Bertram van Munster on ‘The Amazing Race’: “Instrumental in Bringing People Together Around the World”

“They’re so obsessed with racing that this kind of stuff almost doesn’t occur,” producer Bertram van Munster told The Hollywood Reporter during its Reality Emmy Roundtable, referring to the absence of typical reality drama on his show, The Amazing Race. “[The show] is all done in real time so, no, we don’t have these moments.”

Van Munster prides himself on being one of the early pioneers of developing franchises of reality television. “In the beginning, nobody ever heard of reality until Mark [Burnett] and myself showed up on the scene, and there was the brave Les [Moonves] who saw the potential of this and said, ‘These are franchises,’ which was miraculous. This was 15, 16 years ago when nobody had ever heard of this. The only show that was on was Cops.”

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“I also think that The Amazing Race is almost like a business card around the world to show that we are actually nice people,” says the 10-time Emmy award-winning producer. “We’re good people. It’s phenomenal when you bring people really together. I think The Amazing Race has been instrumental in being a good partner around the world, and bringing people together.”

The producer joined Nigel Lythgoe (So You Think You Can Dance), Burnett (Survivor, Shark Tank, The Voice), Julie Chen (Big Brother), Craig Piligian (The Ultimate Fighter) and Cat Deeley (So You Think You Can Dance) for the Roundtable, where the producers and hosts shared what it takes to create content that has lasted more than a decade in a genre that seemed like a fad.

The full Reality Roundtable can be seen on Close Up With the Hollywood Reporter when it premieres Sunday, Sept. 13, at 11 a.m. ET/PT on Sundance TV and HollywoodReporter.com.

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