As announced earlier this week, Reality Check Radio held an Amazing Race season 13 reunion which included the top 4 finishing teams, (the team of Dan and Andrew was a surprise) with Mark also joining in, solo from his partner Bill. The teams discuss what all they’ve been up to and their fans reactions to them now that the show has ended. The Amazing Race 13 alumni give insight to alliances that were formed in the competition. They also give their take on the current season of The Amazing Race and their picks.

Would they themselves do it again? How does the alumni think they were portrayed? What would they change?

Click below to listen and see what all the teams revealed.

On Monday, February 23rd, Reality Check Radio welcomes 3 of the top 4 final teams from The Amazing Race season 13 for a live on-air reunion.

Join winners Nick and Starr, brother and sister team, Ken and Tina, separated husband and wife team, and Toni and Dallas, mother and son team, as they answer questions from fans and discuss their time on CBS’s The Amazing Race.

The show begins at 11pm EST/ 8pm PST.  You can find Reality Check Radio online at www.blogtalkradio.com/reality_check.
To participate in the live web chat, listeners will need to register for a user name at www.blogtalkradio.com.

6 people from the show all at the same time is going to be interesting. It will be fun to see how that works on a radio show with that many people. Any bets on who’s still together: Starr and Dallas or Ken and Tina? I’m putting my money on Starr and Dallas.

We’ll be getting to know Nick Spangler and his sister Starr Spangler very well soon since TAR 13 isn’t far away. I think it’s always interesting to have a little background on each of the racers. Looks like both Nick and Starr Spangler are going to be plenty interesting. Take a look at what broadway.tv said about them:

Nick Spangler is a pretty nice guy. We had a chance to interview him backstage at The Fantasticks this week. Nick will soon be on CBS’s The Amazing Race with his sister Starr Spangler, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader we might add.

The Amazing Race is quite popular these days. We hope that it gives Nick greater exposure for Broadway as we are all about someone living their dream. Nick wants to be cast in the hit musical Hair Spray. Will his competing in The Amazing Race help make that happen? Only time will tell.

A broadway kid and a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader. What an interesting combination. Sounds like drama just waiting to happen. Does it strike anyone else as weird that the former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader was named Starr? Well, at least she’ll be something nice to look at during the race:

Starr Spangler’s Picture as a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader

Looks like reruns of The Amazing Race have found a home in the Travel Channel. The only real question is why the Travel Channel didn’t decide to pick up this show earlier. My guess was it was probably due to The Amazing Race’s asking price.

I originally saw this posted about a week ago, but today I got an email confirming that the Travel Channel will be running TAR 12 premiering on Wednesday, September 3rd at 8 PM EST.

The summary of the show from the Travel Channel TAR website is as follows:

The Travel Channel will begin airing episodes of Season 12 of the award-winning reality series “The Amazing Race” from CBS Television on Wednesday, Sept. 3, at 8 p.m. ET, with additional episodes airing every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.

The popular series, hosted by Phil Keoghan, follows contestants across the globe through some of the world’s most exotic and beautiful destinations as they compete against one another through a series of challenges for the ultimate grand prize.

One other cool piece of information for the Amazing Race lover is that Travel Channel will be showing a “The Amazing Race Marathon” all day Sunday, September 28th to get ready for The Amazing Race 13.

The only other question around this move is whether this is just protection for The Amazing Race in case CBS ever decides to not renew (which they’ve threatened for years).

I think this is the best TAR 13 article I’ve read so far. It gives you some interesting insights on things to watch for and also some quotes from the TAR 13 cast.

“I love the fraternity brothers because they’re so young and such a contrasting team,” host Phil Keoghan recently told The Associated Press. “One takes his time to think things out. The other one loves to rush and go at a million miles an hour. There’s definitely tension between the two of them while they’re making decisions during the race.”

Another team competing is geeky best friends Mark Yturralde, 41, and Bill Hahler, 42. The Comic-Con treasurer and student aid administrator from San Diego have been pals for over 20 years and have auditioned for “The Amazing Race” since the long-running reality series’ third season. The superhero and gaming aficionados said they left their toys at home during the race.

“We’ve got really teeny backpacks,” said Hahler. “They are small. We wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything to prevent us from putting that pack underneath the seat in front of us when we got on a plane. We didn’t want something to happen where we got delayed because of our luggage. We thought that would help us go faster.”

“We did extensive research on what to wear – what was lightweight and would help us move the fastest,” added Yturralde. “I think it was the longest I ever went without wearing a logo on my T-shirt. If you see me on the street, I’m usually wearing a Superman, Bizarro or Batman T-shirt on a constant basis, but we had to utilize more multi-use clothing for ‘The Amazing Race.’”

Married beekeepers Anita, 63, and Arthur Jones, 61, from Eugene, Ore., are the oldest – and perhaps most colorful – team on this season of “The Amazing Race.” Among the self-described hippies’ mottos: “Don’t worry, be hippie” and “The hokey pokey is what it’s all about.” Before the race, the Joneses worked out in hopes of keeping up with the other teams.

“We both tried to do some training, along the lines of going down to our little gym, but that was pretty much it,” said Anita. “We have an emerging farm, so we do a lot of work out there, splitting wood and taking care of the horses. We’re pretty physical, so we thought, ‘Hey, we can be in there with everybody else. It’ll be fun.’”

Ken Greene, a former St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Chargers defensive back, now 51, will race with estranged wife Tina.

Starting at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the 13th season of the Emmy-winning reality competition (premiering Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. EDT) will follow the teams as they travel over 30,000 miles in 23 days to countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, Russia, India and Kazakhstan. It’s the first time the series visited the landlocked country lampooned by Sacha Baron Cohen in “Borat.”

“We shot most of that episode in the capital,” said executive producer Bertram van Munster. “People were a little afraid we were going to pull a ‘Borat’ on them. I told them we weren’t doing ‘Borat,’ but what happened there is very, very funny. It’s not easy to shoot in places like that because they practically have no television industry.”

Van Munster, who is currently scouting locations in Asia for the 14th season, promised the 13th season will include a series of firsts for the reality competition, including a mistake that ultimately prohibited one team from joining their fellow racers at the finish line, as well as a memorable first-ever stop for “The Amazing Race” in Cambodia.

“The teams have no idea how to get from Point A to Point B there,” said van Munster. “They don’t know the language. It’s very difficult to get through this country. They get so stuck, but they find so many fascinating solutions of how to get through everything. One of the things the teams do there is go to a real-life floating village. It’s insane.”

As many of you have probably noticed, I’ve decided to move this blog onto a TV blog network called the Pure TV Network. Eventually this blog will be hosted entirely at the Pure TV Network and I’m still working hard to update the Pure TV Network homepage with an aggregation of all the networks TV blogs.

I’ve already split off a number of blogs and here’s an update from a number of the tv blogs in the network:

Dancing with the Stars Cast Finally Announced – Some intriguing names and new professionals. The best part is that it looks like the cast is rather fairly balanced. I don’t think we can see one clear winner at this point.

My Super Sweet 16 Presents: Exiled – Maybe I’m different, but I always found My Super Sweet 16 to be so over the top that it was almost unwatchable. The idea of “exiling” these teenagers is quite intriguing. Check out Rocky’s coverage of the show and the music from the show.

The Amazing Race 13 Cast – Amy is covering The Amazing Race 13 for us and she offers some interesting first impressions on the racers for TAR 13. Should be a really entertaining season with the personalities they have put together. Don’t believe me? Look no farther than the Hippie Beekeepers on TAR 13.

America’s Got Talent Semifinal Videos (Part 1) – The olympics are over and America’s Got Talent got off to a racing start with some incredible talent. Just watch the videos and see what I mean. The Hoff made a total fool of himself a couple times, but that’s not really news. It’s also worth checking out a video update of Julienne Irwin from last season’s America’s Got Talent.

JJ Abrams Fringe on Fox – If you haven’t heard about Fox’s new show Fringe which is JJ Abrams new baby, then it’s worth checking out. People are saying that it could be as good as X-files. Although most of the cast is saying it’s very different than X-files.

There’s a really interesting article talking with the hippie looking beekeepers who just finished running the Amazing Race. It seems like almost every running of the Amazing Race has to have their token “hippies” and TAR 13 is no different. I guess the big difference here is that these hippies have probably been hippies since the 70s.

This is an absolutely unique couple which looks like they’ll be really entertaining to watch. However, they almost didn’t get to go on the Amazing Race. The producers really wanted them, but had concern over there health. Here’s an excerpt from a story about Anita and Arthur Jones:

So how did these two find fame on a reality show?

The avid “Amazing Race” fans say it started with a video tape.

“The production assistant called and said ‘We can’t get your video off our minds. We just keep talking about it, but we really don’t think you can do it,’ ” explains Arthur.

So why not?

“Well, because most folks on the show are like 22 years old, and we’re kind of older,” laughs Anita.

So to prove themselves, the active duo made another video tape skiing in a downpour.
Their lifestyle didn’t hurt, either.

“I don’t know if they wanted the hippie thing,” Anita says. “I mean this is just our lifestyle. This is who we are, and they saw our video and they’re kind of going OK.”

Then, the couple also made some comments (although limited since the show hasn’t aired) about their experience running TAR 13.

“It’s like you’re in a twilight zone,” Anita says. “You’re just floating through as fast as you can, it’s just so amazing.”

“I think a lesson is that it’s not that dangerous out there,” Arthur says. “People sort of have this, well, you can’t go into these countries. Certainly there are war areas, but by and large people are helpful. You stop people on the street and ask for directions, people are more than willing to help.”

“You are under so much pressure and adrenaline that sometimes you say stuff you didn’t mean,” Arthur says, “but it’s just because you’re focused. Eventually, you have to come out of it with some forgiveness and understanding that we’re all human and make mistakes.”

Nah really? I can’t remember a single episode of TAR where someone said something they shouldn’t have said to the partner. Ok, most episodes include some sort of snide remark. However, the hippies are usually the exception. That might be a first for the Amazing Race: hippies saying something rude.

Of course, this is why I could never go on the Amazing Race with my wife. However, my brother and I would absolutely LOVE to go. I wonder if they’d let me live blog my experience on the Amazing Race. Now wouldn’t that be cool? Then, they could post my blog comments at the same time as the show is shown on TV.

The highly anticipated return of the Amazing Race is just a month away and CBS has released the bios of its Amazing Race cast. Let’s take a look at the competitors and see how close CBS stayed to their past formulas of choosing teams.

First we have Terence and Sarah, a dating couple whose biggest concerns are becoming too intense, fighting amongst themselves, and their dietary restrictions. Sounds like a formula for good TV if I ever heard one. You know the producers are thinking, “Yes! Get intense! Fight! Harder!” I’m interested to learn more about the dietary restrictions since I have a ton of those myself and have cited that as my main reason for never going on a reality show.

Next up are Marisa and Brooke AKA Team Hot Pink Velour Tracksuits. Haven’t we already seen this team on seasons 12 (Shana and Jennifer), 10, 11 (Dustin & Kandice), 9 (Danielle & Dani), and 7 (Megan and Heidi)? For some reason this typecast annoys me the most out of all of them.

Frat brothers Andrew and Dan look interesting. I expect them to bring the funny. Don’t disappoint, boys.

Aja and Ty are our token black couple on the race. For as diversely traveled of a show the Amazing Race is, they sure don’t carry that over to their casts, do they? I’m concerned about this team. They are in a long-distance relationship and Ty feels that Aja’s biggest weakness is that she gets upset easily. I foresee lots of distraught tears and miscommunication with these two as they struggle to stay on the same page.

Next up are Mark and Bill, the geeks for this season. These two are comic fan boys who met at a science fiction club almost a quarter century ago. How sweet. I predict their intellect will get them through certain challenges, but their lack of physical fitness will slow them down in others.

Mother and son team Toni and Dallas are all but guaranteed to be entertaining according to their CBS bio. Their breakdowns will (predictably) be when Toni tries to boss Dallas around.

Nick and Starr are a brother/sister team who I believe will get on my nerves by episode 2. Starr (how did she draw the short stick in the family name lottery?) is a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader and Nick performed in Off-Broadway, so lots of drama shall be sure to ensue. Their bios mention the siblings are best friends now but were bitter enemies in high school – let’s see which one holds more true as they travel around the world.

We’ve got hippies again! And an aging team! All in one tie-dyed package. Groovy. Anita and Arthur are a married couple in their 60s from Oregon. They run a farm and are all about the peace and love. I have high hopes for them.

Team Hot Pink Velour Tracksuits have company this season. Watch out, girls, Kelly and Christy are going to give you a run for your money. Both of these teams are from the south, but the latter are from Texas. And everybody knows you don’t mess with Texas.

Once again, we’ve got an estranged couple in the cast. Ken and Tina have been separated for 9 months, but are hoping to reconnect on the race. I hope that works better for them than it did for Frank and Margarita (Season 1), and Tara and Wil (Season 2). They separated because of Ken’s infidelity. I’m not sure going on the Amazing Race with two teams of Double Mint Twins is the best idea in the world, but that’s just me.

Finally, we have Anthony and Stephanie, another couple whose fate seems dubious. Anthony promises to propose to Stephanie if they win the race. So if they lose, will he dump her?

Since people can be so much different than they are “on paper”, it’s hard to choose favorites just yet. However, I’ll take that risk based on past Amazing Race experience. My picks – sight unseen – are Andrew & Dan and Anita and Arthur. I can’t wait to tune in on September 28th to see if my predictions hold!

Dear Amazing Race and CBS,
I can’t wait!!

Ok, I can, but this wait is just killing me. CBS and Amazing Race should never do this to us again. I love this show far too much to have to wait for it to come on TV. Did you hear me Amazing Race? Don’t keep your adoring fans waiting.

Yes, I understand that you’ve been on for 12 seasons and that this is the Amazing Race 13. That doesn’t mean you should deprive us any longer of our travels around the world.

I’m not sure you realize this, but let me let you in on a little secret my dear Amazing Race. Are you listening? Good. The secret is that for most of us watching the Amazing Race that’s as close as we’re going to come to racing around the world. Sure, we might travel to Italy once in our life or we might just happen to make it to Japan at some point, but most of us won’t be able to race around the world.

Plus, even if we did get to go to those places, we don’t get to do nearly as cool things as you get to do. Seriously, do you think that if I went to New Zealand that I’d be able to roll down a beautiful green hill in a mouse ball (or whatever that orb thing was called). What about sledging in New Zealand? Nope, my guess is I wouldn’t be doing that either as much as I’d like to in the very depths of my heart. By the way, New Zealand’s orb and sledging (I hope that’s the name) are still probably my 2 favorite activities on any adventure of the Amazing Race.

I know I’ve waited this long for Amazing Race 13 and it’s only one month and 10 days until the season premier of Amazing Race, but I’m tired of waiting. Since I know you can’t change that date. I’ll settle for this. Never make your adoring Amazing Race fans wait this long ever again.

Thanks Amazing Race. We love you!

With the season 13 debut of CBS’ The Amazing Race looming just around the corner (okay, Sept. 28), exec producer Bertram Van Munster slipped us a few clues about the upcoming globetrot.

• The race takes 23 days, covers nearly 40,000 miles, spans five continents, and features some far-flung locales never before seen on the show, including Angkor Wat, Cambodia and La Paz, Bolivia.

• The youngest team is a tandem of two guys in their early 20s. “They’re made for television,” Van Munster says. “They’re supersmart — and they make terrible mistakes.” A pair of recent divorcees in their late 20s also vie for the million-dollar prize. “They were left with some financial debt, so they really have a motive to run around the world,” he says. And once again, expect a serving of granola — this time with a husband-wife squad of 60-something Oregon hippies. “They’re the real thing,” says Van Munster. “They come right out of the ’60s. To a lot of people, it looks almost like they’re from a different planet.”

• As for the challenges, “We’ve really outdone ourselves in the department of outrageousness,” Van Munster declares. “We have a situation in Bolivia where we have the [contestants] go down a cobblestone hill on very, very primitive bikes, and it’s just the most hilarious thing you’ve ever seen in your life. It’s a truly bone-jarring experience.” (Another must-see detour: A by-train-or-by-bus scavenger hunt in Moscow. )

• One familiar thing actually did happen on this race: The producers didn’t predict the winner. Says Van Munster, “We’ve been wrong every time, across the board.”

by Dan Snierson