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puddin:
Ormond family races for 'Amazing' finale

From Staff Reports
Posted December 6, 2005, 4:21 PM EST

 
 
America will find out tonight if the Ormond Beach family on the CBS reality show "The Amazing Race" will be among the final three families who will compete for the $1 million prize.

Linda Weaver, 46, and her three children, 19-year-old Rebecca, 16-year-old Rachel and 14-year-old Rolly, are vying in the travel adventure quest for $1 million.

The father of the family, Roy Weaver III, was struck and killed by a race car at Daytona International Speedway Feb. 8, 2004, as he was removing debris from the track. The family has a wrongful-death lawsuit pending against the track and the race-car driver involved.

Then came the opportunity to join the TV show, which features teams that must race around the globe and complete tasks at different locations. This season's version of the show has spent most of its time in the United States, but has ventured to both Panama and Costa Rica as well.

The race began with 11 families of four (  |( ), but has been whittled down to the last four. The final three teams will compete for the final prize. Those final three will be decided in tonight's one-hour episode which airs on WKMG at 9 p.m.

The Weavers have come in first in just one of the previous nine pit stops. They are currently in second place after the last leg brought them to watch Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park.

"One of the reasons why we want to do the race is just to really work together as a team, and accomplish a goal and find out we're still a family -- we're still a victorious family," Linda Weaver said.

"We were a strong, united family before," she said. "Now we're going to be a strong, united family again."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/orl-bk-amazingfamily120605,0,1158040.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

puddin:
Amazing, or just a maze?

01:00 AM EST on Monday, December 12, 2005
BY ANDY SMITH
Journal Television Writer
 


It seemed like an intriguing idea for The Amazing Race, CBS's Emmy-winning reality show, which has its two-hour season finale tomorrow night at 9 p.m. (Ch. 4 and 12).

Instead of couples racing around the world for a $1 million first prize, the current edition of the show features four-person families -- some with children as young as 8. (Among the families racing this season was the Aiello clan of Mansfield, Mass., which includes Johnston police officer David Alverson.)

But critics, and many fans, have widely panned Amazing Race: Family Edition. Somehow, the dynamics between couples were far more interesting than the relationships among four family members.

"Personally, I can't wait until The Amazing Race gets back to the business of showcasing pairs," wrote Marc Berman, of the broadcasting trade journal Mediaweek.

The racers rarely ventured outside the United States this season. For viewers who liked seeing Americans tiptoeing through rat-infested temples in India, this Amazing Race seemed less amazing than tame.

Bertrand van Munster, co-creator and executive producer for the show, is well aware of the criticism.

"Part of the problem we had as producers was that we had to introduce four people to the audience instead of two -- times 10," he said in a phone interview last week. "That's 40 people, and that's a difficult thing for the audience to absorb."

But Munster said the show didn't suffer in the ratings. (Last week about 11 million people watched the show.)

"I'm grateful that CBS was willing to try something different. . . . this was a very family-friendly show. And the show was a great calling card for the U.S. We had always wanted to do an 'Americana' version of the race, for us to show the beauty and diversity of the U.S. We become jaded in a way," said van Munster, who was born in Holland.

Van Munster didn't want to give much away about the next season of The Amazing Race, which is already in production. But he did say that it would go back to the original couples format -- and he promised audiences would not be bored.

"You'll all be sitting on the edge of your seat -- I guarantee it," he said.

When it first appeared, it took some time for The Amazing Race to find its audience. Its premiere aired right after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

"Suddenly, no one was interested in seeing Americans on airplanes traveling around the world," van Munster said. "I thought it was all over. But CBS was very patient."

Slowly, Race's combination of far-flung adventure and personal conflicts caught on, and its production values won the admiration of the industry. (The Amazing Race has won the Emmy for best reality show three times).

Van Munster said there are some obvious security concerns when you're producing an international race, but by and large the world is not as dangerous as some might think.

"Everybody in this country is brainwashed about how bad the world is," he said. "We've been to 80 countries. Yeah, we're not flying to Afghanistan or Iraq, but almost everywhere we go we're treated with kindness and respect and hospitality."

Van Munster said the show continues to surprise him -- nobody can predict who will win.

In a bit of stunt casting last year, The Amazing Race recruited Survivor winners Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich.

With a mix of charm and amoral cunning, the pair almost won -- but got caught when competitors Uchenna and Joyce Agu persuaded a nearly departed plane to open its doors and let them on the flight.

That raised some eyebrows. But van Munster said The Amazing Race crew had nothing to do with it. "The whole idea is that they are inventive people, and they're able to persuade people to do things for them."

The previous season saw probably the show's most notorious contestant, Jonathan Baker, who appeared nasty to the point of abuse with his wife, Victoria Fuller.

Baker, who has grandparents in Rhode Island, said in interviews that the show's editing made him look worse than he really was.

"Jonathan's not a bad guy, don't get me wrong," van Munster said. "But I could have gone into the editing room and replaced everything we used with something else he did that we didn't use. It is what it is."

The television pendulum appears to have swung away from reality shows at the moment, with the hot shows scripted programs such as Desperate Housewives and Lost.

"Everything is cyclical," van Munster said. "There was a bit of a gold rush there for a while. Everybody thought they were a reality producer, and they could make a quick buck. The best [reality] shows will still survive."


http://www.projo.com/tv/content/projo_20051212_12amaze.839681c.html

puddin:
Recently, Buzz had the pleasure of meeting Bill Gaghan who, with his wife and two children, completed six legs before being eliminated


What made you decide to enter the Race?

My wife has wanted to enter this kind of reality show for the longest time, and had been applying with her friends, her father, probably about four different times. She has always wanted to do it with me but thought that if we got picked, who’d watch the kids while we’re gone on the race? So, when this family format came up, we thought it was a great way to spend time as a family.

For us, joining the race was more for the adventure, the challenge and the competition of the race. I mean, to be able to travel and see interesting things that we normally wouldn’t able to see or experience in a very short time. It was no vacation – it was a race – but we went into it making sure we enjoyed and appreciated things as much as we could along the way.

How was it different being the only family with little children in the team, besides the Black family?

Every team has strengths and weaknesses. Looking at our team, it’s pretty obvious that having little kids made some tasks a lot tougher. But, Tammy and I travel a lot, and so one of our strengths was our travel experience. Another was the energy level – the kids were probably more pumped up than their parents! Plus, the fact that we had a defined leader, we could make decisions very quickly. Some of the other teams, like the Linz family (three brothers and a sister) didn’t have a defined leader and they spent a lot of their time fighting. At the very beginning, they almost got eliminated because of that but to their credit, they recovered and ever since that, they’ve really run a very strong race. It was very tough for us to compete against them, but we thought we had a good chance anyway.

What was the toughest thing you and your family had to do in the race?

The physically toughest thing that we had to do was when we pushed the Amish buggy for a mile-and-a-half. For me, I’ve run 11 marathons. Having run for thousands and thousands of miles, pushing that buggy was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. And there was only Tammy and I who pushed that darn thing. Although we had only little kids in there, and it’s a lighter weight for us, but the other teams had four adults who could switch turns and take a rest inside. That was a nightmare, but it felt good to be the first team to finish that challenge in the end.

Emotionally, the toughest part was at the end, looking at Phil in the eye and knowing it was coming. Plus, watching the show later, I saw Clarissa’s reaction when Phil told her we were eliminated. She kind of shrugged her shoulders and tried so hard to be a good soldier – that was really heart-breaking for me. Billy was consoling her, which was a nice big brother act, and I was proud of my family at that point, to see how we bonded together in a stressful condition. That was emotionally hard for me.

You were seen giving high fives to the Paolos when they chose to Yield team Florida (Weavers). We know that Ron and Amber were the ruthless duo in the previous Amazing Race. This time, it seems the Weavers are taking over as the most disliked team. But what made most of the teams in the Family Edition, and you especially, dislike the Weavers?

In the very beginning, you can’t talk to the other teams but when you started racing, you started talking to the people, developing relationships. From that first night when we were kind of getting together and bonded with each other, the Weavers clearly separated themselves from the rest of the pack. When I was on the race I kept a little journal and typed it all up in the computer. Just recently I was reading through things just to refresh my memory and one of the things I wrote was the second night when we were staying in Virginia; it was an extended pit stop so we were there for a day-and-a-half. All the other families were down at a common area where we were staying and we were all talking to each other, laughing and getting to know each other, but the Weavers had spent that first night the whole time locked up in their room all by themselves. So they wanted to be alone, so that’s okay, but later don’t come back and say “all the other teams hate us, they don’t like us.” I mean, you can’t have it both ways; it’s either you want to be alone or be part of the group. Even to this day, we send emails and telephone each other and form a very tight bond. Unfortunately, the Weavers aren’t part of that bond because that’s the way they chose to be.

If you could blame somebody for your elimination, who would it be? Do you think your wife’s bad luck in finding the red bean task caused your elimination?

Not the kids, definitely. There was nothing that our kids did that we can blame them. The decisions that got us eliminated were entirely Tammy and mine. It wasn’t really the red bean either. Tammy found the bean three to four minutes after the Weavers. For us it was the navigation from the red bead to the surf shop that killed us. For one, we didn’t have a map, so we were trying to figure out where we were going and we didn’t do it fast enough.

How did your family, especially your children take the loss?

We were sad, but not because we didn’t win. We kept on coming in second to last for awhile, and I didn’t want them to get depressed or demotivated so I said that all we had to do to stay alive in this was to pass one team. For us at that point, the team ahead of us was maybe two, five or eight minutes ahead of us, it was within reason to believe that we could pass them. So that’s how I kept it realistic for the children and kept them motivated. Like for Clarissa, she plays soccer for our town and she’s a really super competitive little girl. She goes out giving a hundred and ten per cent all the time and really likes to win. And Billy’s also a tough competitor who plays football. Despite that, we know that apart from winning, losing was also an option. We were sad, but merely because the adventure had come to the end for us.

Why was little Carissa crying at the end?

It was really because the adventure is over, she really wanted to keep on going and compete. Once it was over, when the camera was off, Phil came over and gave her a nice big hug. Phil has a nine year-old daughter as well, so I think he had like a special bond with Clarissa. All of the production people said very nice things to her and the family and wished us good luck. In the very beginning, it probably took two to three days for us to start switching gears from the race mode to trying to get ourselves back to normal life a little bit.

Now that the race has ended for you, who are you rooting for?

We are friends with the other teams in the race. The Bransen family is really nice and they are running a strong race. The Linz family is really nice as well, so it’s either the two of them.

http://www.mmail.com.my/Current_News/MM/Monday/Entertainment/20051212102726/Article/index_html

puddin:
Isn't it Amazing?
The Linzes and a lot of other people think they can win the million- dollar race. Tuesday night, we'll find out.

By John Kiesewetter
Enquirer staff writer

 
 
 
The Linz kids of Anderson Township -Nick (left), Tommy, Alex and Megan- compete against two other families in the finale of "The Amazing Race."
 
 
ON THE AIR
What: "The Amazing Race: Family Edition" finale


Online: Families finishing second and third competed for a SUV. The event will be posted at www.CBS.com at 2 a.m. Wednesday after the broadcast.
 

AMAZING RACERS
Nick Linz, 24. A 1999 St. Xavier graduate and Miami University graduate. Works in Buffalo for Packstar, his father's packing company.

Alex Linz, 23. A 2000 St. X graduate and University of Cincinnati graduate. Employed as an emergency room technician at Anderson Mercy Hospital.

Megan Linz, 21. A Miami University junior and 2003 St. Ursula Academy graduate.

Tommy (aka "Bone") Linz, 19. A Miami University sophomore and 2004 St. X graduate. Nicknamed "Bone" as young child because of his bald head.

The Bransen family: Walter, 51, and daughters Elizabeth, 25, Lauren, 22, and Lindsay, 20, from Park Ridge, Ill.

The Weaver family: Widow Linda, 46, and children Rebecca, 19, Rachel, 16, and Rolly, 14, from Ormond Beach, Fla.
 
 
Tuesday night, we'll find out if Megan, 21, and her brothers - St. Xavier High School graduates Nick, 24; Alex, 23; and Tommy (aka "Bone"), 19 - are Anderson Township's newest millionaires.

Their "Team Who-Dey" is one of three families competing in the two-hour season finale.

"We're on a mission to win $1 million," Tommy told viewers last week.

Who dey think gonna beat them Linzes?

Nobody, according to www.Sportsbook.com. It suspended wagering on "The Amazing Race" before the September premiere due to the large number of bets placed on the Linzes.

Terri Linz, their mother, says her kids haven't told her a thing about the finale - or any episode - since coming home from the July taping.

Ten families began the race in New York City, and traveled across the United States to Central America, and back to the far West.

When the Linzes were knocked from first to last place by a dead car battery in an episode in Utah two weeks ago, Mom frantically called Nick at his home in Buffalo. He gave her the answer she has heard for weeks from her kids: "Just watch the show."

"I know people look at me strange when I say it, but I don't know what's going to happen," says Terri, 52, a part-time nurse at Mercy Hospital Clermont.

Terri and her husband, Tom, have watched the weekly exploits here with more than 150 family members or friends. The kids have flown an airplane, piloted a hot-air balloon, ridden an astronaut's centrifugal force machine, and assembled railroad tracks and a covered wagon.

"My kids have done more things and seen more places than I ever thought," their mom says. "Nick says he's made notes, and wants to visit every place he's seen."

During a September visit here, host Phil Keoghan praised the Linzes' strength, positive attitude and willingness to try new things. While the Linzes laughed their way through adversity, other teams argued and imploded.

"I love the Linzes. They're naïve in a good way, meaning they're receptive to change," Keoghan said.

"One of the best things going for them is they have a sense of humor. It will get you through anything. A sense of humor is absolutely imperative if you're going to travel these days."

All the Linzes - Mom, Dad, their seven children and only daughter-in-law - are flying to New York for CBS' finale party Tuesday. Everyone is going because they were all on a Christmas vacation last year in the Cancun airport when a casting director asked if they would consider auditioning for a reality show.

Now they are reality TV stars. Internet chat boards have been buzzing about the Linzes, which likely will translate into national celebrity even if they don't win the cash.

"I love All-American, Midwest prime beef and these boys totally fit the bill," wrote one fan on Televisionwithoutpity.com.

Since August, CBS has banned the Linzes from making any public appearances. They've turned down requests to be honored by the Bengals at a halftime ceremony (though they signed autographs when recognized at the Bengals-Ravens game). Nick and Alex, former St. Xavier football players, couldn't participate in the Bombers pep rally before the state championship two weeks ago.

It all changes Tuesday night.

"We'll just see what happens," their mom says. "I'm not prepared at all, and neither do I think they are. Given opportunities, they're not stupid."

Including doing more TV?

"I could see any of them doing it," she says. "They're not shy!"

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051212/LIFE/512120310/1086

puddin:
Amazing race sputters to finish line 

Published: Tuesday, December 13, 2005
This season's underwhelming Family Edition of The Amazing Race concludes tonight, when three teams are expected to race through Canada on their way to a finish line in Niagara Falls, New York: there's the annoying Weaver family, the spunky Linz siblings and the blond Bransen sisters and their dad Wally.

The producers tried to freshen up the format by having families of four instead of teams of two. But because young children were involved, travel was contained to North and Central America, thereby eliminating two appealing components of the round-the-world version: (a) spectacular footage of foreign cultures, and (b) Americans struggling spectacularly to adapt to foreign cultures. Remember model Kendra, the eventual winner of Amazing Race 6, complaining that families in Africa "just keep breeding"?

An unintentionally ludicrous corollary of the new format was that the only black family on the show was actually named "the Black family." Mainstream reality television shows are always suspiciously low on visible minorities; this image was only compounded when host Phil Keoghan stared dramatically into the eyes of the losing candidates on the first episode and said, "Black family, I'm sorry to tell you you've all been eliminated from the race." It was like a skit from Dave Chappelle's show.

Tonight (9 p.m., CTV and CBS) the teams arrive in Toronto, where one of the Linz brothers (I can't tell them apart, nor the Bransen sisters, for that matter) collides with Rolly Weaver in a race for the Terminal One ticket counter. This will be yet another in a series of injustices committed against the Weavers, who have the biggest persecution complex since Conrad Black. They play the game as fiercely as anyone else, but when another team, usually the Linzes, tries to gain an advantage on them, it's because they hate them for loving God.

Someone must be listening to the prayers the Weavers have offered throughout the race, though, because no one else is on their side -- certainly not the producers, who have demonstrated a cruel sense of humour about the Weaver kids having lost their father in a racetrack accident. Hey, wouldn't it make great television to have the family drive to a speedway, where they are assigned a vaguely worded task involving "speeding" around? After many tears were shed over the prospect of using a racecar, the Weavers were finally shown the four-person bicycle they were to use for the task.

And yet, in spite of all that, it's impossible to root for them. I think they lost me in the very first episode, after a truck driver offered directions and Ma Weaver ran off shouting over her shoulder, "We'll be spending eternity together!"

The Bransens, meanwhile, are an appealing combination of three athletic sisters and a dad that would be your next-door neighbour in Anytown, U.S.A., equal parts goofy hair, dopey grin, short temper and beer belly. Each leg has included at least one "Hurry up, dad!" scene. Tonight the Bransens apparently find themselves looking for something at Olympic Stadium in Montreal. There are so many empty yellow seats around them, they must have been at an Expos game.

Finally, there are the Weavers' arch-rivals the Linzes, consisting of three brothers who spend their weekends at Home Depot, plus their beleaguered sister. The Linzes barely beat that Black family to survive the first episode, but since then, have finished third or higher every week but one. It's tough to bet against them in any task involving strength, but if God answers the Weavers' prayers and smites them, it could be an amazing finish.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=3678e0c8-b458-49be-9762-2be112ee541e&k=21156

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