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So we're going to reward you with exclusive details from this Sunday's season 23 finale of The Amazing Race! After 13 years on the air, the Emmy Award-winning CBS series is ready to show audiences one of the most draining finales they've ever created.
To help prepare you for the sure-to-be intense two-hour finale, we chatted with co-creator and executive producer Elise Doganieri and she spilled exclusive details on the most "mentally, physically and even emotionally" exhausting challenges that our final three teams will have to endure. Plus, we've got your sneak peek at the most hilarious task our teams have faced all season!
After four continents, nine countries and more than 35,000 miles, our final three teams are ready to use their last little bit of adrenaline and sanity to snag the coveted $1 million dollar prize. Doganieri promises that diehard Amazing Race fans will love the twists and turns that are coming up in Sunday night's episode.
"It gets challenging every season to try and come up with new and exciting things, but to go along with the creative, you really do have to have a great cast, and we have had an incredible cast this season," the showrunner explains. "So for this finale, which is a leg that I scouted and put together, we really wanted to find something challenging and difficult. We don't ever want to just give the million dollars away."
Doganieri tells us that when planning this last final stretch of the race, their goal was to "drain" the contestants as much as possible. The executive producer reveals, "After 12 legs of the race, so we really test the contestants mentally, physically and even emotionally. We really drained them of every strip of confidence or any last little bit of emotion that they had out of them, and we really pushed them to come together as a team." Hey, no one said that a race around the world was going to be easy!
So which exotic places will our finalists be traveling to on Sunday night? Pack your bags and prepare for craziness because the first challenge is bringing back a fan-favorite event: The Japanese game show! The Amazing Race boss spills, "They're going to start off in Tokyo and they basically become human bowling balls, so the Japan stuff is super funny."
After the laughs subside, it's time for the contestants to face their fears in a physically and mentally exhausting event. "We also have a task where they're going to strip down to their underwear or their bathing suit in Tokyo and they basically have to get into a giant phone booth," she says. "It really is like a giant fishbowl filled with water and they have to make a phone call in the bottom of the booth while holding their breath." Yikes!
And fast-forwarding to the end, our finalists will be pushed to the limit when they are thrust in one of America's coldest climates. "Ultimately the final three teams are going to have to go to Alaska and they go full out. They have to cross a glacier and sprint to the finish line," Doganieri teases.
Ready for ever more Amazing Race finale goodies? Of course, you are! We've got your exclusive first look at the wonderfully wacky Japanese game show. Watch the clip below to see Marie and Tim try and explain their complicated relationship to the audience—Plus, see Marie get some serious air in her attempt to be a human bowling ball.
The season 23 finale of The Amazing Race airs this Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBS.
And check back to E! Online Sunday night following the finale to get exclusive reactions to the winner plus scoop on what's coming up in the next season of The Amazing Race!