The Amazing Race Asia 3

The Amazing Race Asia 3 is the third installment of the reality television game show The Amazing Race Asia. The show will feature ten teams of two, with a pre-existing relationship, in a race around the world to win US$100,000.

The season premiered on September 11, 2008 and will consist of 11 episodes, two episodes less than the first and second seasons. The season finale will air on November 23, 2008.

Development and filming

According to AXN, this season is dubbed as “the toughest race ever” compared to previous seasons as both contestants and crew personnel experienced high fatigue during the Race due to the faster pace and shorter break times. During filming, one production crew member was even hospitalized.

Following Race tradition, route markers in Vietnam were colored yellow and white, as regular red-and-yellow markers can be confused with the flag of South Vietnam.

Cast

Applications for Season 3 due on March 3, 2008 (extended from the original deadline on February 25, 2008). Interviews for semi-finalists and finalists were held sometime around March or April 2008. Filming was expected to have taken place around the middle of 2008.

Season 3′s cast include cousins, and a father & son team. Like Season 2, the Race featured a large number of local media personalities or their relatives. Natalie is the winner of Miss Universe 2005 and also the wife of Thai tennis player Paradorn Srichaphan. Her teammate, Pailin, is the runner-up in 2006 Miss Thailand Universe and also contested in Miss Earth 2006. Tisha is the ex-girlfriend of Survivor Philippines’s host, Paolo Bediones and was once Miss Philippines but had to forgo her crown due to her Canadian citizenship, while Ida, Niroo and Mai are famous actors in their respective homelands. William and Isaac are sports commentators and football agents for professional players in the Korean K-League. Bernie is the host of Project Runway Malaysia. Vince is a leading stand-up comedian in Hong Kong, often performing and hosting at The TakeOut Comedy Club Hong Kong, and was a finalist in Hong Kong’s first nationwide stand-up comedy competition.

This season consists of three non-Asians. Natalie and Vince are Canadians (Natalie was born in Russia), and Geoff is from New Zealand. Additionally, Sam, who was originally from Singapore, is representing Hong Kong. Tisha is of Canadian nationality but of Filipino ethnicity.

Paula Taylor, one of the racers in Season 2, appeared as a local greeter in the first leg of the Race.

Marketing

The Amazing Race Asia 3 had six official sponsors, they are Caltex, MASkargo, Nokia, Singha, Sony and Standard Chartered Bank. A special episode known as Racers Revealed was aired one week before the actual premiere, on September 4, 2008, similar to the second season.

The Amazing Race Asia 3 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia