AMAZING RACE ASIA : Mabuhay Ang Pilipinas!!!

Arguably the Most Popular Reality Show in Asia,
owing to its fine habit of promoting tourism in the region,
THE AMAZING RACE,
4-time Emmy Award Winner for Best Reality TV Series,

has been licensed by Sony Television and AXN
for an All-Asian version,
with the blessings of the new millenium's Aaron Spelling,
Jerry Bruckheimer.



Even the host of the Asian Edition,
Fear Factor veteran ALLAN WU,
sounds just like the PHILiminator himself,
the good Mr. Keoghan.




There are 10 teams of 2,
from Singapore, India, Indonesia, Hongkong,
Malaysia, with a couple of Expat-types in the mix.

So far,
the most memorable racer is
someone the likes of which I haven't seen before:

A Gay Sri Lankan.
(not that there's anything wrong with that!)

He seems to be a very decent guy,
so unlike the ultimate TAR meanies,
Team Guido of the original Amazing Race.



And he's a much better Ambassador of Goodwill
than that other famous Sri-Lankan,
the very 1st Fil-Sham:
Ronnie Nathanielsz.

(speaking of Sri Lankan Fil-Shams,
there were thousands of them in that EDSA 1
miniseries with Laurice Guillen as Cory Aquino.

but I digress....)




There are 2 Pinoy Teams:

ERNIE & JEENA,
sports nuts married for a decade.

I love this couple;
they did a Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore Clay Pottery scene,
managed to sideswipe a car in Kuala Lumpur
(di kasi sanay sa right-hand drive),
and Ernie at one point patriotically shouted:
"MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS!!!"

And in the first leg of the race,
achieved 2nd place,
losing narrowly to the unexpectedly savvy
overweight Indonesian brothers.




At the other end of the spectrum,
the EYE CANDY of the race:

AUBREY MILES and her best friend JACQ SOMETHING.



These two beauties,
just like the frontrunning Beauty Queen Team
in the current U.S. Amazing Race 10,
are using all their feminine wiles & charms
to gain an advantage over the rest of the field.



While they are prone to preening & posing
(Woohoo! check out the photo from my friend Zach)
for more on-cam airtime,

and doing extremely stupid pa-cute stunts
like powdering their noses while speeding
through the streets of Kuala Lumpur...

make no mistake,
they are extremely smart racers,
who have obviously studied the success strategies
of everyone from Boston Rob & Amber to Colin & Christie.

These girls,
while pretending to be Shallow Hals,
ought to go quite deep into the race.



THE AMAZING RACE ASIA

Thursdays at 9pm on AXN.