Ernie & Cindy

Ernest "Ernie" Halvorsen and Cindy Chiang are an Engaged team and the Official Winners of The Amazing Race 19.

The couple came into the race after undergoing extensive preparation and training, which immediately paid off as they found themselves racing in the lead more often than racing to avoid coming in last. Despite their differing approaches to the race, with Ernie being more laidback and relaxed and Cindy being more meticulous and a perfectionist, the two worked well together, earning a spot in the final three. They ran an intelligent final leg, often utilizing their taxi driver's phone to their advantage, allowing them to catch up with and eventually pass Jeremy & Sandy on their way to victory.

Profile[]

Retrieved from CBS.com^[1]

Ernie[]

Age: 29
Hometown: Chicago
Connection to your teammate: Engaged
Current occupation: Project Manager
Describe what you do: I project manage new printing press installations for commercial and sheetfed printers in North America. I bring the sold contract to life by integrating project team members from design, manufacturing and installation, all while being the single point of contact for my customer.
How will these skills help you win The Race? I frequently delegate tasks and have the ability to optimize work by utilizing a person's skill sets. The majority of my job is dealing with time-critical, problem-solving tasks that require urgent responses and decisions.
Three words to describe you: Loyal, comical and energetic.
Favorite hobbies: Traveling, no glove 16" softball, graphic design and origami.
What famous person reminds you of yourself? Ty Pennington
What famous person reminds you of your teammate? Lucy Liu
What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? I moved to Germany by myself and lived for a year without ever traveling outside of the U.S. prior and without having any knowledge of the local language. I even joined a German baseball team and made some lifelong friendships.
What scares you most about traveling? Lawless regions where foreigners are not highly regarded.
What excites you most about traveling? Interacting with people and cultures different from my own. Also, getting to experience different sights, smells and tastes that you cannot reproduce outside of the specific country.
Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: I have a roundabout way of explaining my point and my direction can be vague.
Pet peeve about your teammate: Planning – Cindy loves to plan every aspect of our lives and sometimes it can be overwhelming.
What country and place would you most like to visit and why? DPRK/North Korea because so much is unknown about it. I've seen videos of the LAS5 AriRang, which is a great gymnastics and performance display by more than 100,000 North Koreans. I feel this would be an incredible culture shock that I want to see and understand.
What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other then winning one million bucks)? I want to share this once in a lifetime experience of The Race with my fiancé. If we do win, we will have a nice footing to start our social business venture that will be intertwined with the needs that we see around the world.

Cindy[]

Age: 30
Hometown: Chicago
Connection to your teammate: Engaged
Current occupation: Brand Manager
Describe what you do: I lead a cross-functional brand team. This includes everything from brand strategy, new products, team development, financial management to sales and marketing.
How will these skills help you win The Race? Through my corporate job, I have been faced with challenging adversity, taking calculated risks and making quick informed decisions. My job is also highly competitive and you must have a strong desire to win with solid performance. All of these skills are vital to winning The Race and I'm confident I can bring it to win it.
Three words to describe you: Determined, dedicated and passionate.
Favorite hobbies: Exercising, cooking, and planning. I like to plan anything and everything.
What famous person reminds you of yourself? I'm told that I'm a replica of Lucy Liu, but I would like to be similar to Lauren Conrad from "The Hills." She is very entrepreneurial, highly accomplished, likeable and friendly.
What famous person reminds you of your teammate? Zach Morris from "Saved By The Bell." Ernie loves to be the center of the action and he's a big jokester.
What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? I was crowned Homecoming Queen at my undergraduate university.
What scares you most about traveling? Lack of control – I'm gluten-free and it can often be a challenge to find suitable foods in new locations, especially places where there's a language barrier.
What excites you most about traveling? I love meeting local people and understanding more about their culture and daily rituals. I find it fascinating that we are all humans, but have very different ways of living a happy life.
Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: Ernie needs to be more direct with me. He is so easy going that he goes along with what I want, but I don't know if that's really what he wants.
Pet peeve about your teammate: He's a really happy-go-lucky person with a positive attitude and outlook on life, but for some crazy reason he always gives me some round-about answer to any of my questions.
What country and place would you most like to visit and why? India! I love the rich culture and history of India. I would love to see the Taj Mahal, explore the 'triangle' and see the white sandy beaches of Goa.
What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other then winning one million bucks)? I hope we will learn a lot about each other through this process. Our goal is to become entrepreneurs together and The Race will give us a solid opportunity to test our working relationship and see if we can actually work together.

The Amazing Race 19[]

Race History[]

Ernie & Cindy's Race History
Episode	Leg	Destination(s)	Detour Choice (underlined)	Roadblock Performer	Placement	Notes
1	1	United States → Taiwan	No Detour	Cindy	1 of 11
2	2	Taiwan → Indonesia	Shake Your Money Maker / Be a Ticket Taker	Cindy	4 of 11	^[1]
3	3	Indonesia	Rice Field / Grass Fed	Ernie	5 of 9
4	4	Indonesia → Thailand	Coral Reconstruction / Beach Preparation	Ernie	5 of 8
5	5	Thailand	No Detour	Cindy	3 of 8	^[2]
5	5	Thailand	No Detour	Ernie	3 of 8	^[2]
6	6	Thailand → Malawi	All Sewn Up / Not Grown Up	Ernie	5 of 7
7	7	Malawi	Dugout / Lugout	Cindy	2 of 7ϵ	^[3]
8	8	Malawi → Denmark	All Hopped Up / All Churned Out	Ernie	1 of 6⊂
9	9	Denmark → Germany → Belgium	Bodybuilding Posedown / Unknown	Cindy	2 of 5	^[4]
10	10	Belgium	Water / Waffle	Ernie	3 of 5
11	11	Belgium → Netherlands → Panama	Filet / Sole	Cindy	2 of 4
12	12	Panama → United States	No Detour	Ernie	1 of 3
				Average	2.83
Legend: The team finished in first place The team finished in last place and was eliminated from the race The team finished in last place in a non-elimination leg The team that won The Amazing Race The team that crossed the Finish Line second The team that crossed the Finish Line third ϵ The team used the Express Pass somewhere during the leg ⊂ The team used the U-Turn ⊃ Recipient of the U-Turn ⋐ The team that used the second slot of the "Double U-Turn" ⋑ Recipient of a second U-Turn due to the "Double U-Turn" twist H This team was penalized with a "Hazard"
Notes: 1: Ernie & Cindy initially arrived 1st, but were forced to return to the 'Aisyiyah Orphanage, as they failed to donate all of their money to the orphanage, before they could check in. This dropped them to 4th place. 2: Leg 5 had two Roadblocks and no Detour. The team member who sat out the first Roadblock was required to perform the second one. 3: Ernie & Cindy used the Express Pass to bypass the Dugout Detour in Leg 7. 4: Leg 9 contained a Detour, however since all teams chose the same task, it was edited to be a miscellaneous task on air. It is unknown what the other side of the Detour was.

Post-Race[]

Ernie & Cindy got married on March 10, 2012.^[2] Fellow contestants Amani & Marcus, Jeremy & Sandy, Justin & Jennifer, Kaylani & Lisa, Laurence & Zac, Liz & Marie, and Ron & Bill were among the wedding guests.^[3]
They traveled to Fiji for their honeymoon, on a trip they won on the eighth leg of the race.

Ernie Cindy Family — Ernie & Cindy with their sons

Ernie & Cindy's first child, Maverick Zhang Halvorsen, was born on October 22, 2014.^[4] Their second child, Ernest Zhang Halvorsen, was born on July 19, 2016.^[5] Their third child, August, was born in January 2021.
Ernie & Cindy appeared in the season finale of The Amazing Race 29, giving out clues to teams at the Wrigley Rooftops in their hometown of Chicago.

Trivia[]

Ernie & Cindy are the first team to use the Express Pass and ultimately go on to win the race.
One of 56 teams to never check in last at a Pit Stop and the Finish Line in their career.

External links[]

Ernie & Cindy's Website: ernie-cindy.com

Interviews[]

Joyce Eng at TV Guide Online (12/12/2011): "We Made No Mistakes in the Final"
Dahvi Shira at People.com (12/12/2011): "We Feel Elated and Relieved"
Drusilla Moorhouse at E! Online (12/12/2011): "The Amazing Race Winners Talk Cabbie Controversy and What They Plan to Do With All That Money"
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski at Reality TV World (12/12/2011): "Exclusive - Ernie Halvorsen and Cindy Chiang talk The Amazing Race"
Digital Spy (12/12/2011): "We did everything right this leg"
Gina Scarpa at Reality Wanted (12/13/2011): "Exclusive Interview with Winners Ernie Halvorsen and Cindy Chiang"
Daniel Fienberg at HitFix.com (12/14/2011): "This season's champs discuss their winning run and plans for the million"
Reg Seeton at The Deadbolt (December 2011): "The Amazing Race Victory with Ernie and Cindy"
Rob Cesternino at RHAP (10/15/2012): "Inside the Amazing Race with Season 19 Winners Ernie & Cindy"