A reality show for Asians by Asians

KUALA LUMPUR – The air is electric as you set foot at the Westin Hotel function room. Fiery red stares at you everywhere – from the AXN logo, to the uniform of AirAsia stewardesses to the red and blue Caltex insignia. You tell yourself you might as well come in red as well.

This is what happens when you join the launch of Amazing Race Asian Edition aired on AXN. Aside from AirAsia and Caltex, other sponsors are Sony Electronics Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Malaysia Tourism and Promotion Board, MSN, Bintan Lagoon Resort and Bintan Resorts, Nokia and Ford Malaysia.

The dominant color speaks of the event and the people behind it. Amazing Race, after all, has all the passion of a telenovela sans the fictional characters. Here are flesh-and-blood people like you and me. All are gunning for the $100,000 grand prize and the chance to go to places and meet people they have only dreamed of.

It’s real-life drama unfolding right before our very eyes. And this time, it’s not in the other side of the globe where people look and talk differently from us (read: the US), but at home base itself, where the people are more like mirror images of ourselves.

Yes, folks. The Amazing Race Asia is on. And the names of those who will carry the Philippine banner, much less where in Asia they are headed for, is anybody’s guess.

Ricky Ow, SPE Networks Asia (the company behind the production) general manager, is not naming names. But he has a mouthful to say about the contestants.

First off, they are people you don’t play around with. They didn’t pass the network and the producer’s series of medical and psychiatric tests for physical and mental fitness for nothing.

Second, they are not your average next-door-neighbors who accept things on face value. These people can see through things and arrive at the right answers. They have logged in more than the usual miles in various parts of the world, and have seen people and places others have not.

"Contestants are very savvy and sophisticated. They are very intelligent and you don’t find them making silly mistakes," Ow observes.

But they are also human. And this is the beauty of it all. They crack under pressure, such as the one Amazing Race subjects them to. And that’s when they – like you and me – commit mistakes.

Much like gold going through the furnace, contestants go through the agony and ecstasy of defeat and victory; the ups and downs of joy and sorrow.

In the process, they discover more than just their skill in doing a task. They also unearth things about themselves they never knew existed.

Ow describes it best: "What makes us different from other reality shows, and what I like about it is that it’s a personal journey for everyone – the producer and contestants. Contestants find out their strengths and weaknesses."

Some discover, to their utter amazement and joy – that they are made of sterner stuff than they thought when push comes to shove. Others, to their dismay and that of their teammates – buckle from too much pressure.

It’s an "aha" experience that can only happen once you’re there, and nowhere else. Nothing can be so full of human drama and pathos. Nothing says more about the triumph and defeat of the human spirit more vividly than this.

And these are not well-heeled stars entangled in some emotional web on our TV sets. These are people you might rub elbows with as you wait for your turn at the grocery counter. Or someone who may be sitting right next to you at your son’s parent-teacher meeting. Why, this person can even be you.

The startling finding Ow himself chanced upon is that Asian contestants differ from their American counterparts as far as the reason for signing up for the race is concerned.

Where US contestants keep a sharp eye on the $1,000,000 prize money, Asians are driven by something less tangible. You don’t see it. But you can feel it, right down to the bone.

This something is the burning desire to be with it, to be counted in the race itself.

"It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience and many are just happy to be selected for the race," says Ow.

America, after all, is a true-blue me-first society. Asia, on the other hand, thrives in the "we spirit." This makes them feel happy just being part of one big family.

It’s as if being together in one big area is joy in itself. And it doesn’t matter who wins or loses (although of course winners and losers emerge at the end of the race).

This spirit is alive and well in Allan Wu, who emerged the top choice as Amazing Race Asia host out of a bevy other candidates (e.g. a Malaysian Idol host, a Japanese-American actor in the US).

Involved is the word to describe Wu the host.

"He can roll up his sleeve and roll it down and play with the rest of the crew. He just doesn’t want to be the big shot host sitting there and reading his lines," says an impressed Ow.

Viewers of the AXN reality show Fear Factor know Wu as the guy who threw up after swallowing a potent mixture of blended maggots, worms and rotten fish eyes.

The chunky insect legs and wings were for real, he swears. So he just can’t wait to get it out of his system, sorry.

That experience – and his unabashed reaction to it – raised Wu’s chances in getting the coveted Amazing Race job. After all, who else can host a reality show better than the contestant himself?

Wu knows how it is to face one’s fears and, instead of feeling defeated, emerge a better person soon after.

"I experienced that sense of challenge and self-belief after facing my deepest, darkest phobias on Fear Factor. I know that eating sheep brains and battling it out with slime and spiders have made me a better husband (to Singaporean actress Wong Li-Lin) and father (to Sage, 21 months old and, Jonas four months old)," he says.

The 34-year-old US-born Chinese knows he has big shoes to fill: that of original host Phil Keoghan’s. It won’t be easy, for sure. But Wu isn’t a big fan of Amazing Race, an MTV VJ, host, model and actor for nothing.

He can emphatize with the contestants, comfort them when they feel down, celebrate with them when they make it through a road block, etc. Wu, in other words, psyches up the contestants for the tough race ahead.

But he will be careful not to give anything away.

"They’re looking at me, trying to get a response. And my face is very nonexpressive," he says.

That’s when the actor in him comes out.

Despite the great to-do about the hosting job, the athletic Wu is careful not to claim the show as his own. Yes, he promises to "put my own flavor on the table." But Wu always bears in mind that "it’s the contestant who makes the show."

Their running around, dazed after a sleepless night, their tears of joy and cries of laughter after finding their way out of a detour are the stuff that will make Amazing Race Asia the success its producers predict it to be.

It’s the rich culture and traditions they will bring with them that will keep televiewers glued to their seats, one episode after another.

Will the cultures clash, or will they triumph over differences as they race from one pit stop to another? Will the language factor turn the race into a modern-day Tower of Babel?

Your guess is as good as mine. But Ricky Ow, Allan Wu and the rest of the Amazing Race Asia team promise one thing: the adventure is a journey of a thousand discoveries and surprises. And the readers will be happy as they join the contestants from one destination to another.

Okay then, let the race begin!