The Amazing Race resumes: Bigger and maybe better

 The Amazing Race

Season 35, Episode 1 

By Jim Memmott

Los Angeles/Bangkok – More is more on Season 35 of the Race, which kicked off beneath the HOLLYWOOD sign on Wednesday.  

There were:

More teams: 13, as opposed to 11 in previous seasons.

More minutes: 90, as opposed to the previous 60, CBS perhaps expanding the time to fill for lack of content due to the writer’s strike.

More: Airport scenes. Racers are no longer flying in charters, a previous

concession to the pandemic.

Brunch

More of the old: The Express Pass has returned, giving one team a ticket to skip a challenge. Sisters Lena and Morgan Franklin choked down some bugs to win the pass. So far, they haven’t used it.

More Franklins: Brothers Gregg and Jon Franklin (unrelated to Lena and Morgan) are also racing

More therapy: Competitors are often on the Race to work out relationship issues. Leader in

The Martins

the pack this time seems to be Todd Martin, a T.M.I. guy who allowed that he and wife, Ashlie, are racing to fix problems in their marriage.

Engaged couple Joe Moskowitz and Ian Todd – “opposites in every sense of the word” – would like to improve their communication. 

More backstories: Given the added minutes, the racers could tell us more about themselves. Robbin Tomich's account of losing her husband to cancer, then having surgery herself for a benign brain tumor and then getting herself in better shape was riveting.

Robbin Tomich (left) and 
Chelsea Day 

More of the same: “The Amazing Race” producers know what works. You take a group of contestants with different personalities, strengths and baggage and watch them struggle (with the challenges, and often with each other). 

On the basis of one episode, it’s easy to root for Corey McArthur and his dad, Rob, who is deaf. 

Rob stepped right up and did a terrifying highwire walk before quickly unscrambling (spoiler alert) the letters ACEFGILNOSTY (City of Angels) to land a spot on the first flight to Bangkok.

Rob MacArthur

I also like Jocelyn Chao and Victor Limary, married entrepreneurs who are getting a break from working around the clock in real life by being on the race. They finished first in the episode, helped a little by Victor’s ability to speak Thai with their taxi driver. (Yes, cabbies, and all their quirks, are back.)

There are no non-elimination episodes this season, as with last season.

First to go after one episode were siblings Alexandra and Sheridan Lichtor. They dithered before the high wire challenge, they chose the wrong detour, a martial-arts test that seemed much harder than 30 minutes of painful massage.

We’re left with 12 other teams. It should be fun.

Overheard:

Phil Koeghan: We’re circling the globe the old-school way.

Ashlie Martin:  Love is an action, not a feeling.

Anna Leigh Wilson: Little do they know, I come with a punch.

Todd Martin: I was trying to be all theatrical, next time I’m just going to shut up.

Order of finish: 

Victor Limary and Jocelyn Chao, married entrepreneurs

Corey and Rob McArthur, son and father

Gregg and John Franklin, brothers

Morgan and Lena Franklin, sisters

Todd and Ashlie Martin, married, high school sweethearts

Steve Cargile and Anna Leigh Wilson, father and daughter

Joel Strasser and Garrett Smith, best friends

Liam and Yeremi Hykel, brothers

Joe Moskowitz and Ian Todd, engaged

Andrea Simpson and Malaina Hatcher, college friends

Robbin Tomich and Chelsea Day, childhood best friends

Elizabeth and Iliana Rivera, mother and daughter

Eliminated

Alexandra and Sheridan Lichtor, siblings and roommates