Extreme blind dates in Amazing Race Season 26

MANILA, Philippines - Racing around the world is challenging enough. But what if you have to do it with somebody you don’t know?

That is the first-time premise that faces five of the teams in the 26th season of The Amazing Race (TAR) US, which brings together total strangers. Among the 11 participating teams, five pairs met each other for the first time in an “extreme blind date.” So that doubles their challenges in ultimately trying to win the $1M prize.

TAR has been introducing a variation of changes to its well-known format, especially since the reality show celebrated its silver anniversary last year. After 25 seasons and 15 Emmys, the show still requires interesting twists in its format.

TAR 26 will cover five continents, eight countries and more than 35,000 miles. The race introduces first-time visit to Monaco and covers other places in its itinerary like Japan, Thailand, Germany and Namibia.

Viewers will also see the Date Night, where a lucky team who retrieves the special clue for each leg, will get to spend a one-on-one romantic activity. There is spending the night in a hot springs resort in Nagano, Japan or stargazing at the Bavarian Public Observatory in Munich, Germany.

For the first time, there are no two girls in one team unlike in previous races. Last season’s winner was the all-girl team of food scientists Amy DeJong and Maya Warren from Madison, Wisconsin, the third all-girl team to win TAR.

The six dating couples for TAR 26 are Olympic athletes Steven Langton and Aly Dudek; hair stylists Matt Cucolo and Ashley Gordon; truck stop manager Michael Dombrowski and contract engineer Rochelle Nevedal; airline pilot Jeff Magee and flight attendant Lyda Grawn; New Kids on the Block member Jonathan Knight and fitness trainer Harley Rodriguez; Information Technology technician CJ Harris and medical support assistant Lebya Simpson.

The pairs who meet each other for the first time are navy physician Blair Townsend and registered nurse Hayley Keel; sales account executive Jeffrey Weldon and dancer Jackie Ibarra; mobile app developer Tyler Adams and booker Laura Pierson; lawyers Jelani Roy and Jenny Wu; human resources project manager Bergen Olsen and pageant consultant Kurt Jordan Belcher.

The race started with a mud-run obstacle course at Castaic Lake in California, then the teams took off to their first destination in Tokyo, Japan. Surprisingly, the first three teams who arrived at the Pit Stop were all blind dating.

Lawyers Jelani and Jenny were the first on the mat, so they won the Express Pass. Meanwhile, Jeff and Lyda, who have been dating for four years, were the last team to arrive after they experienced a Double U-Turn from Mike and Rochelle. Subsequently, Jeff and Lyda were eliminated.

After the Thursday night premiere, TAR 26 returned to its Saturday night timeslot on the same week. From Tokyo, the race covered Nagano City also in Japan. Again, Jelani and Jenny were the first team to arrive at the Pit Stop. Second team to be eliminated was dating couple Libby and CJ. Harley and Jonathan won the special Date Night prize to a Japanese hot spring.

The pairs who meet each other for the first time are proving to be the strong teams early on in the race. Let’s see who will prevail to ultimately win TAR 26.