Line #60 Trivia/TheAmazingRace


1	* ActorAllusion:
2	** While introducing Season 9's final Roadblock, which involved finding and putting the flags of every country they visited in order, Phil was shown standing in front of the New Zealand flag in one shot (where he was born), and in between the flags for Canada and Antigua and Barbuda in another (two countries in which he lived).
3	** In the Season 24 premiere, Brendon is shown singing along with the UCLA fight song during the opening task, as he is a grad student at UCLA.
4	* AscendedFanon: The mat at the beginning of the leg, where teams receive their first clues, has been referred to as the "Pit Start" for years by fans, but it wasn't official until the Phil used the term during Season 19. (Though racers had used it before that, such as T.K. in Season 12).
5	* AuthorsSavingThrow: A major complaint from long-time fans about Season 33 was that the teams didn't have the drive to win and didn't seem invested in playing as much as focusing on the cameras. In order to remedy this, the producers announced that Season 34 will have 12 teams and no non-elimination legs, making it one of the highest-stakes seasons ever and motivating the players.
6	* BillingDisplacement: The DVD covers generally feature the season's top four teams, with the winner and the season's biggest SpotlightStealingSquad in the center two spots. The exceptions are:
7	** Season 4: Dave & Jeff, despite being one of the most OutOfFocus teams to ever make the Final 3, took the "SpotlightStealingSquad" spot in the cover alongside the winners.
8	** Season 5: 6th place Charla & Mirna were on cover over 3rd place Brandon & Nicole.
9	** Season 9: 7th place Dave & Lori were on the cover over 3rd place Ray & Yolanda.
10	** Season 10: 6th place Dave & Mary took the place of 2nd place Rob & Kim.
11	** Season 11: Eric & Danielle, despite winning, are shunted off to the side of the All-Stars cover, the smallest of any of the teams, with Danielle coming this close to being hidden behind Oswald. Most likely this is due to them being disliked as winners in the series, while the other teams in the top four are all amongst the most popular teams from the All-Stars era.
12	** Season 12: 5th place Kynt & Vyxsin were on the cover over 3rd place Nicolas & Donald, though this made sense, as T.K. & Rachel won the season, and Ronald & Christina, Nate & Jen, and Kynt & Vyxsin shared the spotlight role for the season.
13	** Season 14: 6th place Mel & Mike made the cover over 4th place Kisha & Jen, which is one of the stranger cover decisions, as Kisha & Jen would come back and win Unfinished Business.
14	** Season 15: 9th place fan favorites Zev & Justin made the cover over 2nd Place Sam & Dan.
15	** Season 17: 6th place Gary & Mallory displaced 4th place Nick & Vicki on the cover, though this is understandable considering Nick's quitting and Gary & Mallory's popularity in Unfinished Business.
16	** Season 18: Despite winning, Kisha & Jen do not get one of the center two spots, those going to the two teams the beat in the finale, Flight Time & Big Easy and Gary & Mallory.
17	** Season 19: Winners Ernie & Cindy are relegated to the left side of the cover, with Andy & Tommy and 5th place Bill & Cathy, who are taking the spot of 2nd place finishers Jeremy & Sandy, in the center.
18	** Season 20 has fan-favorites Bopper and Mark, who finished in 5th place, on the cover over Art and JJ, who finished in 2nd.
19	** Season 21 has, of all teams, Amy and Daniel, who finished in ''tenth place,'' on the cover over 3rd place Trey and Lexi.
20	** Season 22 has 8th place Dave and Connor on the cover instead of 2nd place Max and Katie or 3rd place Mona and Beth. To be fair, they were one of the frontrunners of the season before Dave tore his Achilles, and came back to win All-Stars.
21	* CreatorBacklash: The production team has admitted they weren’t happy with the big alliance and its answer-sharing in season 32 and have said they’re going to change the rules once it’s safe to resume production on 33.
22	** A less noticeable version happened with Australia season 6 - the channel it was on initially aggressively advertised it, including advertising around the channel logo and sending an email with "a special message from Beau" hinting at "a huge twist" to users of the channel's streaming service who liked the Race[[note]]said twist - 20 teams - was already apparent to anyone eager enough to check the Teams section of the channel's website prior to the email[[/note]]. A few weeks into the show's airing, advertising dropped off sharply. Potential reasons for this were twofold: 1) the show proved to be a ratings flop compared to the show in the next timeslot, ''Series/HaveYouBeenPayingAttention'', and 2) they wanted to aggressively advertise the then-upcoming show ''The Real Love Boat'' instead.
23	* DeletedScene: Several deleted scenes are put up on CBS.com following each episode. One of the more notable ones came from the All-Stars premiere, where the teams on the second flight out of Miami randomly ran into Season 4 winner Chip.
24	* DevelopmentGag: Kevin & Drew's cameo in the first leg of Family Edition was a reference to Season 8 originally being considered for an All-Star edition.
25	* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: Almost happened. In a case of particularly bad timing, the first season premiered only ''a week before 9/11.'' The show nearly didn't make it past its first season as people turned to more escapist forms of entertainment and wanted little to nothing to do with anything travel or flying related. It only barely did well enough in the ratings and was enough of a critical hit that CBS was convinced enough it could flourish under better circumstances, which it very much did, thankfully averting the potential crisis.
26	* EngineeredHashtag: They've become common on the show, usually for the standard elements like [[AC:[=#Roadblock=]]] and [[AC:[=#Detour=]]]. Season 25 even debuted premade team name hashtags.
27	* ExecutiveMeddling: Most equalizers at least appear to occur naturally within the course (such as with flight schedules), but sometimes the course is noticeably engineered to keep teams from getting separated too much, like when Bill & Joe fell a day behind at the end of Season 1. This is usually done with a charter bus or plane, or by manipulating operating hours of businesses. The producers may not be able to outright slant the show as much as [[Series/BigBrother other CBS]] [[Series/{{Survivor}} reality shows]], but most of the sync points are to [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools keep the teams from getting too far ahead or too far behind and let them get a fighting chance]]. And as shown by a couple instances wherein a team got stuck and was a day behind or managed to get very lucky and waltzed right to the finish line way before the others, they do not always do this.
28	** The most blatantly engineered example (that can be proven) of such course manipulation took place in Season 11, where Dustin & Kandice sat around for half a day, waiting for a charter bus, because two teams were still running leg 7 when they started leg 8, after which they hit an Intersection, which knocked them back into a virtual tie with the teams they had beaten by over twelve hours in the previous leg.
29	** Eric & Danielle, who were on opposing teams in Season 9, was a team forced into All-Stars by executives wanting a hybrid team in the season, even overriding Phil's personal list of teams he wanted to see back. Initially, they wanted Flo & Drew from Season 3, but Flo didn't want to run the race without Zach. Similarly, Eric wanted to re-run the race with Jeremy, but the executives said he had to do it with Danielle to get a spot.
30	** In leg 9 of Season 20, it's pretty obvious that the producers intervened to get Bopper & Mark past a Roadblock so they wouldn't quit on what was supposed to be a non-elimination leg, though at least they waited until all the other teams had finished the leg to do so. See how Bopper goes from pleading with Mark not to kill himself to encouraging him to take just one more try.
31	** Nick and Vick arrived last on a non-elimination leg in Season 17, but an examination by production revealed that some goofs on their part altered the placement of the teams. As a result, the speed bump was removed for Nick and Vick.
32	** [[https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/beau-ryan-celebrity-amazing-race-australia-051019233.html Beau had mentioned in an interview]] he would love a CelebrityEdition to happen when one didn't yet exist for the Australian ''Race''...he did a normal casting call at the end of season 6, then he got his wish with season 7. It's not hard to guess what happened in between.
33	* FoilerFootage: The 4th, 5th, and 6th place teams generally keep racing, even after their elimination, in order to thwart spoilers. This has not always been successful.
34	* InMemoriam: In Season 16, leg 10 for He Pingping, the world's shortest man, who was the task judge for the noodle Roadblock.
35	* MilestoneCelebration: The 25th season. For the occasion, the premiere referenced the first season's starting and finish lines, and filmed the race start publicly in Times Square with fans in attendance rather than at a private location.
36	** Leg 7 was presented as the show's 300th leg.[[note]]Though this was heavily debated amongst the fans. Depending on how the math was done considering the inclusion of double legs, the seventh leg could have been anywhere from the 296th to the 304th leg. Season 1-11 had 13 legs each (143 total), Seasons 12 and 13 had 11 legs (22), and everything past that had 12 legs (132 through the end of Season 24). Adding these all up makes leg 7 the 304th leg. Removing all the double legs prior to Unfinished Business, when they were finally recognized as two separate legs, leaves the total at 296. Even just removing the double legs that did not include Virtual Pit Stops (Season 6, leg 6, the Season 8 finale, and Season 10, leg 9) leaves the total at 301.[[/note]]
37	* RealLifeRelative: Phil's father was the Pit Stop greeter when the show visited New Zealand in Season 13. Said Pit Stop was actually at the ranch his father owns.
38	* RecycledSet: Considering how long the show has run, it has visited the same landmarks multiple times:
39	** Victoria Memorial was used as a Pit Stop in leg 9 of Season 5 and leg 6 of Unfinished Business.
40	** The Konno Hachimangu Shrine in Japan was used as the first Pit Stop in Season 15 and the last Pit Stop in Season 23, both times after a Japanese Game Show task featuring the same host.
41	** In Season 24, both the first route marker and the Pit Stop in Kuala Lumpur were used as route marker locations in previous seasons. Teams had to get their photo taken at the Petronas Towers in Season 3, and climb the stairs at the Batu Caves to get a clue in the original All-Stars. Batu Caves is even used as the first roadblock in Asia Season 4.
42	** The Jemaa el-Fnaa market in Season 25, where the entirety of the fifth leg took place, was previously visited in Season 3, with the Glacier Cafe being clue locations in both seasons.
43	** Château des Baux, which everyone recognize as a pit stop for Season 1, is used as the Roadblock for Season 30.
44	* RomanceOnTheSet:
45	** Season 1, Brennan and Emily broke up with the people they were dating at the time to start dating each other after the Race.
46	** Christina (Season 12) is now married to opposing contestant Azaria, and they were engaged during Unfinished Business. Despite the unpopular pairing of Eric & Danielle on All-Stars, many would have preferred to see Christina return with Azaria rather than her father, as their relationship was at least assumed to be a bit more stable than Eric & Danielle's (and partially because Azaria was a strong racer in his original run).
47	** Season 2 Asia, Rovilson once dated Vanessa before calling it quits in 2008.
48	** Season 29 contestants Logan and Sara, who raced with separate partners (London and Shamir, respectively), started dating after their Race.
49	* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Attempted and failed following Season 11. CBS cut the budget, forcing them to reduce Season 12 by two episodes, ordered only one season instead of the usual two, and decided to use it as a mid-season replacement show. When Season 12 finally did air, it was put in a Sunday-night slot and constantly delayed by football games running over. Despite all this, the ratings for Season 12 were the best since Season 7, and it got a full renewal for 2008-2009.
50	* SequelFirst:
51	** Some seasons are aired out of order in other countries, which usually doesn't make a difference, except in those markets that aired All-Stars before Season 10, meaning these fans [[MarthDebutedInSmashBros were introduced to Dustin & Kandice and David & Mary prior to their original season airing.]]
52	* TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment:
53	** Season 32 was filmed in November-December 2018 and was supposed to finally air in Spring 2020 but got put on ice again after CBS needed something to air in the Fall after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the filming of scripted shows.
54	** Season 36 was actually recorded before season 35 (October 25 to November 17, 2022 and June 13 to July 8, 2023, respectively), but will begin airing on March 13, 2024, whereas season 35 aired from September 27 to December 13, 2023. This is because CBS decided to extend the episode length to 90 minutes due to the [[UsefulNotes/TVStrikes 2023 Writers Guild of America strike]], which caused the earlier-recorded season to be delayed so it could be re-edited to fit the longer timeframe. This is especially notable as season 36 was the last season recorded under COVID restrictions while season 35 was a return to the pre-COVID format.
55	* StuntCasting: It's been going on since at least Season 5[[note]]Despite popular belief, this doesn't necessarily mean they were recruited, as several celebrity teams went through the application process[[/note]], though some of the more notable examples are:
56	** ''Series/BigBrother 4'' runner-up Alison Irwin in Season 5.
57	** ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' SuperCouple Rob & Amber in Season 7. In this case, at least, it worked, as Season 7 remains the highest-rated season and brought in a new wave of viewers who stuck with the show. Of course, their Series/{{Survivor}} fame helped them on the course of the race. The roadblock on one leg required navigating a bustling, maze-like South African marketplace to purchase several specific items. Amber was struggling with the task when a bystander recognized her from the show and volunteered to guide her, allowing her to complete the Roadblock in a matter of minutes.
58	** Creator/MikeWhite, who wrote and played Ned Schneebly in ''Film/SchoolOfRock'', in Season 14.
59	** Harlem Globetrotters "Flight Time" & "Big Easy" in Season 15. Also in the same season are professional poker players Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle. Tiffany was recognized at the airport in Tokyo.
60	** ''Big Brother 11'' players Jeff & Jordan in Season 16.
61	** Also in Season 16, Caite Upton, the former Miss Teen South Carolina, famous for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww this response to the question of why one fifth of Americans can't find the U.S. on a map]]. One of her fellow racers even did an impersonation of her speech:
62	--->I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children.
63	** Season 17 features [[https://www.youtube.com/user/kevjumba KevJumba]].
64	** ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' couple Ethan Zohn from ''Survivor: Africa'' and ''All-Stars'' and Jenna Morasca from ''Survivor: The Amazon'' and ''All-Stars'' on Season 19. It also had athletes in former Indianapolis Colts tight end Marcus Pollard and Olympic snowboarder Andy Finch. As well as Zac Sunderland, the first person under the age of 18 to sail around the world.
65	** Big Brother 12 & 13 players Brendon & Rachel on Season 20 and 24.
66	** Season 21 had Josh Kilmer-Purcell & Brent Ridge, stars of the reality show ''The Fabulous Beekman Boys'', Chippendale performers Jaymes Vaughan (known for having released the dance song "Vampire") and James Davis (frontman for Vegas metal band My Name Engraved), and James [=LoMenzo=], metal bassist from White Lion, Megadeth, and other bands.
67	** Season 22 has former NHL player Bates Battaglia with his brother Anthony who currently plays in the minor leagues, Website/{{YouTube}}rs Joey Graceffa and Meghan "Strawburry17" Camarena, and country singers Caroline Cutbirth and Jennifer Kuhle of the Stealing Angels. Cutbirth is also said to be a direct descendant of Daniel Boone while Kuhle is the granddaughter of Creator/JohnWayne.
68	** Chester Pitts II & Ephraim Salaam, former college football and NFL teammates on Season 23.
69	** Music/NewKidsOnTheBlock member Jonathan Knight in Season 26.
70	** Strangely averted with former Playmate Victoria Fuller (Season 6), who you never would have known was a Playmate from watching the actual show. Same with aspiring Playmate Jennifer Hopka (Season 14). In fact, the only mention Magazine/{{Playboy}} had ever gotten on the show was when Season 12 departed from the Playboy Mansion.
71	*** Jaime Faith Edmondson was also a Playmate, but only became one between Seasons 14 and 18.
72	** ''The Amazing Race Asia'' was notorious for this, with most of the cast teams being media personalities in their home countries.
73	** ''The Amazing Race Vietnam'', where it has two celebrity seasons.
74	** ''The Amazing Race China'', the first season is a celebrity season.
75	** Actress [[Series/MyBabysittersAVampire Vanessa Morgan]], and Body Break hosts Hal Johnson & Joanne [=McLeod=] on Canada Season 1.
76	** Canada Season 2 has Ice Hockey Player Natalie Spooner & Megan Mikkelson and famous Canadian dancer Rex Harrington.
77	** The entirety of Season 28, at least if you're interested in social media.
78	** Big Brother 19's Cody & Jessica which best known for their showmance which led them to be casted for Season 30.
79	*** Cody & Jessica went on to be the first ''Big Brother'' alumni to win ''The Amazing Race''.
80	** ''The Amazing Race Australia'' season 7 is a CelebrityEdition. Notable in that [[ExecutiveMeddling Beau engineered this]].
81	* ThrowItIn: The double length "Super Legs" were created by mistake in Season 6. Leg 6 was supposed to be a normal non-elimination leg with the losing team getting all their money taken away, but the production crew found out too late that it was illegal to beg in Hungary. So instead, they cut the Pit Stop out of that leg, and cobbled together a clue and an "operating hours" equalizer to keep the teams busy. In following seasons, Super Legs would be preplanned, including their own fake mats where Phil got to tell the teams they were still racing.
82	* TroubledProduction: Season 33 got three legs filmed in February 2020 before production got indefinitely postponed and everyone was sent home due to the [=COVID19=] outbreak worsening. Production resumed a year and a half later in September 2021 with the biggest changes being that teams flew on a chartered jet and production stuck to countries that had good weather so tasks could be done outside as much as possible and didn't have high rates of infection or densely populated locales.
83	* UnCanceled: The Australian version was canceled after the second season, and replaced with a revival of ''Series/TheMole''. ''The Mole'' flopped, and the Race was brought back after a year off.
84	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
85	** Prior to being turned into the ill-fated "Family Edition", Season 8 was originally slated to be an All-Star season, which would have included Season 4 winners Reichen & Chip.
86	** Colin & Christie (Season 5) were originally slated to appear in the first All-Stars until Christie got pregnant. Considered one of the best teams to ever run the race, if not ''the'' best, every single team (except fellow Season 5 team Charla & Mirna) listed them as that season's biggest snub. Their absence meant we missed out on a possibly epic Final 3 of Colin & Christie, Rob & Amber, and Dustin & Kandice, plus a Rob vs. Colin showdown to see who really was the ultimate "Alpha Male" racer. They would end up waiting until season 31 (fifteen years later) to race again. They felt like their kids were old enough for them to go away for a month.
87	*** Flo and Drew, who started dating after Season 3, were invited back for All-Stars. Flo refused because she didn't want to race without Zach, and she thought the Race brought out the worst in her.
88	*** Kelly & Jon (4) were also invited back, but dropped out at the last minute.
89	** Similarly, Brook & Claire (17) were originally slated to appear in "Unfinished Business" until Claire learned that she was pregnant. They were also invited back for 24 but Brook couldn't get the time off of work.
90	** Tim & Marie (23) were invited back for the second All-Stars, but declined due to Marie disliking her portrayal in the first half of her season.
91	** Season 8 had a leg in Belize that was canceled due to Hurricane Emily.
92	** Prior to "Unfinished Business", Kynt & Vyxsin sent in an audition tape in for Asia 3, though were ultimately rejected for not living in Asia, and the producers not wanting to face new teams against an experienced team.
93	** [=YouTuber=] Philip [=DeFranco=] and his wife Lindsay were one of the social media teams considered for season 28, but were ultimately not selected. Had they been on the race, the OneSteveLimit of no contestants named Phil would have finally been averted.
94	** There are a number of ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' contestants that had applied for the ''The Amazing Race'' first before eventually being selected to play the former. Some examples are [[Characters/SurvivorPearlIslands Darrah Johnson]], [[Characters/SurvivorCookIslands Parvati Shallow]], [[Characters/SurvivorRedemptionIsland Ashley Underwood]], [[Characters/SurvivorSamoa Natalie White]], [[Characters/SurvivorFiji Earl Cole]], [[Characters/SurvivorTheAmazon Heidi Strobel]], and [[Characters/SurvivorSanJuanDelSur Jon Misch & Jaclyn Schultz]].
95	** The Linz siblings, winners of Season 8 (the Family Edition), were considered as one of the teams returning for Season 31, as one of the "older season" returnees, along with Colin & Christie (5) and Eric & Jeremy (9). They got cut at the last minute and Colin & Christie raced instead.
96	*** Among the more recent seasons, the other teams considered for 31 that were cut were Misti & Jim and Kym & Alli (25), Justin & Diana (27), and Sheri & Cole (28).
97	** Season 33’s original route after stopping after two UK legs would have consisted of Sweden, Austria (with a trip over the Italian border), South Africa which hasn’t been visited since season 7, Malawi, Vietnam, Nepal (For the first time) Indonesia, a long awaited return to Australia, and Peru. The finale would have taken place in Houston.
98	** Season 34 had begun casting in early 2020 for a summer production before both it and 33 were indefinitely delayed due to COVID-19. Actress/comedian Creator/ArdenMyrin confirmed on a podcast that she applied with Lance Bass of Music/NSync as her partner and CBS was interested but nothing concrete had happened when it got delayed.
99	** Warwick Capper, an Australian Rules football player, was slated to be on Australia 7 with his son Indiana, but he dropped out due to a low booking fee.
100	* WordOfGod: Why did Grant (Australian season 7) say he was Larry Emdur[[note]]host of ''[[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase Australia]]''[[/note]] when he was suffering from heatstroke? [[https://www.grantdenyer.com.au/podcast.html As revealed on Chezzi's podcast,]] she and Grant had a challenge to say certain words, expressions and phrases which only make sense to fans of the podcast but otherwise come off as Grant being a CloudCuckoolander, including that name (since Larry is one of their favourite guests), "cavorting" (which Grant said about cows in a paddock) and "bum nugget" (about Darren).
101	* WordOfSaintPaul: The Australian season 7 being a CelebrityEdition was originally hinted at in [[https://10play.com.au/the-amazing-race-australia/articles/weve-got-an-amazing-race-franchise-first-beau-ryan-teases-a-massive-surprise/tpa220816zlcuy articles for season 6 as being "[spoken] into existence" by Beau]], although he ultimately didn't get Kyle Sandilands or Jackie O like he envisioned.

Context Trivia / TheAmazingRace