Monday, February 23, 2015
If you watch
What: “The Amazing Race”
Where: CBS
When: Wednesday, 9:30 p.m.
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
A Niles native will be one of the contestants on “The Amazing Race” when the new season premieres Wednesday (9:30 p.m., CBS).
Hayley Keel, 28, a 2004 graduate of Niles McKinley High School, is one of the 22 competitors on the CBS show.
The upcoming season — the show’s 26th — has a new and unique twist. Five of the contestants, including Keel, will be partnered with another single that they have just met. It’s a mixture of a blind date with a globe-trotting endurance run as the teams vie for the $1 million prize.
Keel will be matched with Blair Townsend, a 31-year-old physician from Amelia Island, Fla.
It’s a fitting partnership, because both are in the medical profession and both live in Florida. Keel is a nurse in a hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., where she has lived for about a year.
“The Amazing Race” sends all of the teams on a series of physically and mentally challenging contests. The teams compete to finish each challenge and cross the finish line.
In a phone interview from her Florida home, Keel said the “blind date” twist came as a surprise to her.
“I didn’t know about the singles theme when I went to an open audition,” she said. “I was pretty excited when they told me about it. It’s something new and different, and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
She is not permitted to discuss the outcome of the season, which was filmed in November and December.
Keel — whose father, Fred Woak, is WNCD-FM (The Wolf) broadcast personality Fast Freddie — has long been a fan of “The Amazing Race.” The show’s physical and competitive aspects appeal to her.
“I always thought it would be awesome to be on the show,” said Keel, who likes to take advantage of the Florida weather to stay active and outdoors. “It’s about real people, and I love anything physical.”
Keel was never involved in theater or acting, but she was a member of the speech team at McKinley High.
She attended the University of Toledo, and later graduated from Mercy College of Ohio in 2011 with a nursing degree.
Before moving to Florida, she worked at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo.