Tonight at 9p EDT on BYU TV, it is sadly time for the 2-hour season finale of Relative Race. We have watched the 4 teams travel the country, get stuck in traffic, take part in hard challenges, all to meet family members they never knew they had before this show. They will meet one more relative tonight before the remaining teams meet up for one last competition to win $50,000.
In the first episode, one team will get lost and drive in the opposite direction. While another team has a problem finishing the challenge. When all is said and done, it is time for the three teams to find out who will make it to the finals. The reveal will be shocking because something happened that has never happened before in the series. I cannot say more than that because it is, like, they said, something that has never happened before. Once that is revealed, it is then time for the teams to compete in their biggest challenge of the season. One that is worth a whole lot of green. Too bad Team Green will not be there to cheer them on because they were eliminated last week
All three teams had quite a journey. None more than Team Blue. Michael Anderson and his son Dylan met family they never knew they had. Michael found out he was adopted a year before his mother died and for the last 30 years, all he has wanted to know who is his family. Over the last eight episodes of Relative Race, he finally met his dad, his mom, his sister, and his cousins, and he even found out he is related to a King. His ancestor is not royalty, but he is the King of Rock’n’Roll, Elvis Presley. He cannot stop telling everyone who is long lost cousin. How many other shows can tell you all of that?
Earlier this week, I spoke to Michael and Dylan and they told me about one of the best journeys of their lives together.
SOW – What were Michael’s expectations from the show?
MA – I didn’t have any expectations of having relationships with anybody. All I wanted was answers. That was it. Everything else has been just the icing on the top. I had no history of anything. Mother, father, either side of the family name. I had nothing. And now I’ve got heritage all the way back to the 1640’s. It blows my mind to find out that we are related to Elvis Presley. I mean, come on.
SOW: He might not have not any expectations for the show, because the producers contacted him. How did they find the Andersons?
MA – I didn’t initially try out for the show. They found me. I have a very large following on social media when it comes to my photography business. A year ago, October, I put a post out on my photography page, “My name’s Michael Andrew Anderson. I was born July 28, 1972. I’m looking for my biological parents.” Well, it went viral and was seen by over 200,000 people. One of the people was a producer from the TV show, he contacted me, and that’s what got the ball rolling. We did end up having to submit a video like everybody else, but the initial contacts they found me.
SOW: Had he heard about the show before he got a phone call from the producers?
MA – When they first contacted me, I never even heard that show. So I Googled it before I contacted them back to make sure it wasn’t some kind of scam. Then I watched a couple of episodes and I was like, this is a really great show. So I contacted them and then I told them my story and I told another producer and then another producer and another producer. They just loved my story because I didn’t have one. I had no one. Most of the people have either one side or the other side. I had literally nothing to go on.
SOW – Relative Race changed things up for the third season, so he was not always prepared for what was happening. Things like meeting his first relative on the show.
MA – When I met my father, I was a game mode. I thought we were going to do some challenges or something. And when we were walking up to the bed and breakfast, I thought they were the owners. Know that reaction when he tells me he’s my dad? I mean I just lost it.
SOW – Michael explains why he has no idea what to expect.
MA – They [the producers] don’t give you any direction. There’s no script, there’s no cue cards hanging off the side of the camera. I mean, there’s nothing like that. It’s real. I mean it.
SOW – Since the show ended, he has kept in touch with the family that he met. So much so, he told me he is going to see one of them soon.
MA – Dylan and I are going up to Brighton City, North Carolina and we’re going to shoot our newly found niece’s senior high school pictures. The cousin of ours, that was the bounty hunter/bondsmen/fudge shop owner, his daughter, and she wanted us to come up. I told her I will do it on two conditions. I said, “We’ll come up there if we can have dinner and we go to fudge shop.”
SOW – Since the show ended, Michael Anderson decided to run for a seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives as a Representative for District 23 (Elections are on May 8th). Something he took away from the show convinced him to do it.
MA – I’ve always loved politics and I’ve been highly involved in my community for years. A lot of the behind the scenes is what I do and I’ve gotten to know most, if not all, of the local politicians here. We’ve had some redistricting in our state and it just so happens that the new district, that I fall in, there is a representative that I don’t particularly think he represents us properly. So I am trying to do something positive for the community. What the show did for me is helped me have that confidence I never had before. I mean even with my photography and building my business, I’ve always had doubts, I’ve always doubted myself ever since I was a kid. But now, I mean, it’s just like a light switch went off and I got all this confidence in the world now.
SOW – What has being a part of Relative Race meant to him?
MA – Anything I can do in the future for the show, for the network, I’m at their disposal. These people are, we need more people like this all around the country and all around this world. It’s been such a blessing because I’m hoping that our journey, how chaotic, wrong direction and how horrible we were at the challenges; I hope that our journey can help others. And that’s the main thing I want to do for them. That is one of the reasons why I wanted to run for office is to try to help them. Adoption and foster parenting touches so many people’s lives. We have laws in this country, my state especially, that need to be changed. It shows like this one and people like this that can help make changes that are positive for people like me. We just want answers, most of us. I mean it’s just been such a wonderful journey and we now have not only family, but we have new friends from the show. From our producers to the other contestants. It will always be one of the absolute best moment in my life, period.
