Fri, March 25, 2005 }^!
Rupert to Race?
SURVIVOR FAVOURITE MIGHT FOLLOW BOSTON ROB'S LEAD
By BILL BRIOUX, TORONTO SUN
NEWS 'N' NOTES from another wacky week in the world of television: KING OF REALITY TV: Soaring ratings on The Amazing Race -- the No. 1 show in Canada -- can be traced to one person: Rob Mariano. Love him or hate him, Survivor's ever-quotable Rob-father and his million-dollar-fiancee, Amber Brkich, have stolen this show.
The lift could lead to more stunt casting on the series. Next fall's Amazing Race 8 is already a family affair, with four person teams made up entirely of relatives in the hunt
. Don't be surprised if Survivor favorite Rupert Boneham, along with his wife, daughter and foster child, aren't part of the next race. THE ROMBER FACTOR: Rob and Amber won Tuesday's leg of The Amazing Race, adding a trip to London to their already stuffed reality loot bag. Three consecutive eighth place finishes finally caught up with Susan and Patrick Vaughn, the mother and son team who were eliminated. Seven teams remain, with a special two-hour race set for Tuesday.
AMAZING RATINGS: Last week (March 14-20), The Amazing Race scored 3,043,000 viewers across Canada on CTV. American Idol took the No. 2 and 3 spots with Global's Survivor: Palau down to No. 4 with 2,821,000 viewers. Rounding out the Top-5 was CTV's CSI with 2,268,000 (all figures BBM Canada).
Surprisingly strong rookie Medium was No. 6 with 1,955,000 viewers. A rerun of Desperate Housewives (a new episode finally airs this Sunday) was way down to No. 19 nationally with 1,271,000, edging Global's once mighty The Apprentice in the No. 20 spot (1,258,000 viewers). Amazing Race was also No. 1 in Toronto last week with 743,000 viewers, well ahead of the Idols and Survivor.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/Entertainment/2005/03/25/972108-sun.html