very often whining's involved. It doesn't sound fun but somehow any viewer with a soul and a travel experience gets sucked in.

4) "The editing is phenomenal." It is. It always looks like teams are rolling in to the "pit stop" right after each other, sometimes actually running to beat the team ahead of them when in actuality they were 13 hours behind. Genius.

5) Phil Keoghan. He's australian. He's hot. And he's *mysterious* in that completely "Phil" sorta way. You have to watch to understand but I'll provide some clue right here:See how cute he is?

Check it out--you won't be sorry! CBS Sunday nights at 7pm or after 60 Minutes which is almost always delayed because of football. (Tonight it started at 7:20).