The Amazing Race (American TV series)
The Amazing Race is an American reality competition show in which teams of two race around the world (except the Family edition which featured 10 teams of four and was contested entirely within North and Central America). Each season is split into legs, with each leg requiring teams to deduce clues, navigate themselves in foreign areas, interact with locals, perform physical and mental challenges, and travel by airplane, boat, taxi, and other public transportation options on a limited budget provided by the show. Teams are progressively eliminated at the end of most legs, while the first team to arrive at the end of the final leg wins the grand prize of US$1 million. As the original version of the Amazing Race franchise, the CBS program has been running since September 5, 2001. Numerous international versions have been developed following the same core structure, while the American version is also broadcast to several other countries.
For the recently concluded season, see The Amazing Race 36.The Amazing Race
- Lee Sanders
- Christopher Franke
- Vaughn Johnson
- Devin Powers
- Thomas Morse
- John M. Keane
- Nate Fenwick Smith
- Stu Goldberg
- Jason Greenberg
- Eric Hester
United States
English
36
418 (list of episodes)
- Jerry Bruckheimer
- Bertram van Munster
- Jonathan Littman
- Elise Doganieri
- Mark Vertullo
See below
43-86 minutes
- Jerry Bruckheimer Television
- Earthview, inc.
- Worldrace Productions
- Amazing Race Productions
- CBS Studios[note 1]
- ABC Signature[note 2]
September 5, 2001 –
present
The show was created by Elise Doganieri and Bertram van Munster, who, along with Jonathan Littman, serve as executive producers. The show is produced by Earthview Inc. (headed by Doganieri and van Munster), Jerry Bruckheimer Television for CBS Studios and ABC Signature (divisions of Paramount Global and The Walt Disney Company, respectively). The series has been hosted by veteran New Zealand television personality Phil Keoghan since its premiere.
Since the inception of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program in 2003, The Amazing Race has won ten out of nineteen times; the show has also won other awards and commendations. Although it has moved around several prime time slots, the program has averaged about 10 million viewers per season.[1]
In May 2024, the series was renewed for a thirty-seventh season set to air in mid-2025, continuing with 90-minute episodes.[2]
The Amazing Race is a reality television competition, typically involving eleven teams of two, in a race around the world. The race cycle is divided into a number of legs, normally twelve; each episode generally covers the events of one leg. Each leg ends with a Pit Stop, where teams are given a chance to rest and recover before starting the next leg twelve hours later. The first team to arrive at a Pit Stop is often awarded a prize such as a trip, while the last team is normally eliminated from the race. Some legs are non-elimination legs, where the last team to arrive may be penalized in the following leg. Some races have featured double-length legs, where the teams meet the host at what appears to be a Pit Stop, only to be told to continue to race. The final leg of each race is run by the last three remaining teams, and the first to arrive at the final destination wins the show's prize, US$1 million. The average length of each race is approximately 21 to 30 days.
During each leg, teams follow clues from Route Markers boxes containing clue envelopes marked in the race's red, yellow, and white colors to determine their next destination. Travel between destinations includes commercial and chartered airplanes, boats, trains, taxis, buses, and rented vehicles provided by the show, or the teams may simply travel by foot. Teams are required to pay for all expenses while traveling from a small stipend (on the order of $100) given to them at the start of each leg. Any money left unspent can be used in future legs of the race. The only exception is air travel, where teams are given a credit card to purchase economy-class fares. Some teams have resorted to begging to replenish their funds.[3]
Clues may directly identify locations, contain cryptic riddles such as "Travel to the westernmost point in continental Europe" that teams must figure out, or include physical elements, such as a country's flag, indicating their next destination. Clues may also describe a number of tasks that teams must complete before continuing to race. As such, teams are generally free and sometimes required to engage locals to help in any manner to decipher clues and complete tasks. Tasks are typically designed to highlight the local culture of the country they are in.[4] Such tasks include:
Teams are penalized for failing to complete these tasks as instructed or other rules of the race, generally thirty minutes plus any time gained for the infraction. Such penalties may be enforced while teams are racing when they arrive at the Pit Stop, or at the start of the next leg.
The events of the race are generally edited and shown in chronological order, cutting between the actions of each team as they progress. More recent seasons have been edited to show split-screen footage of simultaneous actions or two or more different teams in the style of 24.[5] Footage from the race is interspersed with commentary from the individual teams or members recorded after each leg to give more insight on the events being shown.[4] The show helps track racers' progress through a leg by providing frequent on-screen information identifying teams and their placement.[6]