Colour me stone, cold, motherless shocked after switching on the premiere of The Amazing Race Australia last night, which as far as promotion goes was reasonably restrained from Channel Ten, only to find the network had miraculously bucked the usual Australian TV trend of casting more white faces than a cubicle at a media company Christmas party. In its place, holy shit, easily one of the most diverse and kickass casts in recent Australian TV history. And honestly, every single person on the show, so far, absolutely rules. Except the “social media influencers” from Bondi. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
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Last night’s premiere officially unveiled the full cast – although producers confirmed the cast a few days ago in a few very quiet social media posts – which not only featured Australians from, quite literally, every walk of life, but it presented them all as normal, capable people, completely avoiding any self-congratulatory or tokenistic pitfalls in the process.
This year’s series, the first under the rebooted Channel Ten model, kicked off with 11 teams racing through Seoul, South Korea. And that included the kinds of faces you simply do not see on Australian TV not just regularly, but ever.
There’s Femi and Nick, childhood friends and psych nurses from NSW.
Tim and Rod, head-over-heels in love newlyweds who, as an added bonus, have a frankly adorable (and impossibly jacked) couples Instagram account.
Rowah and Amani, a mother/daughter duo from Sydney who a) look closer to siblings, and b) look capable of outrunning a freight train.
Judy and Therese, a pair of Nuns who might be the most oddly wholesome pairing ever put to screen in Australia.
Chris and Adrienne, who just seem bloody pumped to not be working for a hot few days.
Jasmin and Jerome, who the show has nicknamed the “Deadly Duo” which is impossibly cute.
Joey and Viv, Melburnians, siblings, diminutive powerhouses.
Alana and Niko, who unfortunately ate immense shit in Leg 1 and got eliminated, partly because they’ve never had to navigate without a smartphone before.
Hayley and Mikayla, Queenslanders who could probably catch barramundi with their bare hands if they wanted to.
And Tom and Tyler, footballing mates who seem fairly nice and well put together, which seems remarkable given one of them quit the actual AFL to be here, and the other has a father who is absurdly famous in footballing circles.
Just insanely good gear all around. A huge dose of credit where it’s due.
Of course, there’s also the “Influencer” couple, Sid and Ash, who seem hell bent on inviting untold metal pain into their lives by deliberately setting out to be the show’s villains.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3VoApUB7pD/
I mean who steals dumplings from a pair of Nuns? Honestly.
All in all, a really, really good start to the series. I’m shocked, I’m staggered, and I’m over the moon about it.
Now if Beau Ryan could stop fucking hugging people as they cross the Pit Stop finish line we’d be cooking with gas.
