CBS has shared details about season 35 of The Amazing Race, which begins Wednesday, September 27 on CBS, and features 90-minute episodes all season. The network also announced the contestants from the 13 teams. 

The season begins at the landmark Hollywood sign, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, before the contestants traverse a tightrope stretched from one rooftop to another in downtown Los Angeles. 

The racers then jet to Asia. They also visit Slovenia, where they fly in a glider over Lake Bled, and climb over a thousand steps to the top of a ski jump. 

This season, the show returns to commercial travel and brings back no non-elimination legs, the Express Pass and a twist on the U-Turn, making things more competitive.

Phil Keoghan hosts. The winning team of two gets $1 million. 

“We start this season of The Amazing Race with an international flight to Asia, bringing back the thrill of traveling around the globe to exotic places. And on top of that, our cast is fantastic! Their energy is palpable and their enthusiasm even greater! This season’s big, 90-minute episodes allow us to show more of each city we travel to, especially the people and the culture, plus we get to know our contestants on a deeper level and their relationships with each other,” said co-creators and executive producers Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri. “You will laugh, you will cry, you will shout at the TV in frustration and also scream with joy, but best of all you will feel the highs and lows on this journey of the human spirit with the majestic backdrop of the world.”

The teams are Jocelyn Chao and Victor Limary, a married couple from Albuquerque; brothers and military veterans Liam and Yeremi Hykel; best pals Malaina Hatcher and Andrea Simpson from Philadelphia; engaged couple Joe Moskowitz and Ian Todd from New York; Texas father and daughter Steve Cargile and Anna Leigh Wilson; sisters Morgan and Lena Franklin; married couple Ashlie and Todd Martin from Chino, California; Washington best friends Robbin Tomich and Chelsea Day; brothers Greg and John Franklin; father and son Rob and Corey McArthur; Idaho best buds Joel Strasser and Garrett Smith; Tampa mother and daughter Elizabeth and Iliana Rivera; and Chicago sister and brother Alexandra and Sheridan Lichtor.  

Jerry Bruckheimer, Bertram van Munster, Jonathan Littman, Elise Doganieri, Mark Vertullo, Phil Keoghan and Patrick Cariaga are the executive producers for Jerry Bruckheimer Television and Earthview Inc. in association with ABC Studios and Amazing Race Productions. 

Season 33 of The Amazing Race begins on CBS with a two-hour premiere January 5. The producers were keen to get some established names in the digital world onto the show. Kim and Penn Holderness, who star in popular family videos on YouTube, and Taylor Green-Jones and Isaiah Green-Jones, stars of a wedding dance video that went viral, are among the contestants. So are Anthony Sadler and Spencer Stone, who took on an armed man on a Paris train back in 2015, which inspired the film The 5:17 to Paris, and the singing police officers Michael Norwood and Armonde “Moe” Badger of Buffalo. 

Phil Keoghan hosts and executive produces The Amazing Race, and spoke with B+C about the competition series’ long run. He boiled it down to consistency. “There’s a standard that the team has managed to maintain for many, many years,” Keoghan said. “It’s not easy to continue to produce something that still meets the high standards we set. You can’t just sit back and dial it in — you have to step up every time.”

Season 33 had just begun filming when the pandemic hit. Getting the season to air has been both frustrating and gratifying for Keoghan and the producers. “It’s not necessarily something we want to do again,” said Keoghan. “It was just being able to bring the Race back together and finish off what we started. It was a huge achievement in a time when it’s so difficult to find normality in life.” ■ 

Season 33 of The Amazing Race begins on CBS with a two-hour premiere January 5, a fresh batch of two-person teams schlepping around the world and hoping to be the first to cross the finish line. 

Phil Keoghan is host and executive producer, roles he also holds down on another CBS competition series, Tough as Nails, which wrapped season three December 8. Keoghan spoke about the challenges of producing the globetrotting series and the new cast members on Amazing Race who viewers may already be familiar with. An edited transcript follows.

B+C: What’s the key to a show staying on for 33 seasons?

Phil Keoghan:  Consistency. There’s a standard that the team has managed to maintain for many, many years. It’s not easy to continue to produce something that still meets the high standards we set. You can’t just sit back and dial it in — you have to step up every time. The team we have, they strive for that.

We’re all looking to try to give it some kind of edge every season. The most common question I get is, what are you doing this season that’s new and different? It’s not that you have to do something necessarily new and different every time. It’s more the consistency of doing what you do well. The format works.  

B+C: Is there one cast member you can tell us about who might pop?

PK: We went about looking for some people that are part of the zeitgeist — who are people talking about? In this day and age, there’s a buzz around people doing new and different things. That was the premise with some of the people that we found. 

Taylor and Isaiah [Green-Jones] had that viral wedding dance video, a couple that sprung onto the scene and brought a lot of joy and smiles to people. Ryan and Dusty — Ryan was wrongly convicted of a crime and spent 10 years behind bars. He’s only 35 years old, so he lost a huge chunk of his life. Now he’s with his best friend and has the opportunity to go around the world and be free, literally.

Raquel and Cayla are flight attendants. They’re super smart and obviously travel savvy, and they just want to have a good time. 

One team people will probably talk about is Anthony and Spencer, the gentlemen who attacked an armed man on a Paris train back in 2015, which inspired the Clint Eastwood movie [The 5:17 to Paris]. Spencer literally jumped on top of a terrorist and risked his life and wrestled guy to the ground, supported by Anthony. They’re so-called ordinary people but they have great stories to share.

B+C: What’s your highlight of the new season?

PK: Coming back and shooting the restart. It’s not necessarily something we want to do again. It was just being able to bring the Race back together and finish off what we started. It was a huge achievement in a time when it’s so difficult to find normality in life. 

So much had transpired between the time we had to suspend the Race and start the Race, so it was just a great moment to bring everybody together, to hear their heartfelt stories, some of the challenges that they’ve been through. I got goose bumps talking to everybody, and knowing the fans are so desperate to see us back on air. 

I’m also just so proud of the team for getting us back on air. I’ve done quite a bit of production during COVID with Tough as Nails and it’s an incredibly difficult thing. To do it on a global scale adds a whole other layer of challenges.

B+C: What’s one Race moment across 33 seasons that makes you smile or laugh or cry more than the others?

PK: There are so many. Right from day one, and we’ve been talking a lot about this just because of the 20th anniversary of Amazing Race and starting in Central Park, way back, starting something that we just didn’t know … Everybody likes to be an expert after the fact: of course it was gonna be a success, of course it was gonna be the Race we all love. I never imagined that 20-something years later I’d be talking about Race and we’d have done as many loops around the world as we have and the show has achieved what it has. 

That start was definitely a highlight.

The cast for season 33 of The Amazing Race has been announced, the lineup featuring a handful of people known to the masses for the viral videos they are featured in. Kim and Penn Holderness, who star in popular family videos on YouTube, and Taylor Green-Jones and Isaiah Green-Jones, stars of a wedding dance video that went viral, are among the contestants. 

The season begins January 5 and sees the 11 two-person teams venture to England, Scotland, Switzerland, France, Greece, Portugal and Los Angeles. The winning team gets $1 million. 

The Amazing Race began filming in February 2020, but was held up due to COVID. Production concluded this fall. 

Phil Keoghan hosts. Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri created the show.

“The world is our sound stage on The Amazing Race, and the safety of our cast and crew when traveling is always our No. 1 priority,” said van Munster, co-creator and executive producer. “We made the tough decision to stop production in February 2020 and are excited that, despite the challenges of filming and traveling internationally in a pandemic, we were able to welcome this amazing cast back to finish what they started and complete their journeys of a lifetime safely this fall.”

The Green-Jones couple is from Portland, Oregon. The Holderness pair is from Raleigh. 

The other teams are married couple Akbar and Sheridan Cook of Martinsville, New Jersey; friends Anthony Sadler and Spencer Stone of Sacramento; father and daughter Arun and Natalie Kumar of Detroit; Caro Viehweg and Ray Gantt, a couple from Los Angeles and Toms River, New Jersey; married couple Connie and Sam Greiner of Charlotte; twins and radio hosts Marianela and Marissa Gonzalez from North Bergen, New Jersey; singing police officers Michael Norwood and Armonde “Moe” Badger from Buffalo; Raquel Moore and Cayla Platt, flight attendants from Chicago and Gulf Breeze, Florida; and friends Ryan Ferguson and Dusty Harris from Columbia, Missouri.

Keoghan told B+C the producers sought some cast members “that are part of the zeitgeist”--people with a bit of buzz to their names. Sadler and Stone, for their part, stopped a gunman on a Paris-bound train, which turned into the movie The 5:17 to Paris. 

“We implemented many new safety features that made this historic season possible, including having the cast and crew fly by private chartered plane,” said Doganieri, co-creator and executive producer. “The Race has been highlighting the beauty of traveling for over 20 years, and we are extremely grateful to showcase again the wonders of the world with this incredible cast.” 

Jerry Bruckheimer, Bertram van Munster, Jonathan Littman, Elise Doganieri, Mark Vertullo and Phil Keoghan are the executive producers for Jerry Bruckheimer Television and Earthview Inc. in association with ABC Studios and Amazing Race Productions. ■

The Amazing Race returns to CBS Oct. 14. It was to debut in May, but got held up due to the pandemic. Trips to the far corners of the globe may be just what the claustrophobic audience is looking for. 

“We’re good to go,” said Bertram van Munster, co-creator and executive producer. “The audience wants it in the worst way.”

The season sees the contestants venture to Tobago, the Amazon, South America, Europe and Asia. In other words, all over the world. 

Munster mentions “a great hunger” for Amazing Race, people sick of their homes, family members, Zoom. “We are not those kinds of animals,” he said. 

It is season 32. Phil Keoghan hosts. Munster calls Amazing Race “the biggest reality show in the genre.”

Also on Oct. 14 is the fifth and final season of Baroness von Sketch Show on IFC. The ladies offer their usual exploration of the absurdity of modern life. Aurora Browne, Meredith MacNeil, Carolyn Taylor and Jennifer Whalen are the Baronesses. 

Browne described the final season as “more and more and more”: bigger, better production values, more fun. “We all got more ambitious in the scenes we were trying to do,” she said. 

There’s a witch trial sketch and a dog show skit and another involving Renaissance painters and drag. There’s an homage to vamp comedy What We Do in the Shadows. 

The troupe has been unwinding amidst the pandemic, but is eager to get back together. Said Browne, “It’s been a restful and creative time for everybody.”

Byrning Down the House on HBO

David Byrne’s American Utopia debuts Oct. 17 on HBO. It’s a film of the former Talking Heads frontman’s Broadway show, offering an array of musicians, dancers and singers, and Byrne in all three roles. Spike Lee directs. 

Lee comes up with interesting camera angles to offer fresh perspectives on Byrne and the gang. “You can see things through a camera lens that you’d never get from your seat,” said David Sirulnick, exec producer for Radical Media. “There are things you can’t see exactly if you’re sitting in the orchestra or in the first mezzanine.”

The Broadway show ran from late in 2019 to early 2020. “How do we come up with something cinematic and additive to the experience of seeing it in the room?” is how Sirulnick described the challenge. 

The show is a mix of Talking Heads numbers, such as “I Zimbra,” “Once in a Lifetime” and “Burning Down the House,” and Byrne solo stuff. Sirulnick called the stage show “a very, very joyous experience.” He added, “We believe the film has the same effect.” 

CBS has shared its premiere dates for September and October. With the pandemic delaying production for all networks, they’ve had to get creative to put together a fall season. Season one of Star Trek: Discovery makes its broadcast debut on CBS Sept. 24, while season four of One Day at a Time starts on CBS Oct. 12. Star Trek: Discovery airs on CBS All Access. One Day at a Time runs on Pop TV, which is part of ViacomCBS. 

Season three of Star Trek: Discovery is on CBS All Access Oct. 15. The fourth season of One Day at a Time premiered on Pop March 24.

“This is hardly a traditional fall season, but we are prepared with a strong slate of original content while our regular scripted series begin production,” said Kelly Kahl, president, CBS Entertainment. “Based on our current timeline, we hope to start rolling out our previously announced fall series as they become available in November.”

48 Hours premieres on CBS Sept. 12. 60 Minutes begins Sept. 20, starting season 53. Manhunt: Deadly Games, from Lionsgate and Spectrum Originals, debuts on CBS Sept. 21. It is a scripted true-crime anthology series. 

The Greatest #AtHome Videos, hosted by Cedric the Entertainer, begins Sept. 25. Undercover Boss premieres Oct. 2. The FBI Declassified debuts Oct. 13, giving viewers “unprecedented access to some of the biggest cases handled by real-life FBI agents and analysts,” said CBS. There are six episodes. 

The Amazing Race starts Oct. 14. 

Love Island concludes Sept. 29 and Big Brother wraps Oct. 28. 

WarnerMedia today announced that it has ordered two non-scripted series from the respective producers of Queer Eye and The Amazing Race for its upcoming streaming service, HBO Max.

Executive produced by Scout Productions’ Queer Eye operatives David Collins, Michael Williams and Rob Eric, Legendary will be a competition series themed around voguing, a competitive style of modern dance featuring over-the-top fashion and choreography based on classic model-on-catwalk poses. WarnerMedia has ordered 10 episodes of Legendary for HBO Max.

WarnerMedia has also commissioned Scout Productions to produce 10 episodes of The Greatest Space, along with New Media Collective (NMC), the shop behind The Amazing Race that features Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri

The Greatest Space will be a one-hour show featuring interior designers traveling around the world to transform an eclectic mix of empty rooms into spaces that are, you know, fabulous.

Related: Are AT&T’s HBO Max Ambitions Too Maxed Out?

“Unscripted programming will be an incredibly important component of our HBO Max originals, and this is just the beginning of our venture into this space,” said Sarah Aubrey, head of original content, HBO Max. “These two initial shows will transport audiences to underground worlds and take them on visually stunning, exotic adventures, equaled only by the compelling stories of each contestant.

Related: HBO Max Lands Exclusive Streaming Rights to ‘Doctor Who’ in BBC Content Deal

WarnerMedia has put out a steady stream of programming announcements as it preps for the launch of its new subscription streaming platform in the spring off 2020. The latest reports put the monthly price point for the new service at around $15 a month, three times what Apple will be charging for its new originals-based platform, Apple TV+.

National Geographic earlier this month launched the 11th season of its documentary series Explorer with a new host, television personality Phil Keoghan.

Keoghan, who also serves as host and general manager of The Amazing Race, talked about hosting the iconic Nat Geo series as well as the success of the long-running CBS competition reality show in the latest segment of Multichannel News’ One-On-One in 2 video series. 

Spike TV’s  Bellator MMA 143 telecast pinned down the most social media his in an otherwise light night of activity for TV shows on Twitter.

The live mixed martial arts fight card, which featured the Joe Warren vs. LC Davis bout as its headliner, drew 6,000 tweets reaching a unique audience of 367,000 users to finish first among all entertainment shows for the evening, according to Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings figures.

Bellator beat out broadcast network shows Shark Tank (ABC), The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (CBS) and The Amazing Race (CBS) – as well as a Lifetime’s reality series Bring It! -- for Friday’s TV social media honors, according to Nielsen