By Elisa Chia, TODAY

Who, what, The Amazing Race? On paper, the adventure-reality television series seemed like a terrific idea. It would be a travelogue with a twist: 11 pairs of contestants would race around the world for a US$1 million ($1.64 million) prize.

In reality, it was a logistical nightmare. Unlike reality series such as Survivor or The Bachelor, the Amazing Race was not filmed in one location. Hence, creators-producers Elise Doganieri and Bertram van Munster had to apply for countless travel and filming permits.

Just listening to the husband-and-wife team talk about the size of the production crew was distressing.

“We usually start with around 60 people,” said van Munster. “Then, in each country, we would recruit 100 or more locals,” Doganieri added.

In all, the crew could number as many as 2,000 people around the world. “That’s everybody, drivers, PAs… you know,” said Doganieri.

She added: “Nobody knew who we were and there wasn’t a lot of help.”

That was then. The first season debuted in September 2001.

Three-and-a-half years, seven seasons and two Emmy awards later, the husband-and-wife are enjoying the fruit of their labour.

“We have countries and tourism boards contact us, saying ‘We want you to run through our country’,” said Doganieri.

“Now, we go to a country and we get better access. They’ll say, ‘You want to film in the pyramids?’”

Granted, there are also countries that want to cash in on the series’ popularity and use the show as a platform to reach millions of viewers worldwide.

“Some tourism boards tell us, “We’ll do this, this, and this for you. But when push comes to shove they don’t do anything, but they benefit,” van Munster said, declining to name the culprits.

Fans of the Race comprise another obstacle.

“It is a problem now,” van Munster said, laughing. “When we run down the streets with cameras, people come up and go, ‘Oh, there’s The Amazing Race.’ So it’s almost like the Pied Piper (in that they follow us).”

“It doesn’t matter where we go - Singapore, India or wherever - they all know.”

Doganieri added: “But, we are in and out of a place so quickly that by the time somebody realises that it is The Amazing Race, the contestants will have got on a bus or into a taxi. Like Bertram said, you really cannot keep up. It’s very difficult.”

Of course, the show also owes its success to the colourful contestants. These are selected by Lynn Spielman, who also does the casting for Survivor.

Of the contestants, van Munster said: “They don’t have to know anything. They can bring as many Vuitton suitcases as they want - actually I wouldn’t advise that - and know as little as possible. It’s not that complicated. It’s not a geography quiz by any means.”

He chuckled: “I love it when people pronounce Nice as ‘nice’.”

The city in France is pronounced “niece”, by the way.

The couple also couldn’t stress their concern for the contestants’ welfare enough.

“We’re extremely careful with what we do. We outline the challenges so they will be tested first,” said van Munster. “If it is tricky - certain stretches of road, for example - we hide ambulances in the bushes. We always have doctors, hospitals and a helicopter standing by in very primitive areas.”

With the show’s international success, will the producers allow people from other countries to join the race?

“No. Right now, it is strictly Americans,” said van Munster. “If anybody wants to buy the format, he or she is welcome to do so and include other nationalities

This entry was posted on Monday, May 9th, 2005 at 6:48 pm and is filed under The Show. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.