Captain Christopher Nixon, a military officer who has served with the CAF for 12 years as a member of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, told The Epoch Times that being part of the show was a new and interesting work project for him.
“It will be a great memory of my time in Victoria,” said the father of three, who served as adjutant to the Canadian Scottish Regiment at the time of filming and recently relocated to Edmonton for a new position with the Armed Forces.
“Amazing Race” follows teams of two as they race across Canada and elsewhere, with teams having to figure out clues, navigate in foreign areas, perform various tasks and challenges, and travel by air, boat, car, taxi, and other modes of transport. There are different legs in the race, and teams that are the last to arrive at designated pit stops are eliminated. The first team to arrive at the finish line wins $250,000.
“We were contacted by a senior producer from the show who was originally interested in the use of the Bay Street Armoury in Victoria, and the headquarters for the Canadian Scottish Regiment as part of their show,” said Capt. Nixon.
For the July 25 episode, a Canadian Army challenge, Capt. Nixon’s role before filming was serving as the event coordinator. Duties included booking the location, arranging for uniforms for the contestants, coordinating approximately 14 participating soldiers, and liaising with the producers of the show.
“For the actual show itself, I was the ‘drill sergeant,’ even though I’m a captain, and I yelled out the challenge instructions for the contestants,” he explained. Lt. Col. D.J. Proctor, the commanding officer of the Canadian Scottish Regiment, acted as the clue-giver for the challenge.
The Challenge
Although the producers contacted the regiment to be a part of the show, in order to be selected to host a challenge for contestants, the unit had to pitch a short demonstration of the potential challenges they were proposing.Officers Proctor and Nixon decided to propose “selection,” a reference to Special Forces tryouts where “Amazing Race” participants would have to carry out a task typically performed by potential “recruits” to the military.
“We went all-in on our pitch brief to attract the show. We didn’t know who else was in the running, but we knew that we were competing with other organizations and venues,” said Capt. Nixon.
“We pitched a number of Canadian Army challenges to the producers of the show. The one that was selected was my commanding officer’s idea—for the teams to set up a Canadian Army 10-man tent.”
The teams were each assigned four soldiers from Capt. Nixon’s unit to help contestants with the setup, although the soldiers were told they could only help when ordered to do so specifically by the competing teams.
“Watching teams of two people who had never done it before made for good television,” he says. “These tents are hard to set up, even if you know what you’re doing. It’s not super-simple. It’s awkward and difficult—a bit of a gong show. But you can survive in the Arctic in these tents.”
Teams had to face off against each other, and whoever erected the tent the fastest could proceed with the next leg of the race. The team that failed to get their tent set up first had to stay behind and face off against a new team in another attempt to erect the 10-man tent.
“Most teams would lose once, figure it out, then the next time would be faster than the new team. The shortest time a team took was 25 minutes to build their tent,” said Capt. Nixon. The longest time a team took was about 35 minutes.
Behind the Scenes
While many viewers might question how much is real on a reality television show like “Amazing Race,” Capt. Nixon said the contestants had no idea what the challenge was in advance and they had to compete to win.“Contestants were totally surprised they were in the middle of a CFB [Canadian Forces Base] soccer field in Victoria,” said the officer.
“The contestants were very friendly, and highly motivated to win,” he said. “Everyone took the challenge seriously and no one quit.”
The host, Jon Montgomery, a Canadian Olympic gold medallist skeleton racer, filmed his segments on April 28, the day before the actual challenge, and then proceeded to the finish line to wait for teams on April 29 at the rest stop before the next leg of the journey, which Capt. Nixon said was a water challenge at a nearby lake or river.
The show did two full trial runs in late April before the actual challenge filming on April 29.
“There were drones, cameras, camera crews everywhere. And go-pros. Every racer has a camera crew following them around,” Capt. Nixon said of the filming. “It was like being on a movie set.”
The actual day of filming took about six hours. In his pretend role as a drill sergeant, Capt. Nixon said he had to yell as loud as he could to give each group of contestants instructions for the challenge.
“By the time I was done, seven challenges for eight teams, I was hoarse and couldn’t talk at all,” he said.
