Seven is co-producing this with Disney, and they're already spending much more on reality shows than they used to (they spent $21 million on The X-Factor this year, and that's a simple studio-based program for the most part), so there's going to be a veritable crapload of money in the show's budget.
What if there's a leg in
Jordan, not Israel, that takes them from Amman to the Dead Sea, and then the teams take charter flights to Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on their way out? Tel Aviv's on the Mediterranean shore, and to get to the Dead Sea from there you'd have to go through the West Bank, which is most definitely not going to happen. On the other hand, the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea is completely peaceful. And the Israeli crews used for TAR Israel could be assisting, explaining the hotel picture?
I'm guessing our route is something like:
Start: Melbourne
Leg 1: Lombok (recycling the Indonesia leg from TAR Asia 4)
Leg 2: somewhere in Vietnam (I'm guessing they might recycle the Vung Tau leg from TAR Israel, judging by the lack of spoilers?)
Leg 3: Hue (recycling the Hue leg from TAR Asia 3?)
Leg 4: Macau (recycling the Macau leg from TAR Asia 3, with the blackjack task substituted for baccarat?)
Leg 5: Cape Town (TBC, possibly recycling elements of both TAR Asia 2's and TAR Israel's visits)
Leg 6: rural South Africa (recycling TAR Israel's first leg)
Leg 7: New York City (flights connecting via Frankfurt, teams seen there, I have strong suggestions from a friend at ActiveTV that there's at least one North American leg)
Leg 8: Toronto (since the potential task planning spoiler there can't have been for TAR18, which headed in the wrong direction after starting)
Leg 9: Jordan [?]
Leg 10: Sri Lanka (recycling elements of the TAR Asia 4 legs)
Leg 11: Singapore
Leg 12: Perth/Fremantle
Leg 13?: If there is one, I'd say it's on the east coast somewhere
McKay does seem to like zigzaggy routes lately, going by how crisscrossy this season's TAR Asia route has been. For Aussie fans who are only familiar with TAR US, we'd have two completely new countries (Indonesia and Jordan), plus a Pit Stop in a country that's never had a Pit Stop before (Canada), plus three legs in countries that haven't been on TAR in a long long time (Sri Lanka last appeared in TAR6, South Africa in TAR7, and the US -- and indeed, the entire North American continent -- hasn't had a proper Pit Stop since TAR8). It'd be a pretty decent route.
Here's what the Amazing Yellow Line would look like, assuming this route is correct (I've only put one stop in for the two-part South Africa leg) (ETA: Sorry for the size, it's not letting me scale it down
):