The Amazing Race Asia 3 (also known as The Amazing Race Asia: Toughest Race Ever) is the third season of The Amazing Race Asia, a reality television game show based on the American series The Amazing Race. It featured ten teams of two with a pre-existing relationship, in a race around Asia to win US$100,000. This season visited the entirety of Asia and six countries and travelled over 21600 km during eleven legs. Starting in Bangkok, teams travelled through Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, India, and Oman, before finishing in Phuket. The season premiered on AXN Asia on September 11, 2008 and consisted of 11 episodes, two episodes fewer than the first and second seasons. The season finale aired on November 20, 2008. Friends Vince Chung and Sam Wu, representing Hong Kong, were the winners of this season. Vince also became the first non-Asian by nationality to win The Amazing Race Asia, while Philippine dating couple Geoff Rodriguez and Tisha Silang finished in second place and Malaysian actress and heiress Ida Nerina and Tania Khan finished in third place.

Production

Development and filming

The third season of The Amazing Race Asia covered 21,600 kilometres in six countries. Route markers were coloured yellow and white in Vietnam to avoid confusion with the former flag of South Vietnam. This season introduced the U-Turn marker, while the Intersection was not included. This season, like the American version's Family Edition and the Brazilian version, was the first time The Amazing Race Asia traveled across one continent, Asia (previous seasons covered at least two continents). Unlike past seasons, this was the first season to not have the first leg as a non-elimination leg. This season also had the number of episodes decreased from 13 to 11. According to AXN, this season was dubbed as "the toughest Race ever" compared to previous seasons as both contestants and crew personnel experienced high fatigue during this season due to the faster pace and shorter break times. During filming, one production crew member was even hospitalized. This was the only season of The Amazing Race Asia did not visit the country of Singapore. Paula Taylor, one of the racers in Season 2, appeared as the local greeter in the first leg. Footage from the start of the season was shown on the ninth episode of The Amazing Race 16.

Casting

Applications for the third season were due on March 3, 2008 (extended from the original deadline on February 25, 2008). Interviews for semi-finalists and finalists were held sometime around March or April 2008. Filming was expected to have taken place around the middle of 2008. Kynt Cothron and Vyxsin Fiala's audition video was shown on the "Racers Revealed" episode. Michael McKay, the executive producer of the show, confirmed that Kynt & Vyxsin of season 12 of the original American version of The Amazing Race did really submit an audition tape but did not make it because according to McKay "we felt it would be unfair to have a team that had already raced (and raced very well I might add) and also we take teams from Asia. But if we do an All Star version down the track you never know."

Release

Marketing

The third season of The Amazing Race Asia had six official sponsors: Caltex, MASkargo, Nokia, Singha, Sony and Standard Chartered Bank.

Broadcasting

A special episode known as "Racers Revealed" aired one week before the actual premiere, on September 4, 2008, and a special "Memories" episode aired after the season finale on November 27, 2008, similar to the second season.

Cast

This season's cast include cousins, and a father & son team. Like Season 2, this season featured a large number of local media personalities or their relatives. Natalie Glebova is the winner of Miss Universe 2005 and also the wife of Thai tennis player Paradorn Srichaphan. Her teammate, Pailin, is the runner-up in 2006 Miss Thailand Universe and also contested in Miss Earth 2006. Tisha Silang is the ex-girlfriend of Survivor Philippines ' s host, Paolo Bediones and was once Miss Philippines but had to forgo her crown due to her Canadian citizenship, while Ida, Niroo and Mai are famous actors in their respective homelands and Bernie is the host of Project Runway Malaysia. Isaac & William are sports commentators and football agents for professional players in the Korean K-League. Vince Matthew Chung is a leading stand-up comedian in Hong Kong, often performing and hosting at The TakeOut Comedy Club Hong Kong, and was a finalist in Hong Kong's first nationwide stand-up comedy competition. This season consists of three non-Asians. Natalie and Vince are Canadians (though Natalie was born in Russia; Vince has a Chinese ethnicity), and Geoff is from New Zealand. Additionally, Sam, who was originally from Singapore, is representing Hong Kong. Tisha is of Canadian nationality but of Filipino ethnicity; Henry and Bernie are of Australian nationality but of Chinese ethnicity, however they are representing Malaysia. Tania Khan died in late 2020 at the age of 48.

Results

The following teams participated in the season, with their relationships at the time of filming. Placements are listed in finishing order:

Race summary

Leg 1 (Thailand)

Leg 2 (Thailand → Vietnam)

Leg 3 (Vietnam)

Leg 4 (Vietnam → Taiwan)

Leg 5 (Taiwan)

Leg 6 (Taiwan → Hong Kong)

Leg 7 (Hong Kong → Macau)

Leg 8 (Macau → Hong Kong → India)

Leg 9 (India)

Leg 10 (India → Oman)

Leg 11 (Oman → Thailand)

Reception

Awards

In 2009, the series was nominated for an International Emmy Award for Best Non-Scripted Entertainment, losing to the Dutch reality series The Phone.