“The Amazing Race” team on big blind date hopes to win $1 million – and maybe find love

Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block fame and his boyfriend Harley Rodriguez aren’t the only two gay couples competing on the new season of The Amazing Race.

Kurt Belcher and Bergen Olson are one of five teams on CBS reality competition who are essentially going on an epic blind date around the world. The other six teams are established couples.

The teams will race around the world completing challenges with the last-place finisher of each leg being eliminated. The last team standing wins $1 million.

Olson, 24, is a Human Resources executive and Belcher, 23, works as a pageant consultant.

‘Obviously it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity – especially since I’ve never been out of the country before,’ Belcher says in a video introducing the cast. ‘Finding out it was a blind dating kind of season that amped me to do it  more. I’ve never had a relationship, I’ve never had a significant other to call my own.’

He adds that he believes in commitment ‘and I do not believe that monogamy is overrated.’

Belcher sees himself as a force to be reckoned with when it comes to competing: ‘I have the testosterone of a man and the wrath of a woman.’

Olson hopes to find love but wants to win either way.

‘Heck, if we don’t click (romantically), we’re going to work together to win $1 million. … On the other hand, if my partner is someone really great, we’re gonna have such an amazing time together and then hopefully still get to the end and hopefully start a life together with the $1 million.

Like Belcher, he has also not been out of the US.

‘Not even to Canada when I lived in North Dakota and I was about 100 miles from the Canadian border.,’ he said. ‘(The show) is pushing me out of my comfort zone.’

The new season of The Amazing Race premieres on February 25 on CBS.