ValparaisoIn my terribly limited choice of television viewing, 95% of my time is spent on only two subjects: soccer and The Amazing Race. Not surprisingly, I was excited about last night’s start of the sixteenth season. One of the rare joys of The Amazing Race occurs when they travel to a place you actually know, so I was excited when they headed off to Valparaiso, Chile. (That’s my picture above. One of the ascensors is in the center of the picturre.)

However, I do have to complain about their endless fascination with atypical couples. I watch the show for two reasons: (1) to see interesting places from the comfort of my living room, and (2) to see how everyday people react to foreign experiences. “Celebrity” couples don’t add a thing to the show. They actually cheapen it by taking the camera away from the experiences of real people. But I must be in the minority, since they did the same pandering with my previous favorite travel show, The Mole. The average viewer must be more likely to tune in if some Baldwin brother, reality show castoff,  or the Harlem Globetrotters are represented.

Speaking of  ”atypical” couples, their fascination with homosexual couples is also interesting. Now I don’t have the slightest problem with this, as anyone who knows me knows. Yet they do seem a bit obsessed with it, especially with finding couples and individuals willing to gloriously play the part of “Amazing Race Gay Contestant.” Probably their percentages are about correct—if 10% of the population is at least moderately gay, then 3 people out of 22 isn’t out of the ordinary. But I doubt 13.6%  of the population is as outspokenly gay as on the show. It’s also interesting because it is rarely a source of conflict, so it’s not as though they are choosing their couples in the hopes of a little entertaining brawling (unlike Big Brother or The Real World). Again, I don’t care, but I’d be interested in seeing the marketing decisions behind this since everything on the show eventually connects to marketing.

One final note: I love how Google now includes random Twitter tweets on its search page. I’m not sure it’s possible to have a worse advertisement for your product than a pointless Twitter banality. Just in case you start to think Twitter might be profound, Google proudly debunks this theory with fascinating insights into everyday lives like this one I grabbed last night:

twitter.com – 1 minute ago

Now folding clothes while watching amazing race 16…w/ sis … N switching channel tfc n abc..

Not THAT makes me want to sign up. More, please!

twitter.com – 1 minute ago
Now folding clothes while watching amazing race 16…w/ sis … N switching channel tfc n abc..