The Amazing Race
News (Page 2)

With yet another season of The Amazing Race on the way, host Phil Keoghan recently spoke on the challenges facing the long-running reality series. Here are some of his thoughts on the topic:

On keeping it fresh:
"We're going to new countries, working with new people, and when they get caught up in the enthusiasm of The Amazing Race, it keeps it fresh for all of us. Their enthusiasm reminds us that we're working on something incredibly special. They bring something to it themselves because they're looking at it from a totally different perspective."

On the rigors of production:
"People in the industry know what it's like to get 30 to 40 cameras through customs and signing equipment in and out - every bit down to the smallest microphone has to be documented in and out of countries. They understand that taking one trip to a country is something, but if you're doing it every other day and they have to negotiate in and out of airports every single leg, lights, tripods, microphones, that have to make it. The show has to go on."

T.K. Erwin and Rachel Rosales may have won The Amazing Race. But, as they relayed to The OC Register, the couple couldn't discuss the feat until it was announced on the air...

After dating for a year, T.K. Erwin and Rachel Rosales took off last summer to backpack through Europe for three weeks.

At least that's what they told their parents and friends in Huntington Beach.

But while they did carry backpacks and they did spend a few days in Europe, the scope of their adventure was far greater than the typical twentysomething's traipse around England or France or Spain.

Which left them upon their return with a story that seemed a little shaky, they say.

"It was getting a little suspicious when I came home and had no pictures of where we'd gone," says Erwin, 23, by phone from New York City on Monday.

"And we didn't have the names of places we went or anything," adds Rosales, 24.

Read the full article on the victors now.

As reported earlier, Rachel Rosales and TK Erwin won The Amazing Race 12 last night.

Our friends at BuddyTV sat down with the couple and asked about the victory:

You guys must be feeling pretty good right now, huh?
TK: Yeah, it's a weird...it still doesn't feel real, I can't explain it. I feel like I'm pretending to be on a team that won The Amazing Race.

What's it like watching yourself win a million dollars on TV?
Rachel: It is really surreal. Once it hit it was like yes, this is happening, there it is, we're all done. But we've known that we won for a really long time and we've had to hold it in for so long that I think it still just feels weird that people know.

Read the full interview now.

Rachel Rosales and TK Erwin won The Amazing Race last night. This "newly dating couple," as the show billed them, conquered a pair of other teams to come out on top of the twelfth-season of this competition.

"I can't even believe it... I'm really speechless," TK told host Phil Keoghan after he crossed the finish line with Rachel. "None of this even seems real. It's kind of freaking me out."

Rachel, a 23-year-old florist and business owner, and TK, a 22-year-old substitute teacher were the first team to reach the end in Anchorage, AK. They claimed the $1 million grand prize.

"This whole things was such a crazy roller coaster with so many ups and downs," said TK. "To do it with Rachel, I think our relationship has only grown through this whole thing. And for that, that's more important than any of this for me."

"Father/Daughter" team Ronald and Christina Hsu finished second.

The Amazing Race had an amazing beginning.

Although a lengthy NFL overrun delayed its broadcast by nearly a half-hour, The Amazing Race 12's premiere attracted the show's largest ever debut-episode audience, averaging 13.72 million overall viewers and a 8.3/12 rating/share in households during its broadcast.

The Amazing Race 12 premiered last night.

A few days earlier, host Phil Keoghan spoke with BuddyTV about the adventures of leading the Emmy-winning reality show.

He said his favorite teams are the ones that make for good TV, "not necessary the ones that he'd like to go have a beer with."

At the end of the day, Keoghan realizes this is a TV show, so while he may not love the personalities of some contestants, he's aware the cast requires entertainment value.

Over the course of 12 seasons, the concept of The Amazing Race hasn't changed much - and Keoghan believes it's this consistency that's led to such viewer loyalty.

To read the full interview, click here.

As contestants on The Amazing Race 12, both Lorena Segura and Jason Widener can admit that their relationship (they're dating) has been in turmoil for the past several years. Now they're willing to put it to the test.

BuddyTV sat down with Lorena and Jason for an interview prior to the new season and learned some interesting things about this pairing. Here are some key points about Lorena Segura and Jason Widener all fans should know ...

• Their official motto: "Don't be last, stay calm and have a blast."

• Their strategy? Stay off of the radar of other teams. They don't care about being on TV, they just want to stay quiet and win. Eyes on the prize.

• Lorena and Jason admit their relationship has been on the rocks and hope the Race will help them overcome many of their issues.

• Lorena speaks Spanish, French, Italian, and a little Portuguese, which she thinks will help them in their travels. Well, it certainly can't hurt.

• She's traveled a lot already in life but Lorena hopes to see new and different places with Jason on The Amazing Race.

• When the going gets tough, Lorena Segura and Jason Widener hope to say calm, don't give up, trust each other, keep going and moving forward.

• If they win, they plan to invest the $1 million prize wisely, purchase a house, and then use the rest of the cash to travel and see the world.

Best of luck to Lorena Segura and Jason Widener!

Below is a quick rundown of the 11 teams competing this season of The Amazing Race, which returns to CBS for the 12th time November 4 ...

1. Lorena Segura and Jason Widener. She's a bartender, he's an actor, and they're dating. He played a young Jed Bartlet in the classic season 2 finale of the West Wing, "Two Cathedrals."

2. Kynt Cothron and Vyxsin Fiala. A Goth dating couple from Kentucky, and in case you were confused, Kynt is a guy. They certainly love their make-up, and it will be interesting to see what happens if they stay in the race a while.

3. Jennifer Parker and Nathan Hagstrom. Athletic on-again, off-again students. There's always one (or more) of these young, good looking couples who bicker non-stop. The "athletic" part really does apply, as he coaches volleyball and she coaches gymnastics. He's a bit tallern than she is.

4. Rachel Rosales and TK Erwin. The young, free-spirited dating couple. He's a substitute teacher and former collegiate swimmer, she runs her own flower shop.

5. Kate Lewis and Pat Henderson. Married Episcopalian ministers, and both women! Religious, homosexual, old (the only team with a combined age over 100). Nice!

6. Ronald and Christina Hsu. The father/daughter team trying to use the Race as a bonding experience. He's a VP of Sales at a paper packaging company, and she is a policy analyst from Washington D.C., with degrees from Duke and Princeton. They've certainly got the brains to get it done!

7. Donald Jerousek and Nicolas Fulks. A grandfather/grandson team.

8. Ari Bonas and Staella Gianakakos. Young, catty California BFFs.

9. Azaria and Hendekea Azene. A cool brother-sister duo, which means plenty of bickering, but underscored by love. They describe each other as "confrontational" and "irrational," so they're just like every pair of siblings.

10. Marianna and Julia Ruiz. Sisters from Los Angeles. Based on their bio, it's the classic pairing of brains and brawn, with production assistant Julia the "problem solver" and art gallery manager Marianna the athlete.

11. Shana Hall and Jennifer McCall. Two hot blonde friends out to prove that there's more to them than meets the eye. Yeah, we've heard that before.

The next installment of The Amazing Race will premiere Sunday night, November 4.

The Amazing Race 12 will air in the Sundays at 8 p.m. on CBS, replacing new drama Viva Laughlin, which the network canceled after only one broadcast in the Sunday night time slot.

"If there ever was a season that I consider one of the best, it's this one," said Bertram van Munster, The Amazing Race's executive producer and co-creator.  "It's insanely funny, fast-paced and dramatic all at once.

Teams are in hot pursuit of one another at every location and it's reality television at its nail-biting best."

The Amazing Race continued its Emmy dominance this weekend, as it was awarded Outstanding Reality-competition Program honors during the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

It was the fifth year in a row that The Amazing Race has captured the honor, and it remains the only show to win the award since the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences first created the category five years ago.

"We are so proud to win this again, it's extraordinary," said The Amazing Race creator and executive producer Bertram van Muster during his acceptance speech.

"I really want to thank also my phenomenal team, [without which] we could never do this, and the hundreds of people around the world - some of them don't speak... we can't even communicate with them - who help us produce this show in really very, very difficult and unusual circumstances, so, a lot of honor goes to the team and the people around the world that help us."