The Amazing Race 12 is the twelfth season of the American reality competition show The Amazing Race. Hosted by Phil Keoghan, it featured eleven teams of two, each with a pre-existing relationship, competing in a race around the world for US$1,000,000. This season visited four continents and ten countries, traveling approximately 30,000 miles (48,000 km) over eleven legs. Filming took place from July 8 to July 29, 2007. Starting in Los Angeles, California, racers traveled through Ireland, the Netherlands, Burkina Faso, Lithuania, Croatia, Italy, India, Japan, and Taiwan, before returning to the United States and finishing in Girdwood, Alaska. New elements introduced this season included the U-Turn, where one team could dictate that another team must complete both options of the Detour before being able to continue, and a new non-elimination leg penalty called the Speed Bump, where teams that finished in last place were required to complete an additional task in the following leg. The season premiered on CBS on November 4, 2007, and concluded on January 20, 2008.
Newly dating couple TK Erwin and Rachel Rosales were the winners of the season, while father and daughter Ronald and Christina Hsu finished in second place, and grandson and grandfather Nicolas Fulks and Donald Jerousek finished in third place.
Format
The Amazing Race is a reality television show created by Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri, and hosted by Phil Keoghan. The series follows teams of two competing in a race around the world. Each leg of the race requires teams to deduce clues, navigate foreign environments, interact with locals, perform physical and mental challenges, and travel on a limited budget provided by the show. At each stop during the leg, teams receive clues inside sealed envelopes, which fall into one of these categories: Route Info: These are simple instructions that teams must follow before they can receive their next clue. Detour: A Detour is a choice between two tasks. Teams may choose either task and switch tasks if they find one option too difficult. There is usually one Detour present on each leg. Roadblock: A Roadblock is a task that only one team member can complete. Teams must choose which member will complete the task based on a brief clue they receive before fully learning the details of the task. There is usually one Roadblock present on each leg. Fast Forward: A Fast Forward is a task that only one team may complete, which allows that team to skip all remaining tasks on the leg and go directly to the next Pit Stop. Teams may only claim one Fast Forward during the entire race. U-Turn: Introduced this season, the U-Turn allows one team to force another team to complete both options of the Detour before they can continue the race. Teams may use the U-Turn only one time during the entire race. Speed Bump: The season introduced a new penalty for teams who were spared elimination by finishing in last place on a non-elimination leg, the Speed Bump. It required the team to complete an additional task in the following leg that only they had to complete. Most teams who arrive last at the Pit Stop of each leg are progressively eliminated, while the first team to arrive at the finish line in the final episode wins the grand prize of US$1,000,000.
Production
Development and filming In May 2007, it was announced that CBS had renewed The Amazing Race for its twelfth season, originally scheduled to air as a mid-season replacement of the 2007–08 United States network television schedule. This marked the first time since the sixth season that The Amazing Race was not included in CBS's initial fall television schedule, as the show had adopted a twice-yearly spring/fall schedule pattern since 2004 following poor ratings for season six. According to executive producer Bertram van Munster, the change had minimal affect on the season's production in comparison to the previous seasons. It was later announced that after the cancellation of Viva Laughlin, The Amazing Race 12 would take its time slot, and began airing on November 4, 2007, earlier than originally intended. The finale aired on January 20, 2008. During the airing of the season, it was announced that The Amazing Race 13, the following season, had been greenlit.
The season was filmed in the summer of 2007 after the airing of The Amazing Race 11 had concluded. The season was filmed between July 8 and July 29, 2007, a 21-day period. The race's starting line was set outside the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California. Its finish line was located in Girdwood, Alaska, making it the first time the finish was not located in the contiguous United States. The season saw teams travel approximately 30,000 miles during the competition. At 30,000 miles, it was one of the shortest routes in the show's history. Van Munster explained that the shorter course was purely incidental given the countries visited. Teams raced through ten countries across four continents. New locales visited this season were Ireland, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Lithuania, and Taiwan. Preparation for a season typically takes between four and five months. When designing the season's challenges, van Munster wanted to ensure the race could be won by anyone no matter their age, so he tried to make the challenges a balance of mental and physical tasks. Michael McKay, executive producer of The Amazing Race Asia, revealed that while they were filming The Amazing Race Asia 2, they crossed paths with the production team of The Amazing Race 12 in an airport.
The first five eliminated teams were sequestered at a villa in Portugal to await the finale. Subsequently, eliminated teams telephoned to inform the teams at the villa of their elimination, but continued to run the race as decoys to throw off potential spoilers. The sequestered teams met up with the decoy teams in the final destination city to cheer on the final three teams as they crossed the finish line. CBS posted short videos on its website after each episode aired in the Pacific Time Zone as part of its Elimination Station series, which showed the eliminated teams interacting at the villa.
At the Television Critics Association summer press tour in the following July, the show's then-executive producer Jonathan Littman stated that The Amazing Race 12 would be two episodes shorter than the previous season, and would remove non-elimination legs in an effort to "create more excitement". As there would be no non-elimination legs, the season was announced to also have no penalties, which van Munster said would make The Amazing Race 12 fast-paced. In the seventh episode of the season, however, it was revealed that there would be two non-elimination legs, one less than the usual three. This season introduced two new game mechanics to The Amazing Race: the U-Turn and the Speed Bump. A U-Turn allows one team to force another team to complete both options at the Detour before they can continue the race. The Speed Bump was a newly-introduced penalty which required teams that finished last on a non-elimination leg to complete an additional task in the following leg that only they were required to complete.
Casting The cast consisted of eleven teams of two who each had a pre-existing relationship; five teams were married or dating, four were made up of family members, and two were teams of friends. Littman noted that the cast was generally younger than previous seasons. As the previous season was the show's first time bringing back previous contestants, van Munster was excited to film The Amazing Race 12, as it was a cast who were new to reality television and didn't know the "tricks of the trade". Two days after the series premiere, CBS launched a page dedicated to The Amazing Race on social networking site Facebook via Facebook Ads.
Contestants
ContestantsAgeRelationshipHometownStatus 21Best FriendsFountain Valley, CaliforniaEliminated 1st(in Clifden, Ireland) 23 49Married MinistersThousand Oaks, CaliforniaEliminated 2nd(in Durgerdam, Netherlands) 65 25SistersMiami, FloridaEliminated 3rd(in Boulkiemdé, 26 27DatingSherman Oaks, CaliforniaEliminated 4th(in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) 33 32FriendsLos Angeles, CaliforniaEliminated 5th(in Rumšiškės, Lithuania) 32 27Brother & Sister New Orleans, LouisianaEliminated 6th(in Dubrovnik, Croatia) 23 Torrance, California 31Dating GothsLouisville, KentuckyEliminated 7th(in Mumbai, India) 29 24Dating Fountain Valley, CaliforniaEliminated 8th(in Taipei, Taiwan) 23 Huntington Beach, California 23Grandson & GrandfatherChicago, IllinoisThird place 68 Elkhorn, Wisconsin 58Father & Daughter Tacoma, WashingtonRunners-up 26 Washington, D.C. 22Newly DatingHuntington Beach, CaliforniaWinners 23 Future appearances After the season ended, Kynt and Vyxsin applied for the third season of The Amazing Race Asia, but were turned down by producer Michael McKay due to their prior Amazing Race experience. Their audition was shown on the "Racers Revealed" episode of the season. Kynt and Vyxsin, and Ronald and Christina, competed again on The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business. During the season, Christina Hsu revealed that she was engaged to Azaria Azene. They married in March 2011.
Results The following teams are listed with their placements in each leg. Placements are listed in finishing order. A placement with a dagger () indicates that the team was eliminated. An placement with a double-dagger () indicates that the team was the last to arrive at a Pit Stop in a non-elimination leg, and had to perform a Speed Bump task in the following leg. A indicates that the team won the Fast Forward. A indicates that the team used the U-Turn; a indicates the team on the receiving end of the U-Turn. +Team placement (by episode) Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 TK & Rachel 3rd 6th 2nd 7th 1st 4th 4th 1st 2nd 1st Ronald & Christina 7th 9th 5th 3rd 3rd 1st 3rd 3rd 1st 1st 2nd Nicolas & Donald 5th 8th 6th 4th 6th 5th 1st 2nd 3rd 3rd 3rd Nathan & Jennifer 10th 2nd 3rd 2nd 5th 3rd 2nd 4th 2nd Kynt & Vyxsin 2nd 4th 4th 5th 2nd 2nd Azaria & Hendekea 1st 5th 1st 1st 4th Shana & Jennifer 6th 3rd 7th 6th Lorena & Jason 4th 1st 8th Marianna & Julia 9th 7th Kate & Pat 8th Ari & Staella Notes
Race summary
Leg 1 (United States → Ireland)
Episode 1: "Donkeys Have Souls Too" (November 4, 2007) Prize: A trip for two to the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada (awarded to Azaria and Hendekea) Eliminated: Ari and Staella Locations Los Angeles, California (Playboy Mansion) (Starting Line) Los Angeles (Los Angeles International Airport) → Shannon, Ireland Rossaveal → Cill Rónáin Inishmore (Teampall Bheanáin) Cill Rónáin → Rossaveal (Rossaveal Ferry Port) Cleggan (Cleggan Farm) Clifden (Connemara Heritage and History Centre) Episode summary Teams set off from the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California, and drove to Los Angeles International Airport, where they had to book one of two flights to Shannon, Ireland. Five teams were booked on a British Airways flight scheduled to arrive 45 minutes earlier than an Aer Lingus flight that carried the remaining six teams. However, the British Airways flight was delayed during its connection in London, allowing the Aer Lingus flight to arrive in Shannon first. Once there, teams had to travel by ferry to the island of Inishmore and find the Teampall Bheanáin. At the church, teams had to sign up for one of three ferries departing the next morning. After returning to the Irish mainland, teams found a marked car with their next clue and had to drive themselves to Cleggan Farm. There, teams had to pedal a tandem bicycle along a dirt path to their next clue. In this season's first Roadblock, one team member had to pedal a high-wire bicycle across a ravine, suspended almost above the North Atlantic, in order to reach their next clue. Their partner, sitting below, was taken along for the ride.