The 35th season of The Amazing Race kicked off at the end of September and it brought back commercial travel, the coveted “Express Pass” as well as non-elimination legs. We also were introduced to 13 couples at the iconic Hollywood sign in Los Angeles who are all vying for the $1 million prize — this included engaged couple Joe Moskowitz and Ian Todd.
As of episode three, the couple is still in the game. Todd, 35 and Head of Business Development for a Commercial Real Estate Tech Platform, had a gym crush on Moskowitz, 40, Director of New Business for a Marketing Tech Start-U. It soon turned into a coffee date and then later an engagement.
“I invited some of our closest friends to join us on the trip and then halfway through the trip, I proposed to Joe,” Todd told GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos in a recent interview. “It was a pretty magical moment.We actually did it in Thailand, which was fun because I was the first leg of the race.”
Being on The Amazing Race has helped them realize that maybe they don’t really know everything about each other. “It’s fun to watch back,” admitted Todd. “We left for The Amazing Race thinking that we knew everything about each other and we quickly realized that being put in some of these situations that are very high stress… there’s some things about each other that maybe we didn’t know.”
Moskowitz also admitted that there were some areas of relationship that could use a little work — specifically communication. “One of us is a communicator and one of us isn’t,” Todd chimed in.
“We knew right from the start that it was gonna be sort of our Achilles Heel and that maybe we needed to focus on that,” said Moskowitz.
In the first episode, the contestants jetted from Los Angeles to Thailand where we began to see communication speed bumps between the couple as they decided to do the traditional Thai sword dance and gather pomelos from a river in a small boat.
In the most recent episode, The Amazing Race lands in Vietnam and complete a challenge of shopping in the Mekong Delta’s floating markets — and it is stressful right from the get go.
“It was going from one beautifully chaotic place to another beautifully, more chaotic place,” said Moskowitz. “So it’s a lot of craziness going on…we have to constantly stay grounded and focused.
Todd added, “We started off the leg really, really strong. We were coming off of seventh place…[but] I dropped the ball in a pretty significant way.” Unfortunately, after completing the shopping task, they forgot to pick up the clue which caused a huge setback for them.
“I’m my own worst critic, so I was pretty hard on myself leaving that,” said Todd. “Thankfully I’ve got this one here who’s always [there] to get me together.”
Todd and Moskowitz are part of a legacy of LGBTQ representation that has appeared on The Amazing Race and for them, it is an honor to continue that legacy of inclusivity.
“It’s an absolute honor to represent the community and do our best and represent them,” said Moskowitz.
“The gays love to travel and we want to do the gays proud when it comes to representing them on the show,” added Todd. “Hopefully we do that.”
The Amazing Race airs Wednesdays at 9:30pm on CBS and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)