Travel Channel to show Season 12 of Amazing Race

To tide you over until Amazing Race 13 begins on September 28, tune into The Travel Channel. Starting September 3 at 8 p.m. EST, season 12 will be shown.

Although the winners from season 12 are known– Rachel and T.K., the couple who had smart ideas about how to use the dough (although with the abysmal showing of the current market and housing crisis, I wonder how that went?) there are travel tidbits about each of the countries the contestants visited and host Phil Keoghan’s commentaries.

My favorite episode was the Burkina Faso leg, particularly when most teams didn’t know how to say the capital Ouagadougou when they found out where they were heading. The camel milking made for the best TV. Plus, of all the locations, this was probably the one that was the most obscure to many of the folks who tuned in to watch.

Here’s a review of that episode on TV Squad to refresh your memory or to catch you up to the crazy antics that can happen as teams of two people race around the world on a chase for a million dollars.

Jason Hughes, at TV Squad wonders if The Travel Channel’s airing of the show may mean that CBS is thinking about pulling the plug since it is only picked up season by season. In that case, The Travel Channel could take it over. I hope it will stay on CBS so people can see it without cable.

New reality show: Americans go to a foreign country

It is kind of sad when a country needs to wrap a reality show around foreign travel. At the same time, if this is the way to get more Americans to travel abroad, more power to ABC.

ABC has ordered a new unscripted show from the producer of “Hell’s Kitchen” in which Americans go to a foreign country to compete in challenges. The series might be called “Big in Japan” (sorry, Matthew) and is supposed to combine reality and game show elements as contestants adapt to another culture while competing.

This could either be A) really funny or B) totally boring, filled with stereotypes (the stupid ones, not even the funny ones), such as the one about the ugly American walking into a sushi bar demanding a peanut butter sandwich and such. Oh, no. I just created a monster!

If I had to bet money on it, I would go with B.

[via TV Squad]