Welcome to Pure Amazing Race

Looks like reruns of The Amazing Race have found a home in the Travel Channel. The only real question is why the Travel Channel didn’t decide to pick up this show earlier. My guess was it was probably due to The Amazing Race’s asking price.

I originally saw this posted about a week ago, but today I got an email confirming that the Travel Channel will be running TAR 12 premiering on Wednesday, September 3rd at 8 PM EST.

The summary of the show from the Travel Channel TAR website is as follows:

The Travel Channel will begin airing episodes of Season 12 of the award-winning reality series “The Amazing Race” from CBS Television on Wednesday, Sept. 3, at 8 p.m. ET, with additional episodes airing every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.

The popular series, hosted by Phil Keoghan, follows contestants across the globe through some of the world’s most exotic and beautiful destinations as they compete against one another through a series of challenges for the ultimate grand prize.

One other cool piece of information for the Amazing Race lover is that Travel Channel will be showing a “The Amazing Race Marathon” all day Sunday, September 28th to get ready for The Amazing Race 13.

The only other question around this move is whether this is just protection for The Amazing Race in case CBS ever decides to not renew (which they’ve threatened for years).

I think this is the best TAR 13 article I’ve read so far. It gives you some interesting insights on things to watch for and also some quotes from the TAR 13 cast.

“I love the fraternity brothers because they’re so young and such a contrasting team,” host Phil Keoghan recently told The Associated Press. “One takes his time to think things out. The other one loves to rush and go at a million miles an hour. There’s definitely tension between the two of them while they’re making decisions during the race.”

Another team competing is geeky best friends Mark Yturralde, 41, and Bill Hahler, 42. The Comic-Con treasurer and student aid administrator from San Diego have been pals for over 20 years and have auditioned for “The Amazing Race” since the long-running reality series’ third season. The superhero and gaming aficionados said they left their toys at home during the race.

“We’ve got really teeny backpacks,” said Hahler. “They are small. We wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything to prevent us from putting that pack underneath the seat in front of us when we got on a plane. We didn’t want something to happen where we got delayed because of our luggage. We thought that would help us go faster.”

“We did extensive research on what to wear - what was lightweight and would help us move the fastest,” added Yturralde. “I think it was the longest I ever went without wearing a logo on my T-shirt. If you see me on the street, I’m usually wearing a Superman, Bizarro or Batman T-shirt on a constant basis, but we had to utilize more multi-use clothing for ‘The Amazing Race.’”

Married beekeepers Anita, 63, and Arthur Jones, 61, from Eugene, Ore., are the oldest - and perhaps most colorful - team on this season of “The Amazing Race.” Among the self-described hippies’ mottos: “Don’t worry, be hippie” and “The hokey pokey is what it’s all about.” Before the race, the Joneses worked out in hopes of keeping up with the other teams.

“We both tried to do some training, along the lines of going down to our little gym, but that was pretty much it,” said Anita. “We have an emerging farm, so we do a lot of work out there, splitting wood and taking care of the horses. We’re pretty physical, so we thought, ‘Hey, we can be in there with everybody else. It’ll be fun.’”

Ken Greene, a former St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Chargers defensive back, now 51, will race with estranged wife Tina.

Starting at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the 13th season of the Emmy-winning reality competition (premiering Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. EDT) will follow the teams as they travel over 30,000 miles in 23 days to countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, Russia, India and Kazakhstan. It’s the first time the series visited the landlocked country lampooned by Sacha Baron Cohen in “Borat.”

“We shot most of that episode in the capital,” said executive producer Bertram van Munster. “People were a little afraid we were going to pull a ‘Borat’ on them. I told them we weren’t doing ‘Borat,’ but what happened there is very, very funny. It’s not easy to shoot in places like that because they practically have no television industry.”

Van Munster, who is currently scouting locations in Asia for the 14th season, promised the 13th season will include a series of firsts for the reality competition, including a mistake that ultimately prohibited one team from joining their fellow racers at the finish line, as well as a memorable first-ever stop for “The Amazing Race” in Cambodia.

“The teams have no idea how to get from Point A to Point B there,” said van Munster. “They don’t know the language. It’s very difficult to get through this country. They get so stuck, but they find so many fascinating solutions of how to get through everything. One of the things the teams do there is go to a real-life floating village. It’s insane.”

There’s a really interesting article talking with the hippie looking beekeepers who just finished running the Amazing Race. It seems like almost every running of the Amazing Race has to have their token “hippies” and TAR 13 is no different. I guess the big difference here is that these hippies have probably been hippies since the 70s.

This is an absolutely unique couple which looks like they’ll be really entertaining to watch. However, they almost didn’t get to go on the Amazing Race. The producers really wanted them, but had concern over there health. Here’s an excerpt from a story about Anita and Arthur Jones:

So how did these two find fame on a reality show?

The avid “Amazing Race” fans say it started with a video tape.

“The production assistant called and said ‘We can’t get your video off our minds. We just keep talking about it, but we really don’t think you can do it,’ ” explains Arthur.

So why not?

“Well, because most folks on the show are like 22 years old, and we’re kind of older,” laughs Anita.

So to prove themselves, the active duo made another video tape skiing in a downpour.
Their lifestyle didn’t hurt, either.

“I don’t know if they wanted the hippie thing,” Anita says. “I mean this is just our lifestyle. This is who we are, and they saw our video and they’re kind of going OK.”

Then, the couple also made some comments (although limited since the show hasn’t aired) about their experience running TAR 13.

“It’s like you’re in a twilight zone,” Anita says. “You’re just floating through as fast as you can, it’s just so amazing.”

“I think a lesson is that it’s not that dangerous out there,” Arthur says. “People sort of have this, well, you can’t go into these countries. Certainly there are war areas, but by and large people are helpful. You stop people on the street and ask for directions, people are more than willing to help.”

“You are under so much pressure and adrenaline that sometimes you say stuff you didn’t mean,” Arthur says, “but it’s just because you’re focused. Eventually, you have to come out of it with some forgiveness and understanding that we’re all human and make mistakes.”

Nah really? I can’t remember a single episode of TAR where someone said something they shouldn’t have said to the partner. Ok, most episodes include some sort of snide remark. However, the hippies are usually the exception. That might be a first for the Amazing Race: hippies saying something rude.

Of course, this is why I could never go on the Amazing Race with my wife. However, my brother and I would absolutely LOVE to go. I wonder if they’d let me live blog my experience on the Amazing Race. Now wouldn’t that be cool? Then, they could post my blog comments at the same time as the show is shown on TV.

The highly anticipated return of the Amazing Race is just a month away and CBS has released the bios of its Amazing Race cast. Let’s take a look at the competitors and see how close CBS stayed to their past formulas of choosing teams.

First we have Terence and Sarah, a dating couple whose biggest concerns are becoming too intense, fighting amongst themselves, and their dietary restrictions. Sounds like a formula for good TV if I ever heard one. You know the producers are thinking, “Yes! Get intense! Fight! Harder!” I’m interested to learn more about the dietary restrictions since I have a ton of those myself and have cited that as my main reason for never going on a reality show.

Next up are Marisa and Brooke AKA Team Hot Pink Velour Tracksuits. Haven’t we already seen this team on seasons 12 (Shana and Jennifer), 10, 11 (Dustin & Kandice), 9 (Danielle & Dani), and 7 (Megan and Heidi)? For some reason this typecast annoys me the most out of all of them.

Frat brothers Andrew and Dan look interesting. I expect them to bring the funny. Don’t disappoint, boys.

Aja and Ty are our token black couple on the race. For as diversely traveled of a show the Amazing Race is, they sure don’t carry that over to their casts, do they? I’m concerned about this team. They are in a long-distance relationship and Ty feels that Aja’s biggest weakness is that she gets upset easily. I foresee lots of distraught tears and miscommunication with these two as they struggle to stay on the same page.

Next up are Mark and Bill, the geeks for this season. These two are comic fan boys who met at a science fiction club almost a quarter century ago. How sweet. I predict their intellect will get them through certain challenges, but their lack of physical fitness will slow them down in others.

Mother and son team Toni and Dallas are all but guaranteed to be entertaining according to their CBS bio. Their breakdowns will (predictably) be when Toni tries to boss Dallas around.

Nick and Starr are a brother/sister team who I believe will get on my nerves by episode 2. Starr (how did she draw the short stick in the family name lottery?) is a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader and Nick performed in Off-Broadway, so lots of drama shall be sure to ensue. Their bios mention the siblings are best friends now but were bitter enemies in high school - let’s see which one holds more true as they travel around the world.

We’ve got hippies again! And an aging team! All in one tie-dyed package. Groovy. Anita and Arthur are a married couple in their 60s from Oregon. They run a farm and are all about the peace and love. I have high hopes for them.

Team Hot Pink Velour Tracksuits have company this season. Watch out, girls, Kelly and Christy are going to give you a run for your money. Both of these teams are from the south, but the latter are from Texas. And everybody knows you don’t mess with Texas.

Once again, we’ve got an estranged couple in the cast. Ken and Tina have been separated for 9 months, but are hoping to reconnect on the race. I hope that works better for them than it did for Frank and Margarita (Season 1), and Tara and Wil (Season 2). They separated because of Ken’s infidelity. I’m not sure going on the Amazing Race with two teams of Double Mint Twins is the best idea in the world, but that’s just me.

Finally, we have Anthony and Stephanie, another couple whose fate seems dubious. Anthony promises to propose to Stephanie if they win the race. So if they lose, will he dump her?

Since people can be so much different than they are “on paper”, it’s hard to choose favorites just yet. However, I’ll take that risk based on past Amazing Race experience. My picks - sight unseen - are Andrew & Dan and Anita and Arthur. I can’t wait to tune in on September 28th to see if my predictions hold!