AMAZING RACE ASIA SEASON 5 : RACERS REVEALED

The 11 new teams that will be racing in the fifth season of the reality show Amazing Race Asia has been revealed, simultaneous with the show's press conference in Indonesia.

The new season was revealed earlier this year and auditions both on ground and online has been done over the past few months. The last season was already 6 years ago so it is just high time that the new season airs.

The 11 new teams are as follows:

    > Rachel and Vicky, travel hosts from Indonesia
    > Louisa and Treasuri, childhood friends from Indonesia
    > Alex and Will, brothers from Malaysia
    > Brandon and Alphaeus, old schoolmates from Malaysia
    > Chloe and Yvonne, beauty queens from Malaysia
    > Eric and Rona, married couple from the Philippines
    > Parul and Maggie, beauty queens from the Philippines
    > JK and Mike, radio DJ's from Singapore
    > Rei and Kenji, siblings from Singapore
    > Tom and Anita, dating couple from Thailand
    > Lisa and Nicole, life partners from Vietnam

Looking at the teams, this is an exciting group of racers. We have siblings, friends, colleagues and couples in the mix. I was hoping for a parent and child team, after a strong showing from Malaysia's Hussein and Natasha from Season 5. It is also good to note that we have the first team from Vietnam to compete in the show.

I also think that 3 teams from the same country is too much. There are other countries in the region - India, Sri Lanka and Japan has been represented before. We still have Myanmar or Mongolia as well. So picking 3 teams from one country is I think too much.

Let me focus now on the teams from the defending champions - after the Season 4 victory of Richard and Richard - the Philippines.

The first team in the list is married couple Eric Tai and Rona Samson Tai. Eric, more commonly known as Eruption, is not new to the television scene. He was a former host of the noontime show "It's Showtime" in ABS-CBN. He is also a player of the Philippine national rugby team - the Philippine Volcanoes. He has also endorsed several brands, most notably is Kitkat as the lead endorser in the Have A Break campaign in the past few years. He is married to model Rona Samson, whom he married 3 times. Here is Eric and Rona's online audition for the show as posted in Rona's YouTube account :

The second team from the Philippines is the team of the Beauty Queens Parul Shah and Maggie Wilson. Parul is an Indian - Filipino beauty, who won Binibining Pilipinas Tourism 2014 but was not able to compete in Miss Tourism 2014 as the pageant was not held during that year. She was handpicked in 2015 to represent the country in the Miss Grand International 2015 where she won as 3rd runner up. Her partner, Maggie Wilson-Consunji was crowned Binibining Pilipinas World in 2007. She competed in the Miss World 2007 pageant where she was one of the top 16 semi-finalist. Maggie was already in showbiz even before she won the crown, and continued in that line after the pageant. She married in 2010 and now has a son.

I am really looking forward to the show and the race. I hope to get a glimpse of the race live if it passes here in the Philippines - I really hope it does.

Good luck to the Philippine teams and hope you can retain the title with the Philippines!

AMAZING RACE ASIA : ATENEO VOLLEYBELLE AMY AHOMIRO AND COURTSIDE REPORTER LAURA LEHMANN AUDITIONS FOR SEASON 5

Ateneo de Manila University volleybelle Amy Ahomiro and courtside reporter Laura Lehmann posted an online audition video for the season 5 of Amazing Race Asia. They posted their video on the last day of submission - last June 30.

Here is the write up in their video submission :

#LauAmyForAmazingRaceAsia - use the hashtag and share the love guys! :)

Amy is originally from Auckland, New Zealand. Her family moved here 10 years ago after her mother accepted a job offer. Amy has been here ever since and she has now become one of the most popular professional volleyball players in the Philippines. 

Laura, meanwhile, has a very different background. She has American, German, Swiss, Spanish and Filipino blood, and has been living in the tropics her whole life. She won Miss Philippines 1st Runner Up in 2014 and has been an active TV Host and model ever since. She currently hosts "Listed", an immersive travel show on Lifestyle Network wherein she explores different islands and takes the road less traveled. She is also the courtside reporter for Amy's volleyball games and the rest is history. 

Sometimes opposites really do attract. Yin & yang forever.

Here is the audition video as posted in The Game Changers YouTube account :

Hope they get chosen and with Amy's physical strength and Laura's charms, they are definitely a team to watch out for!

AMAZING RACE ASIA : ON GROUND AUDITION IN ALABANG TOWN CENTER

To all Filipino team who are interested to join the 5th season of The Amazing Race Asia, on ground auditions are being held today and tomorrow at the Alabang Town Center!

Here is the tweet from the official Twitter account of AXN Philippines :

#AXNTARA On-ground auditions are about to open at 10.00 am We'll be here until 6.00 pm today. Same sched tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/IfedFPMH0k

— AXNPH (@AXNPH) June 25, 2016 

AMAZING RACE ASIA WILL BE BACK!

After a 6 year hiatus, the Asian adaptation of the popular US reality show, Amazing Race Asia will be back this year for its 5th season.

Here is the announcement for application from the twitter account of AXN Asia:

Opportunity doesn't knock twice. Now is the time to be part of The Amazing Race Asia! https://t.co/cywuYO42k7 pic.twitter.com/QXnMaEeQko

— AXN Asia (@axnasia) May 24, 2016

Here is the right up on the website :

So excited to watch this season! Can't wait for the premier!

THE AMAZING RACE SEASON 25 IS IN SINGAPORE, GUESS WHO IS THE PIT STOP GREETER!

The US version of the hit reality show The Amazing Race, now on its 25th season, aired its 9th leg today. The leg is in Singapore and I saw a very familiar face with Phil Keoghan at the pit stop.

So who is this familiar face?

It is Singaporean actress Melody Chen, who was a racer from the 1st season of the Amazing Race Asia. She raced with her bestfriend Sharon, and finished 7th in that season.

It is nice to see that the Amazing Race franchise is merging the different versions in different kinds of ways.

And guess where they are headed next? They will be in my home country, the PHILIPPINES! They will be coming here for the 2nd time, and after 20 seasons! And to top it all, they will be bringing back the unforgettable PLOW detour task in Leg 11 of Season 5, where Colin coined the famous line, "My ox is broken!".

Can't wait for the next episode!

my thoughts on amazing race philippines pilot episode

being a big amazing race fan for years, i was really excited for today... the premiere of our very own version of the amazing race: the amazing race philippines.

i have watched the US version since season 5 in 2004 (when it was first aired in the philippines by studio 23 because the philippines was one of the destination - just before the finale) and it is already airing season 21 right now and i have not missed a single episode since. not only that, i have also watched all episodes of the 4 seasons of amazing race asia. with that, i am really farmiliar and a big fan of the show.

the show started with all 11 teams being transported via helicopters to the starting line of the race (though it was not shown that the helicopters landed on that exact spot); the historic paco park. the season boasts of a mix of very interesting contestants. knowing filipino reality shows, it was to no surprise that there are celebrities in the cast. there are football players, a popular actress, a noontime show dancer and beauty queens. but despite these, the teams were quite interesting.

the show is hosted by derek ramsay and the winners' price amounts to PhP2 million, which is small compared to the USD 1 million (even up to USD 2 million in season 21) for its US counterpart and even half of the guaranteed price of the asian version.

the show started very well, the ambiance and the shots is really like the US version. i was really amazed on how accurately tv5 edited the clips and make it look like the original amazing race. but my excitement died down a bit when i heard the first clue being read.

the first clue told the racers to head down to the manila yacht club, where they need to find the dock. there, they need to find the marked yacht and decode the nautical phrase from the series of flags that hangs on the yacht. unknown to the racers, there are cheat sheets scattered on several locations in the place, where they can see the equivalent letters of each flag.

when i heard the challenge, i immediately thought that this challenge has been done previously in the US version, they just modified it a bit. and i immediately remembered that this was the roadblock where the cowboys (jet and cord) had difficulty finishing. so, i went through several internet sites (thanks wiki!) and found the similar challenge. it is the first roadblock in australia in the pilot episode of the amazing race season 18: unfinished business.

here is the challenge description from wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Race_18 ) :

In the Race's first Roadblock, one team member had to scuba dive in the Oceanworld shark and ray tank and search the tank for a compass. The compass included a guide to decode a message hidden in series of nautical flags outside. The correctly decoded message instructed teams to go to the Manly 16 ft Skiff Sailing Club, find the Commodore, and tell him the password "I am Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" to receive their next clue.

they just modified it but the challenge of decoding the message from the nautical flags is the same. you can also watch the video of the episode here (hope the video survives - i just found it in youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZZa09Q1np0 )

refer to this part for the challenge explanation: 18:00 - 18:50.

this has been one of the pitfalls of localized versions of reality shows, recycling challenges from the US version of the show. this means lack of creativity and it sometimes turns off several fans of the show. this is also the case with survivor philippines, almost all their challenges in their pilot season were recycled challenges from the US version of survivor. i really hope they make more unique challenges in the next episodes.

the episode was finished even without anyone completing or even starting decoding the nautical message. this is what i hate when you covert a supposed to be one episode a week to an episode a day show. the suspense is killing the fans and it is really bitin. my definition of an amazing race episode  is an episode with at least a roadblock and a detour, and i think this will not happen in amazing race philippines. this is the same adjustment i had to make for survivor philippines.

and not only that, when they showed the next challenge, i immediately recognized it again - another recycled challenge! based on what i saw, the casino challenge is the chance choice in the detour of amazing race asia season 3 episode 7. here is another challenge explanation from wikepedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Race_Asia_3 )

In this leg's Detour, the choice was between Dance or Chance. In Dance, the team members must correctly perform a lion dance routine to the satisfaction of the performance troupe. In Chance, teams must don formal attire and play a game of blackjack in the casino of Hotel Royal Macau; they must beat the dealer nine times (as denoted by the letters of the word COMPLETED) before receiving their next clue.

convinced?