The Amazing Race
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Congratulations are in order for Tammy and Victor Jih.

The siblings conquered all competitors to win this season of The Amazing Race.

In a new interview with People this week, the lawyers replied to the (literal) million-dollar question:

What is the first thing you will buy or do with the million?
Tammy: I took my entire law school education out in loans so I will be paying that back. It would have taken me 10 years of working to pay those back so it will be nice to not be saddled with such an enormous debt. I have been coveting a pair of black peeptoe Christian Louboutins.
Victor: I’ve decided to bail out Citibank. Just kidding but I did email my banker today to say that I could pay down my line of credit and take care of debt.

Tammy and Victor Jih have been crowned the winners the The Amazing Race.

The sibling attorneys, both Harvard Law School graduates, overcame numerous odds and competitors to come out on top of the show's 14th season.

They were followed to the finish line at Maui's King Kamehameha Golf Club by former NFL cheerleaders Cara Rosenthal and Jaime Edmondson and, in third place, the mom and son team of Margie and Luke Adams (the race's first deaf contestant).

Victor said he and his sister brought their "A-plus game," while Tammy pointed to an argument the pair had in the Romanian mountains as a turning point in the contest.

"I think I've proved to Victor that we think differently, but the way I think is valuable. It has helped [our relationship] progress," she said.

Season 14 of The Amazing Race premieres on February 15.

While nothing can be confirmed, here are a few rumored spoilers for the show:

• There will be a deaf contestant;
• The race will end in Hawaii;
• The season will be shorter than usual, approximately 11 episodes.

The brother and sister team of Nick and Starr Spangler conquered all other pairings on The Amazing Race 13.

Just a day after their victory aired, the siblings sat down for an interview with People Magazine. Here are highlights from it:

Q: When did you first think you could realistically win the Race?


Nick: I didn’t believe it until we were in the final cab going to the finish line. Starr had a different opinion.

Starr: Once we got on [the show], before we left, I said, “We can totally win this. We can totally do it.” I was more optimistic that we could make it to that finish line.

Q: Do you want to do more reality TV?

Starr: I would love to be on Dancing with the Stars. I’ve been in cheerleading, dancing my whole life and that is one show I’d love to be in. And if [my boyfriend] and I don’t work out, I would love to be on The Bachelorette!

Who says siblings fight all the time?

The brother and sister team of Nick and Starr Spangler proved that notion wrong last night, as they were crowned the winners of The Amazing Race.

"I'm proud of [Starr] as a person, as a competitor, and as a racer," Nick said after he and his sister took home this show's 13th-ever trophy. "She's been unbelievable on this race."

Starr, a 21-year-old former NFL cheerleader, and Nick, a 22-year-old actor from New York City, were the first pair to reach the race's finish line in Portland, Oregon and claim the $1 million grand prize that went along with such a finish.

"More than the million dollars, more than being the winners of The Amazing Race, I love the experiences that I've gone through with my sister, and I've loved seeing her succeed so greatly," Nick said.

Our New Year's Resolution? Watch even more reality television!

Here are season premiere dates for two of the most popular shows in this genre:

• Survivor: February 12
• The Amazing Race: February 15

Phil Keoghan is back at the helm of The Amazing Race for its upcoming seventh season.

The underrated host recently spoke with USA Today about past and future adventures. Here are excerpts:

Q: You're returning for the seventh time to India, which makes it the show's most-visited destination after the USA. What's the appeal?
A: It's my favorite (place for the show). I don't know a more diverse, colorful, dynamic country in the world. There's a sameness and comfort level you get living in a country like America. For people like Nancy and Emily (a first-season mother and daughter team who had a tough time negotiating crowds in New Delhi and Agra), it was like being on another planet.

Q: You're also going back to your birthplace, New Zealand, the adventure capital of the world, for the third time. What new thrills can we expect to see?
A: New Zealanders are very proud of their indigenous Maori culture, and we were looking to get something of that in the show. We ended up having the teams search for Maori warriors on an extinct volcano (near Auckland), and it was the most magical morning when they arrived: As the sun was rising, there were these warriors doing the haka (a traditional war dance) with a magnificent rainbow over the top of the hill.

According to Bertram van Munster, co-creator and executive producer of The Amazing Race the, viewers may need a seat belt when they watch this season, which begins Sunday night.

He told Reality TV World the competition will be kicking the danger level up a few notches during this fall's thirteenth edition.

"[This season] you will see a tricky one where you will wonder 'How in the world did they have the guts to do this?' You are really going to wonder," van Munster said. "I look[ed] at it and I [went] 'Oh what was I thinking? Oh my god, this could go very wrong.'  And then it does."

Overall, the goal was to increase the pressure and the challenges facing contenders.

"What I've done [for this season is] I've come up with so many insane challenges that it should do the trick and I think it will be plenty exciting for an audience to watch it," the producer added.

The 13th season of The Amazing Race debuts on September 28.

As usual, CBS has compiled an assortment of teams, from long-distance dating couple to married beekeepers. Click on the images below to learn a bit more about each squad now:

With the season 13 debut of CBS’ The Amazing Race looming on September 28, executive producer Bertram Van Munster dished on a few clues about the upcoming globe-trotting bonanza to Entertainment Weekly ...

• The race takes 23 days, covers nearly 40,000 miles on five continents, and features some far-flung locales never before seen on the show, including Angkor Wat, Cambodia and La Paz, Bolivia.

• The youngest team is a tandem of guys in their early 20s. “They’re made for television,” Van Munster says. “They’re supersmart — and they make terrible mistakes.” A pair of recent divorcees in their late 20s also vie for the prize. “They were left with some financial debt, so they really have a motive to run around the world,” he says.

• Expect a serving of granola — this time with a husband-wife squad of 60-something Oregon hippies. “They’re the real thing,” says Van Munster. “They come right out of the '60s. To a lot of people, it looks almost like they’re from a different planet.”Continue Reading...