Category — The Amazing Race

There were reports earlier this week that a producer from The Amazing Race, Jeff Rice,  died in Uganda from poisoning. Rice and his production assistance Katheryne Fuller who was also found unconcsious in a hotel room are now thought to have suffered from a cocaine overdose.

Once Fuller is able to be interviewed, Ugandan Police, will try and piece together what occurred.

He leaves behind a wife and two daughters.

UPDATE: It is now alleged the cocaine was found in his stomach which is a little unusual, so they may have been forced to ingest it.

Source: Reality Blurred and Reality Blurred.

The Amazing Race is now in its 20th season after eleven years on air and will return to Aussie screens just four days after the world premiere on CBS. Channel Seven has scheduled the fast-tracking for Wednesday, February 22 at 9.30pm and hopefully with decent ratings, it won’t be plucked to 7mate.

The new season won’t air in the States until Sunday, but it’s getting a bit of attention for the casting of reality couple, Brendon Villegas (31, PhD student) and Rachel Reilly (27, event hostess) of Big Brother fame. Though they’re quite unknown here in Australia, the American couple first met in the Big Brother house in the show’s 12th season in 2010 and “fell in love in a hammock” as Rachel says. The following year, they both returned as contestants with Rachel winning the grand prize of $500,000. Now, it’s becoming a trend these days with reality shows poaching off former contestants from other reality programs. And to be honest, I’d rather see people who haven’t been on reality TV to have a go at the game, especially when going up against someone who’s already got prize money in their pocket.

When I went through the list of couples for this season of The Amazing Race, I did recognise Brendon’s name. Even though I’ve never watched the American Big Brother, his name and nude images were splashed across the internet late last year when he was embroiled in a webcam scandal. The worst part of it was, he was masturbating on cam for someone other than his fiancé, Rachel, who he was in a relationship with at the time (and still is). If they could overcome that as a couple, they could certainly win a race around the world, right? I do think that since they’ve been on reality TV before, they have the advantage of understanding how a show may operate and can put up with each other better considering they lived together in the Big Brother house with multiple cameras over two seasons.

(I won’t post the Not-Safe-For-Work images of Brendon, but feel free to poke around on Google. You should be able to find something!)

And here are the other 10 couples competing:

• Dave Brown Jr., 33, U.S. Army officer and Rachel Brown, 30, project manager; married:
Dave has just returned from duties in Iraq for 4-5 months before going on the show with wife, Rachel. It would be interesting to see this couple reconnect and if they’ll rediscover each other’s flaws and weaknesses in high-risk situations.

• Dave Gregg, 44, clown and Cherie Gregg, 44, clown; married:
Another married couple, Dave and Cherie aren’t kidding when they call themselves the clowns of the group! The professional working-clowns appear too happy, but do seem very genuine at a good dose! Their jobs can sound a bit outrageous, but for them, it’s all about bringing smiles to little kids and hospital folk.

• Vanessa Macias, 31, freelance writer and Ralph Kelley, 36, bar owner; dating divorcees:
Both quite fit and strong individuals, Vanessa and Ralph each have failed marriages under their belts and their relationship seems very relaxed. Maybe things are better the second (or third?) time around? Let’s see how well they do this Wednesday!

Now, moving away from the dating, married and engaged, we have:

• Art Velez, 43, border patrol agent and J.J. Carrell, 42, border patrol agent; friends:
One of many all-male pairs this season, Art and J.j. are border patrol agents. They appear very straight-faced and good blokes, but I might add the word ‘boring’ to the mix too.

• Joey “Fitness” Lasalla, 29, trainer/supplement company owner and Danny Horal, 27, nightclub promoter; friends:
Another all-male pair, you can sorta tell what kind of men these boys are with a nickname like “Fitness”. Joey calls himself a guido, and the two friends are shown bulging out their big muscles in the gym and talking about how much they love working out, tanning themselves orange and hitting the night clubs. I almost feel sorry for them.

• William “Bopper” Minton, 41, motorcycle mechanic and Mark Jackson, 45, former state inspector; best friends:
Boys from the country, Bopper and Mark are gonna give it a real go for the million dollars! It’s always fun to watch the southern country folk and hillbillies do their best to fail. These guys seem like great fellas, though!

• Elliot Weber, 28, musician and Andrew Weber, 28, professional soccer player; twins:
Now you might hear the word twins, but you can tell these identical brothers apart easily with their different hairdos, with Elliot sporting longer locks while Andrew has a shorter close cut. They’re both alright-looking, but hardly anything to drool over. Yet. Unless the shirts come off. We’ll see…

• Nary Ebeid, 32, federal agent and Jamie Graetz, 33, federal agent; friends:
These fed agents are tough ladies! They’re shown walking around holding guns in their police uniforms. It will be interesting to see if they can bring anything they’ve learnt from the force to the game. The men should be intimidated.

• Kerri Paul, 30, program coordinator and Stacy Bowers, 30, self employed / “basketball” wife; cousins:
“Double Trouble” cousins Kerri and Stacy have some real attitude! They’ve even rehearsed a ‘stare down’ and should be very fun to watch, especially if they don’t do too well in the race!

• Misa Tanaka, 27, car buyer and Maiya Tanaka, 25, professional golfer; sisters:
The last team, sisters Misa and Maiya say they’re best at shattering egos… especially those of men! Hmm. There isn’t much else I can say about them. Let’s see if these young attractive women can shatter some hearts too.

So that’s everyone! It’s hard to pick favourites at this stage, so we better tune in next Wednesday, February 22 on Channel Seven at 9.30pm to see the race begin.

Check out the cast photos here:
The Amazing Race 20 Cast on CBS.com 

Engaged couple Ernie and Cindy won the latest series of The Amazing Race. After the snowboarders were eliminated last week, it was anyones race.

Ernie and Cindy ran a faultless last leg, with Sandy and Jeremy coming in second.

Marcus and Amani were never in it after he kept on stuffing up the flight stimulater. In fact it looked like he did not finish the typewriter challenge.

Here are the exit interviews with Ernie and Cindy, Jeremy and Sandy, and Marcus and Amani.

The Amazing Race kicked off with a double episode to ensure we are now up to the US series. The first leg went to Taiwan where the oldest team was given a reprieve with it being a non-elimination pitstop. However the bad news for the rest of the teams was that there was going to be a double elimination on the next leg.

However this resulted in two of the more interesting teams being eliminated. These were Ethan and Jenner, two former Survivor winners and now dating, and Ron and Bill who were domestic partners. Eight of the eleven teams were turned back at the pitstop to go back to the orphanage to give up ALL their money to them.

The instructions to do this were in a frame on the table where the kids were surrounding, which is why a lot of people missed it.

Now Ron and Bill were quite zen about their elimination, but Ethan and Jenner not so much and they may have a point.

In their interview with Reality TV World (warning – if you click link you may see spoilers for Survivor) Ethan and Jenner said the clue

 When you went to the orphanage, did you realize there was a sign on the table at all?

Jenna Morasca: Yeah. Basically in our clue — and we’re always told we have these clues and the information that we’re supposed to go by in our clue — we were told to turn in all our rupiah…

Ethan Zohn: From the dancing challenge.

Jenna Morasca: … from the dancing challenge and when we got to the challenge, it wasn’t underlined or marked in red like you guys saw, and it also wasn’t marked with any Race flags. So, it was just like any other sign. I mean, if someone was holding a sign that said that, was that a challenge? So, I figured it said, “Turn in all your money that you raised and any additional money.”

So we actually turned in all of our additional rupiah because on the clue, and I checked the clue, it didn’t say anything about your converted money. Everything that it said was only about rupiah. So we only had like 20 dollars that we didn’t convert.

Ethan Zohn: U.S. dollars.

Jenna Morasca: U.S. dollars. So we did turn in all our additional rupiah and we figured if we had gotten it wrong, we wouldn’t have gotten a clue like on all the other Race challenges. It’s like if you said the wrong words to the monk [during the Roadblock at the Taipei Confucius Temple], he wouldn’t have given you the clue.

If you don’t do a challenge right, you don’t get the clue. So, I figured that probably other people missed that, but we wouldn’t have gotten the clue if we would have gotten that challenge wrong.

So once you had given the children all your money, you weren’t given anything further right? You didn’t receive a different clue or something?

Jenna Morasca: No, we did not.

Ethan Zohn: Yeah. Even if you gave them like no dollars — gave them one penny off the floor — you would have gotten your clue, which doesn’t make sense.

Jenna Morasca: We checked with the secondary clue and it says nothing about extra American money. So, we figured since we were in Indonesia, we’d give them our rupiah and we did. We gave them all of our additional money.

We just figured, “Well, they gave us the clue, so they must have been okay.” And we came in ninth. We checked in before the Vegas girls [Kaylani Paliotta and Lisa Tilley]. We were safe at that point had we be allowed to check in.

How do you feel about the whole leg coming down to the confusing sign? Did you think that was fair?

Jenna Morasca: I don’t know. I guess if we say it’s unfair, we’re going to sound like we’re bitter. But I’ve just never heard about doing a challenge where they give you the reward if you do it right or wrong. And the teams that got it wrong, like they’re not stupid teams. These are really good teams.

Ethan Zohn: Eight out of 11 teams got the clue wrong, not that that means anything, but it was obviously very tricky. I think it was meant to trick you.

Jenna Morasca: Yes, you can tell by the way [The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan] was asking people. He was expecting them to get it wrong.

 

 

Nathan Joliffe may have won Season One of The Amazing Race Australia with his best mate Tyler, but he may have lost the girl.

Nathan has been living with media starlet Erin McNaught however this relationship is now over.

News.com.au revealed what happened, and apparently it was professional differences.

The article states:

The announcement came from McNaught’s people at Chic Celebrity and acknowledged professional differences as reason for the rupture.

“They have had an amazing two years together and have no regrets, but unfortunately their busy lives and careers has put strain on their relationship and they have decided to take time apart,” it said.

“There is absolutely no animosity and they continue to have the upmost love and respect for each other and they stay close friends.”

McNaught and Jolliffe, both from Queensland, were living in a beachside apartment in Bondi, which they are said to have since moved out of.

What I don’t get is what does Nathan actually do? Is there THAT much work for male models in Australia? Anyway it will be interesting to see how well they do get on as they will both be attending the Kids Choice Awards on Friday.

Fans of The Amazing Race will be pleased to know Channel Seven is fast tracking Season 19 of the series from the US.

It will premiere on Channel Seven on Thursday 6th of October at 9.30pm. Thursday night on Channel Seven going to be almost better than sex. Four Weddings kicks off the reality viewing at 7.30pm, followed by Beauty and The Geek, and then The Amazing Race will follow.

Above The Amazing Race host, Phil Keoghan, talks about the new penalty on the show which is called the hazard. Also looks like Phil has been hitting the botox. Maybe he is trying to be as ageless as his competitor Jeff Probst.

If you want to see the Channel Seven’s advertisement click here.

And if you want a run down on the teams see my previous blog post on them here.

What is your perfect reality TV line up?

The Amazing Race wins the Emmy for Outstanding Reality Competition Program. They wrestled it back from Top Chef who were surprise winners in 2010.

Jeff Probst picked up the prize for Most Outstanding Host of a Reality Program this was presented last week at the Creative Arts ceremony. Hoarders won Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program.

Here is an article from LA Blog saying why Jeff Probst is unbeatable when it comes to the Emmys.

Whilst waiting for the second season of The Amazing Race Australia there will be a US series, and hopefully Channel Seven will fast track it.

One of the interesting teams is Jenna and Ethan who are going out now but were both on Survivor on different seasons. Amber and Boston Rob were also on The Amazing Race – twice.

NPR’s Linda Holmes outlines the new cast and gives her views about them in a humorous way.

This fall’s repeat players are Jenna Morasca and Ethan Zohn, who have been dating for a few years after winning different seasons of Survivor — he won the third season in Africa, and she won the sixth season in the Amazon. Ethan has also been battling Hodgkins’ lymphoma since 2009, but seems to be doing well right now (which is certainly a relief). So they’ve got the whole Survivor/survivor metaphor going, and yes, you should expect to hear about it.

Other cast members include Laurence and Zac Sunderland — Zac was the youngest person to sail around the world. Laurence is his dad. They’ve probably done some traveling. Then there’s Marcus Pollard, an NFL tight end who most recently played for the Atlanta Falcons in 2009, and his wife Amani. They may have a slight advantage in athleticism over, say, Kaylani and Lisa, the friends-slash-cocktail-waitresses. Then there are the former Olympic snowboarders, Andy Finch and Tommy Czeschin — asked what famous person reminds him of himself in the show’s standard questionnaire, he said, “Opposite of Johnny Cash.” Not sure what that means.

Other teams include Bill and Cathi, the older married couple; Ernie and Cindy, the bickering and betrothed; Jeremy and Sandy, who are generic and dating (he works in real estate; she’s a nurse practitioner who works in cosmetic surgery); Justin and Jennifer, who are brother and sister; Bill and Ron, domestic partners and flight attendants (also probably knowledgeable about travel!); and Liz and Marie, the adorable blonde twins.

I have seen zero spoilers about the season, but I predict the final three teams are Laurence and Zac, Andy and Tommy, and Amani and Marcus. Ethan and Jenna are certainly a possibility, but my guess is that most of the normal people are toast. Enjoy that, normal people!

The applications for The Amazing Race Australia Season 2 close in a week on the 19 August. So you better lock down some team members if you want to go on the show.

As fans of the show will know the first season on The Amazing Race Australia was fantastic and they went to some great locations. If you applied for the first season don’t be afraid to apply again. As from the US experience sometimes it takes a few seasons to get on the show.

Entry details can be found at www.yahoo7.com.au/theamazingrace. Applications close on August 19.

The Amazing Race Australia is a Disney format and will be produced in conjunction with Active TV. Production begins later this year.

Remember when you are doing your video to be yourself, and make an impact in the first 30 seconds. So don’t worry so much about the cinematography, a opening shot panning the amazing mountain behind you could get your audition tape stopped. With the thousands of applications to go through anything bland and boring will be deleted.

It was a continuation of a leg this week unfortunately for Chris and Anastasia as they had landed on the mat first but were then sent on their way to Krakow, Poland.

However, lucky for the Farmers as they were the last to land on the pit stop and it meant their race would continue.

It must have been cold in the church where Grant Bowler was standing as he had cold smoke blowing out of his mouth. In fact the whole of the leg the weather looked pretty hideous.

The teams had to take the train to Krakow, Poland.

Nathan hinted at the Tyler and Sam romance as he said Tyler was happy she was on the train. But it wasn’t all fairy floss and rainbows for Tyler as their bum bag was stolen. Renae found it in another cabin with their money stolen but their passports intact.

The first team’s train arrived at Krakow at 3.00am, and the train with the WA bikies and the farmers on it arrived at 6.30am.

First up was a Roadblock in this most incredible Wieliczka salt mine, where miners had carved art works into the walls. It was the salt equivalent of the sistine chapel. They had to find a key to unlock a vault.

Nathan was apparently claustrophobic, and was feeling anxious. He was also peeved when Luke found the key and wouldn’t show him what it looked like. Nathan thought he should have showed them. On the other hand Nathan and Tyler have ran top three for all of the legs, so if you were on the race you would want them to be eliminated at some point.

Next was a detour – Herd or Hoe down.

Herd was where you had to build a sheep pen and herd three marked sheep into it or hoe down was where you had to learn the Polish Axe dance.

All teams did herd.

Jeff and Luke were having trouble reading the map to get to the sheep, as were Chris and Anastasia and he said “I would smash the navigation.. I would never make a mistake in my life.”. He then called her a retard.

The WA models got to the sheep first. I did laugh when Jeff and Luke who thought they had a good sheep herding strategy lost all their sheep over a wood fence.

The farmers said it is not hard to crash tackle a sheep and get him in his prospective place. Ok guys time to get on Farmer Wants A Wife I think. In fact I read today that they had been approached a few times to be on that reality show.

It was then to an intersection where Renae and Sam and Chris and Anastasia had to work together. It was a killer of a challenge where they had to slice four pieces of wood with a flimsy wood cutter in the freezing cold.

It took Renae and Sam about an hour to do their bit, and then Chris and Anastasia had a crack. Anastasia found it too hard and kept on crying, and in the end they decided to take the time penalty.

Lucky for Renae and Sam they only got a 2 hour one, whereas the other team because they had not sliced through one bit had a four hour one.

Lucky for Nathan and Tyler they managed to score Jeff and Luke in the challenge. Whereas the farmers who never seem to show any frustration, got Dave and Kelly. It nearly took them the whole of the four hour penalty to complete.

Even after the crystal key incident, Nathan and Tyler decided to let Jeff and Luke onto the pitstop first as they knew they had been key in getting the sawing challenge finished.

Sam and Renae were third, with the WA bikers and Farmers making it just within Chris and Anasta

In the end Chris and Anastasia were eliminated.