The Amazing Race

7:30pm Friday, January 18 on TV2

Eleven former teams who fell short of winning the $1 million prize during their first race around the globe return for another shot at the prize. In the premiere episode, teams travel from the United States to Sydney, Australia. But in order to make it onto the plane the teams will have to find their tickets first!

Phil Keoghan was awarded an Emerging Leaders honour on Friday night at the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Awards.

The Amazing Race host was one of six New Zealanders to receive the award, judged by a panel that included Sir Ron carter, Sir Eion Edgar and Fran Wilde.

“It’s a huge honour to be honoured by your peers but this is much more of a personal award,” said Keoghan,

“Peter Blake was a legend and to be thought of as a potential leader in the same vein as him is an honour.” Continue reading »

7:30pm Monday, March 26 on TV2

On your marks, get set, go! The teams get a breathtaking view of island paradise from above the ground and under the sea in The Amazing Race.

After a stunning helicopter ride to the remote island of Seychelles, the competitors must race with a giant tortoise and search for a message in a bottle at the bottom of the sea if they are to fight their way to the million dollar prize

7:30pm Monday, February 13 on TV2

Kiwi host Phil Keoghan is back with a fresh batch of mad adventurers hungry for the million dollar prize, in the brand new season of The Amazing Race, premiering tonight on TV2.

With a diverse range of people which include actors, models, undercover detectives, lawyers and professional bull riders, this season’s teams have no shame and will put everything they have to make it past the first pit-stop.

This week, 11 teams depart Los Angeles for Chile, where racers find themselves dangling 120 feet in the air, battling exhaustion and their fear of heights in order to stay alive in the game. Meanwhile, one team discovers that Brazilian currency will not get them very far in Chile.

7:30pm Tuesday, December 6 on TV2

The city of parties, gambling and neon lights hosts the final leg and the Season Finale of The Amazing Race as the teams race in Las Vegas, Nevada tonight on TV2.

Having travelled from Los Angeles, the teams have been to eight different countries in 21 days; Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Dubai, the Netherlands, Sweden, Estonia, and the Czech Republic. Now they must hunt down “Mr Las Vegas” back in the US to be crowned winners of The Amazing Race.

This season has seen Amazing Race history made with the fastest elimination so far (one team was ousted before they even got to the starting line), and a revisit to one of the show’s most infamous roadblocks in Stockholm with the unrolling of the hay bales. Now the teams must count an infuriating amount of poker chips to find out who will win the US$1 million prize.

Missed an episode of The Amazing Race? Full episodes are available online. Go to tvnz.co.nz and click the Ondemand link.

7:30pm Monday, November 21 on TV2

One team musters up the courage to reveal a personal secret to the others, and another racer breaks down in tears as the stress of the race mounts in TV2′s hit reality show The Amazing Race tonight.

Then, on Tuesday 22 November at 7.30pm: The lack of cooperation hinders one team’s efforts at an explosive detour, and during the series’ first ever switchback teams return to one of the most infamous roadblocks in the history of the show.

Contestants are racing one of the fastest courses ever assembled on the race – spanning eight countries in just 21 days.

Missed an episode of The Amazing Race? Full episodes are available online. Go to tvnz.co.nz and click the Ondemand link.

7:30pm Monday, November 7 on TV2

This week in The Amazing Race, the teams hit the ground running in South-east Asia as they hotly pursue the $1 million prize.

On Monday 7th November:: The teams struggle to keep pace in the hectic streets of Vietnam and one team risks its own position in the race by offering to help the competition.

Then on Tuesday 8th November: The teams scramble to spot royalty in the jam-packed streets of Cambodia; and one team monkeys around and breaks the race’s cardinal rule by losing a passport.

Over the course of the race, contestants will travel one of the fastest courses ever assembled on the race – spanning eight countries in just 21 days.

Teams will face the ‘switchback,’ which sends teams back to the site of one of the series’ most infamous roadblocks, as well as a surprise appearance by one of America’s most beloved entertainers, a visit to the world’s tallest building and a spicy twist on a Japanese game show.

The diverse cast of racers includes a team of Harlem Globetrotters, professional female poker players, the first-ever racer with Asperger’s Syndrome, married yoga teachers and a former Miss America.

Missed an episode of The Amazing Race? Full episodes are available online. Go to tvnz.co.nz and click the Ondemand link.

7:30pm Monday, October 31 on TV2

The timer is set as the explosive new series of The Amazing Race catapults onto TV2 screens on Monday and Tuesday nights.

Contestants will travel one of the fastest courses ever assembled on the race – spanning eight countries in just 21 days. This season also features the quickest elimination in the history of the series, sending one team home before they leave the starting line.

Teams fortunate enough to avoid the surprise elimination and compete for the $1 million prize will face the ‘switchback,’ which sends teams back to the site of one of the series’ most infamous roadblocks, as well as a surprise appearance by one of America’s most beloved entertainers, a visit to the world’s tallest building and a spicy twist on a Japanese game show.

The diverse cast of racers includes a team of Harlem Globetrotters, professional female poker players, the first-ever racer with Asperger’s Syndrome, married yoga teachers and a former Miss America.

The Amazing Race screens on TV2 at 7.30pm on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Missed an episode of The Amazing Race? Full episodes are available online. Go to tvnz.co.nz and click the Ondemand link.

Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan has lent a hand in the clean-up of oil in the Bay of Plenty following the grounding of the Rena.

The Christchurch-born presenter, who threw his weight behind the Christchurch quake recovery effort, was on hand in Tauranga yesterday to help the clean-up crew.

“I’ve been here many times. When you think of the area, you think of its beaches, and my first thought was, what’s going to happen to its beaches?” Keoghan said.

“What a mess. It really is a mess.”

Keoghan is vowing to keep the story in the international press in much the same way as he did for the quake earlier this year.

“I can’t come here and help physically … but what I can do is come here and at least draw attention to what is going on here and to those people who really are helping … and to make sure this story stays in the news.

“We’ve got 1000 tonnes of oil sitting in a ship out there that could break up at any time. If this is what 300 tonnes looks like – and they say they’ve taken off 700 tonnes of oil and debris – that gives you some idea of just how much each tonne of oil does.

“The big difference with this situation and the Christchurch earthquake was that Christchurch was an act of God, it was something that was unavoidable, it happened and there was nothing you could do about that,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to come from the inquiry, but this was avoidable and that’s the sad part of it – this didn’t have to happen.”

Keoghan and The Amazing Race visited Tauranga three years ago during the 13th season.

Source: Herald

The kiwi host of The Amazing Race has urged American tourists to continue visiting New Zealand and Christchurch in spite of the earthquake last week.

Phil Keoghan, who was raised in the city, returned to NZ to film a special segment which was screened during CBS’s primetime news bulletins in the US earlier in the week.

Keoghan said it was vital to get the right message across to America regarding the state of New Zealand.

“What we have to be very careful of is that overseas doesn’t think that all of New Zealand has fallen down,” he said.

“The message that I’ve been trying to communicate is that the doors for tourism in New Zealand are open. If you’ve got trips planned to New Zealand, don’t cancel them, make sure you take that trip because that’s the best way you can support us.

“We can’t have people think that somehow they can’t come and be a tourist. Tourism is 9% of the GDP, it makes up $15 billion of our income. If estimates are right and we’ve lost $15 billion from this earthquake, we can’t take another hit of another $15 billion from tourists not coming to New Zealand.”

Keoghan has also filmed clips which will be used to raise funds in the US for the New Zealand Red Cross.

Source: TVNZ