Amazing Race: Season 7

The spring 2005 seventh season edition of this popular reality show finds two-person contestant teams traveling across five continents and visiting 25 cities in a race covering some 40,000 miles. This season's “stunt casting” brought into the competition a team from Survivor: Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich, who quickly became the show's scheming couple-to-hate, adding motivation for the other competitors. The contest begins in Long Beach, California and whisks the players to Lima, Peru for the first in a long series of grueling challenges, with the best of the 12 episodes being the two-hour extravaganza, “I've Been Wanting a Face-Lift for a Long Time,” which follows the contestants to South Africa, where they tackle some particularly arduous tasks (such as rappelling into an underground cavern). Rob and Amber are indeed fierce competitors, and the race isn't decided until the final minutes of the closing episode, which begins in England and bounces to Jamaica and then Puerto Rico before the winners are declared. Although the show's novelty has worn off, the combination of competition and exotic locales keeps it popular. DVD extras include three hours of deleted scenes, four audio commentary tracks, and a 25-minute retrospective featurette. A strong optional purchase. (E. Hulse)