History EliminationHoudini / TheAmazingrace

* Pamela & Vanessa [[OneSteveLimit no not]] [[Characters/TheAmazingRaceAsia2 that one]] spent their entire season living on borrowed time despite being the least prepared team for the race. First, they were saved by Crystal & Mykey having a health emergency. Next, Anton & Armand got a 24 hour penalty for calling someone outside the race. After that, it was a non-elimination leg. Their luck finally ran out when they missed the first bus, sending them home in 9th place.

** Leg 4: Even after getting detained by the police, they were still saved by Kym & Donna getting hopelessly loss in Dubai.

* Brendan & Jackson (5): They narrowly avoided elimination on the first leg, when they couldn't find a pair of tongs in the sugar cane searching challenge. They placed last on legs 11 and 17 on non elimination legs (receiving a salvage card both times) and narrowly avoided elimination on leg 16, but were saved by Holly & Dolor going the wrong way to find Chilly's 🐐 house.

** After Mo & Mos were gone, Matt & Tom slipped into the roll. First, on leg 6, Matt burned through all his arrows on the Roadblock, and only Jeff's charity kept him from having to take a four-hour penalty. They then came in last at the midpoint of the Super Leg, then were the last to check in ''again'' at the next Pit Stop, only to be saved by Chris & Anastasia's penalty.

* In Season 25, there was Amy & Maya. They finished near the back of the pack generally and were spared at the penultimate leg because of the Twist that four teams would be racing in the finale. They ended up winning the race.
** Also, Brook & Robbie. They admitted to their flaws(NoSenseOfDirection, GlobalIgnorance etc.) during leg 10.

* Lucy & Emilia (2) is probably the best example in the entire franchise about evading elimination until Leg 10. Despite being outmatched by pretty much every other team, they managed to make it to 5th place due to the following:

** Leg 4: Even after getting detained by the police, they were still saved by Kym & Donna getting helplessly loss in Dubai.

* Viv & Joey (4): Despite finishing second on 4 other legs, they also came close to elimination on 4 legs.
During these near elimination legs, they were ahead of the pack before struggling with the last task of the leg.

''The Amazing Race'', being a competition where you only have to beat one other team to the Pit Stop to survive, and bad luck can hit anyone at any time, has featured a large number of Elimination Houdinis.

* Viv & Joey (4): That same season, despite finishing second on 4 other legs, they also came close to elimination on 4 legs.

** On Leg 5, despite slowly making their way to the checkpoint (and Joey making a mistake with the compass), they were still in the competition due to Chris breaking his rib falling from a Camel.

* Brendan & Jackson (5): They narrowly avoided elimination on the first leg, when they couldn't find a pair of tongs in the sugar cane searching challenge. They placed last on legs 11 and 17 on non elimination legs and narrowly avoided elimination on leg 16, but were saved by Holly & Dolor going the wrong way to find Chilly's 🐐 house.

* Brendan & Jackson (5): They placed last on legs 11 and 17 on non elimination legs and narrowly avoided elimination on leg 16, but were saved by Holly & Dolor going the wrong way to find Chilly's 🐐 house.

* Stan & Wayne (4): Finished last twice in a row on legs 13 & 14 (largely due to getting lost) without being eliminated and even receiving a salvage.

** On Leg 9, Viv & Joey finished in last place despite U-Turning Tim/Rod due to taking a long time with making bricks (and the former. Fortunately for them, it was a non-elimination leg.

* That same season, despite finishing second on 4 other legs, they also came close to elimination on 4 legs.

* That same season, Viv & Joey have avoided elimination a handful of times, despite finishing behind Tom & Tyler in the first three legs.
** On Leg 5, despite slowly making their way to the checkpoint, they were still in the competition due to Chris breaking his rib falling from a Camel.
** On Leg 6, Viv & Joey struggled at the Detour, yet they checked in ahead of Femi & Nick and Hayley & Mikayla due to them being given two-hour penalties as they were unable to dig their boxes out from the sand.
** On Leg 8, Viv & Joey checked in at the last minute, ahead of Sid & Ash, due to the latter going over the speed limit as they attempted to overtake the other couples.
** On Leg 9, Viv & Joey finished in last place despite U-Turning Tim/Rod due to taking a long time with making bricks. Fortunately for them, it was a non-elimination leg.

* Jordan & Violeta in Season 5. Despite doing reasonably well during the first two legs, they ended up suffering an ongoing string of bad luck starting in Leg 3, where they finished 10th. And they've managed to outlast couples that are more lovable.
** Bonus points in Leg 3 involved leaving their backpacks behind as they set off to do their Detour, and yet they still finished ahead of Jude & Shannon.

** On Leg 7, Jordan & Violeta, despite coming last ''again'' by the time they reached the Roadblock, managed to overtake two teams with Jordan successfully throwing the knife at the target on just one attempt. It appeared that they were on the verge of being eliminated as the latter two teams (Sefa & Jessica and Skye-Blue & Jake) eventually caught up. Unfortunately, Sefa & Jessica’s luck had ran out.

* Kaylynn & Haley are an almost ridiculous case. They've managed to have been saved by two non-elimination legs and one team spending over 6 hours looking for a location 2 kilometers away. Hell, even the other teams are surprised that they keep surviving legs.

* Kaylynn & Haley are an almost ridiculous case. They've managed to have been saved by two non-elimination legs and one team spending over 6 hours looking for a location 2 kilometers away.

* Femi & Nick (4) hit this trope hard starting in Leg 2, where they ended up checking in ahead of Nuns Judy & Therese literally in the final moments. On Leg 4, they again finished one place ahead of Mother and Daughter Rowah & Amani, who would go on to be eliminated. On Leg 6, Femi & Nick incurred a two-hour penalty for being unable to find the hidden box in the sand, yet they remained in the game due to Hayley & Mikayla also failing to find the box as well. And on Leg 9, Femi & Nick initially struggled with a challenge to building clay bricks due to using the wrong ingredients. Despite U-Turning Tim & Rod, Femi & Nick finished in 4th Place, one place ahead of Viv & Joey. Fortunately for the latter duo, it wasn’t an Elimination Leg.

* Femi & Nick (4) are beginning to hit this trope hard starting in Leg 2, where they ended up checking in ahead of Nuns Judy & Therese literally in the final moments. On Leg 4, they again finished one place ahead of Mother and Daughter Rowah & Amani, who would go on to be eliminated. And on Leg 6, Femi & Nick incurred a two-hour penalty for being unable to find the hidden box in the sand, yet they remained in the game due to Hayley & Mikayla also failing to find the box as well.

''The Amazing Race'', being a competition where you only have to beat one other team to the Pit Stop to survive, and bad luck can hit anyone at any time, has featured a large number of Elimination Houdini's.

* Meredith & Gretchen, Season 7, who were the first team to succeed while deliberately using the "Just beat one team" strategy, even though Gretchen got injured and they had their bags taken away on an early leg. It should be noted they were more popular than most [=EHs=], even becoming fan favorites, due to being a genuinely nice elderly couple who rarely quarreled and never did a single devious thing against any of the other teams. They also gained sympathy from their injuries and when other teams stated [[TrashTalk trash talking]] them, which made their [[DeathByIrony victories against these trash talking teams]] [[UnderdogsNeverLose all the more satisfying.]]

* Eric & Danielle, from Season 11, were the first of this to win the race. In the first 11 legs, they had one top 2 finish, and their 5 bottom 2 finishes without getting eliminated is tied for 3rd most ever, trailing only Kami & Karli's 6 in Season 5 and Josh & Brent's 7 in Season 21. They also had 2 legs where they finished more than 12 hours behind the lead team, and were only able to catch up to the leaders due to the most blatantly contrived equalizer in race history. And ultimately, they only won because of a task involving guessing their partner's responses to questions about the other teams. Aside from being hugely [[LuckBasedMission luck-based]] considering it was the final task, the favorites to win, Dustin & Kandice, claimed in a post-race interview that Dustin's initial response wouldn't go through.

** Mika & Canaan, they nearly lost a tourist in Japan and Canaan have to do most of the Roadblocks for the first half. They finished in 7th, they best placement after Mika's meltdown of not willing to slide down a water slide even though Flight Time & Big Easy are right behind them.

* G.E.M and Zhang YunJing (Celebrity 2), in the 6 legs they run, 4 of the legs saw themselves placed in last.

** Ryan & Rob, also Season 2, passed up Rex & Bob to survive leg 6 after spending most of the leg in last place. They got severely lost in the next leg, only to be saved by a non-elimination, then survived their Speed Bump and getting U-Turned because Michel took 8 hours to do the Roadblock. In the next leg, despite an ill-advised Fast Foward trip when they were already in last place and their inability to do the Cheese Detour after 30+ tries, forcing them to switch, they got saved yet again by a non-elimination. They were then able to overcome their Speed Bump and survive once again when they passed the struggling Alain & Audrey at the Detour. They then barely beat Sukhi & Jinder in the next leg to squeeze into the Final 3.