whats it like to be on amazing race
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"The globe is waiting for you. Good luck. Travel safe. Go!"
The Amazing Race's 32nd season concludes tonight, Dec. 16. The race featured erstwhile NFL pros DeAngelo Williams and Gary Barnidge, Olympic hurdlers Kellie Brinkley and LaVonne Idlette, plus a begetter-son duo, several pairs of siblings and a gay couple.
The 11 teams kicked off the competition at the Hollywood Basin in Los Angeles and connected participating in mental and physical challenges in Trinidad and Tobago, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Brazil and more.
After 19 years, 32 seasons and a record 10 Emmy wins for Outstanding Reality TV Contest Serial, this race is still amazing, with almost unparalleled scheduling, filming issues and ambition, having filmed in over 89 countries with a crew of over 70 people on the ground.
Over the years, serial co-creators and spouses Elise Doganieri and Bertram van Munster and fan-favorite host Phil Keoghan take revealed some behind-the-scenes tidbits virtually show, including the unexpected travel issues competitors face up, simply how many people work on TAR, and how Keoghan well-nigh concluded up hosting some other iconic reality TV competition serial:
Origin Story: Most people have a horror story nigh traveling with their friends, including Doganieri, who came up with the idea for TAR in 1999 after her hubby van Munster returned dissatisfied with what was currently beingness offered upwards in the Boob tube earth after a major briefing.
Working as an advertising executive with Ogilvy & Mather at the time, she then pitched the idea to van Munster when he challenged her to come up up with an thought for a Television set evidence in five minutes.
She then recalled backpacking through Europe with her college roommate and all-time friend after they graduated and the drama that went down during their adventures.
"Halfway through the trip, we just got tired of each other and had a huge blowout," she told Awards Daily. "We took the twenty-four hour period off from each other and later got back together. Everything was fine after that."
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But the experience clearly left a marking, one she relayed to her hubby, who had previously worked on Cops.
"I said to Bertram, 'Wouldn't it exist groovy if we could accept two people know each other do some sort of trip around the earth, a race where they would exist competing against other people doing the aforementioned thing?'"
The Title: When the husband-wife producing team originally pitched the prove, they didn't take a name yet.
"Nosotros had many, many titles," Doganieri said, including Around the World in fourscore Days, before going on to reveal an executive at CBS came up with The Amazing Race. "Nosotros loved it. Everything's amazing about information technology."
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Hosting Duties: Earlier Keoghan was picked as the prove's host, he actually was one of the frontrunners to land another major chore at CBS: Survivor. Of course, that gig ultimately went to Jeff Probst, another one of Television set's most dearest reality TV hosts.
"It was at a fourth dimension when not a lot of foreigners were given an opportunity to do something like that," Keoghan told New Zealand's The Listener in 2005. "1 of the reasons I was told that I didn't become the chore was that I was a New Zealander."
One year after though, he was picked for The Amazing Race, with Keoghan saying, "They gave me a shot, but they asked me to Americanize my vocalization."
Before landing TAR in 2001, Keoghan was known for his hosting duties in New Zealand, including Spot On and That's Fairly Interesting, and he was known for his strange and sometimes unsafe adventures on Travel Channel's Phil Keoghan's Adventure Crazy.
The Casting Process: Want to be on the bear witness? Just exist yourself, co-ordinate to Doganieri.
"When we're sitting in auditioning, nosotros can tell straight away if somebody is trying to exist something that they're not, trying to anticipate what nosotros want or not beingness completely honest near who they are," she told UpRoxx.
Still, there are some personality traits that are more than bonny to the casting team.
"We ever cast for Type-A personalities, super-competitive people. It's always prissy if they have a humour, because you accept to accept a humor to be on the route for so long. And information technology's also for people who have interesting personalities with each other. It tin't just be, 'We're best friends and we take a good time,'" she explained. "People who tend to have relationships that are so perfect and easy-going aren't the all-time Boob tube sometimes. We take to see, underlying, that at that place'due south a little drama there, a little spark."
While the prove started scouting for contestants in later seasons, they yet accept auditions, with the testify's onetime casting director Lynne Spillman once telling Varietythey are but looking for "the best teams and various relationships. Meaning, non all married couples or brothers, etc. We effort to find something for everyone (in the audience)."
CBS
Casting Requirements: Commonly, it'south preferred the team members have known each other for at least i twelvemonth before applying, and have a "relatable" relationship. Oh, and you both have to be 21 by the start of the race.
One time yous are picked, you are mostly on your ain when it comes to packing what clothes to bring with you lot, though the show tells you what you can't bring: your own money (cash or credit card), cameras or whatever sort of useful tools, like maps, translation books, travel guides, whatsoever electronics, GPS, etc. (Selfie cams were introduced in flavour 26, BTW, and the show did an all social media star outing for season 28.)
And after race officially kicks off, the general rule is the team members tin't be more than than xx feet apart from each other at all times.
Travel Woes: Considering they can't bring their ain money, the teams are given credit cards from the production visitor to book their travel. And at the beginning of each leg, they are given a sum of coin to cover their expenses aside from airline tickets, like food, lodging or whatsoever unexpected repair costs, among other things. If you don't use all of your stipend on that leg, the remaining coin rolls over. But it you burn through it earlier getting to the side by side leg, you can can attempt to earn more money equally long equally they abide by local laws; borrowing from other teams or asking locals for some cash (just not at airports in the U.Due south.) is OK. (There'southward too a rumor nearly a small emergency fund that the assigned coiffure carries and breaks out only in farthermost circumstances.)
Getting two tickets on a concluding-minute flight (no booking in advance and no concern or starting time class, by the way!) is hard enough for the average person, but the teams really have to secure iv, as they cannot travel without the 2-person coiffure.
"The teams are responsible for purchasing tickets for their crew and if they don't have plenty tickets for themselves, and their coiffure, then they can't go," Keoghan revealed in a Reddit AMA.
CBS
How Much Contestants Make: Nope, it'due south not merely the winners who can finish the race with some prize money in their pockets.
The winning squad of CBS' globe-trotting competition takes home $1 1000000. According to fan-site TARflies, the second place team wins $25,000 and the third place squad gets $10,000. And each squad earns money, with the first eliminated pair going home with $1,500.
Welcome to "Sequesterville": One time a squad is eliminated, they are sequestered at a resort until the end of filming in society to forbid spoilers.
"They continue you sequestered. You can't become home iii days afterwards you get out because so everyone knows you didn't win," flavor 21 competitor Mark "Abba" Abbattista explained to The A.5. Club. "They bring people to a sequestered location after they get eliminated and they stay together."
While they're technically in hiding, the contestants are normally given a stipend and tin can go on supervised outings.
Plus, it makes it easier to transport everyone to the final pit for the big finish at the end of the race.
CBS
Planning Procedure: While TAR may sometimes feel spontaneous and daring, it is meticulously plotted out backside-the-scenes months in advance.
"In every season, before nosotros leave, the creative is 100 percent locked. It's actually locked a few weeks in advance before we leave," Doganieri told UpRoxx. "Everything is planned out. All the Non-Emptying Legs are planned out. All the Fast-Frontward. Everything is planned out and locked before we leave. All the clues have been written correct now. All the host scripts have been written. CBS and the legal squad accept signed on everything at this point."
In an interview with Awards Daily, Doganieri and van Munster revealed casting is the outset step, before they "start looking at a map and thinking about the road we would similar to do." So the locations must exist cleared past the Safety and Security squad.
When it comes to choosing the locations, van Munster offered a pretty practical tool in the decision-making process: "The logic comes from where practice the plans wing and with what frequency." (One identify they turned downwards? Qatar.)
Plan B: The simply time the show changes their plan is "by a force of nature," Doganieri explained to UpRoxx. "We're checking weather reports every day. Many times if there's a location that we lose because of conditions, there is fill-in plan. Nosotros accept a lot of Plan B's in place that we know similar, 'OK. If that river's gonna flood, there's another river over here that nosotros know we can utilize.'"
Filming Is Fast and Furious: After months of preparation, the actual filming of a season is comparably brusque: 12 episodes in just 21-25 days, with over ii,000 people working on the show overall. Given the breakneck stride of the evidence, there isn't a lot of downtime, though the contestants and coiffure remain in close quarters.
"Nosotros're all in the same hotels," Abbatista revealed toThe A.V. Club. "Actually, nigh of the times afterward the legs, we ate with the coiffure. Information technology's kind of like you're traveling as a family."
In a Reddit AMA, Keoghan likewise opened upwards about the speedy schedule and how much time he actually gets to spend with the contestants.
"The bear witness happens very quickly and time is ever a challenge for usa. Many people don't realize that we shoot all 12 episodes in just 21 days," he wrote. "If you factor in all the international travel and the other travel that we do to get from place to identify, there'due south not a huge corporeality of time to be hanging out. That said, I do tape in-depth interviews with the teams when they check-in and that's really the time I become to connect with them."
Phil's Pit Stop: Ever wonder what Keoghan is doing every bit he waits for the teams to arrive? He'southward working and trying to get the latest data on the race every bit information technology's happening to prepare.
CBS
"Autonomously from briefing the greeter almost how the evidence works and shooting the intro'due south I need to exercise at the pit terminate, 99% of my fourth dimension is spent belongings my telephone and furiously writing down story notes almost what's happening with the teams," he revealed in his AMA. "The data is coming from all those in production who learn anything new most what's going on. If we didn't take the power to text on the prove and sometimes make phone calls, it would exist almost impossible for us to make the evidence. There are time where nosotros are in such remote locations that I don't get information beforehand and in those cases, I have to debrief the teams on the mat to go to the lesser of what's happened. In improver, some production people have to physically bring me the information to me at the mat so I can administer the penalty."
Keoghan also spends a lot of time doing research for his scripts, wanting to make sure he is offering new information to viewers on the locations the show visits.
"We start researching the testify months in advance and and so I first working on my scripts about a month out. The cardinal is to give the audience some takeaway about what we're going and the things we'll be doing," he wrote. "So I work hard on interesting factoids since I know people love learning most the world which watching the astonishing race. I beloved that the testify not only entertains merely too informs."
CBS
As for what happens when i team is hours backside the rest? Keoghan remains ready for annihilation.
"There'southward always the take a chance that a team may come up to the mat accidentally before they've completed the course so, over again, I stay at the mat no thing what," he said. "One time, I was at the mat in Poland season 11 for 19 hours straight."
19. Hours. Directly.
Shut Telephone call: On TAR, Keoghan has never missed a pit terminate, just he almost did in an early on season when he establish himself detained in Ukraine.
"I got held in clearing overnight," he told TMZ. "I didn't have the correct papers obviously or and so they thought. Then they put me in a holding room overnight, meanwhile, the teams were racing and there were concerns I wouldn't make it to the mat. Thankfully, the U.S. ambassador was a huge Amazing race fan and she got me out."
He made it just in time to run into the teams at the mat. Phew.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
The Meaning of Keoghan'due south Necklace: In case you've e'er wondered if the necklace the host wears in every episode means anything, he revealed its unique origin during his Q&A.
"I have worn it on every flavor. It is an indigenous necklace from New Zealand which was given to me as a way of providing safety over water," he wrote. "It's origins come from the Maori people of New Zealand. It'southward really a decorative fish hook. For the near part, they are carved out of bone or green rock."
In later seasons, Keoghan added some other accompaniment past starting to wear hats, only it was considering he needed the extra protection from the lord's day afterward having half dozen facial sunspots removed.
"My dermatologist said, 'You've got to cover information technology up.' It's not all Race'" he told the New York Post. "I grew upwardly in the Caribbean and I've had a lot of sun damage over the years. At present I attempt to be actually careful."
Giving Back: For the producers, it was important for them to get out a positive mark on remote locations they've filmed in.
"We like to go out something behind that's adept for a place that might've needed something," Doganieri said. "In Ethiopia, nosotros put roofs on houses," and the bear witness besides has rebuilt schools in some of the places they've visited.
They even built a fishing hamlet in Vietnam, which Van Munster said "they could never beget to do" if TAR hadn't filmed there.
CBS
Celebrity Appeal:New Kids on the Block'due south Jonathan Knight, professional person athletes, Olympians and other celebrities take competed over the years, just the prove has yet to practise an all-celeb line-up.
Over the years, Keoghan admitted to The Hollywood Reporter he's had fans pitch an all-celebrity flavor. Just given the grueling filming schedule, he said, "I think a season with all celebrities might be a nightmare."
Some of the celebrity fans who've expressed interest?
"Neil Patrick Harris mentioned information technology one time. Sarah Jessica Parker, I recall, mentioned information technology once. I know Ellen [DeGeneres] has mentioned information technology on her show earlier," he revealed. "At that place was a quote from her that if she was onThe Amazing Race what she would do. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, I know loves the prove. Drew Barrymore I think was i. I saw Matthew McConaughey wearing anAmazing RaceT-shirt in a magazine. I don't think we'd have trouble getting involvement. I think nosotros'd have trouble locking information technology in."
Reality Worlds Collide: while the upcoming season is made upward of teams of all reality TV vets, with stars from TAR, Survivor and Big Brother, Keoghan once admitted he wasn't the biggest fan of bringing on stars from other franchises (similar they did with Large Brother couples Jeff and Jordan, and Rachel and Brendon, and Survivor'south Boston Rob and Bister, and Ethan and Jenna).
"On a personal level, I'm less of a fan of that than I am in bringing in some new person with a unique personality," he admitted to THR. "It's not to say it didn't work, but I'1000 just not as much of a fan of that cross-pollination. I recollect the shows are and so unlike that to me it's a trivial confusing. That's my opinion is all."
Pre-SUR Life: Earlier she became ane of the most popular Bravo reality stars thanks toVanderpump Rules, Stassi Schroeder really competed on The Astonishing Race with her dad, stepmom and blood brother in 2005. They concur the honour of beingness the first and simply team to ever exist eliminated in their hometown.
Bravo
"I didn't have a adventure to think about if it was something I wanted to do," Stassi told ET of competing the show. "It was always just been something that I've done. And then I realized that I was kind of skillful at it."
She was 17, brunette and just equally unapologetic as she is on the Bravo reality hit, maxim, "I recall why nosotros lost—considering my family didn't listen to me. Because I'm ever right! If they merely would've listened to me!"
Overcoming Tragedy: The first season of The Amazing Race premiered on Sept. v, 2001, less than one calendar week before the tragic events of 9/11 would forever change the nation.
"The world had changed from i 2nd to some other, and we were doing a show about traveling overseas, about airplanes," van Munster told The New York Times in 2004. "At that point, I thought the evidence was over. I didn't recollect we had a gamble."
In an interview with the Television Academy, he went on to say, "We had people who didn't desire to keep a plane, who didn't want to go to a foreign land, nosotros had several producers who didn't desire to practise it anymore. We had all these issues."
But van Munster said no one at CBS ever talked of canceling the show in the wake of the terrorist attack, with Doganieri explaining, "The nice matter is that nosotros were able to continue doing the show and it did proceed that element of people still needing to travel and the globe is still practiced. In a way, peradventure, our prove helped keep a positive spin on things a flake in a time that was and so devastating."
The Amazing Race airs on CBS.
(This story was originally published on Wednesday, Apr 17, 2019 at nine a.1000. PST.)
Source: https://www.eonline.com/news/1033139/casting-secrets-surprising-rules-and-travel-trouble-19-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-amazing-race