‘The Amazing Race Canada’ premiere preview: Meet the new race, same as the old race?

While “The Amazing Race Canada” (premiering on CTV Monday night) may have a new host in Olympian Jon Montgomery, a course limited largely to Canada’s own borders, and new team members, the sneak peek that we’ve just caught for the show at this link suggests to us one thing: The race itself really is not going to be that different at all, at least when it comes to the visuals, the music, the sort of tasks, or the old tradition of team members “encouraging” one another by yelling.

This clip focusing on sisters Vanessa and Celina, who have the challenge of having one of them suspended on a beam a considerable distance in the air. Is it an old-fashioned roadblock? Possibly, and a terrifying one at that. It’s a long-standing “Amazing Race” tradition to terrify you pretty early on during the season, just to get you indoctrinated into the world of the show.

While there is a part of us that wished that the show was going more international, who knows? The American show really has not done that much in Canada over the years (even though the Australian version had multiple legs here in its most-recent season), and this could be a nice little Canadian geography lesson. We hope that the show does follow “The Amazing Race Australia’s” technique of borrowing from the flagship, but coming up with some ideas of its own; we loved that show’s concept of the Salvage Pass, which forced the team in first place after the first episode to either save the team in last from being eliminated, or earn a substantial head start in the next leg. It’s much better than a task involving a Travelocity gnome or some new Ford car with fancy features.

As a longtime “Amazing Race” buff, we’ll be checking out the show early on to see if it holds it’s own; so check back this week for more on that, or click here if you want to also read up on when “The Amazing Race” in America picks up its next season.

Photo: CTV