Amazing Race one tough rodeo
Alberta cowboys survive first leg of popular reality show
The Amazing Race Canada Monday, 9 p.m., CTV “Nobody has died here today, nobody has died.”
Pierre Cadieux chanted that mantra to himself while shuffling across a skinny, shaky platform high in the air. His first individual challenge on The Amazing Race Canada was a world away from watching the adventure series from the comfy confines of his home.
“You know, it’s the fan-on-the-couch thing: ‘Oh, what are they doing? That is so easy! I could do that!’ But this show is really hard,” Cadieux says. “The challenges are not easy, although they make them look easy. You read one little clue, then on the back is another part of the clue that gives you the 50 little steps you must follow.”
Cadieux is calling, feet planted firmly on the ground, from his home in Innisfail. On The Amazing Race Canada, though, Cadieux and best friend Jamie Cumberland were pushed to their limits. As longtime fans of the U.S. version of The Amazing Race, the pair (ages 38 and 47, respectively) leaped at the opportunity to try out for the Canadian competition as soon as they saw the first promo ad.
The pair met 15 years ago at a fundraising dance for the Alberta Rockies Gay Rodeo Association and hit it off right off the bat. Cumberland competes in chute dogging and calf roping, while Cadieux is involved on the organizational side.
As if competing on The Amazing Race Canada wasn’t surreal enough, now the cowboys get to watch themselves on the small screen. The team is on both sides of that “couch critic” dynamic: while they are yelling at the TV, they are also on the receiving end of criticism from countless voices across the country.
“We were really trying to read the clues,” says Cumberland of their strategy in the race. “All my buddies in Calgary were saying, ‘We thought you are the logical one’ and it was completely the opposite. I was all, ‘Let’s run, let’s run, let’s run!’ Pierre was the one who was measured. ‘We’re just going to stop and look and figure it out.’ Pierre (who works at ATB in Red Deer) is used to dealing with high stress.”
And while both say their competitive natures and love for the show drove them to apply for The Amazing Race Canada, they also wanted to represent their tribe.
“We were trying to highlight a different aspect of the gay community. You don’t see gay cowboys every day,” says Cumberland, a human resources specialist with Fortis Alberta in Calgary.
As a gay man who grew up on a cattle farm, Cadieux says it was important to showcase his heritage. “I hope viewers have a new appreciation for cowboys and what a gay man is all about.”
Over the course of 22 days, the cast and crew shot in 78 locations, visiting 14 airports along the way. “The process is amazing. There is so much going on behind the scenes that you don’t see,” Cadieux says. “To be honest, you kind of think that some of it is staged. But it’s not. It really does happen live. When you are racing, it’s completely live. You don’t retake anything. You have one opportunity to rip the clue, to state what the task at hand is and for the camera to get it.”
So, can the cowboys lasso the big prize on The Amazing Race Canada after almost being eliminated on the first show? Is it a picture-perfect ending with the best friends riding off into the sunset in matching Corvette Stingrays with the $250,000 cash prize and the free flights on Air Canada? You’ll just have to watch the second episode on Monday and find out.
Just don’t yell at them, OK?