The Amazing Race 30 filming officially begins in New York
In a series of posts on Twitter Sunday, show host Phil Keoghan did his best to document the epic series of events that led to him making it to the starting line of the new season and declaring “go.” Filming began at Washington Square Park in New York City and one of the teams is already well-documented: Jessica Graf and Cody Nickson from The Amazing Race. They join the ranks of Jeff & Jordan and Brendon & Rachel as Big Brother showmances to eventually become teams on the Race. Heck, Brendon & Rachel have technically done it on two different occasions so clearly the Race loved having them on.
Beyond that, there’s an additional merit to getting Jess and Cody on the show (at least from the network point of view — we’ve already made our own distaste on it clear for various reasons) in an attempt to boost up the ratings. The ratings for season 29 were such that there is a certain degree of jeopardy in it coming back, so if this casting does help to get the show a season 31 we know that there’ll be many people out there who are grateful.
The one thing that we are grateful for personally is that this casting does signal somewhat of a return to form for the show. After the past few seasons, which have contained a number of casting gimmicks, could we be getting back to seeing pairs with some sort of preexisting relationship? We didn’t mind the past season with all of the people meeting each other at the starting line as much as we thought we would, but it did still fundamentally change the race and there is much higher stakes that come in watching two people fight who actually have a relationship back home. They have to find a way to make it work, whereas complete strangers can just hate each other and then try and wash their hands of it after each leg. Technically, they just have to complete the tasks.
The new season of The Amazing Race is going to premiere on CBS at some point in 2018. While we wish that there was more news to report on that front, we imagine that something more substantial could be announced either at the end of the fall or early next year when the network holds their TCA Winter Press Tour panel.
What do you want to see in regards to The Amazing Race 30?
Let us know in the comments below, and you can head over here in the event you do want to read more of our thoughts regarding the how the casting came about. Also, be sure to visit our CarterMatt Facebook page for some more updates on this and other shows we cover. (Photo: CBS.)