The Gaymazing Race

It's the Amazing Race Season 34 finale, and Nicole and Karen not only interview the top 3 teams, but they also bring back Aastha and Nina, the lesbian team woefully eliminated at the very start of the race, for a S34 post-mortem. Will Derek and Claire have it out with our hosts for not only erasing Claire's bisexuality, but also rooting against them most of the time? What will Emily and Molly reve...

There's a schism in this week's gay scores doled out by Karen and Nicole, as Karen thinks "all of Iceland is lesbionic," while Nicole is a little more skeptical as we confront three out of four "straight-facing couples" in the final four. David with the Good Hair touches us with his bravery as he confronts his difficulties swimming this week. We digress into educational riffs about spectrums of ra...

Despite the prevailing heterosexuality (and one lone bisexual) amongst our remaining contestants, episode 10 of The Amazing Race offers the most gaymazing detours yet, from dressing a flamenco dancer, to a challenge dubbed  "Bend Over Backwards," testing how much a brick arch can, in Phil's words, "take a load." Marcus of Michael and Marcus joins us in our elimination station to break down exactly...

The Amazing Race serves up another Mega Leg, so we have no elimination station this week: just teams racing around Malaga, Spain recreating art, riding bicycles, and pumping up paddleboards. We get into some of the racers' squeamishness while undertaking a sardine-grilling challenge, and Nicole makes her case for why our hypothetical team might want to choose the other side of the detour. Karen se...

The Amazing Race teams head due south from Domme to Toulouse, and Karen and Nicole are tantalized by the Road Block which involves running drills with an entire French women's rugby team. BUT FIRST, our hosts atone for their bisexual erasure of one of the remaining contestants. Even amidst this gay plentitude, deprivation looms on the horizon as our last officially GAYmazing team, the co-ed cheerl...

Nicole and Karen get into a discussion about reclaiming pejoratives like "dyke" and "queer" while recapping The Amazing Race's return to Europe and the Dordogne region in the South of France. Is the lady-Knight at the genealogy challenge actually Nicole's "lesbian" doctor in L.A.? Are the short-haired women who used their tractor to rescue the team who drove into the ditch family? Plus, we welcome...

The Amazing Race manages another first during its visit to the Kingdom of Jordan: the first team ever to be eliminated for testing positive for Covid is cut from the race within this episode's opening minutes. Is it just us, or are we starting to see Quentin and Mattie (our official Gaymazing team) beginning to make strides in the competition, including limber stretches to grab tinfulls of nails?...

The Amazing Race makes its first visit ever to the Kingdom of Jordan, and Karen and Nicole are excited to welcome camel caravans and cute puppies into the show's environments.. Despite some Gaymazing references to Lawrence of Arabia and the like, this episode scores low on our Gaymazing-meter until we have a chance to meet with Linton & Sharik in our Elimination Station, and hear about Sharik's qu...

The first MEGA-LEG reaches its conclusion this week in Florence, Italy, or as Quinton reminds us, "Firenze in Italian." Nicole beams in from NYC where she just accepted an Edward R. Murrow award for her other pod series Relative Fiction –HOORAY!--and Karen does her best to up episode 4's Gaymazing score with a couple of gay flourishes, and a mini-rant about exposing kids to straightness. Plus, we...

Leg 3 kicks off the first MEGA LEG of Season 34 - but almost certainly won't be the last. This to-be-continued episode has everything from lectures, wheels of cheese, socket wrenches, and of course, driving (or failing to drive) stick shift. Since there was no elimination station, Karen and Nicole are joined by a Gaymazing-Amazing-Race Superfan, Katy Davidson! 

Leg 2 S34 departs from Munich and lands in Innsbruck, Austria and its Alpine environs for some yodeling, cowbells and a leather-clad butt-slapping dancing in the square. Karen speculates whether or not she would be allowed to select her gender-affirming version of the lederhosen/dirndl attire the contestants had to wear throughout the entire leg. Nicole tells us what both incontinence and Jesus ha...

Season 34 of The Amazing Race has returned, and so have we! Join Nicole & Karen as they recap the new season from an LGBTQ POV. How do we feel about "the scramble" replacing our old familiar road blocks, detours and route info? How much do we love the engaged lesbian couple, Aastha and Nina from L.A., and who else triggers our gaydar and queer admiration? Plus, Elimination Station returns–we'lll i...

To wrap up the season, we're bringing you post-finale interviews with Raquel and Cayla, Dusty, and Arun and Natalia. 

In this supersized episode of TGR, Nicole and Karen recap the final two legs of the race in Lisboa and Los Angeles. Cayla and Raquel continue to inflame all the fanfic we've been weaving about them by calling each other "babe" all over Portugal and Los Angeles. Dusty talks-up Ryan's upper-body strength in a rowing challenge. Arun and Natalia demonstrate what can be accomplished without ever workin...

Could leg 9 of season 33 be the gayest episode of The Amazing Race yet? Nicole and Karen have such rich Hellenistic content to explore, from all the Thespians featured throughout this leg in Thessalonaki to the Oracle of Delphi giving us endurance-oriented experimental theater vibes. Through it all, Cayla offers Raquel a back massage, Ryan won't do the same for Dusty, and at least 3 cats show up,...

In this food-centric leg 8 of The Amazing Race , we witness more kitchen hubris from the guys, ladies climbing ladderless, some dumpster diving, and add to our TGR Dogs & Cats tally. Plus, Lulu and Lala join us for an elmination station interview to talk about their touching goodbyes to Phil and give the inside scoop on some...digestive realities of the race. 

Today Nicole is joined by noted Amazing Race superfan Poulomi Saha to discuss Amazing Race 33 Episode 7 (Gently Down the Stream) , while our faithful host and executive producer Karen Tongson recuperates from Covid.  We watch the teams try Casu Marzu in Corsica, count metal fish together under the water, fake-almost-drown thanks to editing, and MORE. Tune in!  Poulomi Saha (@poulomiqsaha)  is  an...

Leg 6 of The Amazing Race is not for the lactose intolerant, as our contestants take cheesin' to a whole other level. We get a clear picture of which teams know how to manipulate strips of leather and metal loops round an ass to properly strap on giant metal milk containers. Is sisterhood powerful? Or is it all lip service between the all girl teams whose actions don't always match their feminist...

Nicole and Karen experience actual physical distress when they see this week's Amazing Race Road Block: the second highest bungee jump in the world. Would our resident vegan Nicole be able to stomach the sausage-making challenge that Karen thought was a "no-brainer" choice at the Detour? And which of the teams visits our elimination station?!? Plus, find out more about the three teams who couldn't...

Nicole and Karen rejoin the race as it resumes in St. Gallen Switzerland after a 19 month suspension. The contestants confront dizzying Alpine heights, some fast-moving clouds that Sils Maria would be proud of, and a leather challenge that our hosts feel confident they could master. PLUS: Starting this week, Nicole and Karen will be welcoming TAR 33's eliminated teams for a special exit segment! T...

Nicole & Karen recap S33 EP3 in Glasgow, Scotland: what they're calling the last "pre-pan" or "pre-lapserian" episode of The Amazing Race before production was halted on 2/28/2020. How do our hosts feel about the "if it ain't Scottish, it's crrrrraaap" aspects of this leg, which features contestants donning kilts, fondling bagpipes and risking tetanus to refurbish whiskey barrels? The hosts also a...

Nicole and Karen reunite to recap the long-awaited 33rd season of The Amazing Race , which began filming in early 2020 before…(well, you know), and didn't resume until 18 months later. We'll introduce you to all 11 teams and who we're currently vibing with. What changes in the first two episodes of S33 (filmed in London), already seemed Covid-aware? Or were they merely refreshing the format? Plus,...

On the heels of our last episode which touched upon the lack of lesbian representation on The Amazing Race , Nicole and Karen take matters into their own hands to form a lesbian TAR fantasy league. We invite authors, scholars, and queer BFFs Poulomi Saha & Greta LaFleur to talk about what would make them a great Amazing Race team. We hear about how Poulomi groomed an unwitting Greta to be a TAR te...

Karen and Nicole spend some quality time with the first ever lesbian couple and team to compete on The Amazing Race , the "married ministers," Kate and Pat. Though their run on the race lasted only a couple of legs, they also had some spirited drama on the web series Elimination Station . Which of the two earned a lifetime supply of Hooters?!  You'll also find out which of them was fired from thei...

One of the most lovable and legendary LGBTQ competitors ever to have graced the Amazing Race mat, Oswald Mendez of "Team Cha Cha Cha" (Oswald & Danny, S2/S11) join Karen and Nicole for a scintillating chat about all things gaymazing. Find out about how watching Pedro Zamora influenced Oswald's sense of self before his own entry into reality TV as a gay Cuban. On which leg did Oswald & Danny take a...