Skip to main content

The Amazing Race goes viral, casting YouTube and Vine stars for new season

the amazing race new season cast social media stars
Image used with permission by copyright holder
In what could be a masterstroke in online publicity, The Amazing Race aims to go viral with its new season by casting social media stars.

The CBS reality show that sees a number of teams compete in a race around the globe is fully integrating online content into its 28th season, reports Variety. Aside from its fresh-faced, social media-savvy cast, The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan will also be live streaming from the show’s first location on his Facebook page on November 15.

If you’re not a YouTube addict or Instagram junkie, you may be left scratching your head when reading the new season’s teams list, which includes the likes of Tyler Oakley, Cole and Sheri LaBrant, and Jessica Versteeg. As CBS assures us, these are “social media tastemakers” from the “most clickable” channels on the most popular social platforms.

Although the idea may not appeal to the show’s older demographic, it could help attract the millennial viewer bracket. It may also a win-win for CBS, as it should see the show gain valuable coverage on the social media platforms its contestants are popular on.

Check out the full team list below (which, in the vein of the show, includes couples that are either related or BFFs), along with a short description of each set of social personalities.

Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl

BFFs Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl are well-known YouTube stars who also host the Psychobabble podcast. Oakley’s YouTube channel currently has over 7 million subscribers.

Erin White Robinson and Joslyn Davis

Robinson and Davis are YouTube personalities and best friends, who together host a range of popular entertainment channels under the Clevver banner, where they cover celebrity fashion and style.

Darius Benson and Cameron Benson

The Benson brothers are popular Viners known for their crazy stunts, which include parkour, unicycling, and juggling (and this is not your mother’s idea of juggling).

Zach King and Rachel King

Zach King is another popular Viner who has decided to bring his wife Rachel along for the ride. King’s 3.7 million Vine followers are treated to 6-second, reality-bending video clips that recall the work of celebrated filmmaker Michel Gondry (no, seriously, check them out for yourself).

Dana Borriello and Matt Steffanina

Another couple, Borriello and Steffanina show off their professional dance moves on YouTube, where their choreographed clips set to popular hit songs can get upwards of 10 million views.

Marty Cobb and Hagan Parkman

A mother-and-daughter combo best known for Marty Cobb’s viral flight attendant demonstration video, which was a YouTube hit garnering more than 20 million views and led to an appearance on The Ellen Show.

Kurt Gibson and Brodie Smith

Pro-Frisbee enthusiasts who flex their disc-throwing skills on YouTube.

Jessica VerSteeg and Brittany Oldehoff

Popular Instagram models and (yes, you guessed it) best friends, Versteeg and Oldehoff boast 60,000 Instagram followers between them.

Burnie Burns and Ashley Jenkins

A couple who run the popular Rooster Teeth video company, which also has a gaming channel on YouTube with more than 8 million followers. Rooster Teeth actually predates YouTube. It first hit it big with the popular Red vs. Blue video series more than a decade ago.

Scott and Blair Fowler

Blair Fowler has been making YouTube vids since the age of 14 and her fashion and lifestyle channel now boasts 1.7 million subscribers. Scott Fowler is her dad, lending credence to the idea that even the most popular YouTube stars don’t have real friends.

Sheri and Cole LaBrant

Cole LaBrant is apparently a Vine heartthrob (whatever that means), who despite being popular with the ladies chose to bring his mum Sheri on the show.

Editors' Recommendations

Saqib Shah
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…
YouTube TV password sharing — is that even a thing?
YouTube TV family sharing.

There's been a little bit of a to-do this week about YouTube TV cracking down on password sharing. Potentially. Ya know, like Netflix is doing. Except not really, or at all, probably. And that has to do almost entirely with how YouTube TV's account structure works.

First, some context. A few posts on Reddit stated that some family members — that is, not the primary account holder — were being asked to sign up to YouTube TV, despite already being authorized to use the service. YouTube TV allows for up to six family members to share one YouTube TV subscription, with one of them serving as the primary account. Those family members basically have to be anyone older than 13 who lives with the primary account holder.

Read more
YouTube TV adds Magnolia Network and other FAST channels
YouTube TV on Apple TV.

YouTube TV has added a handful of channels of the FAST variety — that is, the sort of thing you'd find on an ad-supported service like Tubi or The Roku Channel. The additions are hardly the only FAST channels on the largest live-streaming service in the U.S., which has more than 5 million subscribers as of June 2022.

New to YouTube TV are Magnolia Network, Charge!, TBD TV, and T2. The CW also makes an appearance in the list of new channels after a new deal was reached earlier this spring.

Read more
These are the 10 most-viewed YouTube videos of all time
The red and white YouTube logo on a phone screen. The phone is on a white background.

Being popular is about the only thing the current most-viewed YouTube videos have in common with their top-performing predecessors. Even though YouTube videos like Chocolate Rain went viral during the first few years of YouTube's content, they probably wouldn't be among the kinds of videos that go viral on the platform now.

In fact, children's programming and music videos are now among the most-viewed content on YouTube. Music videos, in particular, have enjoyed great success on the streaming site and, until recently, had been the majority of the most-viewed videos in YouTube's history. Music videos still account for 40% of the top 10 most-viewed videos, however. The other 60% is content for young children. If these view counts are anything to go by, the video-sharing site could be considered a leading platform for music videos and kid-friendly content, rather than just the memeworthy viral videos the site was known for in its early days.
What is the most-viewed YouTube video of all time?
Baby Shark Dance is the most-viewed video ever on YouTube. The children's song overtook the all-Spanish version of Despacito in November 2020.
What are the top 10 most-viewed YouTube videos?

Read more