Warning! The following contains spoilers from The Amazing Race Season 38 premiere, "Two Worlds Colliding." Stream the feeds with a Paramount+ subscription, and read at your own risk!
The Amazing Race Season 38 premiered, and as someone who has been watching Big Brother online for the past three months, I was thrilled to see teams of former players and their families compete. That said, I'm all for fairness and have to call out the travel series for an unexpected moment that I feel was pretty unfair.
Phil Keoghan is always listening to fans and their ideas, even the bad ones, so may I suggest they do a bit more vetting with businesses they partner with for challenges. I saw this after watching the premiere, in which I feel like teams encountered an unexpected additional challenge during the flower phase that impacted the game.
The Flower Challenge Was Much Easier For The Bains And Des Lauriers Teams Than Everyone Else
As the first two teams to reach the flower-picking challenge, the teams of Jag and Jas Bains (the odds-on favorites to win) and Tucker and Eric Des Lauriers were already at an advantage. They decided to help each other advance, which only helped more, and were in and out in what seemed like a fairly reasonable amount of time.
In all honesty, this was a tough challenge. While it initially seemed like all the teams had to do was color-match flowers, it soon became evident to The Amazing Race teams that many of the flowers they needed looked very similar and only had subtle differences that one needed a keen eye to notice. That played a key factor later on, as shortly after Rubina Bernabe and her sister Kristine showed up, the retractable roof, letting in all the sunlight, closed.
It Was Completely Unfair To Make Many Of The Teams Complete The Challenge In Darkness
Fortunately for Team Bernabe, Kristine works as a florist in Los Angeles. They were able to complete the challenge in darkness in a reasonable amount of time, but it was a different story for a lot of other teams. Spotting the differences in these flowers was tough enough, and adding darkness to the situation really dragged out the process.
The challenge was especially tough on some team members, like Kat Dunn, who shed tears of frustration over not being able to find the right combination. Matt Turner also struggled to the point where it seemed he might throw in the towel entirely. Fortunately, both were able to get out of it eventually and were able to stay to fight on The Amazing Race for at least another episode.
Unfortunately, Enzo Palumbo and his brother Jack weren't quite so lucky. While they also struggled a good deal from the flower challenge, their downfall was more that they were saddled with a bike that required one of them to ride in a large clog. The Amazing Race didn't save the duo with a non-elimination leg, and they will be the first taken out of Season 38. That said, who knows if they might've escaped elimination had they had ample lighting to do the challenge?
The Amazing Race airs new episodes on CBS on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET. Check out what else is on the 2025 TV schedule as the fall television season gets underway, and be prepared to watch a lot of new and returning shows.
