The Greatest Show on Earth

My favourite TV show, the only one I watch seriously any more, is back on. Yes, it's time for the tenth Amazing Race.
It's nice to finally see some diversity in the cast; it's certainly time to take a break from pretty, young, bickering couples, and tags like "dating/models," "friends/models," and "Satanists/models." Of course, of the non-Caucasian teams, two were eliminated in the first episode. They seemed like lovely folks. Damn.
The most interesting bit of diversity-casting, though, comes from a coal-mining couple from Kentucky. It's diversity of classes, not races, and actually comes across more strikingly. As in, the hard-working white miners stand out more than the devout, beardy Muslims. These two have never a) travelled beyond Kentucky or Tennessee, b) been on a passenger train, c) never met gay people, and d) never met Asian people. I cannot imagine never seeing people of other races, or travelling beyond my own state. It'll be interesting to see what happens to that team.
Also of some interest is the pair of pageant queens, if only because a) they seem aware that they are instantly hateable by virtue of being pageant queens in the first place, and b) they're quite competent racers, and, missing-horseriding-helmet aside, are low on sucking.
Also, they went to Mongolia! Neat!

Survivor is also on, which I watch despite becoming more ridiculous each season. They're gonna run out of idyllic tropical islands soon. I'm all for future seasons of "Survivor: Svalbard" or perhaps "Survivor: Kyrgyzstan."