CBS did not show favoritism to Rex Ryan. The ESPN analyst is a cast member of the next season of The Amazing Race, but his celebrity status did not land him the gig.
He told Max Kellerman that it may have helped, but he couldn’t give the producers exactly what they wanted.
“I got a call and I think they wanted my twin brother and me to be on that show, and I was sitting back going ‘Yeah, that’s cool, but my brother is still coaching, so that’s not gonna happen,” the former head coach of the Jets and Bills said Thursday morning on ESPN Radio.
He told his friend Tim Mann about the call. The Amazing Race happens to be a favorite of Mann’s mother, so he told Rex Ryan he would be interested.
Ryan said he considered all that Mann, a corrections officer, marathoner, and powerlifter could bring to the competition. They formed a partnership, but CBS didn’t give them automatic entry to the show’s field of competitors.
“I was like, ‘Well, I know he’s gonna be good in it,’ so I call him back and then we went through the whole process like anyone else would do.”
Rex Ryan told Kellerman that he knew he had a problem going into the competition.
“You don’t wanna be an old, fat, slow guy and that’s what I am,” he said.
Ryan says he went on a diet and running program and dropped 50 pounds before filming began.
The show is done filming now, but he didn’t give anything away when Kellerman asked how his team did.
“Speed wasn’t my strength, but you’ll have to tune in to see how we do.”
The new season will be number 34 for The Amazing Race. It premiers on September 21.
