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Amazing Race 9 Articles / Library
puddin:
pretty much what is posted above in Phil's teleconference but with Jonathans 2 cents fwiw ~
Amazing Race All-Stars Edition, Phil Keoghan Doesn’t Think It Would Be Successful
http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2006/02/amazing_race_al.html
puddin:
Ready...Set...Amaze!
"Race 9" kicks off in Denver with hopes of revving up the international thrills missing last year
By Joanne Ostrow
Phil Keoghan wears a makeup bib around his neck as he strolls the upper reaches of Red Rocks Amphitheatre. A stylist fusses with his perfect hair as vans carrying 11 teams approach the foothills outside of Denver for "Amazing Race 9."
It's a sunny December morning, and the 30-day shoot for the program's 13-week run is about to begin. Sporting a gray turtleneck sweater, black boots and jeans, Keoghan affects the studied-casual look.
The crew has spent a solid hour arranging 22 backpacks in a semicircle, rearranging them into a line, then at an angle, in front of the Visitor Center. A battalion of 25 cameras, including one mounted on the nose of a helicopter, stands by to document this start.
With the teams arranged before him on the steps of the renowned concert venue, Keoghan revs up the contestants. "In just a few minutes you'll be leaving on a race around the world," he says.
OK, so it's not Ike and the paratroopers on the eve of D-Day. But CBS's "Amazing Race" remains the thinking-person's reality TV show. Teams race around the world - bickering across 60,000 miles in 30 days - pursuing a $1 million prize. A Silverthorne couple is among the contestants drawing on offbeat skills to surmount oddball challenges.
The show begins a new globe-trotting season with a two-hour debut, Tuesday at 8 p.m. on KCNC-Channel 4. The show moves to what will be its regular 9 p.m. Tuesday slot on March 7. Fans hope "Amazing Race 9" will return to its former glory after last season's disappointing family edition.
As the taping begins, what impresses an onlooker most is the production's rehearsed spontaneity. Keoghan will give his "Are you ready?" speech seven times, the teams yelling excitedly on cue each time, before capturing a suitable take.
"Phil will make every time like the first time," director Evan Weinstein says admiringly.
Roundly booed for the mostly domestic travel last time, "Race" this season again embraces an international format with a cross-section of mostly unrelated couples.
"It's easier to critique than to create," Keoghan says in defense. "I admire CBS for trying the family version."
Executive producer Bertram van Munster explained the family edition this way: "CBS made the decision. Les (Moonves, CBS's boss) wanted to broaden the (demographics)."
Keoghan is just back from a month snowboarding in his native New Zealand. He also toured 10 cities in two weeks promoting his book, "No Opportunity Wasted." (He also wrote the preface to "52 Reasons to Have a Passport.") His daughter is now 9. "I'll retire when she's 16 and gets a Nike golf contract," he says jokingly.
Checking himself, he rephrases: "Our show has the world to choose from - you could do 100 shows and keep it fresh every time. I could be doing this as a senior citizen."
At 60,000 miles, this route is one of the series' longest. (You can circumnavigate the globe in just shy of 25,000 miles, and that's on the equatorial route.)
"It's like turning a battleship around," van Munster says of his 200-person staff. More than 2,000 personnel are involved
A CBS videographer captures a team embarking from DIA for "Amazing Race 9," which debuts at 8 p.m. Tuesday on Channel 4. A Silverthorne couple is among the contestants. (Post / Glenn Asakawa)
http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_3546897#
Jeffrey Scott:
Oh phew, thianks for posting that. I almost forgot the AR9 was on tomorrow night.
puddin:
Race's edge returns with ninth season
By HEATHER SVOKOSSTAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
If you think that watching a bunch of people running to catch an airport shuttle wouldn't make for riveting TV, you've never seen The Amazing Race. And that's what's so darn amazing about it: Thanks to the show's brilliant pacing and editing, something as mundane as jockeying for airline flights can morph into a heart-thumping showdown.
That's just one reason that The Amazing Race -- which sends 11 teams of two in a breathless race around the globe for $1 million smackers -- is arguably the best reality show on TV.
Except. For. Last. Season.
But before I bludgeon the recent Amazing Race: The Family Edition, let me say this about the two-hour premiere of season nine, which airs tomorrow: The show is back to its stellar self, doing what it does best: raising our hackles and our heart rates.
That's because the show has gotten back to its tried-and-true format: teams of two people in an existing relationship -- sisters, lifelong friends, mother-daughter, husband-wife, boyfriend-girlfriend -- sent scrambling around the world.
Last season's family-of-four setup was publicly acknowledged by CBS as a failed experiment. As it turns out, it wasn't so fun watching families implode, kids cry, or a mother being verbally abused by her sons, even if she was a grating loudmouth. Because there were four people to a team -- and several children among them -- it limited the show's mobility. Barely any of the race took place outside of the United States. So instead of breathtaking panoramic views of Malaysia and Borneo, instead of bungee-jumping and gliding across Victoria Falls in South Africa, we had to trudge along with the families as they made their way to Anniston, Ala., to locate the world's largest . . . office chair.
Or take a George Washington-style trek across the Delaware, where the goal was to participate in a flag-folding ceremony. (Quick, what's the opposite of adrenaline?)
Thank goodness for season nine.
Teams start from the Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver, Colo., and race off to their first destination: Sao Paolo, Brazil. The tension kicks in from the get-go, as they all race to catch the earliest flight. As viewers, our blood pressure rises and falls with each mini-drama. For instance, when one team walks by the clue box on a bridge, missing it approximately 19 times, we scream at them through our TV sets: "It's right there!!! You're walking past it! AGAIN!!"
Part of the fun of The Amazing Race has always been watching the dynamics of a pre-existing relationship and how it holds up (or doesn't) under the pressure of the competition..
Just as MTV's The Real World does, the Race tends to cast stock types, so you'll recognize a lot of them: the obligatory pink-clad hottie bubbleheads (childhood friends Dani and Danielle); the feisty retirees (Barry and Fran); the cool-headed African-American couple (Yolanda and Ray); the freakishly fit, would-be Abercrombie models (Jeremy and Eric).
Some of the rest of the cast don't fit the archetypes quite so neatly. Among them:
The Hippies. You'll either love or hate BJ & Tyler, two free-spirited best friends. With their beards, unkempt hair, red pants and kooky vintage shirts, they seem to have either escaped The Spin Doctors, or from a high school prom, circa 1975.
The Frosties. Joni and Lisa are sisters from Houston. They both have short shocks of frosted blond hair, upon which tiaras have occasionally sat. They know their way around a BeDazzler, and because of their 6-foot height, call themselves The Glamazonians. Their daffiness and their colorful expressions make them alternately fun and irritating to watch. Either way, I fear for their longevity: Early on, one sis says to the other: "Slow and steady wins the race." Um, reality check on Aisle 5?
The show wastes no time establishing this season's breakout villain: it's Lake Garner, a 37-year-old dentist from Hattiesburg, Miss. (think Gary Oldman with a Southern accent). His partner is his submissive wife, Michelle.
Lake is an amalgam of Amazing Race antagonists: Not only does he mistreat his wife ("Shut the [expletive] up!" he kindly offers), he's also poised to be an ugly American and has already raised a few racial red flags ("Michelle, you better run! That black girl'll outrun you!").
Just waiting for his comeuppance, our heart flutters. And when it happens -- no matter how big or small -- we lick our chops, and we thank karma, and CBS, for restoring our faith in the Race. :groan:
link~
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/13972765.htm
puddin:
OMG from tv guide :lol: , Jeremy & Eric in Russia!!
Eric and Jeremy
Joseph on THE AMAZING RACE 9 ( where is this ?)
Teammates Dani and Danielle
Lake and Barry
we know this is Fran , not Barry ~
Loudmouth Lake, who is from Mississippi, and retiree Fran, of Colorado, make their way down the side of a mountain in the upcoming ninth season of The Amazing Race.
Teams of the Amazing Race
AGAIN they forget about Wanda & Desiree!!
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