  Reality TV stars Rob and Amber Mariano will travel the globe again for another shot at $1 million. |
Shortly after getting the boot on The Amazing Race, the beauty queens, Dustin Seltzer and Kandice Pelletier, were seen high-tailing it through a U.S. airport with cameras following them.
“Hey weren’t they eliminated last week?” questioned one very confused fan.
Soon, Mary and David Conley, who had also been ‘Philiminated’ weeks before, were seen rushing past.
No, it wasn’t a severe case of deja-vu, but rather the start of The Amazing Race: All Stars, a season which will reunite some of the most memorable, entertaining and controversial players from the show’s 10 previous seasons.
Among the notable teams getting a second shot at US$1-million are reality TV stars Rob and Amber Mariano, America’s favourite frat brothers Kevin O’Connor and Drew Feinberg, cousins Charla Baklayan Faddoul and Mirna Hindoyan and Season 7 winners Uchenna Agu and Joyce Agu.
Bertram Van Munster, co-creator of The Amazing Race, says finding the perfect teams for the all-star edition was not a simple task.
“It is not easy to make a choice out of 220 or 230 of the previous competitors — we put a lot of time and effort and intensity in getting all these people. It’s a difficult task to cast an all-stars, but we felt this was the way to go,” he says, adding he was not swayed by The Hippies’ (Race winners BJ Averell and Tyler MacNiven) online campaign to be included in the cast.
“They were a lot of fun to watch, but I thought we had seen enough of The Hippies. It’s a little one-note.”
While it would have been easy to fill the cast with past winners and second-place finishers, Van Munster says the contestant’s personalities carried more weight than their success on the Race.
Notable this season is the face the Marianos will get a second chance to beat the Agus. But Van Munster says that is not why the two couples were chosen.
“I thought to have Rob and Amber in there was a really good choice — they are super competitive people, they are a lot of fun and they are nice people. They came back with a whole renewed spirit,” he says, adding he understands why fans would question allowing the Survivor: All-Stars winner and runner-up another shot at US$1 million.
“I wasn’t so sure about them the first time we got them, but it turned out to be a stroke of brilliance. This time … they came in with a fantastic spirit — you’ll see the results of it. “
The teams travelled more than 72,000 kilometres, spanning five continents in 28 days, with stops in Argentina, Mozambique and Chile.
Whether or not this show will bring the players back to Canada (it has previously filmed in Alberta and Ontario) remains a secret, but Van Munster says it’s possible.
What will never happen, however, is Canadians being invited to try out for the popular American reality series.
“If Canada wanted to do it, they could buy the format and they could have just Canadians,” he says.
The Amazing Race: All Stars premieres tomorrow on CBS and CTV.
