BYUtv’s ‘Relative Race’ makes reality television a family affair
BYUtv dives into the world of reality television and genealogy in a brand new series: "Relative Race." In the show, four couples race across the country, finding and staying with relatives they often didn't even know existed before the show. Pictured above are the competitors with Dan Debenham, the show's host and executive producer.
Margo and Doug Engberg of Kirkland, Wash., pose with newly discovered family members as a part of BYUtv's new reality television show, "Relative Race."
Margo and Doug Engberg of Kirkland, Wash., are one of four married couples who competed in Season 1 of BYUtv's new genealogy-based reality television show.
Imagine embarking on a 10-day cross-country trek with nothing other than a flip phone, a map, a rental car, $25 per diem and a serious desire to win. To complicate the matter even more? You’ll be staying with people you’ve just met. But it’s OK, because you’re family, right?
BYUtv, Utah-based production company Lenzworks and family history giant Ancestry have teamed up to create a one-of-a-kind, exciting new reality television series aptly described as “The Amazing Race” meets “Who Do You Think You Are,” but, well, on genealogical steroids.
Titled “Relative Race,” the multi-episode adventure will debut on BYUtv Sunday night, and features four couples from across the country as they take part in a journey that will not only put them in the running for a $25,000 prize, but change everything they thought they knew about their heritage and themselves.
“BYUtv approached us about a year ago saying they had kind of heard about a concept they wanted refined and created for television,” said Dan Debenham of Lenzworks, who also served as executive producer and host of the show. “It was this concept of genealogy in an episodic fashion on TV that would reach the most diverse audience possible, and that was a real challenge. … (They) wanted us to think outside the box and create something that hadn’t been created before, and I feel like we really accomplished that.”
According to Debenham, his team spent the next few months developing the idea before ultimately coming up with the format that will be seen in the premiere.
“We came up with this concept of having genealogy be a race, and to make the race interesting in today’s day and age, eliminating the use of all GPS capabilities,” he said. “That was the first thing that happened to all the couples on hour one of day one.”
“Relative Race” puts each of the couples in a competition scenario, where they have to travel to cities across the United States, completing challenges and gaining clues as they search for and stay with long-lost relatives discovered by AncestryDNA and AncestryProGenealogists. Their journey begins in San Francisco, where they’re given basic instructions, and ends 10 days and over 4,500 miles later in New York City, where the grand finale takes place and the $25,000 grand prize awaits the winning couple.
The last couple to discover their relatives each day receives a strike, and after three strikes, the couple is eliminated from the competition and no longer eligible for the prize.
According to Margo Engberg, who battled alongside her husband, Doug, as the highly competitive blue team on the show, despite the $25,000 payout promised to the winner of the competition, the real prize for her was the family she was able to discover along the way.
“As competitive as we were, we kept saying, ‘We want to win, we want to win,’ but every time we met a relative, you felt like you won already — just meeting someone,” she said. “It was the greatest gift.”
The Engbergs are from the Seattle area of Washington, and together have four children. Margo runs her own successful dessert chain, PinkaBella Cupcakes, and Doug serves as director of development for a non-profit called OliveCrest, an organization geared toward strengthening families and meeting the needs of children in crisis.
According to Margo, it was a personal friend who first told her about the show, and it was her history that made her want to move forward with actually submitting an audition video.
“I really didn’t understand (what the show was about) until we were on the journey, quite frankly, but what excited me the most was meeting the relatives,” she said. “I don’t have a lot of connection with family, so I was really excited to meet people that I was related to and make connections, and my intent was once I make those connections, I’m going to have a family. I really believed I was going to build this family, and actually it’s happened.”
“We met incredible relatives and we’re staying connected,” Doug said of the experience. “We want to develop those relationships and see that grow, so we’re just very, very grateful to Lenzwork and AncestryDNA who made it possible for us to experience this journey. We don’t take it lightly — it’s an amazing privilege and honor to really get to know the people we know.”
According to Doug, though, the new relatives met along the way were just one facet of good that came from the show, another being how it strengthened his relationship with Margo.
“It was a great experience and I had no idea what to expect, but not having electronics and having to be together in a car 24/7, basically Margo and I together, and having to truly work as a team, I think it actually brought the best out in us. … She was so supportive and I discovered something about Margo. She’s very real with her emotions and how she feels, yet when things didn’t go exactly her way, she’d jump right in there and supported me. It was a tremendous experience, but I think that I got more out of this whole thing just in regard to my own marriage.”
“In that situation, Doug and I got really close,” Margo agreed. “There were moments when it was stressful and hard and we were kind of nipping at each other, but we had to totally rely on each other. We depend on cell phones at home, but we didn’t have a lot of resources or any guidance — just a paper map. We were completely relying on each other’s strengths.”
“Doug and Margo are incredibly real and honest throughout this show,” Debenham said of the couple and their evolving relationship. “They speak so frankly and candidly about what they’re feeling and those feelings only grow more and more intensely, in a very positive but very real, deeply profound way throughout the series.”
One key part of the show that makes it so compelling is the impressive groundwork that was done with the assistance of AncestryDNA before production. Each couple had to submit DNA for testing, and then their matches were mapped out and contacted, with permission, to be a part of the show.
“It was an amazing experience,” Margo said. “I was floored at the abilities of AncestryDNA to actually find people we’re related to — I thought that was really cool. Going into it, I didn’t know what to expect really, and I had a lot of questions, like how in the world are they going to link us to people … to me that’s the most amazing part. AncestryDNA was able to locate all these people we didn’t know and had never met.”
According to Debenham, the relatives and contestants themselves were understandably leery about the setup of the show — it being a reality series and all, but ultimately “Relative Race” is meant to follow Lenzworks’ goal of creating “programming with a purpose,” as well as BYUtv’s goal to “see the good in the world.”
“To be clear, this is a show about showcasing the adventure and discovery of new family,” Debenham said of the series. “We show the good and the bad, but there is no ugly that takes place on the show. … We’re not trying to cast somebody off of an island or trying to find out who’s going to get divorced next. It’s not the nature of this show. And yet you see very real, raw emotion unfold. It really is like the proverbial layers of an onion — you keep folding it back and it keeps getting stronger and stronger. That’s what we expected when we created the show. … (Contestants) go through spats of drama, humor, frustration to discover family members they didn’t know they had until the moment when they knock on someone’s door — that’s really compelling stuff.”
RELATIVE RACE
What: Competitors cross the country in search of family members in this new, genealogy-centric reality television series coming to BYUtv.
When: The first season premieres Sunday at 6 p.m.
Where: Watch it on BYUtv via cable, satellite and byutv.org, as well as multiple digital media platforms including iOs, Android, Amazon FireTV, Xbox360 and Roku.
More info: relativerace.com
