The teams compete in a series of challenges around the world, with one team eliminated each week until the final team wins the the grand prize of $1 million. Since The Amazing Race debuted in 2001, it has fluctuated in the ratings, but its last two seasons have been among its best, with around eleven million viewers tuning in for the sixth season finale in December.

30-year-old Lynn and 22-year-old Alex, both executive assistants, are a "gay couple from West Hollywood, California" who have been together for four years, according to their team bio on the official Amazing Race website. Part of their motivation for going on Amazing Race was to possibly get married in Amsterdam--despite the fact that Alex is not yet out to his father.

26-year-old Patrick lives in Hollywood, CA as a writer, while Susan hails from Ohio, where she lives with her husband of 34 years. Their official team bio states that Patrick is "extremely close" with his family, and "they’ve always been very supportive of him, including when he told them he was gay." Patrick's father told The Cincinnati Enquirer, "He's my son, and I'm very proud of him. He is who he is. The fact that he's gay is just an element of his life that we accept."

This isn't the Amazing Race's first gay couple--boyfriends Joe and Bill competed in the show's first season, and boyfriends Chip and Riechen competed and won the race in Season 4 (their relationship didn't fare as well, and two have since separated). It's also not the first time the show has featured three openly gay contestants in one season--that was Season 3.

It's still unusual to have three openly gay contestants at one time on network TV, however. Cable channels have occasionally offered reality shows with more than two gay men, although they usually revolve around being gay, like Bravo's short-lived gay dating competition Boy Meets Boy, its popular Queer Eye for the Straight Guy series, and its Straight Girl spin-off. MTV often includes reality shows with two gay men, like its current Real World: Philadelphia installment, and its just-finished Battle of the Sexes 2.

But besides Amazing Race 3 and the three episodes of the FOX dating show Playing it Straight (which featured several gay men pretending to be straight) that aired in March 2004 before the show was canceled, reality shows on network TV have generally limited the number of openly gay contestants to two at the most. Amazing Race 7 offers a rare opportunity to see three openly gay contestants on a reality series that isn't about being gay.

If history is any guide, Patrick and Susan's chances are slim, since parent/child teams rarely do well on The Amazing Race, but Alex and Lynn have a fighting chance of winning. Will history repeat itself and crown the gay couple? Tune in starting tonight to find out.

The Amazing Race premieres at 9pm PST/EST on CBS on Tuesday, March 1st;
visit the official Amazing Race site for more information