Star Powerhouse

Sony Pictures Television Networks, Asia scooped the pool at the 22nd Asian Television Awards in Singapore taking home five awards including the highly coveted ‘Cable & Satellite Network of the Year’. Sony’s flagship channel in Asia, leading English general entertainment powerhouse, AXN, won ‘Cable & Satellite Channel of the Year’. The channel was also recognized for its hit-rated, pan-regional original production, The Amazing Race Asia Season 5, with three competitive awards: ‘Best General Entertainment Program’, ‘Best Reality Program’ and ‘Best Adaptation of an Existing Format’.

Pinoy power reigned supreme last night as AXN crowned Filipino beauty queens Maggie Wilson-Consunji and Parul Shah winners of The Amazing Race Asia Season 5. In the gripping finale episode, Maggie and Parul arrived first at the pit stop in Bali with just minutes to spare havingsurvived challenges insix countries, 12 cities and over 12,000 kilometres, beating 10 other teams to claim the ultimate USD100,000 cash prize.

Last episode’s first team, Yvonne and Chloe kicked off leg three with good news – they are heading back to their homeland in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! But first, teams need to travel from Bandung to Jakarta’s Senayan City Mall to purchase their air tickets. At Garuda Indonesia’s office, the teams realize that the earliest flight to KL is the next day at 8.35am.

After a much-needed rest, the teams depart early for their second leg of the race to Taman Mini Indonesia. Although Alphaeus & Brandon are the first to arrive, Taman Mini Indonesia only opens at 6am, giving all the other teams an equal footing at the start of the challenge. Here, the nine remaining teams have to ride on Grab bikes to spot marked letters that spell out the clue to their next destination – BANDUNG. JK & Mike make great progress, finding the clues first while Yvonne & Chloe and Alex & Will misread their clues, putting them behind in the race.

In one of its wisest moves yet, Amazing Race 28 stays relevant to its audience by featuring 11 teams of YouTube, Vine and Instagram stars in pursuit of the $1 million pot. See your favourite online celebrities cross over to traditional “boob tube” as they begin the race from the symbolic spot of Monumento ala Revolucion in Mexico City and travel around the world. The 28th installment of this iconic reality show franchise began filming last November 15, 2015, with host Phil Koeghan live streaming a blow by blow account of what was happening (in true digital age style).