‘The Amazing Race 28’ spotlight: Will Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl dominate the season?
After we saw the cast list for “The Amazing Race 28,” there were a few people we had at least vaguely heard of. However, Tyler Oakley was the one person we were fairly familiar with; he’s the biggest star on this season in terms of reach, and when it comes to CBS trying to get viewers off of this twist, he’s probably the main draw for internet fans who haven’t seen the show before. Whether or not that translates to ratings is to be seen.
Can Tyler and his pal / “Psychobabble!” co-host Korey Kuhl prove to be great racers to go along with social-media wrecking balls? This is something we hope to highlight further in our latest team spotlight series.
Relationship – Best friends / co-hosts.
Claims to fame – Tyler and Korey are both social media stars with a huge reach; Tyler in particular has made himself primarily into a success off of Twitter and YouTube, where he now has almost eight million subscribers alone. Tyler has also won at the Teen Choice Awards, which is why you may have seen him on network TV before.
Strengths – Both of these guys are more or less at the perfect time of their lives for the race (Tyler is 26, while Korey is 30). They’re old enough to have some life experience under the belts, but at the same time also still young and athletic. Tyler is also one of the few racers with a look so distinctive, we could see him maybe running into a local here or there who could recognize him and lend a helping hand. They’ve got a real sense of adventure and ambition, and the relationship between these two comes from before they were famous. They know each other well, and friendships tend to hold up better than some other relationships on the show. There’s a little less drama when it comes to stakes.
Weaknesses – Both Tyler and Korey say that this is one of the few times they are completely at the mercy of someone else’s edit, so are they going to be okay with that? There is such a thing as being too self-aware, and getting in your own head about how you’re presented to the point that you make mistakes. We do also think that their fame could make them a threat, and when you add their athletic ability and intelligence to that, these guys have “U-Turn threats” written all over to them. Also, how much “Amazing Race” have they seen? Have they really had time with everything else they have going on?
Prediction – We go back and forth on where Tyler & Korey could land. From one standpoint, we could see them being an early shock boot just because that’s how CBS’ luck works sometimes with high-profile teams. However, at the same time they’ve got the skills to win. We’re going to say that they fall somewhere in between and go out close to the finale, but no cigar.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC_eBK6uAm0