That statement couldn’t be far from the truth as the two consecutive successful seasons of "The Amazing Race Asia" only showed its increased popularity as its millions of viewers even grew with the second season. And such feat inevitably gave birth to a third season which will soon premiere on AXN on Sept. 11, 9 p.m. (SG, MY, PH, TH), 10 p.m. (HK, IND) and 8 p.m. (Indo).

As in the past two seasons, vying for the grand prize of US0,000 are 10 teams (two persons per team) in their races of a lifetime. They come from Thailand, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines and Korea for the first time.

The chosen 10 teams are composed of Natalie Glebova, 26, Miss Universe 2005, Pailin Rungratanasunthorn, 25, Miss Earth Thailand 2006, Beauty Queens from Thailand; Sam Wu, University Lecturer, Vince Chung, Comedian & Host from Hong Kong; Neena Rai, model, artist and Amit Rai, real estate consultant from India; Niroo Asrani, actor and Kapil Asrani, HR executive, the father and son team from India; William Hong and Isaac Hong, brothers and sports agents from South Korea, Ida Nerina, actress-director-producer, Tania Khan, property developer, actress and heiress team from Malaysia; Henry Chan, chef, Bernie Chan, TV host and actress, brother and sister team from Malaysia, A.D. Chan, freelance writer, director, Faeza (Fuzzie) Sirajudin, teacher, from Singapore; Visa Sarasas (Mai), actress & model, Oliver Faivre, model and student, from Thailand and from the Philippines, Geoff Rodriguez, model, Tisha Silang, business development manager, former Bb. Pilipinas Universe title holder and ex-girlfriend of Paolo Bediones, host of "Survivor Philippines."

"The Amazing Race Asia 3" will have 11 challenging legs and at the end of each leg is a pit stop and one of which would be the elimination points. So how different is TARA 3?

In a sneak preview provided by AXN at Café Provencal in Shangri-La Plaza recently of the first episode of TARA 3, returning host Allan Wu explains it well when he told the 10 teams of TARA 3 that the race would be hard and would "challenge them in ways unimaginable."

In fact AXN has dubbed TARA 3 as "The Toughest Race Ever" The whole production was so taxing and tedious to mount that some crew members were hospitalized owing to high fatigue levels. Why? TARA 3 had shorter rest periods, a faster pace between challenges thrown to teams and they were pushed to race at a more intense speed!

For example, in the first leg, the 10 teams had to go to Thanon Khao San Road, known as a rice market, and one of the tourist attractions in Bangkok. Unfortunately, the 10 teams were not to eat rice in their first challenge. Rather they had to devour a big bowl of one of Bangkok’s delicacies – fried maggots, assorted frogs and scorpions before they would be given their next clue.

In as much as it would be exciting to Asian viewers, munching on fried maggots and scorpions wasn’t appealing to the contestants’ stomachs as they would be seen chewing, swallowing and later on throwing up.

As the team of beauty queens stressed during the said challenge, "Who says beauty queens can’t eat bugs?"

The next challenge was to wash vehicles (they didn’t know they were busses) in a Caltex Station. And like in the past two seasons, the vital ingredient to arriving first would be their respective taxi rides. As expected, the teams had a hard time explaining to their taxi driver where they wanted to go. Thus, lost in translation meant time wasted on the road!

Once in the Caltex station, the manager would be the judge if the teams cleaned their busses well before giving their next clue. Then there would be three busses to take them to the next challenge. The first bus to leave would contain the first three teams to finish cleaning their busses, then the second and then the last bus.

A complaining Geoff Rodriguez from the Philippines, said to his girlfriend Tisha as he climbs a step ladder to wash their bus, "Hold my hand. I’m scared of heights."

Then they were off to Wat Phai Rong Wua and then Chang Mai bus station. There would be two detours to choose from in this leg – an off-road buggy race or pounding of rice into paste to make small rice balls!

After accomplishing either the off-road buggy race or the rice pounding, the teams would be off to Ratchaphruek Garden World. The first team to arrive would be awarded a total of 00.00 (00.00 each) credit card from Standard Chartered Bank which the winning team could spend after the race.

So as not to spoil the fun, for the winner of the first leg and the eliminated team, viewers have to watch the whole first episode on Sept. 11.

Judging from a sneak preview of TARA 3’s first episode, the latest season would definitely live up to the name of being a race of a lifetime. To be expected would be challenges or races that would push to boundaries relationships, a showcase of the respective teams’ brilliant minds, their physical prowess and even their emotional stamina.

As the saying goes,"When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!" And the toughest team would bring home the US$ 100,000.00!

So is the Philippine Team of Geoff and Tisha tough enough to make-up for the first and second seasons’ lost?

Geoff said they know that he and Tisha have "huge shoes to fill after the stint that Marc and Rovilson pulled off!"