Josh Kilmer-Purcell is an American writer, businessperson, and television personality. In addition to his New York Times and National Bestselling memoirs, his life has been documented in the television reality show The Fabulous Beekman Boys with his husband, Brent Ridge. He has written articles for NPR, Huffington Post, Publishers Weekly, AdWeek, OUT Magazine & others. The pair also participated in the 21st season of The Amazing Race, ultimately becoming the season's grand prize winners.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell at the 2011 Texas Book Festival.
The Amazing Race 21 is the twenty-first season of the American reality competition show The Amazing Race. Hosted by Phil Keoghan, it featured eleven teams of two, each with a pre-existing relationship, competing in a race around the world. This season visited three continents and nine countries and traveled over 25,000 miles (40,000 km). Starting in Pasadena, California, racers traveled through China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Russia, the Netherlands, Spain, and France before finishing in New York City. New twists introduced in this season include the Blind Double U-Turn and the Double Your Money prize. While the prize for winning the season remained at US$1 million, if the team that came in first in the first leg had also won the final leg, the prize would have been doubled to US$2 million. The season premiered on CBS on September 30, 2012, and the two-hour season finale aired on December 9, 2012.
The starting line for The Amazing Race 21 was atop the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, California.
The first Pit Stop of The Amazing Race 21 was at the Bund Signal Tower in Shanghai.
Once in Surabaya, teams headed to Madura Island and rode motorcycles alongside bulls from a traditional Indonesian bull race called karapan sapi.
For one of the Detour choices in Bangil, teams performed Javanese reog dance, parading through the streets while wearing giant traditional masks.