‘The Amazing Race 24’ preview: The Mark & Mallory show

Could there ever be an “Amazing Race” season with all teams of people who don’t know each other in advance? This is something that we have long pondered, but most of the time decided that it would be a terrible idea. The race is such a stressful experience that things could really get ugly if you’re starting to stress next to someone who you may not end up liking at all.

We don’t really have a lot of hope at all for Mark & Mallory here at the end of the day as a team. They may have been vaguely familiar with each other before Bopper had to withdraw from the race, but they weren’t good friends. They entered the race with an almost immediate disadvantage, in that neither knew the other’s strengths or weaknesses. They are basically no better than a first-time team, and they are going against some people who are on the show for a third time.

There are two theories as to why CBS is promoting the pair so heavily for the new episode airing Sunday night.

1. They realize that the concept of a team of strangers is completely brand-new to the show, and they are having fun playing out the story.

2. These two are not long for the game, and they have to promote it while they can. Typically these sort of clips of struggling teams are often red herrings, but with these two, we’re not quite so sure. It just feels very obvious that they are going to struggle, and Mark having trouble with a bag may just be the tip of the iceberg.

This all does make us potentially more interested in the idea of someday seeing an “Amazing Race” where All-Stars come back and compete on teams with other All-Stars that they barely know. It would be a complete mess, but possibly fun at the same time.

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Photo: CBS