Romber's Amazing Returnby Gina Serpe
It definitely worked for Survivor. It sort of worked for Big Brother. Now, The Amazing Race is getting in on the all-star act.
CBS has confirmed that the 11th edition of the round the world reality show will bring back some?though not all?of the series' biggest names, for The Amazing Race: All-Stars. And the excluded teams have had no qualms in expressing their outrage.
Perennial reality show also-ran Rob Mariano and former Survivor champ Amber Brkich have been tapped to return for yet another shot at unscripted glory, as has Amazing duo David and Mary Conley, aka Team Kentucky from the most recent edition of the Emmy-winning series.
Strongly rumored to be joining the foursome are season five faves, couple Colin Guinn and Christie Woods (that season's runners-up) and cousins Mirna Hindoyan and Charla Faddoul.
Generating far more reaction, however, is who has not been chosen to compete.
The perpetually bickering season six couple Jonathan Baker and Victoria Fuller, who landed their own Dr. Phil prime-time special such was the interest in their relationship, will not return, nor will season nine winners BJ Averell and Tyler MacNiven, or season five winners, married couple Chip and Kim McAllister, arguably one of the most popular teams from the series' 10 seasons.
At least to hear them tell it.
A video post to their joint MySpace blog last month, which was removed after less than a day, lashed out at Amazing Race producers for excluding them from the all-star installment.
"I don't want to sugarcoat this or anything, there is definitely going to be an Amazing Race: All-Stars, they will be starting within the next few days and Kim and I never got a phone call from anyone, not from [the executive producers], not from CBS, not from anyone," Chip said.
"We have run the gamut of emotions. I hate to be one of these kind of people that thinks he's entitled to be an All-Star?I may not actually, Kim and I may not be All-Stars material?but to be completely forgotten by CBS and the CBS decision makers...it really doesn't feel good. We could have been contacted."
While he may have got the sentiment right, his timeline was slightly off.
According to Variety, Amazing Race: All-Stars began filming just last week in Miami. But Chip and Kim weren't the only non-invitees to express their disappointment.
Season nine winners BJ and Tyler, who incidentally sent fan forums into a frenzy this spring when homoerotic photos of them with fellow Racers Jeremy Ryan and Eric Sanchez were leaked online, sounded off on their exclusion via CBS.com's Former Racers Blog, where the duo were meant to be offering commentary on the show's 10th season.
"What would be ironic is if someone were putting together an all-star version of the race and contacted teams like [season seven teams] Lynn & Alex and Brian & Greg, but did not contact us, the most popular and amazing team of all time, about it," Tyler wrote in a post last month.
"Trust me, if they were doing that, they would contact us," BJ added. "We were the most well-liked team ever to compete on the Race...I'm sure they wouldn't just pick a gimmicky team like Rob & Amber, or a 'competitive' team like Colin & Christie, and turn their backs on friendly winning teams like us and Chip & Kim, leaving us to find out about it from some gossip site."
Right.
While no other competitors have yet been confirmed, most seasons are expected to be represented with the exception of the eighth, widely panned family edition.
The all-star race, to be once again hosted by Phil Keoghan, is expected to kick off early next year, ensuring "gimmicky" couple Rob and Amber will be unavoidable in reality TV land. The twosome will appear in their own Newlywed-type show, dubbed Rob and Amber: Against the Odds, on the Fox Reality Channel in January.
