‘The Amazing Race’ Season 15: Teams are announced & one is quickly eliminated

‘The Amazing Race’ Season 15 started off last night with a two-hour premiere that not only introduced the new teams, but shocked viewers with a great twist — one team would be eliminated right away.

If you had any doubts as to whether you had it in you to watch yet another season of a global endurance race for $1 million, think again. This season started off with colorful characters, lies and intense challenges that kicked off in the L.A. River before jetting off to Tokyo and ending up in Vietnam by the end of the premiere. They took on challenges including eating a “wasabi bomb” sushi roll to survive a Japanese game show, leading a group of 20 Japanese people through the city to their next checkpoint, fertilizing a fruit tree in Vietnam, and the task that was most influential on the final outcome — herding ducks.

Here’s a quick rundown of the new teams. After that, tune in to Show Tracker’s Amazing Race blog for episode updates.

Brian and Ericka, a married couple from Nashville. Brian is a marketing tour manager and Ericka is an entertainer and holds the 2004 Miss America title.

Lance and Keri. An engaged couple from Massachusetts. He’s a tough-guy trial attorney and she’s a finance manager.

Maria and Tiffany. Professional poker players who instead told the other teams that they help homeless youth. Their cover didn’t last long when Tiffany was recognized mid-show at an airport.

Zev and Justin. Best friends from Los Angeles. Zev has Asperger’s syndrome.

Mika and Canaan. Newly dating Christians from Nashville.

Herbert and Nathaniel are known on the show as Flight Time and Big Easy, their nicknames as players on the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.

Sam and Dan. Gay brothers from Missouri who said in the beginning, “We’re Christian, but can be bad whenever we want to.”

Gary and Matt. A father and son team from Montana.

Eric and Lisa. Married yoga teachers who never made it past the first challenge.

Garrett and Jessica. The on-again, off-again couple whose relationship could be at stake by the way they get along during the show. 

Marcy and Ron. At 60 and 59, respectively, the senior couple in the group — they’ve been dating for a year.

Meghan and Cheyne. A young, athletic couple from San Diego. They met in elementary school.

Which team do you think has the best chance of winning?

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger

[Photos: Courtesy of CBS]

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 28, 2009 at 1:14 pm by Jen Leo and is filed under Amazing Race, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.