The Amazing Race Canada featured Saint John in Tuesday night’s episode - the same day students at a local university were competing in a race of their own.

In the 10th episode of the season, The Amazing Race Canada brought the popular reality TV show to the Port City.

“This is so much fun to be one of the stops on the Amazing Race Canada, it’s a thrill for Saint John,” says Victoria Clarke, with Discover Saint John. “We found out about it earlier in the year and notified the city so we could have some places cleaned up and ready for when they started to showcase the city.”

Some of the iconic sites and businesses from around the southern region were destination points for the competitors.

“To me there's two sides of it, anybody who is homesick for Saint John is going to see this and see all of their favourite places,” says Clarke. “We get to see all our favourite places and the inside of a few really interesting businesses here in Saint John that are iconic and then it's also a quick glimpse of this city for people across the country. This is CTV's number one show.”

Tuesday also marked the first day of Orientation Week at UNBSJ and dozens of university students spent the afternoon racing through campus as part of the school’s version of The Amazing Race.

“It's a way for the students to get involved seeing where everything is on campus, at the same time as having fun and racing against each other and there is a prize at the end,” says Ben Manzer, vice-president of Student Affairs.

While the students may not have had millions of people watching them compete, they were still happy to be racing on the same day as the one airing on TV.

“It's good, kind of gets everyone pumped for the episode tonight,” says student Emma Green.

“I’ve just been waiting for the episode to be here tonight so it's going to be great,” says student Mitchell Golding.

While the students are just beginning the first leg of Orientation Week, they say their version of The Amazing Race is an exciting way to start the year.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Ashley Blackford