Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive show news, updates, and more!
Race to Survive Creator Breaks Down Final Three's Greatest Strengths: Who Will Win?
Creighton Baird & Paulina Peña, Ethan Greenberg & Tyrie Mann Merrill, and Nik Milutinovic & Kennedy Taylor hit the final stretch.
After having spent every moment together for weeks on end in the New Zealand wilderness, the Race to Survive: New Zealand teams were separated ahead of the finale episode. How would the six finalists fare without their partners?
Pretty well, it turns out! All six racers — Creighton Baird & Paulina Peña, Ethan Greenberg & Tyrie Mann Merrill, and Nik Milutinovic & Kennedy Taylor — proved their individual mettle leading into the final episode.
RELATED: Oliver and Corry Explain the Shocking End to Their Race to Survive: "A Cloud Over Our Heads"
"There’s plenty of race shows out there, and there’s plenty of survival shows out there. The point of this show is to bring those two elements together in a format [where they have] equal weight," series creator and executive producer Jeff Conroy explained. "I don’t believe that equal weight was going to truly play out until the season progressed."
Throughout this season of Race to Survive, some teams were fast and some teams knew how to live off the land — but the three final teams are the ones who've truly found that balance. Ahead of the season finale crowning a winner, USA Insider spoke with Conroy about the finalists and their intense, often harrowing journey. What makes a Race to Survive competitor not just a survivor but a winner?
Nik & Kennedy: Tough as Nails
"It’s pretty exciting to see a team like Nik and Kennedy in the finals when, really, they’re not fast. But they are tough, you know? And they proved it to themselves and to all of us early on by not eating for nine days. You’re like, 'Whoa!'" Conroy said of the Canadian roughnecks whose coworker bond has grown into healthy mutual respect and friendship throughout the season.
That initial desperation for calories on Nik and Kennedy's part, though, "built them stronger," Conroy explained. "That gave them that confidence, like, 'Oh, we can do this.'"
RELATED: Race to Survive "Wilderness Wives" Rhandi & Ashley Embrace "Reckless Optimism"
He admitted to being pleasantly surprised by their growth.
"Looking at Kennedy and Nik's transformation ... you look at them in Episode 1 and they’re paddling in circles in a canoe. Literally paddling in circles ... if you’re looking at that, you’re going, 'These two are gonna not make it to the other side of the lake,' right? But then they’re in the finale, and they’re not paddling in circles — physically or metaphorically speaking. They’re a team, and they’ve gone from Nik as being, like, kind of the alpha in charge to Kennedy taking the charge. It is a fascinating transformation."
It's likely for many viewers, watching Kennedy (with some assistance from her partner) bodily tackle a sheep and slit its throat was something of a culmination: the feat required speed, strength, and just the right amount of desperation.
In short: don't screw with Kennedy and Nik.
Paulina & Creighton: Mountaineers Through and Through
Meanwhile, Conroy explained that Paulina and Creighton are "strong across the board."
"They’re a strong team," he mused. "They can handle ropes very well, they have tons of mountaineering experience, and they have pretty strong survival experience, truthfully."
And it wasn't just their skills that impressed Conroy, but the pairs' ability to overcome the potentially constraining aspects of their relationship as a divorced couple.
RELATED: Paulina & Creighton Know You're Watching for the Divorce Drama on Race to Survive
"In the beginning [they] were snipey exes not able to quite decide their strategy and what they were doing and by the end, they’re adventure exes for life," he said. "They got [to] a place that was really personally satisfying to me to see them get to this understanding, and to see how really great they were able to work together and support each other was like, 'Wow, OK!'
"That’s better than a lot of therapy. Just stick them in the woods and starve them and make them race, right? It’s a new technique that I’m exploring as my second career," he joked.
Ethan & Tyrie: "Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable"
Last but not least, Conroy explained that Ethan and Tyrie's No. 1 strength was being "a team that’s very comfortable with being uncomfortable and being hungry and being tired and working 24 hours a day."
The pair's background as smokejumpers — elite firefighters who roll up on blazes in the most remote locales in the U.S. — has served them well throughout the season.
RELATED: Race to Survive's Ryan and Bronsen Are Still "In Denial" About Their Early Exit
"They are not the type to necessarily have trained for this, but their job as smokejumpers and as people who live in the wild and do often supplement their food by eating off the land ... this is a very comfortable place [for them]," Conroy said.
Outside the physical, though, Conroy was also impressed with their emotional growth.
"Those guys came into the race as closed off — heads down, work hard, don’t show any emotion, and by the end, they were being very honest with themselves, and with us," he explained. "And that level of vulnerability, I think, made them stronger competitors. They were able to reveal [things] to each other and be open. Obviously, we see it on camera, but that openness, I think, translated to their relationship as a team and they had that ability to communicate without [verbally] communicating sometimes and it was really impressive."
The Roughnecks, the Exes, or the Smokejumpers?
These very different teams are all set to race to the finish line in the Season 2 finale of Race to Survive. For his part, Conroy was thrilled to see three different teams in the finale with three totally different skillsets.
"It worked out in a way that gave us three different approaches to the race, but [their strengths] all kinda come down to that ability to survive," he said. "Whether it's survive the physical nature of the race, or be able to feed yourself, but all that came down to survival, really. Toughness. Toughness is the thing, right? Like, at the end of the day, there’re some very, very tough teams that had to tap out."
And now, we'll see who makes it to the end!
The Race to Survive: New Zealand season finale airs on Monday, July 22, at 11 p.m. ET.
