Characters / The Amazing Race 28

The Amazing Race character index
United States original: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8: Family Edition | 9 | 10 | 11: All-Stars | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18: Unfinished Business | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24: All-Stars | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31: Reality Showdown | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36
Asia: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
China Rush and China: China Rush 1 | 2 | 3 | China 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Australia: 1 | 2 | 3: Australia v New Zealand | 4 | 5 | 6: Around the World | 7: Celebrity Edition
Canada: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6: Heroes Edition | 7 | 8 | 9

The 28th installment of The Amazing Race.

To bring younger viewers to the Long Runner, the producers decided to do all teams with at least one internet star. As was the case in The Amazing Race 26, this premise was met with much hesitation from the fanbase, but in this case it was not just for its gimmicky premise but for being seen as excessive Stunt Casting (which is already controversial), though some fans defended this decision claiming it not to be stunt casting calling them "not real celebrities." Despite initial fears, there were some pleasant surprises such as an impressive course with varied and enjoyable tasks, probably the most overall charismatic cast in the show's history, several memorable and likable teams, and some excellent storylines. However, with the heavy use of Spotlight-Stealing Squad, an answer sharing alliance early on, a lack of competitiveness due to many teams knowing each other already, and the first task in the finale deciding the winner,^note This was not the producers' fault though as the first task was skill-based. it failed live up to either of the two seasons it was sandwiched between. Nonetheless, the experiment was successful in bringing new viewers to the show, and long time fans were relieved it wasn't the disaster they feared.

Dana Borriello and Matt Steffanina

A dating couple from Los Angeles, California, they are known for their dance tutorials and videos, with Matt having more than 2.4 million followers on YouTube. They won the first leg and became permanent members of the top half of the pack, with their lowest finish on the entire race being a 5th place in the United Arab Emirates. However, Dana's extremely high maintenance personality led to her screaming at Matt over pretty much everything that happened on the race, causing them to constantly argue and become this season's token fighting couple. Their non-stop arguing quickly overshadowed their strong performances, and with Tyler and Korey, Brodie and Kurt, and Burnie and Ashley always finishing just ahead of them in every leg, it seemed like the dancers were going to eventually crash and burn. That prediction almost came true in Dubai after Dana had one of the biggest meltdowns in race history after Matt had trouble paying attention to her driving directions, nearly quitting the race. After her epic freak out, however, the couple seemed to get their act together, and they began to treat each other with more patience and kindness during the last half of the race, helping them focus better on the tasks and stay in the front half of the teams, eventually earning them a spot in the Final 3. During the final leg, they were the first team to get the clue at Angelus Plaza after Tyler and Korey ran in the wrong direction, and Matt ended up being the first person to complete the Roadblock, grabbing the clue after only one jump, instantly propelling them into the lead. Although they went on to make several mistakes throughout the rest of the leg, including letting their taxi go at Santa Barbara Harbor, struggling to communicate during the synchronized mountaineering challenge, and running right by the clue at Grassini Family Vineyards and wandering around lost, the lead gained at the first Roadblock ended up being too much for either of the other teams to pass them, and when Dana nailed the final memory challenge on her first try, they ran straight to the Finish Line, placing 1st and winning the entire race.

• Book Ends: Their only two leg wins were the first and the last.
• Chekhov's Skill: Dana's dancing skills got her through the Georgian ballet Roadblock faster than all the other contestants.
• Cutting the Knot: Briefly considered on leg 8, when Dana said she wished she could break the puzzle to solve it.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After lashing out at Matt the whole season and not trusting him, she decides to let Matt decide who should do the first Roadblock. He decides to do it and his long strong legs allowed him to grab the clue on the first try. That not only propelled them to the lead that gave them what they needed to win, but Dana was forced to do the second Roadblock and her being Genre Savvy enough to remember the hashtags on the clue allowed them to maintain their lead.
• Failed a Spot Check: Twice in the final leg. First they attempted to leave the dock in their dinghy only to realize it was still moored. Later they passed by the clue at the Winery several times before finally seeing it (although the clues were behind an obstacle hidden from their view).
• Freak Out: Dana had an epic one in the United Arab Emirates. Leaving the Roadblock, Dana tried giving Matt directions to the Pit Stop, but he wasn't paying attention and kept asking her where to go. Dana became so frustrated that she started crying and screaming at him, calling him psychotic, and it got to the point that when they stopped to get directions from locals, Dana refused to get back in the car and very nearly quit the race.
• Henpecked Husband: Matt - and they're not even married yet.
• History Repeats: In Dubai, like Mika and Canaan of season 15, the couple fights and the girl attempts to quit. Subverted, as Dana and Matt managed to reconcile and not come in last.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all her complaining and high maintenance behavior, she still does care about Matt a lot and always ends up feeling terrible for how she treats him.
• Loophole Abuse: Took the clue at the Yerevan Opera House out of the janitor's jacket instead of asking him directly.
• Rage Quit: Dana very nearly came close to doing this after her extreme freakout in Dubai.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After her meltdown in Dubai, Dana became a lot more patient and relaxed. She seemed to have taken the lesson to heart.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Although not as bad as other teams, they still had their moments.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Even after Burnie & Ashley and Kurt & Brodie were eliminated, they were still the underdogs to Tyler & Korey

Sheri LaBrant and Cole LaBrant

Mother and Son from Enterprise, Alabama, Cole LaBrant is a Viner with more than 6.5 million followers. They came on the race hoping to win the money to better their large family. After a rather quiet first few legs, they quickly stepped into the spotlight as the underdogs of the season, as they both constantly struggled at challenges (especially the thrill-seeking types due to their shared phobia of heights) with 5th place being their highest finish for the first eight legs, followed by never finishing in the top 2 for the penultimate three legs. Despite their struggles, however, they persevered and never gave up on any challenge, twice completing extremely difficult Detours (racing camels and traveling on electric unicycles) that other teams tried and bailed on, proving themselves to be much more determined racers than either of them, Sheri especially, seemed to be like at the beginning of the race. After barely making it into the Final 3 thanks to Burnie and Ashley struggling to find the pitstop, they lost a chance at getting a lead over Matt and Dana at the first Roadblock due to Sheri missing the clue on her first jump, requiring her to do the whole task again. Although Sheri got the clue on her second jump, Matt and Dana's lead ended up being too much for them to overcome, and while they managed to pass Tyler and Korey at all of the final leg's remaining tasks, including Cole quickly completing the final memory challenge, they ended up crossing the Finish Line in 2nd place, their highest finish of the whole season.

• Action Mom: Hey, you have to hand it to Sheri after she handled her height issues far better than Cole did.
• Bittersweet Ending: They failed to win the race, but they still managed to finish the race, and in 2nd place, higher than any of their other finishes.
• Born Lucky: Worse offenders than Scott & Blair:
  • In Leg 5, they were spared from elimination after they went before Erin & Joslyn on the heavily luck-based paragliding Roadblock.
  • In Leg 6, Sheri blundering the Roadblock was undone by the fact that it was a Virtual Pit-Stop.
  • In Leg 8, they checked in hours after everyone else only to be spared by a non-elimination leg.
  • In Leg 10, the strategic U-Turn of Kurt & Brodie helped save them.
  • In Leg 11, they seemed doomed for elimination after repeatedly messing up, only to be saved by Burnie & Ashley, of all people, making 2 terrible mistakes.
• Chekhov's Hobby: Subverted by Cole in the 11th leg. He thought that the cycle would be easy to manouever as he knew how to skateboard. However, while he would struggle with the cycle, Sheri had an easier time manipulating it (as she was lighter and more stable on it).
• Dumb Blonde: Discussed and Lampshaded by Sheri after struggling with the leg 6 Roadblock (as she was turning the oil filter wrong way) by saying people will being seeing this and saying this is why blondes shouldn't change oil.
• Fatal Family Photo: Averted in the best way possible. While teams that are shown talking about their family at the beginning of a leg might be in danger of elimination, Sheri starts talking about things that her kids made her that she took with her on the race at the end of a leg, after shockingly making the final three over Burnie and Ashley.
• Friend to All Living Things: Sheri is a self-proclaimed one.
• Hidden Depths: After the sixth episode aired, Sheri revealed that the reason she chose to do the oil change Roadblock was because she was the one who did all the repair work at home, showing that she does have some skills with manual labor.
• Keet: Cole. After ten legs of him gushing over everything, his enthusiasm finally reached its peak in leg 11 when he realized that they were third, ahead of Burnie and Ashley. Even Phil said it was the happiest he ever saw him.
• Mr. Fanservice: Cole.
• No Sense of Direction: They got repeatedly lost in Dubai and were in last place the entire leg. Luckily for them, it was a Non-Elimination leg. Sheri even said at the mat that she hopes for no more driving legs.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: In their interview they seem to think traveling to Myrtle Beach will help them where the race is going.
• Tempting Fate:
  • They started Leg 6 asserting that they would, in fact, win the leg and claim the Express Pass, only to check in last that same leg.
  • Again in Leg 10 when Cole stated that using the cycle should be easy as he is a skateboarder. He admitted that he was wrong soon afterwards.
• The Load: Discussed in-universe in the fifth leg, where Sheri admitted that she felt like Cole had been doing all of the work so far in the race, and that she wanted to take a more proactive role in the team.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Both of them are terrified of heights, causing the fifth leg - which was filled with challenges that took place at extremely high altitudes - to be a particularly difficult one for them. The last leg was even harder where Sheri had to face her fear thrice (if you count each jump as a separate time) and Cole once.

Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl

Best Friends and YouTube Stars, from Los Angeles, California. While the entire cast was made up of recognizable social media stars who were well known to their respective audiences, Tyler was probably the most famous person in the entire cast, with over 8,000,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. That, combined with Korey's charm, their constantly positive attitudes and quick wit, made them the faces of the social media season. However, their positivity and friendliness did nothing to hide their super competitive approach to the race, as they were a team that were willing to do anything to win, including using the U-Turn on their biggest threats and purposefully misdirecting other teams on several occasions, all of which mostly worked as, outside of two bad legs in Armenia and Georgia, they never left the top three and won the most legs of the season at five, including winning three legs in a row leading up to the finale. In the final leg, they got off to a bad start when they got to Angelus Plaza first, but ran right by the clue and walked up to the top of the nearby building, allowing both of the other teams to pass them and drop them into an early last place, falling behind even further when Tyler was the only racer who needed three tries to grab his clue at the Roadblock. Although they briefly caught up when they got a taxi before Sheri and Cole leaving Santa Barbara Harbor, their taxi driver did not speak English and couldn't understand the directions to Gibraltar Rock, causing them to fall back to last place, where they eventually crossed the Finish Line in 3rd.

• Affably Evil: Generally they're both pretty nice fellows and very silly but don't let that fool you. They are capable of hatching plenty of diabolical schemes which got them to the final 3.
• Aside Glance: Tyler when Korey asked what language was spoken in Switzerland.
• Broken Win/Loss Streak: After four seasons where a team with a man named Tyler won the race, Tyler Oakley broke the streak by placing 3rd.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Being that they rarely finished under 3rd and won 5 legs, this trope is in effect.
• Epic Fail: Korey dropped his emerald during the Mud Bath Roadblock, and since he was unable to find it, he had to redo the task. They still won the leg, though.
• Failed a Spot Check: A fatal one in their final leg: they passed by the clue box at Angelus tower even though it was located at the front and spent considerable time looking for it.
• Global Ignorance: Korey did not know the language of Switzerland and thought it was Swiss.
• Irony:
  • They started off Leg 6 saying that it wouldn't hurt if Brodie and Kurt got sent to the back of the pack this leg. However, they ended up falling behind instead, barely escaping last place.
  • After effectively targeting Burnie and Ashley for elimination in the second to final leg, Tyler and Korey are done in by the same thing that did in Burnie and Ashley - cab problems. It's also somewhat ironic that they called Burnie and Ashley villains when it's clear by Leg 11 that they were a more villainous team than Rooster Teeth ever was.
• Keet: Unsurprisingly both of them.
• Lethal Joke Character: Don't let their Plucky Comic Relief status fool you, they are a force to be dealt with. They won 5 legs, had the highest finishing average, and took out both Kurt & Brodie and Burnie & Ashley.
• No Sense of Direction: Not them, but their Cab driver in the final leg, ensuring their 3rd place finish.
• Plucky Comic Relief:
• Potty Emergency: While working with Dana on the World of Wonders Roadblock in Leg 10, Tyler said he needed to pee. Dana told him to pee in his pants, if necessary.
• Shipper on Deck: Korey for Tyler and their rigger in the final task
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: So far they are getting the majority of the airtime, probably due to the fact that Tyler is the most well known member of the cast.
• Tempting Fate: They said they're a "two-try team", and they said they can change that on this task and get it in one. They did change it, they got it in 3 jumps.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Leg 11, just Leg 11. They refuse to work with any teams but the dancers, purposely hide their clues in their pockets through Loophole Abuse, and act condescending especially to Sheri and Cole. It's this attitude that gets Burnie and Ashley eliminated, especially since they picked them out solely to do this, labeling them as "#TheVillains".

Michael "Burnie" Burns and Ashley Jenkins

A dating (now married) couple from Austin, Texas, Burnie and Ashley are stars of Rooster Teeth, the company famous for series such as Red vs. Blue and RWBY. Due to RoosterTeeth's big online presence, they were one of the fan favorites from the start, and it certainly didn't help that they started the race off strong, with their only slip-up being choosing the campsite detour in Chamonix, dropping them to the back of the pack. After that leg, however, they reeled off five straight second-place finishes, tying Kelsey and Joey's record from the previous season. And while they could never manage to win a leg, due to a bad cab or other teams beating them in a footrace to the mat, they established themselves as a very consistent team and it appeared likely that they would make the final three. In the penultimate leg in China, Burnie finished the Roadblock first, which seemed to assure them a spot in the finale, as even though they were bunched up with Tyler and Korey and the Dancers on a subsequent train ride, Sheri was still at the Roadblock. They chose the commuter cycle detour despite it being harder than the painting detour, knowing that if they found it hard, they could always switch (while detour-switching is usually a pretty risky move, especially with four teams left, the other option was just a block away). They decided early on to switch, and completed the other side of the detour rather easily, and it appeared that they would survive the leg and make the final three over Sheri and Cole, who were struggling with the commuter cycles. But their cab got stuck in traffic on the way to the pitstop which caused to get out before they arrived. This prevented the taxi from potentially dropping them off right in the vicinity of the pitstop, and instead they spent nearly 40 minutes looking for Phil within the massive complex, allowing Sheri and Cole to make up ground. In the end, Sheri and Cole found the pitstop first, as their cab driver dropped them off right near the pitstop, and Burnie and Ashley were eliminated in 4th.

• Always Second Best: They've finished 2nd five times in a row with no leg wins yet:
  • In leg 6, they were in a comfortable 3rd place before passing Sheri on the Roadblock on the way to the pit stop.
  • In leg 7, they lost first place when their taxi driver took them to the wrong park.
  • In leg 8, they got passed by Brodie and Kurt at the last second while riding the dhows to the Pit Stop.
  • In leg 9, Tyler and Korey managed to barely pass them at the Roadblock, costing them first place once again.
  • In leg 10, the lack of an equalizer kept them right behind Tyler and Korey throughout the entire leg.
  • However, in leg 11, their luck ran out when a detour switch late in the leg pushed them from the top 2 to the bottom 2. On the way to the pit stop, Burnie and Ashley's taxi was stuck in a traffic jam. Once they arrived in the vicinity of the Shenzhen Library, they went to the wrong end causing them to lose the foot race to Sheri and Cole for the last spot in the final leg.
• Deadpan Snarker: At the mudpit, Burnie mentions that he's sure there were so many people waiting to see him in a swimsuit, but oh, no, they get Ashley and they'll just have to live with the disappointment.
• Genius Bruiser: Burnie is very good at both physical and mental challenges. Both could be this to an extent as they are both very fit and nerds.
• History Repeats/Loophole Abuse: Just like in Season 21, they decided to utilize the Double U-Turn in a unique way, U-Turning a team that had already used the U-Turn, in order to ensure the elimination of a strong team in Brodie and Kurt.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness:
  • Burnie made them do the campsite building Detour in the fifth leg, as every other team was choosing the dynamite delivery option, and he believed that taking a risk and not following the pack would help them jump ahead. The campsite building task ended up being the more difficult Detour option, and they took so long on it that they dropped from 4th place to last place.
  • In their final leg, Burnie decides to do the more difficult cycle detour, and switch should they find the task too hard. Except that detour switching should be the last thing to do when you are close to the final leg.
• Running Gag: Their second place finishes seem to be almost played for laughs.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Burnie gave Jessica and Brittany advice about being careful at the emerald finding Roadblock, not wanting them to screw up like Korey did.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: With actual snakes, as Burnie looks positively terrified of the snake he has when they're tasked to carry one while Ashley handles it with no problems at all.

Brodie Smith and Kurt Gibson

Best Friends and pro Frisbee players from Dallas, Texas. Brodie turned his pro Frisbee skills into videos on YouTube, gaining more than 1 million followers. They were the biggest threat from the very beginning due to their athleticism and speed, and they pretty much became the stars of the season along with Tyler and Korey, getting a lot of airtime thanks to their dominance (winning four legs and the Express Pass halfway through the season), Brodie's keet personality, as well as Brodie developing a flirtatious relationship with Blair, earning them the ship name "Blodie". However, after Scott and Blair were eliminated, their team dynamic took a dramatic flip, with Brodie going from a hyperactive ladies man to a load who struggled at all the tasks (although this had been hinted at throughout the season), while Kurt went from being Brodie's sidekick to being the competent team leader doing all the work to keep Brodie from dragging the team down. In Indonesia, Kurt decided to take on the salt making Roadblock, which not only used up his last available Roadblock, but it then forced Brodie to do the kite making Roadblock in the same leg, and he struggled so much that they only avoided elimination thanks to beating the Kings in a boat race to the Pit Stop. Starting leg 10 in last place, they hoped to use the Double U-Turn to pick up some ground - however, after they were U-Turned by Tyler and Korey, Burnie and Ashley decided to guarantee that the Frisbee boys couldn't use it on anyone else by U-Turning Tyler and Korey, rendering the second U-Turn useless. This left them the only team forced to go back and do the seaweed Detour, which took up enough time that all the teams managed to leave them in the dust, and they were eliminated in 5th place.

• Cutting the Knot: When both Kurt and Brodie struggled at the Roadblocks in the ninth leg, several of the teams at both challenges wondered why they were not using their Express Pass to skip them if they were having so much trouble. This led the other teams to realize they had wasted their Express Pass back in Dubai.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: They acted as this in the second half of the race to the larger-than-life alpha male teams in The Amazing Race. Even though Brodie was the personality of the team, it was Kurt who made them so dominant as he did the Roadblocks on legs they won (except when Brodie used the Express Pass). This was epitomized by how Kurt's strength got them through the physically demanding first Roadblock on leg 9, but left Brodie to do the second more mentally challenging Roadblock which delayed them enough to be eliminated a leg later.
• Graceful Loser: These two weren't that upset about losing and understood why they were U-Turned.
• History Repeats: The second team, after Abbie & Ryan to be eliminated in 5th place after manipulation of a Double U-Turn.
• Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Kurt revealed in the ninth episode that he had cancer and went through chemotherapy when he was younger, and that he had been cancer-free for seven years.
• Keet: To be expected of the Alpha male team this season. Brodie especially.
• Lovable Jock: It's not hard to see what Blair saw in Brodie
• Motor Mouth: Brodie admits to being this, saying that Kurt is used to it.
• No Indoor Voice: Brodie.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: Roadblocks have to be split 6-6 between team members, so usually teams will try to keep them well balanced so that the stronger teammate will be available to perform a more difficult Roadblock later on in the race. However, they've been extremely uneven with how they divide the Roadblocks, to the point that Burnie and Ashley even commented on how Kurt had been doing way more Roadblocks than Brodie. In the ninth leg, upon reaching the salt making Roadblock, they had Kurt do it even though he had done five previous Roadblocks to Brodie's three, meaning that Brodie would have no choice but to do the rest of the Roadblocks. Though it wasn't a unique situation this season, it almost got them eliminated due to how much Brodie struggled at the kite-making Roadblock later in the same leg.
• Romance on the Set: In-Universe, Brodie was attracted to Blair, and she to him as well. This leading to other teams creating a hashtag Portmanteau Couple Name: #Blodie. After they were eliminated, Brodie stated that he didn't want to go back home to Dallas right away, but rather stop by in Los Angeles to take Blair out on a date.
• Satellite Character: Kurt was pretty much pushed to the side for the first seven episodes so that the focus could stay on Brodie and his flirting with Blair. He got more airtime during their last three episodes.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Like Tyler and Korey, they get much of the air time. Kurt less so than Brodie, even though he does most of the work.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Why Tyler & Korey initially U-Turned them, and why Burnie & Ashley burned the second U-Turn in order to secure their elimination.
• The Load: Brodie struggles at the tasks a lot more than Kurt does, including wasting the Express Pass in the eighth leg to bypass the Roadblock in Dubai, even though he had already half-way completed it before becoming frustrated with the puzzle (something that every other team after them managed to finish). Wasting the Express Pass would come back to haunt them in the next leg, where Brodie's struggles at the kite building Roadblock almost got them eliminated. Then they got eliminated in the subsequent leg.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: As much as they argue every now and then, they really are good friends.

Zach King and Rachel King

Newlyweds from Los Angeles, California, Zach King is known as the Magic Viner, with more than 3.7 million followers. Despite Zach being one of the more well known and recognizable members of the cast, they received very little airtime throughout their race as they finished mostly in the middle of the pack, with the exception of leg 3, where they barely escaped elimination thanks to Darius's screw-up at the Roadblock, and their surprise win in leg 7 after Burnie and Ashley were taken off-track by a bad cab. In the ninth leg, Rachel decided to perform the salt Roadblock (due to their uneven splitting of the Roadblocks leaving her at three to Zach's five). However, the task proved to be extremely physical, and she finished last out of all the people there. They had some hope of catching up at the second Roadblock, where Brodie was struggling greatly at building his kite, and both teams ended up finishing it at the same time. Unfortunately, Brodie and Kurt's taxi managed to get them to Semawang Beach first, giving them a lead at rowing their boats to the Pit Stop that they wouldn't give up, and Zach and Rachel were eliminated in a very close 6th place.

• A Death in the Limelight: They finally got some significant screentime during their final leg.
• The Determinator: Rachel was the only girl that did the excruciatingly hard salt task in leg nine that required a lot of upper body strength. It took her longer and she had to do it smaller batches than the guys but she never gave up and managed to finish. However, she was able to make up a lot of time at the bagging section of the task because she had smaller hands and the guys were struggling to tie the baggies.
• Failed a Spot Check: Rachel miscounted the money they had earned from the Detour in leg 3, costing her and Zach valuable time as they had to make their way back to the bus station and catch another bus to get the rest of the required money.
• Out of Focus: Aside from a few scenes where they argue or screw up tasks, and their unexpected 1st place finish in leg 7, they're kind of just there, with no real development or story for either of them. They weren't even given an Elimination Statement.
• Read The Freaking Clue: They lost time at the tent-building Detour on Leg 2 because they started setting it up in a random location and not where the clue specified.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: Roadblocks have to be split 6-6 between team members, so usually teams will try to keep them even so that the stronger teammate will be available to perform a more difficult Roadblock later on in the race. However, Zach had ended up doing the majority of the Roadblocks, putting them at him five and Rachel three by the ninth leg, forcing Rachel to do the physically exhausting salt making challenge and ultimately costing them the race. The same thing almost happened to Brodie and Kurt in the exact same leg, only they barely escaped elimination while the Kings went home.
• Satellite Character: In-Universe, Rachel feels like she is this in their videos, where Zach is the star and she is usually the assistant.
• Tempting Fate: At the beginning of leg 9, they briefly mention their wishes to adopt internationally, and how winning the race can help cover the expenses. Guess what happens that leg.
• Walk the Plank: Upon being eliminated on what was essentially a pirate ship, they decided to go out with a bang, and jumped off the side of the ship and into the ocean to the cheers of the other teams.

Scott Fowler and Blair Fowler

Father and Daughter from Kingsport, Tennessee (Scott) and Los Angeles, California (Blair). Blair is a Beauty YouTuber, with more than 1.7 million subscribers. They fell to last on the first leg after Scott struggled at the Roadblock, but were saved by a rare first leg non-elimination. Though they didn't really improve in terms of their performance in the following legs (their best placement being fourth), they got their fair share of screen time, mostly angled towards Blair's Genki Girl nature as well as her relationship with Brodie. Things seemed to be going their way in Georgia, when the two finished the Detour in 5th, ahead of the Dancers and Tyler/Korey, and Scott made it through the Roadblock just ahead of Korey. However, in their hurry to get out of the theater, Scott grabbed Tyler's bag, unaware that Blair had already taken both her own and her dad's bags. As a result, he had to run back to give it to Tyler before the two could get in their cab, but this allowed the two to be closely bunched together leaving the Roadblock and, in a footrace to the Pit Stop, the Father/Daughter team were eliminated in 7th.

• Accidental Innuendo: Lampshaded In-Universe in their intro with Blair saying how she started a YouTube channel in her own bedroom and said not like that Dad.
• Born Lucky: Literally every leg.
  • In Leg One, they were saved by a Non-Elimination leg.
  • In Leg Two, they finished just ahead of the Mother and Daughter and the Vine Brothers, who were on later flights than them.
  • In Leg Three, they finished ahead of the Vine Brothers (who struggled at the Roadblock) and Zach and Rachel (who had to turn back to fully complete the Detour).
  • In Leg Four, they managed to stay in only because of the Models getting on a later train.
  • In Leg Five, they caught up thanks to Rachel falling at the paragliding Roadblock, allowing Blair to go in front of her due to the fact that only one person could attempt the takeoff at a time.
  • In Leg Six, they only got ahead because of Tyler and Korey struggling to find the clue at the theater and Sheri's floundering at the Roadblock.
  • Finally averted in Leg Seven when Scott and Blair left the theater, but went back to give Tyler his bag back and lost the cab race to the Pit Stop against Tyler and Korey thus leading to their elimination.
• Brainless Beauty: Blair does appear as one at times.
• Honor Before Reason: Scott giving Sheri advice on the oil changing Roadblock despite being one of the last teams there.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Blair compared searching for the clue in the theater as "Willy Wonka searching for the Golden Ticket"
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: Before the volcanic tar pit task, Blair did not bring a bathing suit with her, and instead chose to use a thong. On the race, there will be at least one task in which teams will have to get wet so a bathing suit should be recommended before going on the show.
  • This is compounded by Blair's admission that she brought a hair dryer and a curling iron onto the Race, two items which have no practical purpose.
• Romance on the Set: In-Universe, Brodie was attracted to Blair, and she to him as well. This leading to other teams creating a hashtag Portmanteau Couple Name: #Blodie.
• Sex Sells: Blair said that she would twerk for tickets at the Detour in the third leg and also offered "besos for pesos" (though they became air kisses in front of her father).
• Southern Belle: Blair describes herself as one.

Erin White Robinson and Joslyn Davis

Best friends and hosts for Clevver News on YouTube from Los Angeles, California. They stayed out of the spotlight for the first four legs, with their only real airtime involving Erin's brushes with claustrophobia. In the fifth leg, they fell behind at the Detour after they wandered around searching for a "lunch" to deliver (despite the fact that they already had it, baguettes that were given to them earlier), but they still managed to complete it faster than Sheri and Cole, who wasted time trying to decide what task to do, and Burnie and Ashley, who were the only team to choose the longer camping Detour. This allowed them to reach the Roadblock in sixth place; however, Erin struggled with running down the snowy mountainside long enough to allow her paraglide a chance to take off, and the other two teams came up from behind and passed her before she could even get halfway down the hill, leading to their elimination in 8th place.

• Face Plant: One of Erin's failed attempts at paragliding involved this.
• Out of Focus:
• Read The Freaking Clue: Searched for the "lunch" despite having the baguette on their bags that they were given at the start of the leg.
• Satellite Character: Joslyn.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Erin is terrified of—out of all things—fish, thanks to a traumatic experience at the beach as a child.
  • Erin again is also claustrophobic, making her struggle at the cave Roadblock in the first leg, and she was crying walking though the Catacombs in Colombia.

Brittany Oldehoff and Jessica Versteeg

Best friends and Instagram models from Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Brittany) and San Francisco, California (Jessica). They stayed under the radar for the first three legs, finishing mostly in the middle of the pack, before hitting a wall in Switzerland. First, they got lost searching for the Work Bench Detour, and ended up switching to Bench Work, struggling enough at that task that they dropped to last place. Although they caught up to a few teams at the Roadblock, Jessica was not offered any help by the other participants, even though they were all helping each other, causing her to finish the Roadblock last. They had a small chance of catching up due to the fact that the Pit Stop required two train connections to be made, and they arrived at the second station while the train carrying the rest of the teams was still there. Alas, they missed it by mere seconds, and they were eliminated in 9th.

• All the Other Reindeer: Throughout the Roadblock and series of trains to the pit stop, the other teams repeatedly made comments showing that the models wouldn't be missed if they got eliminated.
• Down to the Last Play: They could have caught up to all the other teams at the second connection, but missed it by seconds.
• Global Ignorance: Brittany asked what country Switzerland was in. However, Brittany later claimed on her Twitter account that she was answering a Spanish woman's question about what continent Switzerland was in and couldn't translate it well.
• Failed a Spot Check: They walked right by the "Work Bench" Detour option, when they were looking for it.
• Humiliation Conga: Their entire last leg.
• Lucky Seven: Invoked by them after back-to-back seventh place finishes on the first two legs.
• The Nicknamer: They call Burnie and Ashley "The Roosters".
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: They had every right to be mad everyone was helping each other. Not because they were excluded, but because this is a race against other teams not with them.
• Self-Deprecation: Brittany after cutting her finger at the Parrilla Detour saying she cut herself because she's a genius.
• Sore Loser: Once they were in last, Jessica and Brittany appeared to have given up on any chance of their getting back in the race. They even walked to the train that would have allowed them to make it to the Pit Stop alongside their competitors. Though they said during interviews that running to the train wouldn't have made a difference as they didn't had tickets because they only had US Dollars with them.

Cameron Benson and Darius Benson

Brothers and Vine Stars from Memphis, Tennessee (Cameron) and Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Darius). After an average first leg, they fell to the back of the pack in the second leg when their lack of efficiency caused them to miss out on all the earliest flights out of Mexico, and they ended up barely avoiding elimination thanks to Marty and Hagan's mistakenly leaving their cab at the Detour decision point. Although the next leg had no equalizer, meaning they were starting far behind the other teams, they surprisingly managed to catch up, departing the Detour in 7th place. However, Darius misinterpreted the clue at the Roadblock, thinking that he needed to return his mochilas to their designer rather than the vendor who gave him the Roadblock clue, and he spent a good amount of time wandering the streets asking for the designer. By the time he realized his mistake and finished the Roadblock, all the other teams had passed them, and they were eliminated in 10th place.

• Failed a Spot Check: They did find the fruit shack in Leg 2, but failed to notice the clues were on the table instead of a clue box, so they were searching the beach grounds for it. They had to go back to retrieve the clue after Joslyn corrected them.
  • A more embarrassing one on Leg 3 occurred where Darius managed to waste his entire buffer at the Roadblock looking for a vendor he was right next to at one point.
• Foregone Conclusion: Subverted, their final leg seemed to be starting out like this, but they managed to make up the deficit after 3 teams chose the longer Detour. They seemed to be well on their way to finishing the leg with a mediocre but solid placement, until Darius managed to waste all the ground they made up failing to find the vendor.
• History Repeats: Once again, a team of black brothers had an average first leg and then stayed within the bottom two for the next two legs.
• Humble Pie: Their back-to-back tenth place finishes in their last two legs served as this.
• Humiliation Conga: Their entire final two legs. Emphasized by their claims that they felt they were a tough team early on in the second leg.
• Sibling Team:
• Time-Compression Montage: Darius got one roaming the streets of Colombia asking for the designer that had made his mochilas.

Marty Cobb and Hagan Parkman

Mother and daughter from McKinney, Texas, Marty is known for her flight attendant safety demonstration that went viral, gaining over 22 million views on YouTube. They stayed mostly under the radar in the first leg but ended up suffering from extremely bad luck in the following leg. First off, they fell behind early when they ended up with tickets on the third flight to Colombia, getting in half an hour behind the other teams save for the Vine Brothers. Then, Hagan's struggles at the Roadblock dropped them to last. Although they had a chance to catch up when they completed the fish cooking Detour ahead of the brothers, they had decided to leave their taxi at the Detour decision point, forcing them to run over a mile back to said location. This allowed the brothers, who brought their cab to the task location, to pass them up and they ended up eliminated in 11th place as a result.

• El Spanish "-o": Marty, in an attempt to make their cab driver go faster, said that they were in "el race-o".
• Foregone Conclusion: In the interview in the second leg, Marty sounded like she had just been crying, foreshadowing their elimination. Also, Hagan's reason for stopping her mom from running to their cab once the brothers passed them.
• Gender-Blender Name: Both Marty and, to a lesser extent, Hagan, are more commonly male names.
• Out of Focus: Not so much in terms of the Race, but more in the fact that they were arguably the least famous Internet stars out of the whole cast.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: They left their taxi cab at the Detour decision point, despite their needing to walk quite a ways to the isolated beach. This would ultimately do them in.
• Tempting Fate: They hoped their flight would hit a tailwind to catch up, the flight got delayed by 10 minutes