Millcreek couple Scott and Lori Thompson finally get to show their eight sons and everyone else what they did on their summer vacation: They competed on “The Amazing Race.”
“Our family mantra has always been: ‘We do hard things,’” Scott Thompson said in an interview Monday, “‘The Amazing Race’ is the epitome of a hard thing, but it didn’t stop [Lori] and me from trying, making that effort, and putting our best selves out there.”
The Thompsons are one of 14 teams starting out on the 37th season of “The Amazing Race.” The season premieres Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. Mountain time, on CBS — KUTV, Ch. 2, in Utah.
On “The Amazing Race,” teams of two compete in an around-the-world adventure, flying to different continents where they experience physical and mental challenges, called “roadblocks” or “detours” — everything from memory games to rappelling down the sides of buildings. The contestants also sometimes have to deal with flight delays, clueless cab drivers and driving stick shift.
The teams are guided by clues, left in boxes at each stop of the race — leading to a “pit stop” at the end of each race leg. At the mat at the pit stop, the last team to check in with host Phil Keoghan faces the likelihood of being eliminated. The first team to arrive at the final pit stop, always back home in the U.S., wins $1 million.
The teams are made up of siblings, best friends, people who are dating, parents and children, or — as with the Thompsons — married couples.
‘Super fans’ who got their chance
(Michele Crowe | CBS) Phil Keoghan, the host of "The Amazing Race," pictured during the show's 33rd season.
The Thompsons’ sons range in age from 10 to 25. Scott, 47 at the time of filming, is an emergency room physician’s assistant, and Lori, 49 when they filmed, is a stay-at-home mom. They met at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, on their way to serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — her in Spokane, Wash., him in Columbus, Ohio.
They say they have been “super fans” of the reality competition show since it debuted in 2001, not long after their oldest son was born.
Lori Thompson has auditioned for CBS’s solo competition, “Survivor,” for the last six years, “thinking I’d get on ‘Survivor,’ then Scott and I would get on ‘The Amazing Race.’” (Over the years, six previous “Race” teams got their starts on “Survivor.”)
After failing that route, but appearing on “The Price Is Right” and a couple of other CBS game shows, Lori told Scott they should just submit a tape to “The Amazing Race.” They did, and heard from a casting producer two months later.
As fans, the Thompsons would watch the show and pretend they were playing the game. Lori would write down the challenges in a notebook, Scott said, and “we would play it like we were on the race — figuring out who’s going to do which roadblock, [or] which detour are we going to decide to do.”
Playing it for real, Scott said, “is a whole different animal.”
“It’s a lot easier to yell at teams from the couch [about] how stupid they’re being when you’re not actually in the race,” he said. “But when you’re in the moment, it’s stressful. It’s exciting, it’s amazing.”
Lori described each leg of the race as “running for your life for four or five hours.”
“You’re in this tunnel vision,” Lori said. “I remember after everything had wrapped, I was talking to one of the producers, and I said, ‘I didn’t even see you at that challenge.’ And he’s like, ‘There were 20 of us there, Lori.’ And I [said], ‘All I saw was the clue box.’”
Why parenting was the perfect ‘Amazing Race’ prep
The teams are color-coded, to make it easy for viewers to identify the pairings. The Thompsons wanted to wear green — in part because their older sons attend Olympus High School — but producers said the color would disappear into the green screens used to add backdrops in some shots. So the couple ended up wearing pink.
“As a mom of eight sons, we have a lot of boy stuff — lots of blue,” Lori said. “So I’ve always loved the color pink. My toothbrush is pink, my lotion bottle is pink, my wallet is pink. So pink is perfect.”
Season 37 of “The Amazing Race” was shot in May and June of last year. The Thompsons can’t say where they went until each episode airs — and they can’t reveal how far they went in the season.
They said their oldest son, Will, had just graduated from Brigham Young University, and had a six-week window before starting medical school — so he was enlisted to watch his younger brothers while their parents were in the race.
“I wrote up lists of what to buy at the grocery store, what to buy at Costco, different activities the kids could do,” Lori said. “I left a bunch of gift cards. I did videos for every week we were gone, for the little kids, to tell them we love them and we miss them.”
Scott added, “We had to sit the little boys down and tell them not to take too much advantage of their older brother, because he’s kind of a pushover.”
Raising eight sons, the Thompsons said, helped them develop problem-solving skills that came in handy on “The Amazing Race.” One of the show’s mottos is “Expect the unexpected” — and this season, Keoghan promises the contestants surprises in every episode.
“You have no idea what [kids] are going to roll into the house with — if they fell, or they broke their arm, or they made the varsity football team,” Lori said. “You have no idea. It’s the twists and turns of every day, having these boys. It’s just like ‘The Amazing Race.’”
