Life on the Spot! Life and Leisure in Doha, Qatar

The race is on, in The Amazing Race: All Stars. Now on it 11th season on CBS, the contestants who come from the previous seasons, 1-10 are back on their feet to race around the world, thus calling it all star. The 11 teams of two people with existing relationships have yet another chance to compete and win 1 million dollars. The casting for this season was based on popularity as well as notoriety with the audience as a result of their performance in the previous seasons. The most popular would be the team-up of "Reality husband and wife" Rob and Amber, who were then engaged and landed 2nd place in Season 7. Rob and Amber first met in Survivor: All Star, they got engaged right on the set of Survivor: All Star's season finale, their wedding was televised in the US, and they just recently starred in their own reality show, Rob and Amber: Against The Odds. Then there's David and Mary competed in last season, the coalminer and his wife from Kentucky, whose high regard for friendships in the midst of the race has made them a household name. Uchenna and Joyce, the winners of Season 7, who became famous when Joyce agreed to have her hair shaved as part of a "fast forward" task. Then there's the Team Guido of gay life-partners, Joe and Bill, dubbed as one of the most conniving teams that has ever raced. The beauty queens, the barbies, and the blondes are the names, bestfriends Dustin and Candice are well-known for last season. Being fierce competitors has definitely earned them a spot on this season. But of course, worth mentioning would be the team-up of cousins Charla and Mirna from season 5, who are definitely two of the biggest contestants in the history of The Amazing Race. Charla's participation in the race is truly a source of inspiration for a lot of people especially those who are "vertically-challenged". Mirna, on the other hand, is probably the single contestant who has had the most number of disagreements with other teams in the past and even in this new season. Every week you'll see them, especially Mirna having a tiff with a different team namely Mary and David, Teri and Ian (the oldest players who were 2nd placers in Season 3) and just recently Rob and Amber. I won't be surprised if they would have made enemies with all of the other teams before the season ends. The casting is quite okay, except that, previous winners Euchenna and Joyce shouldn't have been chosen again. If they were to place former winners, they should have just opted for the more famous and charismatic duo, BJ and Tyler, popularly-known as "the Hippies" from Season 9. We were also expecting dating couples MoJo, Monica and Joseph, also from Season 9 or Colin and Christie from Season 5.

The first eliminated were fraternity brothers from Season 1, Kevin and Drew, followed by former lovers John Vito and Jill from Season 3. Next to go was the David and Mary. Then last Sunday, the very strong tandem of Rob and Amber just crumbled. Coming from 1st place in first three legs to last and getting eliminated on Sunday. I'm sure that their elimination from the race was such a relief for all the other teams as they were considered as the strongest competitors this season. Though luck does have a major impact on the turn of events in this race, the choices that the teams make are also as important. As in the case of Rob and Amber, they definitely made a mistake with the "detour" task that they chose. What's even funny is that the spelling of "Philippines" which they spelled "Phillipines" had led to their downfall. Then Rob shouldn't have done the "road block" task of looking for a single envelope in a pile of mail since between Rob and Amber, I'm pretty sure that Amber has more patience. I was actually rooting for them but there goes their chance of winning. Now that they're gone, I would like Oswald and Danny, gay best friends from Season 2 or "the beauty queens" to win. Oswald and Danny because they are also good competitors and they are the nicest of all the teams this season. Dustin and Kandice because they are really good and smart competitors. They are former besuty queens but not once in the race they have shown that they are such. They were always up for the challenges, be they gross and physically-difficult. However, the team up of dating couple Eric and Danielle from Season 9, is one of the stronger teams to watch out for. Although having watched almost all of the seasons of the show, I would have to say that it's still anybody's game. You'll never know the twists and turns in the race, you'll never know what's really going to happen and that's what makes it "The Amazing Race".