2 Houstonians look like Amazing Race favorites
By MIKE MCDANIEL
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Say what you want about Uchenna Agu — the man can throw down with anyone when it comes to meat.
With his wife, Joyce, rooting him on, Uchenna wolfed down 4 pounds of meat and other cow parts (including intestine, udder and saliva gland) to finish second in last week's episode of The Amazing Race.
Uchenna and Joyce Agu are making a case that they deserve to win CBS' Amazing Race and its $1 million prize. If the Agus succeed, they'll become the first Houstonians to become overnight millionaires thanks to a reality TV show.
Showing more guts than Bahston Rahb and a bunch of other Amazing wusses, the Agus are making a case that they deserve to win the round-the-world race and pocket $1 million. The two 40-somethings have already said they plan to use the money to pay for in vitro fertilization procedures.
If the Agus win, they'll become the first Houstonians to become overnight millionaires thanks to a reality TV show — and possibly become parents of, ahem, a million-dollar baby.
Alas, other people are thinking that way — too many, according to Internet bookies.
Last week, offshore bookmaker Sportsbook.com suspended betting on the winner of The Amazing Race, citing a disproportionate amount of wagering on what at least one wag is calling Team Enron. (Uchenna was laid off his job at Enron when the company collapsed in 2001. Joyce lost her job when WorldCom fell.)
Sportsbook cited unusual betting patterns on the Agus from accounts originating in California and Massachusetts.
It's not the first time online wagering has been shut off after heavy betting on a reality TV show.
Betting was suspended for two editions of Survivor (Amazon and Pearl Island), the second edition of The Bachelor and last fall's edition of The Apprentice following high-volume — and accurate — betting on the winners.
The Amazing Race (like The Bachelor and other reality shows) is pre-taped; the winners are already known, but players are expected to abide by very strict secrecy rules or face extreme financial penalty ($5 million for Survivor contestants). Producers and crew members must sign similar contracts.
Obviously, someone has figured a way around the legalities.
CBS would not confirm or deny the report, as has been the network's policy on all rumors and reports about its reality series since Survivor first began.
And when we last talked with Bert van Munster, the mastermind behind The Amazing Race (8 p.m. Tuesdays, Channel 11) it was before the gambling story broke.
But it wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination to see how one of Race's minions might try to cash in on what he knows.
In hammering out the logistics — never mind the shooting and editing — of this truly amazing series, Van Munster says he has a payroll of more than 2,000 people.
While that's a lot of checks to write, Van Munster believes the size of the show is what prevents its being copied.
Other knockoffs have been developed, he said, but none has come close to succeeding.
Incidentally, he says the Agus were easy picks, because each "has a very dramatic story, and they're really terrific people."
He admitted that "some people don't like" Boston Rob Mariano and his fiancee, Amber Brkich, both of whom participated on Survivor (Amber won the $1 million).
"I personally have never been a very big fan of (choosing celebrities or pseudoceleb-
rities)," he said.
"I don't think it's really necessary. But that is a personal thing, and I am not the only one who makes the final decision when it comes to putting the cast together
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