BYUtv's Award-Winning Reality Series "Relative Race" Returns For 4th Season Of Competition And Finding Family Connections

New fall season features diverse lineup of teams who travel across the U.S. to find unknown relatives, debuts Sept. 16th

PROVO, Utah, Sept. 14, 2018 -- Season four of the first genealogy-based competitive reality series, "Relative Race," will air on BYUtv beginning Sunday, Sept. 16 at 9 p.m. ET/7 p.m. MT, marking the show's first fall premiere. "Relative Race" follows four teams on a 10-day journey throughout the United States as they complete challenges, discover unknown relatives identified through DNA testing and compete for a $50,000 grand prize. This original, unscripted series continues to take viewers along for the ride as the duos test their emotional, mental and physical endurance while learning more about their heritage and growing closer to their families.

"'Relative Race' is so popular because it's not only fun to watch, it taps the innate human desire to bond with family when viewers see the contestants meet close biological relatives for the first time," said Michael Dunn, managing director of BYUtv. "Typically a new season airs each spring, but due to the show's ardent fans of all ages across the country, we have made the decision to present a second cycle of the series this year. The fourth season, airing this fall, and sponsored by our new partner, Adoption.com, features a number of inspiring stories and unknown relative encounters that have to be seen to be believed. This season brings back the excitement and emotion families always feel as they watch the show together."

The diverse lineup includes Team Red, an energetic father-daughter duo, Michael Brown and Austen Williams from Charleston, South Carolina.; Team Black, fun-loving millennial siblings Joe and Jerica Henline from Cincinnati, Ohio; Team Green, a competitive husband-wife twosome, Paris and Preshious Anderson from Akron, Ohio; and Team Blue, an adventurous married couple, Joshua and Tiffany Lewis from Van Nuys, California. Michael, Preshious and Josh are all searching for biological parents and hoping for answers about their roots. The Henlines are excited to expand their family connections and discover new information about their lineage.

Armed with only paper maps, a loaner car and a flip phone with a camera, each day the teams receive instructions via text message to navigate to a designated city and complete a challenge that leads them to their previously unknown relatives. The last team to finish each day receives a strike, and after three strikes, a team is eliminated. Season four of "Relative Race" begins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at Wake Forest University, which is the hub of the four teams' journeys.

For the fourth consecutive year, BYUtv teamed up with Utah-based veteran reality TV and documentary production company, Lenzworks, to create the race and challenges. The show is hosted by Dan J. Debenham, Lenzworks' principal, executive producer and former ESPN executive producer, who has been working in the television and production industry for 30 years.

Co-winner of the 2016 Cynopsis Media Best New Competition Reality Series award, the fourth season of "Relative Race" will air 10 episodes. In addition to "Relative Race," BYUtv's original programming slate includes the long-running sketch comedy series "Studio C," which touts over 1 billion views on YouTube, "Random Acts," an unscripted hidden-camera reality show that highlights the altruistic nature of human beings by featuring real people who are the recipients of random acts of kindness and "Best Cake Wins," a fun and family-friendly baking competition series designed to make a child's most desired birthday cake a reality. BYUtv is available in every state of the country via cable, satellite and multiple digital media platforms.

For a complete listing of BYUtv's programming visit www.byutv.org.

About BYUtv

BYUtv provides families more than 1,700 hours of entertaining and compelling programming they can enjoy together. The network's content is trusted, contemporary and clean, yet clever and sophisticated enough to inspire children and parents alike. BYUtv's diverse portfolio of original, co-produced and acquired content includes scripted and unscripted dramas and comedies, 700+ hours of live HD collegiate sports, game shows, and holiday special made-for-tv movies, docudramas and concerts. BYUtv is available in 50 million homes in every state of the country on DISH Network, DirecTV and 146 other major cable systems. A digital pioneer, BYUtv was the first U.S. television network to stream all of its content live and unencrypted over the Internet. Today, BYUtv has over 1 million YouTube subscribers and 1 billion views and is available live and on-demand on multiple digital platforms free of charge, including Apple TV, YouTube, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast, Xbox One, Windows Media, digital apps for iOS and Android and BYUtv.org. Based in Provo, Utah, BYUtv is part of BYU Broadcasting, which is owned by Brigham Young University.