A Kingsport father and daughter's 'Amazing Race'KINGSPORT — When Dr. Scott Fowler’s daughter, Blair, called and asked if he would like to join her on the upcoming season of the reality TV show “The Amazing Race,” Fowler says he didn’t have to think twice.
“I thought I would have a hard time convincing him,” said Blair. “But, when I called, I had barely muttered the words ‘amazing race’ and he said, ‘Yes! Let me call my work right now!’ ”
Fowler is the president and CEO of Holston Medical Group. His 22-year-old daughter, Blair, is a well-known YouTube beauty guru. Her social media fame has garnered her nearly four million followers.
“Anytime Blair calls me and says, ‘Let’s do something,’ it’s always going to be something I want to do,” said Fowler. “Who wouldn’t want to travel around the world and see different places and get to do it, in my case, with my daughter? It was an incredible opportunity.”
“The Amazing Race” reality series, hosted by Phil Keoghan, has won multiple Emmy Awards. This season, 11 teams embark from Venice Beach, Calif., on a trek around the world. The current cast is comprised of Internet celebrities and their relatives or friends. Most of the cast members have achieved fame through social media outlets such as Instagram, YouTube and Vine.
At every destination, each team must compete in a series of challenges, some mental and some physical, and only when the tasks are completed will they learn of their next location. Teams which are the farthest behind will gradually be eliminated as the contest progresses, with the first team to arrive at the final destination winning “The Amazing Race” and the $1 million prize.
In 2008, Blair began making beauty and fashion YouTube videos from her bedroom in her Kingsport home. Her videos quickly gained popularity, and Blair eventually relocated to Los Angeles when she was just a teenager.
“Blair found some success fairly early in her life,” Fowler said. “She was just 16 when she left and moved out to L.A. So we didn’t get to spend a lot of time together. We missed out on some things. For me, this opportunity to be in ‘The Amazing Race’ with her was a great way to make up for some of that lost time together and to not just go somewhere together, but to actually go somewhere where you work as partners. The race really does require that you build on your relationship. What’s strong in one partner can make up for what’s not quite as strong in the other partner. This was a fantastic experience to allow me to grab back some of that time with my daughter that kind of slips away from you if you’re not careful.”
Blair says all of this quality time together led to the father-daughter duo being able to learn more about one another.
“I didn’t think I could have more respect for my dad after this experience,” she said. “But it helped our relationship grow. He is the smartest, best person in the world. I am still his little girl, but after this experience, even though we’re still Daddy/daughter, we’re now on more of an adult friendship level, which I don’t know that we would’ve gotten to as easily if we weren’t kind of pushed there by something like ‘The Amazing Race.’ ”
Fowler agrees that his relationship with his daughter grew through “The Amazing Race” journey.
“How could it not? Blair’s incredible. She can do almost anything. I do think, with a father-daughter relationship, there’s always that little bit of a need to provide protection to her. But this taught me, completely, that she really can do anything that she sets her mind to. She has grabbed life by the reins and just taken charge of it. She is a wonderful person and partner,” he said.
The new season of “The Amazing Race” premieres at 8 p.m. Friday on CBS.
The Fowlers hope all their Kingsport friends will tune in to see how they fare.
“I think they’re going to be proud of how their Kingsport locals are portrayed on national TV,” said Blair.
“We had a blast and, hopefully, people will have a blast watching it,” said Fowler. “It was just a tremendous amount of fun. We’re certainly proud of where we come from.”
Blair said she will be tweeting live during the show. You can follow her at
https://twitter.com/BlairFowler.
Blair’s other social media sites include her YouTube channel at
https://www.youtube.com/user/juicystar07; Instagram at MissBlairFowler; and Facebook at BlairFowlerOfficial.
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