Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri wanted to produce a new reality competition series that showcases remote places of Earth and far different from its popular long-running hit show The Amazing Race.
The result is with Race to the Center of the Earth for National Geographic that pits four teams at different corners of the world racing for the top purse of $1 million.
Over two weeks in real time, these teams race in extreme terrains and extreme situations in different continents, including South America, Russia, Canada, and Southeast Asia. Some of these teams face jungles, frozen artic, arid deserts, bustling crowded cities, treacherous mountains, vast oceans, rapid rivers amongst their routes.
All four teams compete to be the first group to arrive at a buoy to claim their prize. It’ll take teamwork, physical skills, geographical planning, and endurance to cross that finish line.
Unlike The Amazing Race, this competition is an extreme non-elimination competition with four groups of three adventurers each at different locations. Not to mention, the challenges facing each team satisfies NatGeo enthusiasts of “Man vs. Nature” in the most gorgeous backdrops of Earth.
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LRM Online’s Gig Patta chatted in detail about the rules and fairness of the competition. Also, we talked about the remote locations, behind the scenes look, and competing against these “experts” to each waypoint of the competition.
Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri created The Amazing Race for television back in 2001 that aired with nearly 350 episodes in over 80 countries. The show earned ten Emmy awards, three Producer Guild Awards, a DGA award, a GLAAD Award, and a Television Critics award. Bertram and Doganieri executive produced The Quest for ABC that pits reality contestants in a fantasy world. Also, they executive produced Oprah’s Big Give, Take The Money & Run, and Profiles from the Front Line for ABC.
NatGeo’s Race to the Center of the Earth airs as part of NatGeo’s Adventure Night alongside with Running Wild with Bear Grylls.
Its first episode premiered earlier this week on the National Geographic channel. New episodes air weekly on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Watch the exclusive interview below. Let us know what you think.
Source: LRM Online Exclusive, National Geographic
