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puddin:

This 'Race' really is 'Amazing'
 

What a cast, what a world

THE AMAZING RACE 7
Tomorrow night at 9, CBS.

Most of broadcast TV's quality reality shows - and there aren't that many of them - have fallen victim to poor casting this season.

There's not a single "American Idol" contestant worth getting as excited about as Paula Abdul does; Stephenie and Tom are the only "Survivor" contestants with heart and grit this year and they're both walking targets unlikely to last much longer; and on "The Apprentice," Donald Trump's savviest business move would be to fire the whole bunch at the finale and take the night off.

"The Amazing Race," though, is having an amazing season.

The breathless travelogue marathon is down to the Final Four in its seventh incarnation, and far from being tired or boring, this CBS reality series is having its best edition ever.

As always, the twin strengths of "The Amazing Race" are 1) the thrilling scenery, people and animals encountered along the way, and the contestants' reactions to them; and 2) the way the relationship of each two-person team is tested, and either forged together or pulled apart, by the rigors of the exhausting multi-continent road race.

Year in and year out, it's a sweet, inspirational and often educational reality show.

"Amazing Race 7," though, has lucked into so many great teams, that each leg of the race provides a delicious amount of drama, a few laughs, and usually, by the end, a tear or two.

The celebrity couple of "Amazing Race 7," former "Survivor All-Star" contestants Amber (who won) and Rob (who came in second, but proposed marriage to her on live TV just before learning he'd lost), has alienated all but one team with their relatively ruthless tactics - but they've stayed tight as a couple, and those tactics, to this point, have served them well.

Rob and Amber are the only team to finish more than one leg of the race ahead of the others. They've finished first on three different occasions, and clearly are the dominant pair. Right now, though, they're in third place, immediately behind the only team that tolerates them, Ron (a former POW in Iraq) and Kelly (a former beauty queen).

The more Ron and Kelly, who are dating, race, the less they seem to like one another - though their youthfulness and competitiveness keeps them going strong.

Leading the race as the next episode begins are Uchenna and Joyce, one of two married couples in the final four. They're black, and the parts of the race that went through South Africa and Africa, seeing both the people and the landscape, touched them deeply. A chance to leap forward in the game last week required the team that reached that opportunity first to submit to a holy Indian head-shaving ritual.

Uchenna's head already was bald, but Joyce sobbed as she sacrificed her long tresses; by the end, she had accepted the spirituality of the event, and they ended in first place.

Bringing up the rear of the Final Four, but persisting longer than any elderly team in any "Amazing Race," are Meredith and his wife, Gretchen. These two really do fit the term "amazing." They've never won a leg of the race - or, for that matter, come in second or third - but they keep hanging in, even after Gretchen got hurt during a cave-exploration challenge and all their possessions were taken away as a penalty.

They're like AARP Energizer Bunnies and just keep going and going and going. They've managed, somehow, to last longer than some formidable teams - some who worked well together (Lynn and Alex, Brian and Greg), and some who imploded (Ray and Deana).

In this final four, I hope Ron and Kelly go next, just because the other three teams are so dramatically dynamic. Since Rob and Amber already have won one reality show, and are making their marriage a prime-time event, I'd like to see them finish third - and have the race get down to one of the two married couples.

It'd take a miracle for Meredith and Gretchen to make it that far. This whole season of "Amazing Race," though, has been one little miracle after another.

Originally published on April 25, 2005
 
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/303204p-259565c.html

puddin:

 
'Amazing' Racers Have No Love for Romber
Monday April 25 3:09 PM ET


This time, they can't blame the editing. Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich are racing to the altar in their pre-taped televised wedding next month, but their "Amazing Race" cast mates have no love for Romber.

"None of the other teams liked them," recently eliminated Lynn Warren told The Associated Press recently.

Added his boyfriend and teammate Alex Ali: "We were just more vocal about it. Amber and Rob had a bad attitude. They were terrible."

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Romber, as many have dubbed the terrible twosome, have become the most hated team on CBS' seventh edition of "The Amazing Race." The pair of former "Survivor" contestants Brkich was sneaky in "The Australian Outback," Mariano was rambunctious in "Marquesas" met during "Survivor: All-Stars," which Brkich eventually won, and were engaged on the live finale.

"We actually didn't know who they were when we started the race," said Ali of the crossover couple. "I never watch `Survivor.' We thought Rob was cute. He has a nice butt. Then, when he tried to pull one over on us, I was like, that guy's a jerk."

Ali is referring to "Boston Rob" Mariano's sly second-leg strategy in Peru that involved bribing a bus station security guard to withhold information from most of the racers. Later on the bus, Mariano paid the driver to only open the front door, delaying teams in the back of the bus.

"It's not like we were sitting at home watching Rob and Amber," said Warren. "We were in a race with them. We know them as people, and they really are truly sucky. They're no Trista and Ryan, that's for sure."

Romber gave no attention to Greg and Brian Smith, the sixth team eliminated, when the brothers accidentally flipped their vehicle in Africa, although every other team stopped to see if the Smiths and their camera crew were unharmed.

"It kind of showed how they were when they drove past us and didn't even roll down the window to see if we were OK," said Brian. "It looked like a bomb had hit our car."

"We're friends with every other team except them," said Greg. "We didn't really get to know them."

Romber's "Race" behavior has extended beyond bribes and brush-offs. During the third leg, Rob persuaded two teams to forfeit a Road Block eating challenge in Argentina, a fact that baffled even host Phil Keoghan. Ray Housteau and Deana Shane were one of the two teams who agreed to stall. They insist they were using the other teams' red hot Romber hatred against them.

"Those teams were preoccupied with that," said Housteau.

"Right, the teams were always like, `Where's Rob and Amber? Where's Rob and Amber?'" said Shane. "Well, we thought, let's use this. They're more worried about where Rob and Amber are."

It didn't work. Shane and Housteau were eliminated in the fifth episode.

Despite animosity from teams that went bye-bye, Romber have done well in the race. They've come in first place three times more than any team this season. However, in the last episode, Romber fell to third place with only gung-ho retired couple Gretchen and Meredith Smith now behind them. Uchenna and Joyce Agu, who shaved her head as part of a Fast Forward challenge last week, are currently in first. All-American couple Ron Young and Kelly McCorkle are in second.

This season's winning team will cross the finish line during the two-hour finale May 10. Romber will stand at the altar during CBS' "Rob and Amber Get Married" on May 24, but Warren and Ali won't be in attendance.

"I'm still waiting for my invitation," said Warren.

___

On the Net:
http://tv.yahoo.com/news/ap/20050425/111446694000.html

puddin:
On TV, Reality Loves a Villain
By KATE AURTHUR

Published: April 26, 2005


At the beginning of an episode of this season's "Amazing Race," Rob Mariano, one of the contestants, spoke to the camera: "You know that thing, the American dream? Amber and I are living it." As the episode progressed, viewers saw Mr. Mariano, along with Amber Brkich, his fiancée and racing partner, steal a cab from another team, get a police car to escort them through Santiago, Chile, and successfully talk other teams into also quitting a challenge he couldn't complete, thereby ensuring that he and Ms. Brkich would stay in the game.

It appears the definition of the American dream has changed. Ms. Brkich, 26, was the winner of "Survivor: All-Stars" less than a year ago. Since then, Mr. Mariano, 29, another "Survivor" alumnus who was once a construction worker from Boston, and Ms. Brkich, a former secretary from Beaver, Pa., have shed their old lives to form a new one together: they are reality television's premiere villains.

CBS announced last week that it will broadcast their wedding, which took place on April 16 in the Bahamas, as a two-hour special called "Rob and Amber Get Married" on May 24. In between "Survivor: All-Stars" and the wedding show, they took part in the seventh season of CBS's "Amazing Race," which is broadcast Tuesday nights at 9. With three episodes left, Mr. Mariano and Ms. Brkich have schemed and backstabbed their way to being one of the four couples remaining in the race.

"What they've brought more than anything is a real sense of competitiveness and controversy - they're planning the game in a new way," Kelly Kahl, CBS's senior executive vice president for scheduling, said in a recent telephone interview from Los Angeles. "Some in the audience like it and some don't."

From the Nielsen rankings, it appears that those who like it are in the majority - the ratings for this season of "The Amazing Race" are poised to be its highest ever. Defying the pattern of most aging television shows, particularly reality series, the average number of viewers has climbed steadily over the past three editions of "The Amazing Race," from 10.3 million to 11.5 million to 12.4 million for this current season, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The show, a two-time Emmy winner in the reality program category, was once one of the more kindly of television's reality offerings, but the growth in viewership coincides with a ramping up of its portrayals of villainy.

"I think that the prevalence of more confrontational characters has certainly drawn attention to the series, and that helps bring viewers in," said Andy Dehnart, the editor of realityblurred.com, a Web site about reality television.

In its fifth season, broadcast last summer, a Texan named Colin Guinn continuously sniped at his girlfriend, Christie Woods. During its sixth season, which ended in February, Jonathan Baker and his wife, Victoria Fuller, berated and belittled each other, and Mr. Baker shoved her on camera.

With the stunt-casting of Mr. Mariano and Ms. Brkich, the shift in the show's tone from a benign racing competition to a more confrontational, character-driven reality drama has evolved even further.

Both Mr. Guinn and Mr. Baker blamed the producers of "The Amazing Race," which was created by Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri, for editing them into evil, one-dimensional characters. But they also both admitted that they provided more than enough unflattering material for the producers to use. Speaking on the telephone from Corpus Christi, Tex., Mr. Guinn said: "I can let my temper get the best of me sometimes. I wasn't thinking as much about the cameras as I should have."

According to Mr. Baker, he played the villain on purpose because those are the characters from reality television that he has loved watching. But, he said, he lost control of his own portrayal. "I was out there trying to be larger than life," he said from Los Angeles. "Sometimes that comes back and bites you. I didn't know what it was going to look like."

As reality veterans, Mr. Mariano and Ms. Brkich are different kinds of antiheroes than Mr. Guinn and Mr. Baker: more lovable scamps than potential rage-a-holics. (Since they are still on "The Amazing Race," they are not allowed to talk to reporters.) Ms. Brkich's unscripted debut was on the second season of "Survivor" in January 2001; Mr. Mariano was on the fourth edition of the series in 2002. Both were chosen to play "Survivor: All-Stars," broadcast last year. During the show, the gleefully manipulative Mr. Mariano (also called "Boston Rob" and "The Robfather" by fellow contestants) and the quietly calculating Ms. Brkich began seeing each other. They were the final two players in the game, and before it was announced on the show's finale in May 2004 that Ms. Brkich had won, Mr. Mariano asked her to marry him on live television, and she accepted his proposal.

CBS immediately began talking to the couple about broadcasting their wedding. The network will not disclose how much it paid Mr. Mariano and Ms. Brkich, but in 2003, ABC paid Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter from "The Bachelorette" $1 million to broadcast their nuptials.

The wedding aside, the couple actively lobbied to be on "The Amazing Race." Phil Keoghan, the show's host, recalled recently that he first met them at a CBS press function where they approached him with their request. But, he admitted, "I actually didn't even know who Rob and Amber were."

The producers did, and they were cast. According to Mr. Keoghan, who sent the teams on their way from the starting point in Long Beach, Calif., the other teams recognized them immediately and were visibly furious. "There was never as much tension at the starting line as there was when they came on the scene," he said.

On the show, the couple have consistently plotted against the other teams, trying to prevent them from getting the fastest bus or plane, as Mr. Mariano literally winks at the camera.

When Mr. Keoghan described what Mr. Mariano and Ms. Brkich have done for "The Amazing Race," he sounded as if he were talking about a scripted villain, someone like J. R. Ewing. "I think they've been incredibly tenacious, smart, engaging, charismatic," he said. "That doesn't mean that people have to necessarily agree with all the choices they've made, but there's no denying that they've made for some entertaining moments. They are good TV."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/26/arts/television/26race.html

puddin:
Rob and Amber's success
hurts ‘Amazing Race’
Controversial couple
are loved, hated by viewers
COMMENTARY
By Andy Dehnart
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:22 p.m. ET April 25, 2005When CBS cast “Big Brother 4” twit Alison and her boyfriend Donny for “The Amazing Race 5,” the Emmy award-winning series seemed to be selling out, using nepotism to draw viewers from one series to another. But Alison and Donny’s quick exit — they were eliminated during the second leg of the race —turned them into the joke many viewers hoped they’d be.


 
Two seasons later, “Survivor” veterans Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich joined “The Amazing Race 7,” after practically begging to participate. Those who’d lamented the Alison and Donny stunt casting hoped that Rob and Amber would follow their “Big Brother” counterpart and flop on their faces early on, letting the real teams run the rest of the race.

That didn’t happen. Now, Rob and Amber are now one of the final four teams. They’ve cruised in to first place during three out of seven legs, and in three others were in third or second place, raking in trips, behaving ruthlessly, and eviscerating other teams. Based upon their success so far, they may just take it all.

Perhaps even more than the dysfunctional relationships and confrontational tone of the sixth season, Rob and Amber’s presence, aggressive game play, and boundless luck has divided fans. Some love them, some hate them, but everyone agrees that they’ve influenced the show unlike any team before them.

Their success, though, has hurt the show’s rapidly tarnishing reputation.

Unfair advantage?
First, there’s the issue of fairness. With their appearance on “The Amazing Race,” both Rob and Amber have each had three separate opportunities to win $1 million on CBS reality shows.

Rob is fond of pretending that he won “Survivor All-Stars” (“we’ve already won a million,” he said once), but he’s actually lost that game twice. While he didn’t even make it to the jury during “Survivor Marquesas,” his alliance with Amber and strategy did help him to place second on “Survivor All-Stars,” and he earned a substantial $100,000 prize. Both he and Amber also won new vehicles. And CBS paid for their recent wedding and will air it as a two-hour special next month. Do they really deserve or need more?

Perhaps more egregiously, their celebrity has created an unfair advantage on “The Amazing Race 7.” Traveling in other countries, Rob and Amber stumble across magazines with their faces on the cover, and people frequently recognize them. Certainly, the cameras and production people with the teams attract attention for all of the teams, but more than once this season, Rob and Amber’s fame has helped them out, and that’s an advantage the other teams will never have.

‘The Robfather’
Most of their success, though, is due to their abilities. “Boston Rob” is at once ingenious and insufferable, cunningly evil and completely charming. His behavior and game play earned him the nickname “The Robfather” on “Survivor Marquesas,” and lost him “Survivor All-Stars.” But it landed him in second place during the All-Stars season, and has kept the couple near the top of “The Amazing Race” pack.

That’s because Rob’s a walking paradox. When he calls Amber “my girl,” he sounds both genuinely affectionate and obnoxiously sexist. Talking about working with locals, he said, “It’s tough organizin’ Indian labor,” and with that, he managed to be both endearing and offensive all at once. He says nearly everything with a cute grin, looking like a bear cub that will snuggle up against you just to get close enough for a good mauling.

And his approach to “The Amazing Race” takes advantage of all of those characteristics as he claws his way to the front of the pack. In the process, he’s quite possibly fundamentally altering the series, like the way that Richard Hatch’s first-season alliance affected every subsequent game. In six seasons, no one had ever run the race quite like Rob has.
The team that's ‘like an STD’
For all the talk about “The Amazing Race” being a game, it’s really not; the other teams aren’t necessarily obstacles or even allies. The race is between the team and the course, and that’s it. With varying degrees of intensity and success, past teams have definitely brought competitiveness to the show, but Rob has stepped it up to a new level. This has been a near-constant source of conflict between Romber and other teams on this race (fellow racer Lynn said the team is “kind of like an STD”).


 
Certainly, this season has a number of intense competitors besides the “Survivor” couple. When Joyce was faced with the decision of whether or not to have her head shaved in order to skip some tasks, she didn’t even hesitate: “Let’s go, let’s just do it, I don’t care,” she said, her focus only on earning the fast forward. Gretchen and Meredith, the oldest couple to ever make it to the final four, have survived injury (Gretchen fell in a cave), near-constant screw-ups (Gretchen fell after the couple returned to the cave for the second time, having missed a clue the first time), and game twists (all of their possessions were taken away except their passports and the clothes they were wearing). Yet they hobble along, and their determination keeps helping them to beat younger teams to the pit stops.

But Rob is more than determined. He’ll do whatever it takes to win. On a recent episode, he was literally grabbing children from a crowd to help him push an elephant on wheels. He constantly recruits locals as guides and convinces them to follow him around for miles and miles. That’s smart, but as Rob drags someone around with them, this strategy comes across as quasi-kidnapping (in India, fellow racer Ron said that Rob “coerced” a man “into following us on the rest of the leg”).

There’s more: Rob once stole a cab belonging to another team. He bribed a bus driver to not open the back door, thereby delaying the teams standing toward the rear of the bus. He’s asked for information and made his source swear that he wouldn’t tell anyone else. Often when he does these things, Amber stands nearby and looks embarrassed.

Rob’s most controversial action involved a unique interpretation of the rules. In early seasons, failing to perform at a task resulted in a race-ending 24-hour-penalty for a team. (Mother and daughter Nancy and Emily were eliminated from the race during the first season after incurring such a penalty). But with that penalty now reduced to four hours, Rob played the odds. He refused to eat four pounds of meat, and then convinced other teams to join him in quitting. It was a brilliant strategy: he skipped the task and ensured that he wouldn’t be eliminated, as his fellow quitters would be behind him.

Haven't they won enough?
Although he may have considered this sort of move beforehand, he seemed to conceive of this strategy as we were watching. Rob sometimes plays the dumb or ignorant card, but he’s always thinking and scheming. All of his actions are permitted in the rules of the race, but are they ethical? Is this how teams should run “The Amazing Race”? Should they be more concerned with thwarting others than with helping themselves? And, as a former reality cast member, should they even be allowed to race?

For CBS, the answer is probably a strong “yes!” to the last question, and “who cares” to the others, as this season’s ratings have been up consistently. For fans of this three-and-a-half-year-old series, the answers are less obvious.

Part of the appeal of reality television involves getting attached to cast members, who we grow to love (or hate) as a series unfolds. This explains the increasing prevalence of people we already know showing up again and again on reality shows; they’re easy to cast, and the audience’s familiarity means the show can jump right into the drama. Just tune in to MTV’s “The Real World/Road Rules Challenge,” where this is only display week after week, season after season. Cast member Veronica recently noted, without a bit of embarrassment, that she’d been on seven “Challenge” shows. That’s a total of eight reality show seasons, including her original appearance on “Road Rules.” And that’s insane.

Perhaps there’s a severe shortage of reality contestants. But without new faces, there wouldn’t be anyone new to get to know.

And part of the appeal of “The Amazing Race” is getting to know pairs of people as they navigate the earth and get to know each other better. Rob and Amber’s presence may alter the game, but it’s denied us the chance to meet two new people, denied those new people the chance to have their chance at $1 million, and denied Rob and Amber’s fellow racers the chance at an even playing field.

If Rob and Amber win “The Amazing Race 7,” they’ve earned it, and deserve their reward. They just didn’t deserve to run the race in the first place.

Andy Dehnart is a writer and teacher who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV news.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7632157/page/2/

puddin:
They rule TV's reality

By Hal Boedeker | Sentinel Television Critic
Posted April 26, 2005

 
 
They are reality royalty and, as such, far more photogenic and fun than the other royal couple of the moment, newlyweds Charles and Camilla. "Boston Rob'' Mariano and Amber Brkich keep taking amazing leaps in their reign on the airwaves.

They fell in love last year on Survivor: All-Stars, jumped to the current edition of The Amazing Race and will headline a CBS special about their wedding. Rob and Amber Get Married represents another triumph for two everyday people who have finessed the reality format.

"Reality exploits people,'' says Winter Park dentist Carl Bilancione, who competed on Survivor: Africa in 2001. "It gives you a false sense, if you're on one of those shows, that you'll make it big. It doesn't work that way. A lot of people go through reality and are disappointed that doors didn't open.''

The doors keep swinging wide for Mariano and Brkich, who were married April 16 in the Bahamas.

"I think Rob's conniving brilliance and Amber's next-door look made it work for them,'' Bilancione says. "It's a love story. America loves a love story.''

Yet many viewers detest these lovers, primarily for Mariano's win-at-all-costs tactics. When a competing Amazing Race team flipped its vehicle, the couple drove by instead of stopping. That ruthlessness helps explain their longevity in reality -- where once you're voted out, you're usually forgotten.

Mariano and Brkich are among the final four teams in The Amazing Race, which airs at 9 tonight on WKMG-Channel 6. Because of CBS restrictions on Race participants, they're not talking to the public. The winning duo will be revealed in a two-hour finale May 10.

Two weeks later, at 9 p.m. May 24, CBS splashes the couple's nuptials across a two-hour special. Event planner Colin Cowie designed the wedding, and he knows the routine from creating swank ceremonies for Jerry Seinfeld, Kelsey Grammer, Sela Ward, Barry Bonds and Lisa Kudrow.

CBS isn't discussing the Mariano-Brkich wedding yet, preferring to save the publicity for closer to the telecast. But why does America's most-watched network keep falling back on this duo?

"You're seeing people made for reality," says Ron Simon, television curator at the Museum of Television & Radio in New York. "With Rob and Amber, you can see the wheels turning whether they're on Amazing Race or Survivor. You don't know what they're like in real life. But they've created personas for television. They're consistent in how they present themselves.''

Brkich, 26, was an administrative assistant from Beaver, Pa., when she received national exposure on Survivor: The Australian Outback in 2001. Mariano, 29, was a construction worker from Canton, Mass., who competed on Survivor: Marquesas in 2002.

The sweet Brkich and the brash Mariano struck up an alliance that turned to romance on Survivor: All-Stars. Mariano proposed to Brkich on live television, and she accepted, right before she defeated him to win the show's $1 million prize.

"He seemed like he really liked her,'' says Tim Brooks, co-author of The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows. "The TV audience can see through artifice extremely well. When characters or politicians try to fake things, the camera is unforgiving. This doesn't seem to be an act. They do seem to mesh together on a personal level.''

CBS now lists Brkich's occupation as "winner, Survivor: All-Stars.'' Mariano's job title is "runner-up.''

That visibility has been a plus on The Amazing Race as bystanders have helped the reality stars on the globe-trotting adventure. One awestruck woman aided Brkich on a shopping spree in a Soweto market. But that has spurred a debate about whether their celebrity skews the game.

"The mail I get is split,'' says Matt Roush, senior critic at TV Guide. "People who hate them say they have the advantage of being famous. Other people think they made the show better. People are marveling at them. Rob and Amber don't snipe at each other. They are charming, telegenic.''

Still, Roush is rooting against them in The Amazing Race.

"It should be about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances,'' he says. "They are not playing on a level field.''

TV curator Simon agrees. "They were on the show to bring the Survivor viewership over to The Amazing Race,'' he says. "CBS and the producers allowed them to exploit any advantage they had; at least it seems so on the show.''

Survivor alum Bilancione met Mariano several times and didn't like him. Yet the dentist applauds Mariano's play on The Amazing Race, especially when he refused to eat a huge meal and instead took a time penalty.

"You have to admire the guy,'' Bilancione says. "He has not lost sight of the goal: Win. He used to be the most despicable character. He has shown a softer side. On the finale of Survivor: All-Stars, he showed class by apologizing [to other players] and proposing to Amber. The way he handled it was brilliant.''

A few players have converted their reality gigs into other programs. Elisabeth Filarski Hasselbeck, who appeared on Survivor: The Australian Outback, won a co-hosting job on ABC's The View. Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter transformed their romance on ABC's The Bachelorette into a wedding special.

But Mariano and Brkich could be considered the king and queen of reality, says Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. He doesn't fault them for letting CBS televise the wedding.

"Anyone who stands on a diving board knows the pleasure of having all eyes on you,'' Thompson says. "Reality television is more about exhibitionism than money. It's about being famous.''

Yet he adds that television probably has complicated their future.

"There's not a lot the entertainment industry can do with them,'' Thompson says. "They're going to have to struggle through the first five years of marriage. They met as characters on a TV show.''

Television curator Simon voices similar concern about the reality players. "They flourish in this alternate universe,'' he says. "Can a real-life marriage between them survive? That's another matter.''

They have bought a home near Pensacola, according to Brkich's hometown newspaper, the Beaver County Times in Pennsylvania. That would seem to put them out of the show-business whirl, but with this pair, anything is possible.

In this real-life version of The Truman Show, the sequel possibilities are many. A honeymoon special perhaps. Maybe their first child's birth as a series. If the wedding does well in the ratings, CBS could turn to the couple again -- without a blink of its trademark eye.

Hal Boedeker can be reached at 407-420-5756 or hboedeker@orlandosentinel.com.

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