Amazing Race Canada season 10 begins in Niagara Falls, where first season started

Fans of Amazing Race Canada who have not yet watched the 10th season opener, which was broadcast on CTV Tuesday night, will have missed what may be one of the scariest race challenges to be shown to Canadian viewers.

Local resident Peter Donato, who worked on the Niagara segment of the 10th anniversary of Amazing Race Canada, says never before has the Niagara Parks Commission given permission for anyone to rappel down the cliff at Horseshoe Falls. Yet this year, in front of the Table Rock Welcome Centre, one member of each of the 11 teams, all with interesting backgrounds and several who are athletes, did just that, 

“It was an epic stunt. We were all really surprised that we were allowed to do it — it was definitely a wow factor,” he says.

It was well-planned by professionals who had a run-through the day before the challenge was held, on what was a beautiful sunny day, and also walked participants through what they would do the day of filming. But viewers will notice that day, April 23, was pouring rain, cold and miserable for participants, Donato says. “It was a bit of a downer,” with the area around the falls, even at Table Rock, “looking like a ghost town.”

But there was no choice other than to move forward. Each episode is put together very quickly and sent for editing as soon as it’s finished, to ensure no more than a six-week turnaround to get the season ready to broadcast in the summer.

In its first season, which was actually 12 years ago, with no shows during the pandemic, the first episode also began in Niagara Falls. This year’s show starts the teams from the same spot in Oakes Park.

“We wanted to recreate that first opening from season one, and welcome everybody back to Niagara Falls,” says Donato.

Although much of that first segment at the falls was filmed by helicopter, shots over the falls were filmed by drone in the 2024 version, which is again hosted by Olympic champion Jon Montgomery.

To pay tribute to the milestone, the first episode of this series is called Back Where it all Started, with all of the challenges at Niagara Parks attractions, explains Donato, and Niagara Parks employees taking part. “They weren’t actors, they were all parks employees doing their own jobs on the show,” he says.

Niagara Parks was great to work with, a recognition of just how far the show has come, he adds. “Ten years ago it was an unknown entity.”

The episode required a key production team arriving 10 days ahead of filming, explains Donato. Coordinating the logistics of staff was part of his job. “By race day it’s well over 100 people in town, not including the 22 participants.”

There are more than 25 drivers on the team, 15 or so location production assistants, he says, and in this episode five golf cart drivers assisting. Their job was to race back and forth transporting camera and sound crews, covering the teams at the locations by the water.

Donato says he was hired to work on last season’s Amazing Race and again this year, because of his knowledge of Niagara. He owns a cycling tour company, “so I know locations and people.” It also helps, he adds with a laugh, “that my wife is one of the show’s original producers. She first got the call 12 years ago,” and she is still following the show as it crosses the country, sometimes with him accompanying her as the caregiver for their young one.

Ten seasons ago, the first race participants spent just a brief time in Niagara Falls before heading off to finish the episode elsewhere, Donato says. This season, “Niagara Parks was a partner,” helping to organize all the challenges that followed, including a visit to the Illumination Tower, the Clifton Hill midway and arcades and the Nightmare Fear Factory, most within walking distance for the participants.

Joy Sanguedolce, The NOTL Local’s accounts manager, took a brief part-time job with the show as a production assistant, as she did for the 2023 season, basically as a “glorified gofer” who wears a headset and responds to any of the needs of staff or participants, she says.

She was positioned by the Table Rock Welcome Centre, where the rappelling challenge took place on the other side of the Niagara Parkway.

The day, especially during the filming of that challenge, “was intense, and a little nerve-wracking,” she admits. “We were all amazed it was happening. They were right at the crest of the falls — it was an incredible stunt.”

“Everything had to be so precise,” she continues. “They’re racing live, and every second counts. You have to be ready for anything.”

But it was also a lot of fun, she adds. “It was a cool experience, especially because it’s such an iconic show. I’ve been a huge fan of it since the early days in the U.S. Now it’s cool to see Canada showcased on TV, and on the world stage.”

As it was last year, when Niagara-on-the-Lake was featured, she says. Even then, there were some hints that something big would happen in season 10 and that Niagara Falls might be involved. She too credits Niagara Parks for the way they opened their doors to the production. “It was incredible,” she says, 'how friendly and generous they were with their time, and their willingness to help out."

Her son Matt Quinn, was working on the filming as well, so although staff were sworn to secrecy and unable to talk about the Amazing Race experience before the first episode aired, “at least we could talk about it to each other.”

Quinn, one of the golf cart drivers, also loved his brief time working on the show. The 20-year-old third-year business student at Western University told The Local The Amazing Race “was an incredible experience, and really gave me the opportunity to take a look into the behind-the-scenes of a show I’ve been watching since I was a little kid.”

His job, he explains, “was to help as support staff behind the scenes over a two-day period, with the first day dedicated to planning and organizing, while the second day we provided the crew with golf carts to travel across Niagara Falls much quicker during the filming action.”

Quinn has experience with golf carts, he adds, “thanks to my personal love for golf itself, and I was comfortable driving the crew up and down the Niagara Parkway while we followed the racers.”

The opportunity was nerve-wracking at first, though, “knowing the stakes of an entirely natural shoot without any scripts or made-up plans.”

But once the filming got going, “everyone, including the show’s producer, was on the same page and were able to make me and the rest of the crew feel more comfortable.”

Quinn says he was “fired up to see the show air live, and to see myself make the final cut for a brief couple seconds. I will definitely be showing it to all my friends,” although he adds, it was just a glimpse of himself with golf carts in in the background.

And yes, he says, “I would do it again in a heartbeat, and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity.”

As the episode neared its conclusion, the most exciting point as participants completed the final leg of the journey, they raced to the pit stop through the Niagara Parks Power Station. There they would meet Montgomery at the end of the long tunnel beneath the historic hydro building, which leads to an observation platform for viewing the falls.

When they reached the elevator to the tunnel, teams thought their challenges were over, only to find their memory put to a test before they were awarded their place in the finish — some of them losing vital time by having to race back through the tunnel and up to the former hydro station to return with the correct answer.

Queenston resident Crispin Bottomley played an instrumental role in what was to be the last challenge before discovering which team would be eliminated. He has been an employee at the Niagara Parks Power Station since it opened four years ago. Going forward, he will likely be known as the elevator operator by those who watch the show, although that’s only one small part of his job.

Bottomley is a supervisor and team leader at the power station, an historic building  with an elevator that descends 180 feet to the 2,200-foot tunnel that was built in 1901 to direct water to the river — those numbers were just of few of the details he shared with race participants in the elevator that they would be questioned about, although they didn’t know that.

The power plant, open to the public with immersive exhibits, restored artifacts and interactive storytelling, stays open at night in the summer until the fireworks are over, says Bottomley, offering a great viewing spot of the falls.

Niagara Parks’ refurbishment of the building began in 2019, although when it opened in 2021 the elevator and viewing station, just a few metres from the edge of the river, were not yet completed.

Bottomley explains he is trained to do all the jobs in the power station when needed, whether it’s selling tickets, guiding tours or stepping into the role of elevator operator, who also has be a tour guide, having memorized a long list of facts to share with visitors to the attraction as they take the elevator to the viewing platform.

While he was happy to have been selected to be on the show, he says, everyone who visits the site, including locals, tourists from afar and participants on the Amazing Race, “is treated the same. They all get the same great experience,” whether it’s from him or a high-school or university student. And it’s an important job, he adds, helping to teach people not only about Canadian history, but also the history of electricity and the role Canada played in its development. “That’s also an important part of our history,” he says.

He was interested in watching the episode on TV to see how the participants finished in the order they did — he didn’t know what had happened in the earlier challenges to get them to that final stage of the race. There were at times two teams on the elevator, with other teams spread out “over a few hours” as they arrived.

Was he nervous knowing he was being filmed for national television? Not in the least, he says — his role was the same as always, helping to provide a memorable experience for visitors. After all, he joked, “It wasn’t my first elevator ride.”

Donato, with the stress of having another successful shoot behind him and after seeing the results on TV, says he loves the show, and is happy to be part of it. During the filming, he adds, “Niagara got a good bit of love" from the production crew. "I’m hoping they will come back, maybe two or three years from now. There is lots of stuff we didn’t do — Niagara is such an interesting place.”

And he is happy to see the race continue to stay in Canada, rather than going around the world, as it does in the U.S. version.

Viewers like that it showcases Canada and Canadians, he says. “Canadians are nice people, and the show just seems more authentic. It blends well with the Canadian mentality.”

There has been some debate over the years about sending participants to other countries, but so far the decision has been to keep them here. This season's group left Niagara to go to B.C., crossing the country on their way to Labrador and Newfoundland, with another stop in Ontario.

“People want to see other places in Canada,” he says, and producers want to keep it that way, considering the show to be “a love letter to Canada.”

Episodes can be seen Tuesdays on CTV, but there are also several ways to view them online at any time, including here.