For the first time, Survivor, Big Brother and The Amazing Race worlds collide, with teams of two set to compete on The Amazing Race season 31.
For the past few years, CBS has seen a certain scheduling flow to their slate of reality television programming. Survivor starts in late September and late February/early March each year, followed by The Amazing Race somewhere after the May Survivor finale, with Big Brother overlapping sometime in June.
However, with the Million Dollar Mile floundering after just two episodes, CBS has bumped things up. Now The Amazing Race season 31 will premiere on April 17 at 9 p.m. ET, meaning the pre-season cast reveal came on Friday evening! With that announcement came the reveal that three familiar teams are set to race around the world against teams from Big Brother and The Amazing Race.
The three teams from our next of the reality show woods are as follows: Corinne Kaplan (Gabon, Caramoan) and Eliza Orlins (Vanuatu, Micronesia); Rupert Boneham (Pearl Islands, All-Stars, Heroes vs. Villains, Blood vs. Water) and Laura Boneham (Blood vs. Water); and Chris Hammons and Bret LaBelle (Millennials vs. Gen X).
Just like Survivor, teams will be competing for $1 million, although instead of living on a few Fijian islands until the heat death of the universe, players will be traveling 25,000+ miles around the world to compete in a series of challenges. On top of challenges, teams can throw up U-turns and other stoppages to slow down select teams, although those options are limited and rare. There’s a social game aspect as well as a sense of direction and beasting competitions.
There’s some stiff competition, as there are 11 teams in total including five The Amazing Race alums. The Survivor teams are playing from behind compared to the Big Brother teams as some of them have competed on TAR before (and thrived). Still, I’m sure a sizeable number of people out there are interested in seeing some of our favorite legends, villains and odd couples on TV once again.
We will be providing light The Amazing Race coverage from a Survivor fan’s perspective ahead of the season’s premiere as well as episode recaps.