Detour for "Amazing Race" Leads It to New Night and Time

Everything about the next installment of The Amazing Race is brand new. Or, at the very least, that's how CBS would like to paint it.

What is new about The Amazing Race 10 is a new night and timeslot (Sundays at 8 pm ET/PT, which I am really growing to like the more I think about it) and some new exotic destinations for the teams to get lost in, including China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Kuwait, and Madagascar. Teams will depart from Seattle and travel westward for the first time in the series' history.

(Fortunately, one thing that isn't new about the series is its host. Uber-host Phil Keoghan will return for the tenth installment of The Amazing Race.)

According to the show's producers, the teams themselves will be more diverse than in previous installments of the Race.

"This cast is as different as it's ever been," executive producer Bertram van Munster told the Television Critics Association's summer meeting. "It's meltdown city on this trip."

Van Munster said the language barrier made traveling difficult for the teams, along with 130-degree heat in Kuwait and filming in Communist countries. In Vietnam, the government insisted on viewing daily footage but didn't request any changes or cuts.

(Hell, at least they didn't end up in Beirut with Anthony Bourdain.)

The twelve teams competing for the $1 million grand prize were announced on Saturday at the Television Critics Association gathering in Pasadena and include:

Vipul Patel, 29, and Arti Patel, 26, of Windermere, Florida; the first Indian-Americans on the Race.

Erwin Cho, 32, and Godwin Cho, 29. Brothers from San Francisco.

Tom Rock, 39, and Terry Cosentino, 45, a gay couple from New York City.

Kellie Patterson, 22, and Jamie Hill, 22. Friends from Columbia, South Carolina.

Lyn Turk, 32, of Birmingham, Ala., and Karlyn Harris, 32, of Helena, Alabama. Friends.

David Conley, 32, and Mary Conley, 31. Married couple from Stone, Kentucky.

Bilal Abdul-Mani, 37, and Sa’eed Rudolph, 39, of Cleveland. Friends/Muslims.

Peter Harsch, 35, of Laguna Beach, Calif., and Sarah Reinertsen, 31, of Trabuco Canyon, California. Friends. Additionally, Sarah has an artificial leg.

Rob Diaz, 31, and Kimberly Chabolla, 28, of Los Angeles. Dating.

Tyler Denk, 29, and James Branaman, 27, of Los Angeles. Friends/models.

Dustin Konzelman, 24, of Riverside, California, and Kandice Pelletier, 24, of New York City. Friends/former Miss USA contestants.

Duke Marcoccio, 52, and Lauren Marcoccio, 26, of Warwick, Rhode Island. Father and daughter.

Is it just me or are there an inordinate number of teams comprised of "friends"? Well, better than too many teams made up of models, I suppose...

The Amazing Race's tenth season will kick off this fall in its new timeslot of Sundays at 8 pm on CBS.