“The Amazing Race” still holds the record for most wins in the competition category, with 10 altogether starting in 2003, the year the category launched, to its most recent win in 2014. That means married producers Elise Doganieri and Bertram Van Mun- ster together have 20 statues, which got us curious: Where do you put all that hardware? The duo invited us to their home to find out, and it turns out they’re very tastefully displayed on shelves in a living area.
“The first win, 2003, was so nerve-wracking, that I almost didn’t want to go on stage,” Van Munster says. “I was almost hop- ing we wouldn’t win so I didn’t have to go on stage. I was so nervous to walk up there. It was a blur, you looked and Steven Spielberg was sitting right there!”
Adds Doganieri: “We just didn’t think we’re going to win. So we were like, this is going to be a fun party, we’ll go and we’ll see who wins and it’s not going to be us. So when they said, ‘The Amazing Race,’ we all just sat there.”
Over the years, even as “Race” became a perennial nominee and frequent winner, Doganieri says those butterflies remained. “I get nauseous in my stomach when that category comes up,” she says. “You just get like this feeling, you’re going to wait to hear some crazy news. You don’t know if it’s going to be good news or bad news.”
The couple is particularly proud of this nominated season, which began production right before the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Amazing Race” was among the first productions to shut down in February 2020 as word spread of the virus — and then picked up again, under very different circumstances — 19 months later.
“We had to pull the plug,” Van Munster says. “I thought, in six weeks we’ll be back. Little did we know. I was sitting at home very depressed.”
Van Munster and Doganieri adjusted the show by adding a chartered plane, abbreviated routes and strict testing protocols — actions they have continued with the show’s upcoming 34th season — and another set to embark after that.
“We don’t do ‘The Amazing Race’ for the Emmys, we do it because we’re passionate about making the show,” Doganieri says. “We’re proving that there’s still goodness and great people out there, and that the world is still a beautiful place. And when we’re not filming it, we go through withdrawals. Honestly, Bert’s sitting at home, asking, ‘When can we get back on an airplane?’”
On Display
Doganieri and Van Munster had two book shelves custom made with tall enough racks to fit their Emmys. The duo keep 16 trophies on the shelves at home and have one in their production offices. As for the other three, one was gifted to their agent, CAA’s Steve Lafferty, another is at Doganieri’s parents’ home, and Van Munster’s daughter Barbara has one in Holland.
“Mine are interesting because they have all different titles on them, starting from supervising producer because I went up through the ranks in our own company,” Doganieri says. “They’re all special.”
Showing Respect
Van Munster says he received the cross from a Coptic church in Lalibela, a city in Northern Ethiopia. “We had hundreds of Coptic priests who came around for our filming,” he recalls. “Then unfortunately, we had contestants who showed up in short shorts, and very visible [skin]. These guys were in shock because they live in a different way. They all turned around and walked away. I had to negotiate with the high priest, who was furious. I went into the church with him, and I said, ‘Look, we all have cultural differences and backgrounds. If you would accept my apologies, I’ll make sure they’re dressed, and we can do it again.’ He said ‘OK, I’ll do that.’ Everything was fine. Then an hour later, another team comes running up with inappropriate outfits. Tank tops, short shorts!”
A Moment in Time
Alongside some of their Emmys and travel books is a photographic reminder of those early days of “The Amazing Race”: A photo from the show’s third win in competition series, in 2006. Exec producer Jerry Bruckheimer, host Phil Keoghan and exec producer Jeremy Littman (then the head of Bruckheimer TV) are seen next to Doganieri and Van Munster, all clutching their Emmys. “That picture there, that’s when everybody had hair,” Van Munster quips. “Littman has hair, I have hair, Elise has hair, Phil still has hair. Everyone looking so young and pretty!”
Dance With Me
Many of the souvenirs from the show’s various challenges and adventures over the years are stored in “The Amazing Race” production offices in the San Fernando Valley. But Doganieri and Van Munster do keep some treasured artifacts in their home as well, including these clogs — a nod to Van Munster’s native Holland. They also hail from two different episodes. In one, “We had a challenge in Holland where our art department painstakingly created different patterns on top of the clogs,” Doganieri says. “And so the contestants were given a clog and they had to find the clog to match the pat- tern in hundreds and hundreds of shows. Classic ‘Amazing Race’ challenge.” And the other, as Van Munster remembers, “We did a folk dance in clogs. And these are the clogs they used.”
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