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
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
Season 6's initial drawing point was the Hotter and Sexier cast, including a former Playboy Playmate, fitness trainers, professional wrestlers, and the prerequisite models and actors. Though it might have the most attractive cast ever, all of the friend and family teams were eliminated early on, meaning the top 6 teams were made up entirely of young couples, and that meant there was fighting... a lot of fighting. With five of the top six teams constantly at each others' throats, the highest concentration of equalizers of any season of the show, and one of the most hated winners ever, it's easy to say that it is not one of the more popular seasons. When you also take into account that it was sandwiched directly between the much more beloved Seasons 5 and 7 (the seasons airing with just three weeks separating them), means that Season 6 is not as fondly remembered as some others. Not everything was bad, though. This was the first season to have a mandatory Roadblock split, forcing the teams to split the Roadblocks evenly between them, thus making it much harder for a strong racer to carry a weak teammate through the game. With several memorable moments, including possibly the most heart-wrenching elimination in the show's history at the end of the third leg, and an increased level of difficulty, the season does have its fans.
Freddy Holliday & Kendra Bentley (KKKendra)
Dating models, and one of the most hated winners ever. For the most part, they were bland and under-the-radar, but quickly earned the ire of the fans when Kendra started insulting every culture they visited, saying that Sri Lanka smelled and that the people in Africa kept "breeding and breeding." In comparison, Freddy was less offensive, but nowhere near likable enough to make up for Kendra's ugliness. An above-average team, they easily made the Final 3. In the finale, they found an earlier flight than Kris & Jon into Chicago, while this was negated by a train equalizer, they remembered the instructions given to them by the ticket taker while Kris & Jon had to look at their map allowing them to overtake Kris & Jon and win.
- Alpha Bitch: Kendra
- The Bad Guy Wins: While not truly villainous, Kendra was the most hated racer on the season after Jonathan, mostly due to her "breeding and breeding" comment, and having them triumph over Kris & Jon pushed what was already an underwhelming season into being one of the least popular seasons ever.
- Dirty Foreigner: The subject of Kendra's "Breeding and breeding" speech.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Kendra was absolutely pissed at Jonathan for yelling at his wife for cutting her hand on leg 9 and even stopped the task for a second to make sure Victoria was okay
- Felony Misdemeanor: Their reaction to getting Yielded by Adam & Rebecca.
- Jerkass: Even without Kendra's comment about the Senegalese people, both were this as they insulted Adam & Rebecca behind their backs in the first leg and Freddy's Minor Injury Overreaction.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: A leg 6 operating hours equalizer had the teams waiting at a gate for it to open at 10AM. As the teams raced under it, it came back down and hit Hera and Freddy in the head. Though Hera took it in stride, Freddy lost it and started yelling at the other teams. Probably the only reason he and Kendra did not get booted for fighting is that no one owned up to pulling the gate down. When Jonathan is the one telling him to calm down, you know it's bad.
- Averted In Ethiopia where Freddy got a cut on his hand that bled, but he kept on trucking. Kendra was worried about the cut though.
- Pet the Dog: Despite her disdain of third-world countries, Kendra was quite receptive of the children in Ethiopia to the point of wanting to adopt one.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: In the promotional photo and the first few legs.
- Reality Show Genre Blindness: Kendra clearly disliked any developing countries. In leg 9 after spending several legs in Europe, upon finding out that their going to Ethiopia she says "we just went to a third world country".
- Revenge Before Reason: In Leg 11, Freddy & Kendra got to the Yield first, and decided to use it on Adam & Rebecca for Yielding them earlier in the season, this is despite also being in front of the much stronger Kris & Jon. Even Kris & Jon pointed out that they should have been the target of the Yield.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: The Lac Rose Roadblock in Senegal.
- Train Escape: In the finale, Kris & Jon, who were faster runners, were less than a minute behind them when running to the Finish Line, until they got held up at a railway crossing, giving Freddy & Kendra the victory.
- "Ugly American" Stereotype: Probably the team who fit this mold the most over the show’s 30 plus seasons.
- Underdogs Never Lose: While not the weakest team per se, they were this to Kris & Jon.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Freddy had an American Flag bandanna.
Kris Perkins & Jon Buehler 
Long distance dating couple who loved anything and everything about life. Quickly became fan favorites due to their amazing attitudes, and dominated most of the season. The only couple in the top 6 who didn't constantly bicker, they made it all the way to the end, only to lose when they got stuck at a train crossing on their way to the Finish Line. Due to their strong relationship and racing attitudes, they were selected as one of the 15 teams that Phil Keoghan wanted to see race in All-Stars, but they were replaced by the hybrid team Eric & Danielle from Season 9.
- The Ace: Freddy & Kendra admitted at the Finish Line that they weren't sure if they could beat them.
- Action Girl: Kris.
- Bittersweet Ending: One of the best examples in the series. While they're standing in Ping Tom Memorial Park, stuck behind the train while Freddy & Kendra run to the Finish Line, Jon hugs Kris and says the Race doesn't matter, because he has her.
- Born Lucky: At least the other teams think so.
- Foreshadowing: While racing to a Pit Stop on Leg 10 they nearly got hit by a bus and car which would foreshadow them being held up at the finish line by a train.
- Friend to All Living Things
- Hope Spot: They were a bit behind Freddy & Kendra on the race to the finish line, when their cabbie knew right where to take them while Freddy & Kendra's cabbie didn't have a clue. Then came the Train Escape.
- Long-Distance Relationship
- Mr. / Ms. Fanservice: They are a damn sexy couple, and the cameras frequently point this out, even more so than with the other attractive teams.
- Perpetual Smiler: Both of them
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: The Lac Rose Roadblock in Senegal.
- The Stoic: Jon. When Jon got upset at his cab driver in episode 11, Adam & Rebecca pointed out how out of character this was.
- Token Good Team: About the only team in the latter half of the season that aren't at each other's throats.
- Why Isn't It Attacking?: They questioned Freddy & Kendra's decision to Yield Adam & Rebecca, saying they should have been the target instead.
Adam Malis & Rebecca Cardon 
Dating fitness trainers who started off normal, but then Adam descended into, as the Race put it, "Being afraid of almost everything he faced." This greatly frustrated Rebecca, and their relationship deteriorated over the course of the race. Despite never finishing in the top half of the field they made it to to the Final 3, where they were never quite able to get on the same flight as the other two teams. Rebecca would go on to be a cast member on the Bravo reality show Work Out, where she would start dating the show's main subject, Jackie Warner.
- Action Girl: Rebecca, which becomes notable due to Adam's whining.
- Deadpan Snarker: Rebecca, especially when it came to dealing with Adam's constant whining.
- Determinator: Rebecca, who had to deal with Adam becoming a bigger and bigger wuss, and constantly trying to quit the race. He was a Flo-level partner.
- Failed a Spot Check: Repeated the "put unleaded in a diesel engine" mistake from Season 3.
- In-Series Nickname: Adam sported two tiny hair bunches on his forehead, quickly earning him the nickname Hellboy.
- Just in Time: In the penultimate leg's Roadblock, Rebecca gotten her lock unlocked at the last minute, allowing them to edge out Hayden & Aaron.
- Lampshaded Double Entendre: During the Cannonball Run Detour Rebecca comments "Boy those are some dirty balls" cue sarcastic laughter.
- The Load: Adam did nothing but complain and try to quit the race.
- Manchild: Adam still lived at home, and (when first meeting Rebecca) still had his mom cut his toenails for him.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: It didn't start out this way, but by the end Rebecca was referring to him as her "girlfriend".
- Mistaken for Gay: In the pre-race biography, Rebecca said she initially believed Adam was gay.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Rebecca was tiny but tough.
- Reality Show Genre Blindness: They're the only team to fill their diesel car with regular fuel following the disaster that befell half the teams in Season 3.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: Adam often wore a sleeveless hoodie. However, its subverted because of Adam becoming more and more whiny as the race continued.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: They started fighting as soon as they hit Iceland, aka The first country visited on the race. What keeps this from being The Masochism Tango is the fact they are not dating at the time.
- Tempting Fate: Rebecca yelled at Adam during the penultimate leg for daring to say that he had a feeling they would win that leg when they managed to get a bit of a lead (they ended up 3rd).
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: For Adam, everything was "snakes."
- Working with the Ex:
Hayden Kristianson & Aaron Crumbaugh 
Dating actors remembered mostly for Hayden's cleavage. They were the second best team for most of the season, but found themselves stymied by bad cabs and a Luck-Based Mission in the penultimate leg, and wound up in 4th.
- Alpha Bitch: Hayden. Aaron even acknowledge her bitchiness.
- Bittersweet Ending: Upon being eliminated, Aaron drops on one knee and proposes to Hayden. She says yes as Phil, Adam, and Rebecca are all visibly touched.
- Control Freak: Hayden
- Jerkass Has a Point: During their fight at the brick detour, Hayden pointed out it's neither fair nor logical for her to carry the same amount of bricks as Aaron when he's twice her size.
- Love at First Sight: Mentioned in their introduction by Hayden.
- Luck-Based Mission: Had to take a 4-hour penalty because Hayden was unable to find the one of 3,000 locks that fit her key before the last gondola left the mountain. It didn't help that she broke her first key halfway through the task, and had to start over with a new one.
- Male Gaze: Hayden's cameramen tended to take a much lower angle while filming her than they took with the no less buxom women she was racing against.
- The Masochism Tango: Though the others were worse, Hayden and Aaron still had their fair share of fighting due to opposite personalities and Hayden wanting to take charge.
- No Sense of Direction: Hayden called herself retarded with maps.
- Opposites Attract: She was uptight, he was laid back. During the race, Hayden wanted Aaron to take charge.
- Relationship Upgrade: Aaron proposed when they were eliminated.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the really bad day they'd been having, Hayden decided to give up on the lock Roadblock when the area was about to close.
- Self-Deprecation: See No Sense of Direction
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: The Lac Rose Roadblock in Senegal.
- This Is A Race: Hayden said this in leg one about alliances.
Lori Harvey & Bolo Dar'tainian 
- Lori: It's so cold my implants are frozen.
Married professional wrestlers. The season's "strong team" in place of an alpha male team, Lori is the physically strongest woman to ever run the race. They wound up 5th when they misread a clue and Lori had to run back down a mountain to retrieve a ticket that she had left with Bolo.
- All Amazons Want Hercules
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Averted, Lori wasn't very popular with the other teams for the way she yelled at Bolo.
- The Glomp: Lori did this to Phil after winning their only leg (via Fast Forward). Phil immediately started rubbing his neck when she let go.
- Henpecked Husband: Bolo.
- The Masochism Tango: Like Adam & Rebecca and Victoria & Jonathan, they started fighting on the first leg.
- Mighty Glacier: All those muscles really slowed their foot-speed.
- Obfuscating Disability: Tried this with Bolo pretending to have cerebral palsy at the first airport. Luckily, they dropped it quickly.
- Read The Freaking Clue: They missed that Lori needed to take her ticket with her up the mountain, and it got them eliminated.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: The Lac Rose Roadblock in Senegal.
- Squick: In-Universe. Their, particularly Lori's, reaction to tasting the Pig's blood at the Fast Forward.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Not as dumb as some other teams, but not bright either.
Jonathan Baker & Victoria Fuller 
Playboy Playmate and her husband. Jonathan was annoying, loud, abusive, and is quite possibly the most hated contestant ever. He constantly yelled at and verbally abused his wife, culminating with him shoving her on the way to the leg 5 Pit Stop. He was so bad that Phil named him as the one racer he didn't want to see back on All-Stars. They would appear together on Battle of the Network Reality Stars and Reality Stars Fear Factor. Victoria would later make frequent appearances on the reality shows Work Out (with Rebecca as her physical trainer), The Girls Next Door, and Kendra.
- Always Second Best: They finished 2nd three times, yet never managed to win a leg.
- Attention Whore: No one has milked their Amazing Race appearance for more than these two.
- Blind Date: How they met, according to the pre-game bio.
- Break the Cutie: Victoria at the end of the fifth leg.
- Chewing the Scenery: Jonathan does this often but Victoria did this when she had to eat the Hungarian spicy soup.
- Establishing Character Moment: Their introduction was devoted to setting up Jonathan's nature. Jonathan even called himself a dictator.
- Graceful Loser: Most eliminated racers are like this. It's just a bit more shocking when Jonathan pulls this off on being eliminated.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Jonathan's was one of the most infamous.
- Hate Sink: Jonathan. Not even the other contestants could stand him.
- Hot-Blooded: Jonathan did everything with insane intensity, including bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet during Phil's entire intro speech.
- It's All About Me: "I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF!!!"
- Jerkass: Jonathan was one of the worst on the show, but both of them qualified. Even off the race, on Fear Factor, after Victoria punched Survivor's Jonny Fairplay after he taunted her. Joe Rogan called her out on it. Jonathan defended her and they had to be separated by The Miz and removed before Joe attacked Jonathan.
- Kick the Dog: Jonathan was already an unlikable Jerkass, but him shoving his wife put him up there as one of the most hated people to ever run the race.
- Large Ham: Jonathan.Jonathan: I'm a superhero!
- The Masochism Tango: They started fighting literally just after the race started.
- Motor Mouth: Jonathan.
- Never My Fault: It was usually Victoria's fault. Sometimes it was another racer's fault. But it definitely was never Jonathan's fault.
- No Indoor Voice: Jonathan.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Jonathan was able to be a Graceful Loser on being eliminated.
- Psychopathic Man Child: Jonathan.
- Read The Freaking Clue: They only took one donkey instead of two at a time in Leg 8 which is their ultimate downfall.
- The Scrappy: Jonathan was this even In-Universe due to his behavior, temper, and treatment of Victoria. He gained reality television infamy due to this, appeared on Dr. Phil, and the couple eventually divorced in 2010.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Their taxi driver in Budapest, after they spent the whole ride yelling at him, kicked them out of the cab.
- Second Place Is for Losers: What motivated Jonathan's infamous shove.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Jonathan.
- Sore Loser: What Jonathan is most of the time he's losing.
Gustavius "Gus" McLeod & Hera McLeod 
Pilot and his daughter hoping to work out their differences. However, Gus became notorious for refusing to listen to his daughter. They finished 7th.
- Ace Pilot: Gus was formerly one.
- Backseat Driver: Gus would sit in the backseat and nag at Hera to slow down, even as the other teams zoomed by them.
- Control Freak: Gus, which he admitted to in the first episode.
- Delicious Distraction: Gus could not help but steal sips from every beer he was supposed to be serving during the leg 5 Detour, he even tried (not very sneakily) to stay back and drink one after finishing the Detour under the pretense of "getting his pack".
- The Load: Gus several times ordered Hera to drive slower, or move slower, or do everything slower. It's like he didn't seem to realize that he was in a race most of the time.
- Manly Tears: Gus at the Gate of No Return in Senegal while paying respect to the people that were shipped overseas as slaves. He claimed that this was the first time he ever cried in his life.
- Small Name, Big Ego: On the subway ride at the beginning of the season, Gus insisted his former experience as a CIA agent and his alliances would get him to the end.
Donald "Don" St. Claire & Mary Jean St. Claire 
Married Grandparents who are collectively the oldest team to run the race at an average age of 67.5 note . They made constant mistakes, which included accidentally taking Adam & Rebecca's car, that kept them in the back of the pack. They were eliminated in 8th place in Germany after getting lost.
- Happily Married: For 20 years at the time of filming.
- No Sense of Direction
- Smooch of Victory: After realizing they were not the last place team in Leg 3.
- Weak, but Skilled: An Informed Ability. They intended to use their smarts to gain an advantage over the younger and more fit teams but they stumbled throughout the race. This was even pointed out by Mary Jean.
Lena Jensen & Kristy Jensen 
Mormon sisters and models. Expectations were high after the first two legs, then they hit the Hay Bale Roadblock. They fell prey to one of the most brutal Roadblocks in Race history, finishing 9th. They remain one of the more memorable teams from the era despite lasting only three legs.
- Determinator: Lena unrolled hay bales for ten hours, long after the other teams had come and gone, and only quit when Phil came out to eliminate them. She has become the standard by which race Determinators are measured against.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Self-Described in the introduction. Lena the foolish, Kristy the responsible.
- Luck-Based Mission: The Hay Bale Roadblock that got them eliminated. There were 270 bales and only 20 clues, meaning there was only a seven percent chance of finding a clue in each bale. Though in the process, Lena missed 4 clues.
- Ms. Fanservice: They are models and were shown in bikinis during the opening.
- Non-Gameplay Elimination: Phil had to come to the Roadblock and inform them of their elimination.
- Sibling Team
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Going off of the Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling, Lena likes to party while Kristy stays to her Mormon roots and is serious.
Meredith Tufaro & Maria Sampogna 
Friends and Roommates from Queens, they constantly fell behind due to Maria's complete inability to drive stick shift. While this was negated by an equalizer, their struggles with the Detour relegated them to a 10th place finish.
- Driving Stick
- No Sense of Direction: Skipped the waterfall clue on the first leg by accident.
- Out of Focus: As a result of lacking distinct personalities and being a weak team who were eliminated early on.
Avi Schneier & Joe Rashbaum 
Jewish friends from Brooklyn and the only male team on the season, they were eliminated by a series of errors. First, they chose the luck-based Ice Search Detour and struggled with finding the buoy. They then made the decision to take the more direct backroads with lower speed limits. Finally, they ignored alliance-mate Gus' advice.
- Competition Freak: Avi, according to Joe, but their early exit made this an Informed Ability.
- Deadpan Snarker
- The Heart: Joe, according to Avi but again an Informed Ability due to an being the first out.
- Nerd Glasses: Avi.
