What the hell are we going to Phoenix, Arizona for? I wanna go to New Zealand!Marion Paolo (summing up the general feeling about the season)
Season 8 was initially planned to be an All-Star season, the same numbered season as
Survivor. However, after seeing how Survivor: All-Stars ended up becoming bitter and personal, and wanting to avoid something like that happening on what was essentially a family show, the idea was scrapped and a radical idea was put in its place. Season 8 was billed as a
Family Edition, where families of four could compete, and it would be the only season where children under the age of 18 could participate.
However, due to legal and insurance issues, teams were confined to the North American continent, which meant that the vast majority of the race was spent exploring the United States. Along with an accumulation of other issues such as an extra family being cut at the last minute, having to fit 40 contestants into the same amount of airtime normally meant for 22, an extremely large amount of non-elimination legs
* With only seven eliminations spread over thirteen legs, there were three non-elimination points and two double legs
, the difficulty of most of the tasks being reduced dramatically (the leg 4 Roadblock involved one team member climbing a ladder to the top of the world's tallest office chair), and the emphasis being pulled off of the international travel aspect and onto a bunch of family members arguing in the back of an SUV, and you are left with a season many people consider to be the worst.
However, the cast was (for the most part) diverse and memorable, the season was very competitive with no dominant favorite, and, if you lived outside of North America, the chances were you found something enjoyable about it.
Thomas "Tommy" Linz, Megan Linz, Nicholas "Nick" Linz, Alexander "Alex" Linz (The Linz Family)
Three brothers and their sister. They spent most of the season in front of the pack due to being young and fit, and therefore were able to power their way through the severely reduced difficulty. Though technically the first sibling team and containing the two youngest competitors to win the Race (Megan at 21 and Tommy at 19), the unconventional nature of the season instead gives those designations to
Nick & Starr.
- Always Second Best: It was a big part of their storyline until they finally won leg 9. It came to a head when they stumbled going into the leg 8 Pit Stop, the Godlewskis passing them in their much faster motor boat to win their third leg. Phil teased them about this when they checked in second.
- Assumed Win: Discussed in leg 9. So many times they had gotten excited because they "knew" they were in first, only to get passed and drop to 2nd or 3rd once again.
- Catch Phrase: "Harrumph," for Tommy.
- Chewing the Scenery
- Global Ignorance: When told to fly to Panama City, Panama, Tommy got excited about seeing all the high school girls on Spring Break.
- The Load: Megan could not run, and she got easily winded.
- Sibling Team
- Tempting Fate: See Assumed Win.
Lindsey Bransen, Walter "Wally" Bransen, Elizabeth "Beth" Bransen, Lauren Bransen (The Bransen Family)
Father and his three daughters. Wally quickly took a back seat, feeling like
The Load next to his younger, fitter daughters. Though they had the most first place finishes leading up to the final leg, they lost when Wally got edged out on the giant puzzle of North America that served as the Final Puzzle for the season.
- The Load: Subverted with Wally. Though early on it looked like him being relatively out of shape would hinder his daughters, he powered them through several brute strength tasks later on, something none of his skinny daughters were much good at, and he was even able to beat the Weavers in a footrace to the mat at the midpoint of leg 10.
- Ms. Fanservice: Starting with Kevin & Drew in leg 1, the collective attractiveness of the three girls is repeatedly brought up.
- No Sense of Direction: They dropped from 2nd to last in leg 7 while trying to find the Pit Stop. Fortunately, they were saved by a non-elimination leg.
- Pixellation: In the fourth leg, Lindsay mooned the Linzes from her car window.
- Read the Freaking Clue: They wasted lots of time in the second leg when they went to the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial instead of the one at the Capitol Building.
- The Runner Up Takes It All: Their leg 3 prize was free gas for life from from BP and ARCO. Considering how gas prices exploded some time after this season...
Linda Weaver, Rachel Weaver, Rebecca Weaver, Roy Holland "Rolly" Weaver IV (The Weaver Family)
Linda: I don't get it, most people like us. I've never been in a situation where we've been unliked in my life.
A widow and her three children. Linda's husband, a safety worker, died during
a Daytona NASCAR race
when he was struck by a car while picking up debris. Though seen as sympathetic at first, their random bouts of insanity and
Holier Than Thou attitudes quickly turned the audience against them, and made them the villains of the season. Despite all the other teams gunning for them, they managed to make their way into the Final 3, where they fell behind while driving to Niagara Falls, finishing over an hour behind the other two teams.
- The Ace: Linda described her son as this.
- El Spanish O: While asking for directions in Costa Rica, Rolly asked a local "On righto or lefto?"
- Enemy Mine: The other teams despised them, they were Yielded twice because of their attitudes, and in the finale the Bransens and Linzes didn't care which of them won, as long as it wasn't the Weavers.
- Global Ignorance: Constantly.
- In leg 1, when told to go to Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania:
Linda: Pennsylvania may be a state, I don't know. I'm just totally confused.
- In the next leg:
Rebecca: Where's Washington D.C.? What state is it in? Washington?
- In leg 4, while driving into New Orleans:
Linda: Lake Pontchartrain. It's one of the five Great Lakes.
- Holier Than Thou: They believed they were the only team who deserved to win because they were the only good people on the Race. Everyone else, on the other hand, found them insufferable and were pulling for any team but them to win.
- Hypocrite: At the beginning of leg 6 they talked about how they could hear the other teams talking about them, but they were above that because they were Christians. They spent the rest of the race badmouthing the other teams. Like in leg 7, when the Godlewskis tired to comfort the kids during the go-karting Roadblock, and then the kids immediately started talking about how much they hated the sisters.
- In-Series Nickname: Florida.
- Jerkass: Yeah their complaints about all the other teams ganging up on them had some justification, but it didn't help that they were constantly and unbearably nasty.
- Laughing Mad: During the mystery bus trip on the third leg, through a combination of exhaustion and frustration, Rebecca Weaver absolutely lost it as she recounted their day. When the bus stopped for them to eat at a Waffle House, she started dancing in the parking lot with her mother while all the other teams looked on in shock. Then they got on the bus and Rachel joined in as she started singing. You know things are bad when the 12-year-old looks afraid for his life.
- The Nicknamer: With most of their nicknames being the titles of television shows. Desperate Housewives for the Godlewskis, Rugrats for the Gaghans, The Brady Bunch for the Bransens, the Cleavers for the Paolos, the G. I. Joes for the Linzes.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Rolly
- Only Sane Man: Rolly was the only member of the family who didn't come off as a raving, Holier Than Thou lunatic, but he also almost never talked.
- Paranoia Fuel: Linda was uncomfortable with air travel, so in leg 3, when flying for the first time during the season, after booking their tickets the entire family walked up to another counter to ask a few questions, causing the Aiello and Schroeder Families to suspect them of plotting something.
- Rage Quit: All three women fell to Killer Fatigue at the Stade Olympique in the finale, Linda even going off and falling asleep, before Rolly managed to convince them to keep looking for their clue amongst the seats. Rolly could not do it on his own as the task required them to stay together.
- Sanity Slippage: At least if you don't think they were already crazy to begin with.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Naturally, two of the tasks on the race involved racing stadiums, and the kids freaked out both times.
- X Must Not Win: They felt this way about all the other teams and vice versa.
Michelle Godlewski, Christine Godlewski, Sharon Godlewski, Patricia "Tricia" Godlewski (The Godlewski Family)
Team of four sisters. They were the first all-female team to win multiple legs and back-to-back legs, two seasons before Dustin & Kandice did both. They also made up an hour deficit to win the first leg, and had the best finishing average for most of the season. Unfortunately, just like with the Linz Family, no one cares about the Family Edition, so they're mostly forgotten in discussion of strongest female teams. Fell in 4th place when they couldn't stop bickering, mostly due to Christine's mood swings and inability to cooperate with her sisters, and struggled with the teepee building Detour.
Anthony "Tony" Paolo, D.J. Paolo, Marion Paolo, Brian Paolo (The Paolo Family)
Dysfunctional Family from New York. Even though they scraped along the bottom for the first part of the season, spending most of their time in last, the fighting between D.J. and Marion became one of the few entertaining parts of the season. They seemed to pull it together when they finally left the country, winning the legs in Panama (via Fast Forward) and Costa Rica, but everything fell apart again when they got back to the U.S. They were eliminated in 5th when they took the longer route to the Grand Canyon.
- Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Marion and D.J. after they bungee jumped together, also their entire family during their Elimination Statement.
- Call Back: On their way to their elimination, Marion called Ian's Catch Phrase, "We're comin', Phil."
- Catch Phrase: Tony: "Unbelievable!" (mildly accented)
- Directionless Driver: Marion wanted to stop and ask for directions to the Grand Canyon, but D.J. refused to stop when the Bransens did, putting them in last when they took the longer route.
- Dysfunctional Family: They even admitted it upon their elimination.
- The Glomp: Tony did it to Phil on almost every leg when they checked in.
- The Load: Marion was neither strong nor fast, constantly fought with D.J., and loudly complained when people didn't listen to her.
- Shoo Out the Clowns
- This Is A Race: When being confronted by the Weavers after being the first team to Yield them, D.J. tried to explain that, yes, he was trying to knock them out with the Yield because the whole point of the game is to win. The Weavers naturally didn't get it.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: D.J. and bungee jumping.
Carissa Gaghan, William "Bill" Gaghan, Tamara "Tammy" Gaghan, William "Billy" Gaghan, Jr. (The Gaghan Family)
Parents and their two children. As one of two teams with a child under 10, they naturally went in with distinct disadvantage to the other teams. They also became obscenely popular with a small section of the fanbase. They were eliminated in 6th when Tammy struggled on the colored bean Roadblock in Costa Rica. Billy and Carissa would write intros for the
My Ox is Broken anthology.
- Hot Mom
- My Greatest Failure: Tammy Gaghan uses the screenname "banredbeans" on online forums.
- Read the Freaking Clue: They wasted lots of time in the second leg when they went to the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial instead of the one at the Capitol Building.
Hunter Schroeder, Char Schroeder, Nastassia "Stassi" Schroeder, Mark Schroeder (The Schroeder Family)
Two children, their dad, and stepmother. Started off strong, but got lost looking for a park five minutes from where Hunter worked and half an hour from their home, then got eliminated in their hometown of New Orleans, after which their home was destroyed months later in Hurricane Katrina. Stassi would go on to appear on
Queen Bees, a reality show meant to rehabilitate
Alpha Bitches.
Anthony "Tony" Aiello, Kevin Kempskie, Matthew "Matt" Hanson, David Alverson (The Aiello Family)
Dad and his three son-in-laws, and the only team with no blood relations. The finished 8th when they ended up on the second charter bus in leg 3, then were the last team to make it to the "first come, first serve" Roadblock in the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, and didn't have enough time to make up the deficit.
- Tempting Fate: At the beginning of their last leg, Matt talked about how they had been all business so far and needed to have more fun with the Race.
- Unwinnable by Mistake: The centrifuge Roadblock could only be done by one team at a time, and as it was the only task after the charter bus ride, and teams were sent by foot to the Pit Stop after completing the task, they were done as soon they lost the mad dash to pull their number at the Roadblock.
Brittney Rogers, Denny Rogers, Renee Rogers, Brock Rogers (The Rogers Family)
Parents and their two kids, they got lost repeatedly in the second leg and wound up 9th.
Reggie Black, Kenneth Black, Austin Black, Kimberly Black (The Black Family)
Parents and their two young sons. Remembered mostly for the Unfortunate Implications of their last name. They were the first team eliminated when they had issues with the watermill building Detour, then were edged out by the Linz Family when looking for the Detour.
- Hot Mom
- The Load: Eight-year-old Austin, the youngest racer on the season, was not nearly as fit for the race as nine-year-old Carissa Gaghan. He had trouble rowing the boat across the Delaware, and had to be pulled out of the creek during the watermill Detour.
- No Sense of Direction: The Linzes were tailing them out of the Detour, but split off and were able to find the Pit Stop before them.
Kevin O'Connor & Andrew "Drew" Feinberg
The Season 1 fan favorites showed up with a hot dog cart in the first leg to give the teams a clue. This appearance makes them the only racers to appear in three separate seasons, as well as two of the only racers to appear in a season that they were not racing on (that being
Jeremy making a cameo after Eric was allowed to call him after winning
All-Stars; Season 3's Aaron Goldschmidt stumbling upon a Season 6 Pit Stop, and Season 4's Chip Arndt running into teams at the Miami airport during All-Stars were never aired).
