[HPF Bob]

One of my favorite shows is "The Amazing Race" (CBS Sunday nights) and I was checking their website to see when the premier for season 23 would appear (September 29th, 7pm Central*) and they had profiles of the new contestants.

For those who don't know (and the show is endlessly promoted during NFL telecasts so you probably do know), the show is a reality series where 11 teams of two conduct a race around the world to win a $1 million prize. On most shows, one team is eliminated by being the last to finish that episode's leg.

This season has two former Houston Texans offensive linemen - Chester Pitts and Ephraim Salaam. They will no doubt do some of their racing in their Houston Texans jerseys until watchers recognize who they are without the need for reminders.

Pretty much each season the race has two or three teams of some form of celebrity notoriety. Marcus Pollard (former Colts TE) and his wife made it to the final episode a few years ago and constantly peppered his comments with football rhetoric (i.e. "It's 4th and goal now. We gonna find out what we're made of.")

If you hate stereotyping, this show tries to be PC enough to attract all demographic groups so there is usually a gay team, 2-3 minority teams, at least one older person, one or two "freak" teams (midgets, excessively tatted, goth, physically or emotionally disabled, etc.) who all become friends during the race in the interest of celebrating diversity.

My theory is that the quasi-celebs are just there to attract new viewers and almost never win although two hockey-playing brothers did win last season. Usually, the athletes get tripped up by the brain-teaser tasks but they excel at the endurance and stamina tasks.

Just like when Jeff Kent appeared on "Survivor" last fall, I'll provide some updates and key moments while Chester and Ephraim are still in the race.

* - one of the frustrating things about this show is that it appears on Sunday nights and often starts late due to NFL games (or golf tourneys, etc.) running late but you never know how late so if you plan to record the show, allow an extra hour after the end time each episode. You can also follow it on the CBS.com website if your streaming video is good or you have an aversion to watching "60 Minutes" segments. Some of the world sites are something to behold now that the show is filmed in HD.