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Amazing Race Canada, Featured

Amazing Race Canada sprints into Season 5

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It really isn’t summer until The Amazing Race Canada is back on my television. When the weather gets hot and talk turns of summer vacations, CTV’s triptych is the perfect “Must Do” list of local and countrywide excursions. The series roared back for Season 5 on Tuesday night with Jon Montgomery welcoming the 10 teams to St. John’s, on a leg that took them across the country to Vancouver.

As with all first episodes, the first chunk out of the gate introduced viewers to the contestants, the stakes—a Next Generation 2018 Chevrolet Equinox True North Edition for each of the winners, a trip around the world for two and $250,000 in cash—and the fact this season will celebrate Confederation. At first blush, fitness trainers and best friends Ivana and Korey seem to be the perfect team of strength and focus, as do married couple Karen and Bert. Meanwhile, best friends Kenneth and Ryan (“Give R!”) appear to be the fun guys of the season, around for a few laughs and quips before being eliminated early on.

But appearances can be deceiving, and The Amazing Race‘s Episode 1 challenges were quick to expose some of them. It was brilliant planning by the producers to have the teams amped up and jacked with adrenaline to begin Leg 1, only to throw a Morse code thinking test at them. With everyone raring to roll, it was a reminder that they are never fully in control of their surroundings. The adrenaline and wanting to move on led business partners Ebonie and Andrea to make a ludicrous decision: they took a time penalty. Why would you do this just moments into the first Leg?!? Why not stick it out and gauge your competitors’ skill and patience levels?

Andrea and Ebonie were first to drive to the airport to jump on one of two planes to Vancouver, followed by father-son duo Shabbir and Zed who actually deciphered the Morse code message. Teamwork between Kenneth and Ryan, dating couple Sam and Paul and brother-sister team Andrea and Adam meant they filled the first plane, leaving the others far behind.

Falconry at the Capilano Suspension Bridge—with a mere clue pickup at that location—led to the city’s Gastown neighbourhood for the first Road Block of Season 5 at the storied Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. This was no gondola from last summer, but the outside tightrope between hotel wings still looked darn scary. (Having cameras attached to the Racers really adds to the freak-out factor for viewers, another smart decision by producers.) Ebonie and Ryan completed the task first followed by Kenneth and Ryan (I was regretting my flippant remark about them being mere fodder for comedy.) and sprinted to the Detour.

“Pedal” put teams to the test in a bike polo game while “Paddle” put them in Dragon Boats. Ebonie and Andrea weaved through Pedal as Kenneth and Ryan screamed across the water during Paddle. Teams were pretty evenly split between the two Detours—I would have chosen Pedal in case you were wondering—with Kenneth and Ryan the first to finish and meet with Jon in the beautiful VanDusen Botanical Garden … where they hollered their way into first place and a trip to Spain.

Meanwhile, as Ebonie and Andrea completed the Leg and sat out their two-hour penalty, other pairs quickly caught up and passed them. The business partners were lucky Megan and Courtney and Aaron and Deb had so many struggles along the way. It was mother and son duo Aaron and Deb who were eliminated in the first Leg of what promises to be another stellar summer of The Amazing Race Canada.

Here’s how the teams finished Leg 1:

  1. Kenneth and Ryan (won a trip to Barcelona)
  2. Korey and Ivana
  3. Andrea and Adam
  4. Sam and Paul
  5. Zed and Shabbir
  6. Karen and Bert
  7. Andrea and Ebonie (penalty)
  8. Riya and Dan
  9. Megan and Courtney
  10. Deb and Aaron (eliminated)

The Amazing Race Canada airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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Amazing Race Canada

CTV announces The Amazing Race Canada’s summer return

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From a media release:

CTV is bringing the heat with a dynamic 2017 summer schedule anchored by three brand-new series from some of the biggest names in television: WORLD OF DANCE, THE F WORD, and STILL STAR-CROSSED. Summer on CTV also features an all-star showcase of returning favourites including THE AMAZING RACE CANADA, SAVING HOPE, MASTERCHEF, and AMERICANNINJA WARRIOR, along with a one of a kind, crowd-sourced summer event special, CANADA IN A DAY, and the hottest music celebrations including THE 2017 BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS and THE 2017 IHEARTRADIO MUCH MUSIC VIDEO AWARDS.

THE AMAZING RACE CANADA (Season 5)
Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV GO, beginning July 4

THE AMAZING RACE CANADA is back for a fifth season with brand-new teams and exciting, nail-biting challenges. Hosted by Olympic Gold Medallist Jon Montgomery, the series pits fresh teams of two with a pre-existing relationship against each other in the biggest race this country has ever seen.

CANADA IN A DAY
Premieres Sunday, June 25 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV GO

CANADA IN A DAY is a CTV Event Special created entirely from videos made by Canadians over the course of 24 hours (September 10th, 2016), reflecting the thoughts, hopes, and lives of everyone that lives in this amazing country. Premiering as Canada gets set to celebrate the 150th anniversary of confederation, CANADA IN A DAY is a unique snapshot of who we are and what we were doing in one, 24-hour period, resulting in a memorable TV event and time capsule of Canada.

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Amazing Race Canada, Featured

Steph and Kristen’s tips to ace your Amazing Race Canada audition

Just because Steph LeClair and Kristen McKenzie waited until the last minute to audition for The Amazing Race Canada doesn’t mean you should. With the deadline for submissions happening on Thursday, Dec. 1, the pair dispensed valuable hints to improve your odds of being selected for Season 5.

It’s been two months since Canada watched the couple best Jillian and Emmett and Joel and Ashley during the final leg in Montreal and a lot has changed. They quit their jobs, have hiked part of the Appalachian Trail, were grand marshals at the Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest Thanksgiving Day parade (where they met Prime Minister Trudeau) and are embarking on a two-week trip to Costa Rica. Upcoming jaunts include New York City in December followed by Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Thailand early in 2017. (The Big Apple and the Down Under are both trips the pair captured by winning Legs.)

But where the girls have their next year or so plotted, they were anything but coordinated when it came to auditioning for Season 4.

“We hemmed and hawed and waited until the last minute,” Kristen admits. “We thought, ‘What’s the point? We’re never going to get picked.'” With just one night available to film their audition, the couple—after returning home from dinner out and imbibing in some wine—plopped down on their apartment floor and talked to the camera.

“It literally took us just a couple of hours,” Steph says. “The clip is only three minutes, so leave some bloopers in and show your personality. It doesn’t have to be perfect or include graphics or anything. Don’t overthink it.” That latter note, overthinking it, plagued the duo at first. A list of recorded bullet point items came off as too scripted and robotic, so they had a conversation, chirping good-naturedly.

“Once we said, ‘To hell with it,’ we had fun and were ourselves,” Kristen says. That included disclosing they were in a relationship, a unique angle producers look for in casting.

If you are lucky enough to be chosen, the real work begins. But even then, it’s almost impossible to know exactly what to prepare for when challenges and countries visited is such a wild card. Still, there are some general things to work on before the five-week adventure begins. Steph and Kristen worked out, ran up and down their condo building’s stairs wearing weighted knapsacks, boosting the stamina needed not only to outlast other teams physically but strengthen their mental game too.

“People ask why we didn’t learn specific things, but things happen so quickly once you’re selected for the Race,” Kristen says. “You have five weeks to prepare while juggling work and life and everything gets crammed in.”

“I suck at maps and I knew I was going to be the navigator, so I was asking my sister at the last minute how to read a road map,” Steph says with a laugh. “And despite being able to do it and winning The Amazing Race Canada I still get us lost.”

The deadline for submission is Thursday, Dec. 1, at 11:59 PM ET. For all casting details and updates, including instructions on how to submit an audition video, fans can visit CTV.ca/TheAmazingRaceCanada, the CTV Facebook page, and follow @AmazingRaceCDA.

Image courtesy of Bell Media.

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Amazing Race Canada

CTV renews The Amazing Race Canada for a fifth season

From a media release:

Race on, Canada! As announced this afternoon by host Jon Montgomery, CTV confirmed it has renewed a new instalment of Canada’s #1 summer series THE AMAZING RACE CANADA. The announcement sets the stage for a fifth adrenaline-pumping season during Canada’s historic 150thanniversary in 2017, with plans to celebrate and showcase the country like never before.

CTV also confirmed today that casting for the upcoming fifth season is now open. Fans of the competition series can get set to grab their camera and their partner, and prep their auditions for the extraordinary opportunity to embark on a truly once-in-a-lifetime adventure. The deadline for submission is Thursday, December 1 at 11:59 PM ET. For all casting details and updates, including instructions on how to submit an audition video, fans can visit CTV.ca/TheAmazingRaceCanada, the CTV Facebook page, and follow @AmazingRaceCDA.

CTV renews Season 5 of Canada’s #1 summer series THE AMAZING RACE CANADA.

Spanning the corners of the country and beyond, Season 4 of THE AMAZING RACE CANADA averaged 1.9 million viewers, with a season high of 2.1 million Canadians catching Steph Leclair and Kristen McKenzie’s race to the mat to claim the title and grand prize in the Season 4 finale in September.

In anticipation of the new season, and the discovery of a new batch of Racers, fans can watch the craziest, funniest, and most-memorable audition videos from the series on THE AMAZING RACE CANADA AUDITIONS, available now on Bell FibeTV1, channel 1. Hosted by fan-favourite competitors Gino & Jesse (Season 3), Natalie & Meaghan (Season 2), Alain & Audrey (Season 2), and Brent & Sean (Season 3) the show delivers commercial-free clips of the most entertaining auditions from Seasons 2 and 3. To relive all of the series’ high-stakes thrills and excitement, viewers can also find all four past seasons of THE AMAZING RACE CANADA available now on CraveTV.

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Amazing Race Canada, Featured

Amazing Race Canada winners Steph and Kristen plan their future

After travelling around it, Steph LeClair and Kristen McKenzie are on top of the world. The couple, who captured The Amazing Race Canada title during a wild final Leg in Montreal on Tuesday, were all smiles during a spate of media interviews on Wednesday.

As they explained during the After the Race special, they plan to pay off Steph’s legal school debt, travel for nine months and perhaps put a downpayment on a property. Here’s what they told us about their experience.

The Montreal leg … congratulations to the producers for coming up with a wide range of physical and mental challenges for the final three teams to do. The bagel challenge was deceivingly difficult.
Kristen McKenzie: Yeah, physical, mental and navigation. They’re all very different beasts and that was a real combo.

How hard has it been to keep your win quiet?
KM: It’s been so hard, especially because my sister and I are so close. That was the most difficult for me and challenging.

Steph LeClair: She was So. Mad.

KM: She was. She was like, ‘Really?! You couldn’t tell me?’ But I wanted to experience it with her and have it be a surprise for everyone. It was a fun moment last night. I think it was harder when we first got back because we had all of these amazing things that we wanted to tell all the people that we love.

SL: We ended the Race at the end of May, so it wasn’t too bad. But the summer has been tough because everyone’s, ‘OK, you made it on. What happened? Just tell us.’

You said last night on the after show that Steph is going to pay off her school debt, nine months of travelling and maybe buy a property?
SL: Well, travel for sure. And for sure debt. It’s especially great to pay that off because, being in this with Kirsten, I felt like it was a bit of a burden on me. I don’t want money to ever be an issue between us so it’s a relief to do that. And travelling, 100 per cent. And then coming back and figuring out what we want to do and where we want to end up. If the time is right, maybe buy something.

KM: We’ll definitely save some. We didn’t have this money before. We have it now. We can work for the rest of our lives and this as an opportunity that we can’t waste. I’ve never travelled before and I got bit by the travel bug on the Race, but it’s not really travelling because you can’t really take it in, although we tried as much as possible. We’re so grateful and feel so lucky; we want to make the most of it and create memories and not just get stuff.

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Are there some countries on your must-travel list that were some of the places you visited during a Leg of The Amazing Race Canada?
SL: Our list is probably 15 pages long. We’d definitely love to travel within Canada. The first time we went to the west coast was on the Race. We loved Haida Gwaii and I’ve never been to Vancouver. Jasper… I’d go back in a heartbeat. And the east coast. We’d love to stay in Canada, but we’d love to go back to Vietnam.

KM: Yeah. Havana was awesome too, although you didn’t have the best time… [Laughs.]

SL: We took our very first vacation to an all-inclusive in Cuba, and then that happened [Steph cut her finger on a machete and has the scar to show for it] and I don’t know if I want to go back to Cuba!

Coming from a softball background, teamwork came into play during The Amazing Race Canada. Even when you did get frustrated with each other, it didn’t last long. That was part of your game plan, I assume?
KM: Our experience being high-level athletes helped a lot because we really understood that, ‘You’re a team, and if you’re not acting like a team it’s going to do you no good. It’s only going to make things worse.’

SL: It’s hard because it’s so stressful. But you have to really learn to take it in, get a grip and move on. We definitely had moments, but at the same time, we had to reign it in.

KM: I think our biggest asset was our communication and the way we treated each other and supported each other. I felt supported the entire time.

This, I think, has been the most evenly-matched set of teams this show has ever had. You were battling it out with Jillian and Emmett all season, and Joel and Ashley were right in the mix too. Those teams really drove you all season long.
KM: We called it very early on. Jill and Emmett were very good at several of the things that Steph and I were good at, so we viewed them as a threat. Joel and Ashley were good at a lot of things that we weren’t, like dancing. I mean, we tried to U-Turn them both…

SL: … and that didn’t work!

KM: And then we ended up in the finale together. Frankie and Amy were sneaky good too. People underestimated them, but we didn’t.

SL: They flew just under the radar enough to chip away and were in the thick of things.

Are you friendly with the other teams? Have you kept in touch?
SL: Yeah, we actually have a group chat going on all the time. It was really fun to see everyone again last night. We went to an after party after the finale. It was so fun to see everyone.

KM: Brandon and Anthony watched the first episode at our place, so we’re good buddies with them. Frankie and Amy watched at our place when they were kicked off because they were in Toronto. We visited Antoine in Montreal and Jill came too. There are no hard feelings anywhere.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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