AMAZING RACE GOES TO INDIA
It’s going to be a real scorcher this summer as The Amazing Race Canada heads to India
12 Canadian teams vie for big prize
Where do we go from here? It’s a question competitors ask at the end of every task on The Amazing Race Canada as they zigzag their way closer to the grand prize. But it’s also on the minds of the makers of the popular reality series. And not just, “Where do we go?” but, “How do we go in a way that pushes the racers to their limits?”
For Season 3, premiering Wednesday on CTV, they decided to go big. As in subcontinent big. As in 1.25 billion people big. As in India.
“We just thought, what a mindblowing experience to go from that tranquil, beautiful, serene setting (in Canada) ...” says executive producer John Brunton, starting to chuckle, “with nobody for miles and miles and miles and miles, and then to go to more people in a couple of city blocks than probably in the whole province.”
Brunton is speaking from a shady spot on the banks of a tributary of the River Ganges as we wait for the teams to arrive at the first challenge. Where in India? They’re not letting that go quite yet, but you can count on it being hot. CTV brought some media on location to take in the jaw-dropping scenery — and co-ordinated chaos — first-hand.
“In addition to the Race itself, you want the racers and the country to have a real cultural experience as well. India is such a complicated, interesting place. People are so extraordinarily kind. The poverty is like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Brunton says, gesturing to the naked children coming back from their morning wash in the river. “It’s like, ‘We are not in Canada anymore. Click your heels!’ You want to come up with new ways of challenging our competitors and opening our eyes to other places. There are big wows here.”
But a Race is not run on locations alone. That’s where the competitors come in. This season, the 12 competing pairs are a crosssection of “an incredibly diverse Canada” from a transgender teen to a recent immigrant father and daughter to a three-time Grey Cup champ. As if it’s not stressful enough completing the mandated tasks, the racers have to do so in situations — and locations — that are wildly foreign to their everyday lives.
“We have a very dramatic, yet funny, cast this season. They really hold the screen. They take the fans of the show on a really extraordinary journey,” he says. “Shows like the Race give us a great chance to reflect back on who we are as Canadians. You are going to see this incredible sense of acceptance and tolerance. You will see we have an enormous sense of humour.”
That last one is on display as host Jon Montgomery constantly cracks jokes on set, keeping the energy sky high alongside the soaring temperatures. “I think any time you get to familiarize yourself with a role, you understand what’s going on around you a little bit more. You understand the nuances of the Race itself. I didn’t know any of these things when I came into it,” Montgomery says, standing in the shade while the crew waits for another team to hit the finish mat. The poor man is wearing a dark shirt selected for him by the wardrobe department back in Canada, despite toiling away in the midst of an absolutely brutal heat wave.
“I am by no means, calm, cool and collected on the inside, perhaps, but I have to have that on the exterior. I have to be the cool guy as the host of the show. Hopefully I can continue to find my voice, my rhythm, as I continue to fulfil this role.”