Amazing Race 14 permieres tonight!

Amazing Race is my favorite show, too! My son and I have a not-so-secret desire to participate, but it will have to wait until I have a month free at one time to travel. And Kaarina, they are SUPPOSED to be in a hurry -- it's a race.

My whole family and I watch the show. Love the exoctic places in Africa and Asia that they go to.

Wow, feature article in yesterday's LA Times and this morning on the RS Traveler's Helpline. Ain't life grand?

My 13 year old daughter was the one who told us about a week ago. The PVR is set, hubby's Nature show that was originally supposed to be taped during that time slot had to go. The Amazing Race is THE show to watch for my girls and me :-) Switzerland is a good start. Let's see if my kids recognize a few places where they've been.

Amazing Race is our favourite show, it is our sunday night family time!

Pencil me in for another fan of the Amazing Race! I always hope they go somewhere I've been and can see something unique or little known that I've visited and a couple of seasons back they did. They were in Normandy and specifically went to Bayeaux. One of the couples needed to go to a post office and they ran by an ATM I used which was across the street from the hotel I stayed at (the Hotel Reine Milthilde) and they were in the Bayeaux train station. For what it's worth this season has a San Diego couple (second season in a row a team from SD in the race)Amanda and Kris.

In my opinion they do not show enough of the locations and are too much in a hurry for my taste. Last summer in Europe, I saw a British series called The Search that I found much more interesting. In it they really showed the locations and told about the history of them. The contestants were really smart and had to break codes to advance.

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/S/search/episodes/index.html

I too like the Amazing race!

I love this show! My son jokes around that our trip is going to be like being on the show. Going through airport and trying to find our way in foreign countries.

There is also an Asian version of the Amazing Race produced by the AXN network (owned by Sony). It's in english, has the same music and graphics, but not as big a budget as the CBS version---but still fun to watch. The contestants are supposed to be from Asian Rim countries but most of the accents sound Canadian and Australian:) You can view clips at Youtube.com

Love the show. My sister and I have a running tab on where we'd like to travel based on what we see on the show.

Count my hubby and me in as fans, too. We love Amazing Race. I wish someone would design a show where it is really travel skills, not just some more physical "tasks".

Thank you so very much for posting this! I had no idea it started tonight! I'm a huge fan of the show!!

Toni, there was a short lived reality show on NBC and the Travel Channel, as you describe. It was called "Lost", teams were blind folded, dropped in the middle of nowhere and had to get to New York with just a little bit of money. There were no challenges or pit stops as on the AR. In the first season the teams were dropped in the middle of Mongolia, next season in Bolivia. It was just the teams and their cameraman, and minimal rules, except get to NYC before the others. Unfortunately it didn't make for very good television, as the race just degenerated into to a begging contest; it was very uncomfortable watching "rich" Americans begging for money from folks who lived in third world countries. But I give it an A for effort.

Michael, I remember that show, the overall idea seemed like good television, but the reality of reality tv came into play as you mentioned, alot of begging, money rides etc. A fasinating ocncept though.

Another that comes to mind is "the Mole" I loved the first season, they were in Europe, went to fantastic locations, interesting challenges. But it jumped the shark when they made it a celebrity show.

I saw them filming this season at the LAX airport.

I was so excited. :-)

Can anyone come up with a reasonable explanation as to why the 2 flight attendants were speaking Spanish to everyone they met in Switzerland?

Oopsie!

LOL, I noticed that, too!

I guess they started out in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. If you take your knowledge of Spanish and try to pronounce it "Italian" you get somewhat close .... gracias - grazie

When I started out learning Spanish and had to improvise I took my French vocabulary (there was a time it was better than my English) and pronounced French words in a Spanish way. Most of the time my teacher understood what I wanted even though she didn't speank any French at all :-)

Interesting show, though I didn't recognize any particular sites.

Angela, I noticed that too, "mas importante"? They introduced themselves as having an edge because of their jobs. But at the rate their going we won't be seeing much more of them! Lets see, Switzerland; Swiss German, French and Italian, they had a choice of three languages and and picked Spanish, oh well, that's what makes this show interesting at times!

I noticed the Spanish as well.

Also, why do the flight attendants have roller bags!? For a game like Amazing Race, packs make so much more sense.

To see what all the excitement is about, I tried to watch the videos on the CBS site, but I guess that is not possible with a foreign ISP address, so I watched clips of it on Youtube.
Traveling as a combat sport . . . ?! lol! ;-))

I to love this show! Sounds like a great season with very interesting places to be visited. I would love to do this race sometime if I could get my travel buddy, my sister to do it with me because she would have to do the challenging tasks like tonight's bungy jumping! Oh my that was so scary!

Happy Travels to all!
Debi

I had to miss the last 1/2 hour of the show. Can someone PM with who got eliminated so that it doesn't spoil it for anyone. I really wanted to see when they where in Interlaken, but couldn't leave my sons stranded at the airport! :)

I think you can watch the whole episode on www.cbs.com. Also fun to watch there is the Elimination Station, which shows where the eliminated couple ends up for the duration of the race.

It was sooo cool that their pitstop was Schtechlberg (sp?)!!! Did anyone else think the accordian player on the welcome mat looked just like Ollie - the school teacher from Gimmlewald in Rick's show covering the Berner Oberland?

For a hilarious recap of last nights episode read this:
http://tinyurl.com/d9e93s

Michael,

that link doesn't work for me. Do you have the original link?

I just missed the beginning. When we went to watch it on the DVR, my wife and both looked at each other and said... "it's umm... uh... Ned - Ned Schneebly!!! Or someone who looks a lot like him."
If you want to participate in a smaller scale version of the Amazing Race, go to www.citychaseusa.com and see if they're in your city. I participated last year and it was a blast!

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20259335,00.html It's at the TV Watch section of the Entertainment Weekly site www.ew.com It appears the EW site is down right now which is probably why the the tinyurl can't reach it.

Angela, I was wondering about the roller backpacks too. They do have the choice to carry them on their backs since they are roller backpacks, but any added weight from the wheels would be a pain. It was something hearing them roll their bags on the cobble stone streets! Really noisy! Too bad they couldn't put wheels on the cheeses they had to carry! Lol!

I love the show.

I LOVE the show. I almost had my son in law talked into trying out but then he decided not to. I thought that would be interesting for a mother in law and son in law to be on the show. We have a fantastic relationship and he is very athlete and strong so I know that he would be great during the challenges. All my other friends are scared to try, I think it would be great fun and a wonderful experience. Angels, I noticed that the flight attendents spoke Spanish, didn't make sense to me. I thought the rolling bags they had would slow them down a bit, I don't think they will go to far, but I could be wrong. Debi, I hope you get your sister to try out with you. I would give anything to find someone to try out with.

How long will the couple from Virginia (Linda & Steve) last?

My wife and I love the show. The cheese carrying challenge was hilarious.

Robin, I am surprised they are still in it!

I'm glad I'm not going crazy. Hearing Spanish in Switzerland had my sister and me in stitches as we watched the show.

Michael, thanks for posting this reminder about the new series.

I've watched previous versions of The Amazing Race kind of "intermittently" and somewhat lost interest, but decided to have a look at this new series to see whether this one kept my attention.

This initial show was fantastic, so I think I'm going to be watching every week from now on (thankfully I've also got a PVR so can record the episode if I happen to be going out for the evening)! The show last night was especially interesting for me as I've been to all the places they visited (Locarno, Interlaken, Stechelberg), so it was terribly exciting to see so many familiar places. I couldn't tell from the brief clips, but it looked like part of the group travelled to Locarno via the Centovalli railway? I'm planning on being back in Locarno this June, and really looking forward to a return visit.

My attention must have been briefly diverted, as I missed the Flight Attendant's speaking Spanish. Europeans are clever with languages, but that's definitely out of place in Locarno! Although it's in the Italian-speaking part of the country, I found German to be quite prevalent there also (never heard anyone speaking French though).

After seeing the Dam where the Bungee Jumping took place, I wondered if that was the same one used in one of the James Bond movies?

I looked at the "cowbell band" in Stechelberg but didn't see any familiar faces from Gimmelwald. Again, perhaps I wasn't paying attention?

Hopefully they'll be airing this episode again on one of the other channels, as this is one time I won't mind seeing a re-run. Looking forward to next week's episode!

Cheers!

Speaking Spanish to cab drivers is a common theme every season, not matter where they are and what continent they are on...most every team does it at least once:) The US Travel Channel will show reruns after all episodes on CBS air, I'm not sure if it's the same arrangement in Canada?

I am routing for STeve and Linda, but I am afraid Lindas terrible physical condition will get them elimanated fairly soon. The race is always dominated by the fit.. which I think kind of sucks. Its like they always put in the token "old couple" and token " poor people"( remember the hillbillies in a race a while back,, I so wanted them to do well, they really apprieciated the chance to travel and see new things, and then there are usaully two or three really young and strong couples. Brains are important,, and will help the weak ,, but in the end some of the feats are very very physical. Linda and STeve did figure out a way to get those cheeses down pretty fast though, good for them.

I wonder how the mom and deaf son will do,, he looks very fit, and if mom can keep up I bet they will do well.

Pat, I hoping that the mother and deaf son do great. I think it would be great for the deaf community.

We always go for the underdogs (the old couple or hillbillies). Remember Merridith and Gretchen? The "oldies" look pretty fit this time around!

For anyone who missed the first episode of Amazing Race the travel channel is showing it this Saturday 2/21 at 12:00am.

Is this the one that has a Flight Attendant Duo? Or was that last season? Sorry I missed it!

F/A

Christie and Jodi are the flight attendants. But with their roller bags and mistakes, I don't think they'll be around for long. (They came in next to last this week, just barely beating the losing team.)

Looking forward to seeing the show tonight. Hoping that the mother/son (deaf) does great!!!!

Oh,, I am rather sad,, that Linda and Steve( the "hillibllies" were elimanated,, I always want people like them to do well, just so they can experience travel that I think they likely could not afford in real life.. I felt so bad for them!

It's unfortunate that the "hillbillies" were eliminated. They didn't seem to take it well, but unfortunately that's the nature of the situation; it had to be one of the teams.

I recorded the show on the PVR and it will be great to watch it again tomorrow. It was exciting to see Munich again (briefly) as that was my last stop in Europe last year.

Cheers!

Recap from ew.com: http://tinyurl.com/aploqz

If you miss an episode and don't want to stay up until 12 AM for the Travel Channel rerun, you can watch it on the internet at cbs.com. In fact, fewer commercials that way.

In episode 2 (last night) did they take a taxi from Stechelberg to Zurich for a plane to Munich? Seems like a train from Interlaken would have been about as fast!?!

The leg started at 2am so trains wouldn't be running at that hour. But that sure is an expensive taxi ride! No wonder teams were given $500 at the start:)

fans of Nat'l Geog channel "The Dog Whisperer" will note AR contestant Mike White (the son) was on with his poorly behaved French bulldogs on Feb 25 show! Caesar Millan seems to think there is hope for Mike and his pups. I wonder if there's hope for Mike and his dad on A R?

The videos on www.cbs.com cannot be viewed outside the US. We missed the end of episode 2 because the Oscars ran late .... had to wait till the clips showed up on Youtube and watched them last night.

Hope the brother/sister team do better next show. He should start listening to his younger sister more.
Good show.

Wow, last night's episode was great. What I don't understand is why the married couple would want to take a flight with a connection versus nonstop, I wanted to scream " Your in a race, connections can have problems, what are you doing!!". I'm so happy that Margie and Luke are still in it, they are my team to win. As for the brother/sister team, Victor just needs to accept his failures and that his sister may not be as "dumb" as he thinks she is.

Yes, I hope the brother in the brother sister team starts smartening up and stops being such a know it all, on the other hand, little sis needs to act more like the educated grown women she is, and less like " little sister".

No one can take advantage of you unless you let them.

Hands down one of my favorite shows. At least we seem to be spared the usual obnoxious twits that make you want to reach through the screen and rip their heads off. You know the ones who bitch about the food, the smells, the people who don't speak English. And yep Victor needs to get off his big brother high horse and listen.

Tonight's episode was quite interesting, given the parts of eastern Europe they were travelling in.

I was sorry to see the young couple eliminated tonight. I figured they would have lasted a bit longer.

Looking forward to the next episode!

I'm so glad that the mother/son team is doing to well. Looks like next Sunday show should be really good.