If you aren’t watching Relative Race – you are seriously missing out!

Relative Race is a reality tv genealogy extravaganza chock full of all the feels.

All.  The.  Feels.

Seriously, if you aren’t watching this season, do yourself a favor and watch it.  The first season was fine – not my favorite, but my kids liked it and it’s definitely family friendly so we watched it together.

But this season – so, so, so, so good!

You can watch it from the beginning for free on the BYUtv app or you can watch it online for free at BYUtv.  Here is the link to the first episode.

The premise of the show is that these four couples had their DNA tested through Ancestry.com.  The producers used their DNA matches to plan out a family member for each team to meet each day.  They all started in Florida and each day they have to travel to a new city with the use of paper maps.  They have a burner phone that they can take pictures with.  They text a picture of themselves by the city sign to producers and then they are given a challenge.  Once they complete the challenge, they have a second challenge.  The challenges are often related to the interests of a relative that they will be meeting.  Once they complete the second challenge they are given an address that they have to find.  They arrive at their relative’s home, take a picture together and text it in to stop their clock.  Each day they have an allotted time to complete everything and arrive at their relative’s home.  The team that goes over their allotted time the most receives a strike.  Three strikes and the team goes home.  The show takes place over ten consecutive days.  The end goal is to arrive in the same city – I think it’s Boston this year.  Once they arrive they have some more competing to do to win the prize.

The amazing part comes when they meet this relative they had previously never met.  Sometimes they are distant cousins.  But sometimes, they are immediate family members.  The relative always has some sort of activity planned to allow their new family members to get to know them and their interests.  The team then spends the night with their new found relatives.

The show is very tastefully done, especially considering how personal some of these connections are.  It’s very family friendly.  And for those of you that might be wary of the fact that it is produced by BYUtv – have no fear, there is absolutely no religious angle to the show.  In fact, none of the team members seem to be LDS.

My husband, 15 year old son, and I have been watching it together.  We all love it so much.  Most episodes my husband ends up crying a few times – although, he cries at touchy feely commercials so that doesn’t really mean a lot.  😉  My husband is an acquaintance of the host.  They both attend an annual event.  Last night while we were watching an episode, my husband says to me, “I’m going to have to ask him how he plans to top this.  This has been an incredible season!”

It’s so true.  Give it a try, if you aren’t hooked with the first episode, skip to the episode from April 9th.  I promise, it’s worth it!

ps – This season ended last night.