TAR 33 cast and changes: What was different when Amazing Race resumed

The Amazing Race 33 premieres early in 2022, and when it does, we’ll see episodes filmed in 2020 and in 2021, as the race did not start over again when production resumed early this fall.

That’s one of many details about the race that were revealed yesterday and today, between coverage in Variety and a virtual press conference that just concluded a few minutes ago.

It turns out that three full legs were filmed before production was suspended, and TAR 33 will resume with leg number four, so the race is not restarting after the year-and-a-half break.

Two of the 11 teams—which CBS announced today, and are below—were eliminated before production shut down.

Variety reported in early December that “Two pairs fell out, but seven teams managed to return.”

But the first part is actually not true: it’s actually four pairs that dropped out, as the Jan. 12 episode revealed, and then two new teams were added. Those will be revealed on the Jan. 19 episode.

During the press conference, I asked co-creators and executive producers Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri how the race was affected by the loss of those two teams—if they adjusted the remaining legs, or added more non-eliminations.

“We did adjust, we did figure out how to do it without having more non-eliminations,” Doganieri said. “We figured out how to extend the length—we were very creative.”

As I reported in September, TAR 33 used a chartered jet, so there’s no commercial air travel.

Although everyone’s flying on the same chartered jet, teams will not constantly be equalized, which is really terrific change.

“We actually staggered the release times, so even though they were on the same plane, your check-in time from the leg before counted for the time you would check out the next day,” Doganieri said, “which actually made for a very intense and exciting race, because the teams were actually closer together.”

Phil Keoghan added that the jet—a Boeing 757—ensured that “everyone was comfortable,” and he pointed out that “we didn’t have long lines to stand in” at airports, which was “a welcome change.”

There will also be no public transportation of any kind: no taxis, busses, or trains.

Instead, contestants will drive themselves more than usual. Doganieri told Variety, “Some of the best TV we get is when these contestants self-drive” because “nothing makes these contestants more crazier than when they have to figure out how to get somewhere without a GPS device. So there will not be any taxis, there will not be any public transportation with other people. But we definitely have some buses and shuttles and different means of transportation.”

The race will also stay in western Europe, with the exception of its return to the United States for the finish. Planning for the remainder of the race started nine months before the race resumed in September.

Van Munster told Variety that “we moved from Glasgow and we started back in Zurich,” and said he “picked a route that was mostly in remote areas or small cities. We looked very carefully so we could do two or three shows in a country, which we normally don’t do. These were all handpicked areas where they had the least amount of COVID, where we had freedom to go into a lot of areas where there’s nobody there.”

In its post-shutdown episodes, The Amazing Race 33 will visit:

• Glasgow, Scotland
• Zurich, Switzerland
• Lugano, Switzerland
• Corsica, France
• Thessaloniki, Greece
• Lisbon, Portugal
• Los Angeles, USA

In terms of future seasons, “it’s a waiting game right now,” van Munster said during the virtual press conference. Doganieri said, “It is possible, we just had to make some adjustments—and I think some of those adjustments are things that we could implement for the future.”

Amazing Race 33’s teams

Here are the 11 teams competing in The Amazing Race season 33, along with CBS’s descriptions of their relationships:

1. Akbar Cook Sr. (45) and Sheridan Cook (44), Married educators from Martinsville, N.J. 
2. Anthony Sadler (29) and Spencer Stone (29), Childhood friends from Sacramento, Calif. 
3. Arun Kumar (56) and Natalie Kumar (28), Father and daughter from Detroit, Mich. 
4. Love Island couple Caro Viehweg (23) and Ray Gantt (25), Dating from Los Angeles and Toms River, N.J., respectively
5. Connie (37) and Sam (39) Greiner, Married couple from Charlotte, N.C. 
6. Kim (45) and Penn (47) Holderness, Internet personalities from Raleigh, N.C. 
7. Marianela “Lulu” (37) and Marissa “Lala” (37) Gonzalez, Twins and radio hosts from North Bergen, N.J. 
8. Michael Norwood (36) and Armonde “Moe” Badger (42), Singing police officers from Buffalo, N.Y. 
9. Raquel Moore (31) and Cayla Platt (30), Flight attendants from Chicago, Ill. and Gulf Breeze, Fla., respectively. 
10. Ryan Ferguson (37) and Dusty Harris (38), Best friends from Columbia, Mo. 
11. Taylor Green-Jones (38) and Isaiah Green-Jones (31), YouTube sensations from Portland, Ore. 

This story was updated after the Jan. 12, 2022, episode of The Amazing Race 33 revealed which five teams returned to the race, meaning that four of the nine teams still in the running were not able to return.