‘The Amazing Race 24’ preview: Predictions, analysis before season begins

Tomorrow night on CBS, Phil Keoghan is going to gather up all the teams of “The Amazing Race” at the starting line, shout “go,” and then the craziness is going to begin. This is one of our favorite shows for more than a decade and it’s back for its third season featuring returning racers. It’s a good mix, but most of the common bond that they share is that they are big characters, are competitive, and should provide for a heck of a fun series of episodes.

But who do we feel are going to make it all the way to the end? We’ve given some loose predictions in all of our individual spotlight articles, but it’s now time to really put our money where our mouth is and call the winner. Note that this article is entirely spoiler-free, so there’s no issue to worry about that. (Also, click any of the team names below to carry over to their spotlight article.)

11. Mark & Bopper – Love the two, just too far out of their element to really do that well given this high level of competition. Were mostly cast due to personalities rather than race skills.

10. Margie & Luke – They’ve done much better than this on each of their other seasons, but we just feel like the higher level of competition will mean trouble in some of the more athletic tasks. Also, Luke gets frazzled easily.

9. Joey & Meghan – They are a slightly more effective Mark & Bopper. They look a little more athletic this time around, but we have a very hard time taking them seriously as racers.

8. Caroline & Jennifer – They benefited at times their first season from luck and having Bates & Anthony as allies. Without those two things and with stronger teams overall, the country singers are in trouble.

7. Natalie & Nadiya – This is where things get a little bit harder to call this time around. We feel like, for example, that the twinnies are a great team, but they also occasionally have a problem losing their temper at each other and alienating other teams.

6. Jet & Cord – Speaking of other teams, these two have also done that aplenty. If this was strictly about running a race, they’d be in the top three; but, they often make silly mistakes, and are probably going be targeted as three-time players.

5. Dave & Connor – They looked like monsters their first season before Dave’s injury, and they should do very well now. But, the truth here is that parent / child teams don’t have a great history of crossing the finish line in first place. The rigors of this race will wear them down.

4. Flight Time & Big Easy – They are just too good a team tog o home early, but we’ve always felt that with them, they were never the team to be leaders. Instead, they were really good at being in second or third place and maintaining that.

3. Leo & Jamal – Having run the race so recently will help the Afghanimals greatly. They’re likely to probably mess up here and there, but they have shown a knack for correcting most of their mistakes so long as they don’t involve robot puzzles.

2. John & Jessica – There is an All-Star phenomenon where typically, the least memorable team either wins, or almost wins. Look at Eric & Danielle, or Amber  in “Survivor: All-Stars.” Even Parvati on the first “Fans vs. Favorites” was someone that nobody really was begging to be cast on that season. John & Jessica are that this time, and they probably are much better than they showed last time.

1. Brendon & Rachel – Maybe this comes across as pandering to the Brenchel Army, but we’re standing behind it for a few simple reasons: Rachel Reilly won “Big Brother” the second time around, and they are doing this now for the second time. Also, they’re physically strong, good game-players, and they’ve had more time to be together and understand their strengths and weaknesses since the first season. When they raced the first time, they were targeted heavily because of their past CBS connections. That won’t happen so much here, and they may be able to go even under the radar at times. They’re just so competitive, it’s hard to see them not getting to the finish line.

Who do you want to see win “The Amazing Race” this season? Share your thoughts below, and head over to the link here if you want to grab even more news and updates from us every week via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: CBS