Characters / The Amazing Race 32

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 32nd installment of the series.

The season was filmed between November and December 2018 but didn't air until October 2020 for various reasons. These reasons include: schedule issues with 31, CBS's desire to have the next season filmed before airing (no season was filmed in 2019), and in anticipation of a writer's strike that ended up not happening. CBS had put the season on its spring 2020 schedule but it was pushed back again once CBS needed to fill airtime in the fall after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the filming of many scripted shows.

It is also a return to the show not having a theme for the season. However, the very ethnically diverse cast is heavy on familial teams, all male teams, and professional athletes.

Overall, the final product ended up being a mixed bag. The season started off well with a lively cast and interesting locations, but began fizzling out towards the middle of the season. Once alliances started being made they became the focus rather than the competition or the personalities of the teams. The race tried to advertise new twists, even though they had been already used such as the mega-leg ^note  Though it was one of the better-received episodes of the season or the all city sprint. ^note  Which was done in Season 30 and was considered one of the worst episodes of the entire series The alliance ended up dominating the final two-thirds of the season making the boot order and end result painfully predictable. The most divisive team of the divisive alliance were the victors, ending the season on a sour note. On the bright side, the season had a great, diverse route and the editing issues that have plagued the more recent installments were fixed. Also as always, there are plenty of people who enjoyed the alliance, feeling that it brought a chaotic element to the show so this season isn’t universally disliked by any means, just divisive.

James Wallington & Will Jardell

Dating couple who are travel vloggers. They have been staying near the front of the pack, with a few close calls early on but after Leg 2, they never finish under 4th. While they would toss around the lead with Hung & Chee and Maddison & Riley throughout the race, they got ahead during the Mardi Gras Roadblock, and never let go of that lead allowing hem to finish the race in first. This would lead to their proposal, on the mat as well.

• Ascended Fanboy: Will has applied to the race several times in the past. According to James, he has applied 8 or 9 times and wanted to be on the show since he was 11.
• The Bad Guy Wins: They were seen as the villain team in this season, due to their hypocritical tendencies and being ringleaders of the unlikeable Mine Five.
• Big Bad: Due to being superfans, this is the closest thing this season has to a major antagonist as the true ringleaders of the Mine Five.
• Big Damn Kiss: They shared one after winning.
• Camp Gay: Both of them to a certain extent.
• Chekhov's Hobby: They watched Amazing Race 20, shortly before coming on the show and practiced dancing with a bottle on their head which came in handy during the Detour. Will also owns heels at home so running in heels was easy for him in the penultimate leg. They also studied Geography before coming on the race, allowing them to easily complete the final world puzzle.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Just about the only teams they didn't screw over in some form were Cheeung and The Beards.
• Driving Stick: Leo had to help them get their car going during Leg 5. Happened again on the Berlin leg 6, where they had trouble using the German car, especially with Will being too tall for it, so they decided to book it.
• Face–Heel Turn: They started off as potential fan favorites at the beginning of the season, however, later on in the season, they became ringleaders of an alliance that many saw as unlikeable.
• Felony Misdemeanor: After Leo and Alana shared their answers with Kaylynn and Haley, they created a five team alliance against them that would last the whole show.
• Hypocrite: They U-Turned Alana & Leo because they were answer sharing with Kaylynn & Haley, even though they made an alliance with several other teams. Gets even more noticeable when they get very share happy in leg 4. Also noticeable in leg 11, when they refuse to work with Gary and DeAngelo during the final task, but later work with Cheeung and the Beards.
• Informed Attribute: They made the same strategic blunder of targeting weaker teams when they had the opportunity to take out stronger ones twice which calls into question their status as the season's superfans.
• In-Series Nickname: The Boyfriends.
• Loophole Abuse: Due to training for the race and they aren't required to keep their German car the whole leg, they ran all the way from where their car was stuck and easily caught up with the other teams.
• Manipulative Bastard: Played with. Due to being superfans, they know most every strategy, and utilize their alliance to keep them finishing strong, even able to trick the blondes into burning their Yield hourglass on their rivals and have achieved their dream of their alliance making the final five. However, they made several strategic blunders involving not getting rid of The Beards and Cheeung when they had the chance, instead opting to get rid of a weaker team. Twice!
• One Head Taller: Will is a lot taller than James.
• Read the Freaking Clue: They have fallen into this trap a few times, most notably in the penultimate leg, where they needed to place instrument cases with flags of countries they had been to in the correct order. It took them almost 10 in-show minutes^note which was at least a half-hour IRL for them as well as Hung & Chee to realize they needed to put the cases in the order the songs were heard on the race and not at the challenge.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: For supposed superfans, they seem to not understand how the game works. For starters, a big alliance group of strong teams just doesn't make sense because you're purposefully keeping around your competition. The only other big alliance was used in season 10 with the back of the pack teams and even that ended up biting the Cho bros in the ass. They U-turned Leo & Alana in Brazil when they'd been running in the middle of the pack because they were working with Kaylyn & Hayley, another back of the pack team. Using the U-turn offensively early on has been long established as a bad move. It's better to use it for defense if you absolutely have to to survive or wait until later for offense. It's especially bad if you use it for offense and then don't make sure that the targeted team gets eliminated. If they were going to use the U-turn that way, they should have had someone burn the second spot and/or used it to target a stronger team. When they got to India, they also used the yield offensively against back of the pack Kaylyn & Hayley even though, once again, the smarter decision would have been to use it to take out a stronger team. That said, they did end up winning despite all of this but due to the nature of the alliance, it's debatable how far they'd have gotten without the help of the brothers and Hung & Chee. Their win is also mostly due to Will getting through the needle in a haystack challenge first rather than anything based on skill.
• Relationship Upgrade: Will proposed to James at the Finish Line.
• Token Evil Teammate: The closest team this season has to a villainous team, once again because like Brendon and Rachel before them, they are the only ones to U-Turn a team early on, and are constantly reminded of it by said team.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: On the finish line no less. ^note While they are certainly not the first team to do this, as Jessica & Cody and many others even some LGBTQ+ people can attest to, they are one of the few superfans to do it, at least not to the extent of these two.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Heights for James.

Chee Lee & Hung Nguyen

The season's only married couple. They're from Houston, Texas. Chee is a financial advisor and Hung a professional development coach. They started off strong, wining the first two legs and staying at front of the pack for most of it (barring leg 4), however they started to falter in the later half, with getting help from their alliance to keep them in. During the final leg, they fell behind Will & James when Chee took longer to find his king cake baby, the gap was too much to overcome and they finished the season in 2nd place

• Asian and Nerdy: Both Chee and Michelle joked about how stereotypical it was that they just assumed the other had had piano lessons while they were competing for first place in the drumming roadblock.
• Awesome by Analysis: They figured out the difficult watermelon pyramid detour by looking at the directions the stems were facing and repeating it.
• Bittersweet Ending: They lose the race, but state that the race reminded them both why they fell in love in the first place.
• Failed a Spot Check: What ultimately did them in as Chee didn't notice his king cake baby poking out, he spent more time looking though other cakes before realizing it.
• Fatal Flaw: They've lost the opportunity to jump ahead on several occasions for being too nice.
• Funny Background Event: As Chee searches for his baby in the king cakes, Hung clearly can see it and is forced to suffer in silence making faces as she's not allowed to point it out to her husband.
• Happily Married
• In-Series Nickname: Cheeung.
• Nice Guy: Both of them are very sweet. This has led to them attempting to be more cutthroat.
• One Head Taller: Chee towers over the 5 feet, 100 lb Hung.
• Try Everything: They focused only on the code rather than the fish inputting the combination into every single fish they saw, it ends up taking them 55 fish until they got the right one.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Hung ripped her pants at the pit stop.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Heights for Hung.

Riley McKibbin & Maddison McKibbin

Brothers who are a professional beach volleyball team from Hawaii.They were on of the most consistent teams in the race, finishing in the front of the pack and never below 4th.Going into the final leg, they had the most wins of the season and look poised to win, but their cab driver got them lost at the start, putting them in the back of the pack which they couldn't recover, finishing in 3rd place.

• Gender-Blender Name: Both men have gender neutral names.
• In-Series Nickname: The Beards.
• Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: The Quadratic Wizards to Will & James' Linear Warriors, having finished the last three legs including the penultimate leg in first, while Will & James finished the earlier legs in first.
• My Nayme Is: You don't see many people spelling Madison with two D's
• Nice Guy: Both of them, averted when their cutthroat sides came out in the later legs.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: As the highest placing team, they probably shouldn't have stuck with the alliance as long as they did and/or should have taken out a stronger team when the opportunity arose.
• Sibling Team: One of four this season and one of two where they work together as well.

DeAngelo Williams & Gary Barnidge

Retired former NFL teammates on the Carolina Panthers. Gary now runs a non-profit. After nearly getting eliminated first, the two of them rebounded and ran a solid race. They joined with the Mind Five alliance to help them in the race but were accused of not contributing anything, thus were excluded from the core of the alliance. In the penultimate final leg, they led for most of the time but they couldn't solve the music challenge faster than the Mind Three and they were eliminated in 4th place

• All of the Other Reindeer: During the final few legs, the core 3 alliance of Hung and Chee, Will and James, and Riley & Maddison plotted to eliminate them.
• All Take and No Give: Have been accused of this by their allies, especially by Cheeung and The Beards.
• Face–Heel Turn: They started out as one of the more likable teams of the season but over time they started riding the coattails of their alliance and grew increasingly bitter when their alliance stopped helping them.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Were basically unaware of the internal alliance between The Boyfriends, The Beards, and Cheeung until the final challenge in the penultimate leg.
• Manipulative Editing: If you watch the extended version of their elimination, DeAngelo makes it clear that he was just frustrated about being ganged up on by the secret alliance and isn't actually a sore loser.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: They were the closest thing this season had to a comic relief team.
• Sore Loser: DeAngelo's Elimination Statement was quite bitter, saying he could pay for a trip around the world himself, and he will never compete in the race again.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: DeAngelo, after his Elimination Statement.
• Trash Talk: They are professional athletes, after all. Most noticeable during Aparna & Eswar's final leg after they U-turned them. During the airing of the finale, DeAngelo talked a lot of smack about the final 3 teams on Twitter.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Both of them. Gary struggled with the steel drum Roadblock on the first leg, while DeAngelo struggled with the tile Roadblock on leg 10.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Leg 8 has them take one of the beards' rickshaws forcing the other teams in their alliance to call them out on it.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Because of the aforementioned accusations of not providing anything good to the Mine Five, the Final Three had this attitude towards them at the end of Leg 9 and tried to U-Turn them in Leg 10. While that didn't work, they were able to lock them out at the Music Case Challenge in Leg 11.

Eswar Dhinakaran & Aparna Dhinakaran

Sibling software developers from the Bay Area of California. Although they were part of the alliance, they didn’t get much screen time. It didn't help that they were in the back of the pack, only finishing in the top half once, they got along, and were overshadowed by bigger personalities. In Cambodia they were U-turned by Gary & DeAngelo while Riley & Maddison burned the second spot and despite catching up at the Roadblock, the time gap was too much to overcome as Eswar couldn't finish the task fast enough and they finished in 5th place.

• A Death in the Limelight: They get the most focus in the episode that ultimately sends them home.
• Ascended Fanboy: Both of them grew up watching the race.
• Asian and Nerdy: Describe themselves as such.
• Out of Focus: As expected for a team that gets along and finishes in the middle, they don't get a lot screen time. Especially compared with the others in the group of five alliance.
• Screaming Warrior: During the movie roadblock, after getting turned away twice for not being loud enough, they decide to go straight into this, much to the confusion/amusement of the extras.
• Sibling Team: One of four this season.

Kaylynn Williams & Haley Williams

Sister real estate agents from South Carolina. They ended up being this season’s version of the team that despite setbacks, managed to get far into the season via a combination of good luck, a good attitude, and determination. They ended up as the last non-alliance team standing. Their good luck, however, ran out in the double leg in India. They got behind on the first half when their driver couldn’t find their location. They managed to make up time on the detour but were yielded before the roadblock by Will & James because they had used theirs the previous leg and had no way to retaliate. With no travel to equalize, they couldn’t catch back up despite doing well on the rest of the tasks. They were yielded again by the brothers to save Hung & Chee and were finally eliminated on leg nine.

• Born Lucky: They're the team that pops up every season that manages to luck out and get far into the season despite some colossal mistakes. They came in last in two of the non-elimination legs and only were spared elimination in Paris when Victoria and Michelle got lost for six hours looking for something that was only 2km away.
  They actually end up being a deconstruction of this trope in India. Since all the tasks had a learning curve to them, all the teams moved at a similar pace through most of the legs with little chance for any teams to make any major screw ups. And both times they got Yielded, the teams mentioned their luck made them a threat to luck their way into the finale and the win. This was despite bigger threats statistically like Hung & Chee and Riley & Maddison still being in the race.
• Decoy Protagonist: Much like Krista and Tiffany in season 27 with the focus on Justin and Diana, their charm and determination to keep going despite mistakes has made them the most prominent team outside the big alliance group. They’ve even managed to get more screen time than Eswar and Aparna, who are in the alliance.
• Determinator: Say what you will about their blunders, they made it far into the season because they never gave up.
• Driving Stick: They struggled with it even more then Will did. Many fans watching thought they were gonna ruin the car before the leg ended.
• Girls With Mustaches: Their speed bump in Kazakhstan was to put prop beards on each other and they kept them for the rest of the leg.
• Humiliation Conga: A rare heroic example. Their entire last leg saw them get stuck with a bad cab driver, get lost during the detour and yielded twice. They still had a smile on their face at the end, though.
• In-Series Nickname: The blonde bandits.
• Nice Girl: Leo & Alana's reason for helping them in the truck task in the second leg.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: For those viewers who saw the Blondes and Alana & Leo as a counter-Alliance to the Mine Five, this happened when The Boyfriends and The Beards yielded The Blondes on the Megaleg after the Blondes yielded Alana & Leo on the prior leg.
• Sibling Team: One of four this season and one of two where they work together as well.
• Strong Family Resemblance: They're probably the most similar looking (non-twin) sibling team to ever compete in the show. Not helping matters is the fact that they're only a year and a half apart in age. Kaylyn is taller and Haley has a slighter rounder face.

Leo Brown & Alana Folsom

A dating couple from Boston. Alana works in the higher education field and Leo is an data analyst for healthcare company. They ran in the middle of the pack for most of the season but were eliminated in leg 7 after they struggled with the Genghis Khan Detour. They ended up being Yielded by their allies Kaylynn & Haley, which put them far enough behind that their strong performance on the hut-building challenge wasn't enough save them from elimination.

• Graceful Loser: In their Elimination Statement, they attributed their loss more towards their poor performance in the Movie Detour than to Kaylynn & Haley's Yield.
• Holier Than Thou: Hold this mentality in respect towards their rivals.
• Honor Is Fair Play: Their viewpoint of the race.
• Irony: The self-proclaimed nerd team of the season got eliminated on a heavily cerebral and detail-oriented leg.
• Proud to Be a Geek: The happily accept the label of nerd team.
• Single-Issue Wonk: Their obsession with being U-Turned by Will & James has reached Dave & Connor levels.

Michelle Newland & Victoria Newland

Sisters from Louisiana. Michelle works for BMW and Victoria is a teacher. They started off strong but were eliminated in leg five after they got lost in Paris.

• Asian and Nerdy: Michelle joked that Chee must be a better Asian because he beat her at the drumming roadblock.
• Fatal Flaw: They did very well on the tasks, getting there was their problem.
• Global Ignorance: They thought Paraguay was in Africa.
• No Sense of Direction: One of the most embarrassing examples in the series, they managed to get lost for 6 and a half hours looking for a location just 2 kilometers away blowing a huge lead they had on Kaylynn & Haley despite the team monumentally botching their stick shift driving.
• Parental Favoritism: Michelle and Victoria admitted they weren't close due to their mother preferring Victoria to Michelle.
• Sibling Team: One of four this season.

Jerry Eaves & Frank Eaves

A father/son team from Louisville, Kentucky. Jerry is a college basketball coach and Frank works at a car dealership. They were eliminated in the third leg after they forgot their stuff at the port and had to go back which gave Kaylynn and Haley the opening to U-turn them to pay back Leo and Alana for their help the previous episode.

• Older Is Better: Jerry is by far the oldest contestant this season at 60.

Kellie Wells-Brinkley & LaVonne Idlette

Former Olympic hurdlers from Virginia. Kellie is now a sports broadcaster and LaVonne works in real estate. They struggled in the first leg but were able to make up ground once they got to Colombia. However, they ran into bad luck in the form of the dreaded bad taxi. Their driver hadn't charged his phone, meaning he couldn't use GPS to get them to their location. He drove around in the general area for a long time before they were able to find it. They couldn't catch back up and got eliminated.

• Informed Flaw: Kellie's dyslexia; given the tasks in the episode had more to do with numbers rather than words, it seems what she thinks is dyslexia is dyscalculia.

Nathan Worthington & Cody Buell

Best friends from Dayton, Tennessee and Paint Lick, Kentucky, respectively. They're this season's obligatory team without much travel experience. Like most of these teams, they got the boot early after Cody struggled with the drumming roadblock in the first leg.

• Good Ol' Boy: One of their hobbies is noodling, catching catfish with their bare hands.
• It's the Journey That Counts: Both said they didn't care about the money, they only wanted the experience. Which ended up as a stark contrast to DeAngelo's Elimination Statement.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: As expected for the first team eliminated.

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