68, 75, 33; Host Jon Montgomery Evaluates His Own Prognostication Skills as Season 8 of THE AMAZING RACE CANADA Begins

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Entering his eighth season as the host of THE AMAZING RACE CANADA, it’s time to talk some hard numbers with Jon Montgomery. In an interview to set up the new season, which debuts Tuesday, July 5 at 9 p.m. ET on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app, Montgomery was questioned about his ability to predict the winners of the competition. Sizing up the various duos through the years, how accurate has he been? What is his overall batting average? And is he better at it now than he used to be? “I would say my ability to read a book by its cover is about as good as anybody else’s,” Montgomery said. “But knowing what I know now, seeing people’s energy at the start line – which might be more indicative than anything else – I could probably pick the top four teams, season over season, within about 68% to 75% accuracy.” That’s very impressive, considering there have been between nine and 12 teams on THE AMAZING RACE CANADA, settling on 10 teams per season since Season 4. But after having narrowed it down to a top four, how has Montgomery fared at identifying the actual champions? “I’d say that I’d be able to pick the winners, out of those top four, with about 33% accuracy,” he said. “So that means a one-in-three chance of getting it right from those final four teams, but as I said earlier, my percentage would be considerably higher for identifying those four teams. And that’s just based on seeing how people react to each other.” Asked to elaborate, Montgomery came up with a catchy phrase that pretty much summarizes what it takes to be successful on THE AMAZING RACE CANADA. “It’s about your ability to ‘fight nice,’ ” Montgomery said. “Being able to ‘fight nice’ is probably the greatest skill set, the determining skill set, on a victorious team. Because you will fight. You will have disagreements. You will face adversity. You have to get over that really quickly, and recongeal as a team, and move forward with some unified purpose. So the teams that most closely adhere to that sort of value, or that trait, those are the ones that I’m banking on.” The term ‘fight nice’ should be printed up on THE AMAZING RACE CANADA T-shirts. “It should,” Montgomery agreed. “You can’t bring up stuff from two fights ago in whatever the present battle is. That’s cheap-shot stuff, that’s gone. You have to ‘fight nice’ and move on. Don’t take it to heart. It could be marriage advice, too.” Which team of “nice fighters” crosses the finish line first in Season 8 remains to be seen, but Montgomery is simply happy to be back at it, after the pandemic wiped out the possibilities of new seasons in 2020 and 2021. “It was one of the tougher parts of the pandemic for me, nevermind everything else, but not being able to hang out with my team, and make this wonderful program for Canadians each summer, that was a real bummer,” Montgomery said. “Because for all intents and purposes, this is my crew, this is my team. These are the people that I get to reunite with every 12 months to do something that I’m very fond of.” Montgomery, of course, won an Olympic gold medal in the men’s skeleton event at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and his celebratory march through Whistler Village – when he was handed a pitcher of beer by an excited fan and took a massive swig – became the stuff of legend. But Montgomery has been a TV host for a long time now, so when people recognize him today, is it still for the Olympics, or rather for his hosting duties on THE AMAZING RACE CANADA? “It depends on how old you are,” Montgomery said. “I think if you were born after the year 2000, chances are you’ll probably know me more for THE AMAZING RACE CANADA. But if you have a birthday predating the year 2000, you might have a vague recollection of some ginger dude with a beer after tobogganing. But whether I’m the guy from THE AMAZING RACE CANADA, or the dude who drank the beer, I’ll proudly hang on to both of those monikers, I’ll tell you that.” billharristv@gmail.com