 |
|
|
|
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Even though Dustin Dumas, 33, is competing on 'No Boundaries,' a reality television show, she says she is almost completely unfamiliar with the genre. She adds that she would've taken part in the journey 'whether they would have filmed it or not.'
Sunnyvale resident knows the reality of 'No Boundaries'
By William Jeske
Dustin Dumas isn't familiar with a television show called "Futurama."
Actually, this 33-year-old from Chicago hardly ever watches television. She has been too busy with athletic activities and academic projects from as early as the fourth grade. These distractions from television would be one less obstacle in her academic career that saw her attend the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and earn her M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dumas's academic credentials opened several opportunities to live and work abroad, particularly in Europe, where she lived for two years.
Upon returning to the States in 1999, she chose to settle in Silicon Valley.
"I would feel lazy if I didn't work out a couple times a week," Dumas said. "As opposed to Chicago, [here] you can pretty much work out all year long. This area is just more conducive toward wanting to work out. For me, it's perfect. It's the weather and also other people who're willing to do stuff like mountain biking."
There's also the growth potential for her new investment consulting start-up company, ForeSight Consulting.
Dumas' five-month-old company has kept her too busy to pay attention to television. But on March 3, nothing could have kept her from tuning in to watch the pilot episode of the WB network's new reality show, No Boundaries.
Why is that? She's in it.
"I just wanted to have a few friends over," Dumas said, but her fiancé had apparently made some calls. "And before I knew it there were over 20 people in the clubhouse at my apartment complex, where there's a big-screen TV. It was embarrassing for me because, you know, I wasn't on it to be famous or anything ... but I didn't want anybody to make a big thing out of this."
The 15 competitors from the newest reality survivor show spent the day sailing toward their goal of the Arctic Circle. Dustin Dumas, 33, owner of ForeSight Consulting, recently spent 30 days with 14 other contestants in the reality television show 'No Boundaries,' traveling 2000 miles from Vancouver, B.C., to the Arctic Circle. Dumas, who's engaged to be married this year, was selected from 7,500 applicants to compete for the grand prize of $100,000 and a new SUV.
Photograph courtesy of the WB/Rosamond Norbury
The premise of No Boundaries is that 15 diverse contestants, ranging in age from 19 to 53, make an exotic trek starting on Vancouver Island and ultimately ending up at the Arctic Circle. Every two days the contestants designate a leader who will decide the group's strategy for getting to the next checkpoint. The twist to this elimination show is that instead of the majority of the group voting off a weakest link, the designated leader simply chooses one person to be let go.
The grand prize is $100,000 and a Ford Explorer Sport Trac.
Obviously, Dumas can't say whether she won or even if she was elected leader since she signed a non-disclosure contract forbidding her from sharing details of the show.
Dumas said she first found out about the show early in 2001, when she saw part of a commercial.
"[It was] just somebody rafting or kayaking next to a whale and I'm like, 'Oh, that looks interesting,'" she said.
Dumas accessed the commercial's website soon after.
"I looked at the information and it was all based on, like, activities and athletic abilities," she said. "Not whether or not you could eat cow brains within five minutes, so that intrigued me. So that's why I applied."
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Dustin Dumas
Dumas made a three-minute videotape profiling herself and sent it in, hoping she'd be selected from out of what she says were at least 7,500 other applicants. When she was ultimately called in for an interview, she suspected the producers were drawn not so much by her athletic abilities, but by her unfamiliarity with other reality shows.
"The last reality show I saw was in 1990 when The Real World [MTV] came out," Dumas said. "I don't have time, really, to watch those shows. From what I had heard, they were based on trying to do the ridiculous rather than the challenging. You know, like, 'Let's eat a bug,' and that just didn't pique my curiosity."
Dumas claims that it didn't matter to her that this expedition would be conducted as an elimination-type competition.
"I would have done it whether they filmed it or not. I had always wanted to go on an Outward Bound expedition, and I was, like, 'This is great! You mean, all I have to do is apply and possibly be selected? I'd get to do all this stuff for free? Count me in!'" she said.
Filming began in July 2001 and Dumas said she had no communication with anyone from home the next six to seven weeks.
No Boundaries could have begun airing in September as part of the WB's normal fall season lineup, but the Sept. 11 tragedy prompted network executives to reevaluate show priorities. Dumas said that producers were in constant contact with the 15 contestants to keep them aware of when the show was to air. She has had to wait a little less than a year to even speak about the show, and now must wait another 12 weeks for the hour-long show to complete its weekly installments.
Somewhere along the line, it will be clear whether she fully rose to the challenge.
'No Boundaries' airs Sundays at 7 p.m. on WB affiliate KBWB-TV Channel 20. Biographies and progress reports of the contestants can be accessed at www.noboundariestv.com.
|
|
|
|
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
