The Amazing Race 12 | |
---|---|
Season 12 | |
![]() Region 1 DVD cover | |
Presented by | Phil Keoghan |
No. of teams | 11 |
Winner | TK Erwin & Rachel Rosales |
Runner-up | Ronald & Christina Hsu |
No. of legs | 11 |
Distance traveled | 30,000 mi (48,000 km) |
No. of episodes | 11 |
Release | |
Original network | CBS |
Original release | November 4, 2007 – January 20, 2008 |
Additional information | |
Filming dates | July 8 – July 29, 2007 |
Season chronology | |
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 between July 8 and 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, Anchorage, Alaska. New twists 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 the finale aired 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.
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. [1] 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:
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. [2]
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. [5] [6] Fall 2007 marked the first time since its 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. [7] According to executive producer Bertram van Munster, the change had a minimal affect on the season's production in comparison to the previous seasons. [8] It was later announced that after the cancellation of Viva Laughlin , The Amazing Race 12 would take its time slot, beginning its airing on November 4, 2007, earlier than originally intended. [9] [10] The finale aired on January 20, 2008. [11] It was broadcast in standard-definition. [12] During the airing of the season, it was announced that the The Amazing Race 13 , the following season, had been greenlit. [13]
The season was filmed in the summer of 2007, after the airing of The Amazing Race 11 concluded. [8] The season was filmed between July 8 and July 29, 2007, [14] a 21-day period. [8] [15] The race's starting line was set outside the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California. [8] Its finish line was located in Girdwood, Anchorage, Alaska, making it the first time the finish was not located in the contiguous United States. [16] The season saw teams travel approximately 30,000 miles during the competition. [17] [18] 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. [8] Teams raced through ten countries across four continents. [19] Five countries in the route were new to the series: Ireland, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Lithuania, and Taiwan. [20] [21] Preparation for a season typically takes between four and five months. [17] When designing the season's challenges, van Munster wanted to ensure the race could be won by anyone no matter their age, so tried to making the challenges a balance of mental and physical tasks. [8] [15] The time spent at Pit Stops lasted between 12 and 36 hours. [22] 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. [23]
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 remove non-elimination legs in an effort to "create more excitement". [24] As there was set to 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. [8] 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. [25] This season introduced two gameplay mechanics to The Amazing Race: the U-Turn and the Speed Bump. [3] [4] A U-Turn allows one team to force that another team is required to complete both options of the Detour before they can continue the race. [3] Teams may use the U-Turn only one time during the entire race. There were two opportunities to use the U-Turn in the race, [26] occurring in the season's fourth [3] and eighth legs. [4] 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. [4]
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. [8] Littman noted that the cast was generally younger than previous seasons. [24] 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 full of people who were new to reality television and didn't know the "tricks of the trade". [8] It was noted that the cast lacked any teams of young men, and that 15 of the 22 individuals were either from or resided in California. Van Munster commented that neither was intentional. [8] Two days after the series premiere, CBS launched a page dedicated to The Amazing Race on social networking site Facebook via Facebook Ads. [27]
Contestants | Age | Relationship | Hometown | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ari Bonias | 21 | Best Friends | Fountain Valley, California | Eliminated 1st (in Clifden, Ireland) |
Staella Gianakakos | 23 | |||
Kate Lewis | 49 | Married Ministers | Thousand Oaks, California | Eliminated 2nd (in Durgerdam, Netherlands) |
Pat Hendrickson | 65 | |||
Marianna Ruiz | 25 | Sisters | Miami, Florida | Eliminated 3rd (in Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso) |
Julia Ruiz | 26 | |||
Lorena Segura | 27 | Dating | Sherman Oaks, California | Eliminated 4th (in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) |
Jason Widener | 33 | |||
Shana Wall | 32 | Friends | Los Angeles, California | Eliminated 5th (in Rumšiškės, Lithuania) |
Jennifer McCall | 32 | |||
Azaria Azene | 27 | Brother & Sister | New Orleans, Louisiana | Eliminated 6th (in Dubrovnik, Croatia) |
Hendekea Azene | 23 | Torrance, California | ||
Kynt Cothron | 31 | Dating Goths | Louisville, Kentucky | Eliminated 7th (in Mumbai, India) |
Vyxsin Fiala | 29 | |||
Nathan Hagstrom | 24 | Dating | Fountain Valley, California | Eliminated 8th (in Taipei, Taiwan) |
Jennifer Parker | 23 | Huntington Beach, California | ||
Nicolas Fulks | 23 | Grandson & Grandfather | Chicago, Illinois | Third place |
Donald Jerousek | 68 | Elkhorn, Wisconsin | ||
Ronald Hsu | 58 | Father & Daughter | Tacoma, Washington | Runners-up |
Christina Hsu | 26 | Washington, D.C. | ||
TK Erwin | 22 | Newly Dating | Huntington Beach, California | Winners |
Rachel Rosales | 23 |
After the season ended, Kynt & Vyxsin applied for 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. [28] Kynt & Vyxsin and Ronald & Christina competed again on The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business , [29] with Kynt and Ronald now going by "Kent" and "Ron", respectively. [30] During the season, Christina Hsu revealed that she was engaged to Azaria Azene. They married in March 2011. [31]
The following teams are listed with their placements in each leg. Placements are listed in finishing order.
Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TK & Rachel | 3rd | 6th | 2nd | 7th | 1st | 4th | 4th | 1st | 4th‡ | 2nd | 1st |
Ronald & Christina | 7th | 9th | 5th | 3rd | 3rd | 1st | 3rd | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 2nd |
Nicolas & Donald | 5th | 8th | 6th | 4th | 6th | 5th | 1stƒ [a] | 2nd | 3rd | 3rd | 3rd |
Nathan & Jennifer | 10th | 2nd | 3rd | 2nd | 5th | 3rd [b] | 2nd | 4th | 2nd | 4th† | |
Kynt & Vyxsin | 2nd | 4th | 4th | 5th | 2nd | 2nd | 5th‡ | 5th† | |||
Azaria & Hendekea | 1st | 5th | 1st | 1st | 4th | 6th† | |||||
Shana & Jennifer | 6th | 3rd | 7th | 6th⊃ [c] | 7th† | ||||||
Lorena & Jason | 4th | 1st | 8th | 8th†⊂ [c] | |||||||
Marianna & Julia | 9th | 7th | 9th† | ||||||||
Kate & Pat | 8th | 10th† | |||||||||
Ari & Staella | 11th† |
Destinations | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
---|---|
Route Markers | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Leg | Country | Objects |
---|---|---|
1 | Ireland | Tandem Bicycle |
2 | Netherlands | Bicycle |
3 | Burkina Faso | Camel Milk |
4 | Chicken | |
5 | Lithuania | Stilts |
6 | Croatia | Croatian Gun |
7 | Italy | BlackBerry |
8 | India | U-Turn Board |
9 | Japan | Janitor |
10 | Taiwan | Tea |
The Amazing Race 12 received positive reviews. After the first episode concluded, Andy Dehnart of Reality Blurred praised the season's cast, writing: "this season’s group managed to deliver yet again by being alternately entertaining, obnoxious, delusional, inspiring, and annoying". [35] New York Daily News writer David Bianculli wrote a positive review of the season premiere, and hailed The Amazing Race as "the reality competition series to beat". [36] Linda Holmes of Television Without Pity called the season good. [37] Salon 's Heather Havrilesky praised the season's cast as it contained "some pretty amusing teams" and thought the challenges were entertaining and difficult. [38] Reagan Sulewski of Box Office Prophets praised the season, writing that it was "one of the most successful Races in many seasons". She added: "After the twin debacles of All-Stars and Family Edition , it was sorely needed". [39] BuddyTV staff were satisfied with the season's final three, and liked the season's reduction in physical tasks from previous editions, believing it made the race more fair for teams with older members. [40] Oscar Dahl of BuddyTV called the season's finale "unremarkable", though appreciated its loation [41] and design. He added that he felt all of the final three teams would have made for satisfying winners. [42] In contrast, Entertainment Weekly 's Josh Wolk disapproved of the final Roadblock, believing it was overly convoluted, and thought the season's conclusion would have been more satisfying if Ronald & Christina had won. [43] Christine Seghers of IGN awarded the season's finale a 9/10, and was happy that TK & Rachel won. [44]
Of the show's first 27 seasons, Rob Has a Podcast correspondents Mike Bloom, Dan Heaton, and Jessica Liese ranked season 12 as the show's sixth-best, citing the cast and their dynamics, elimination order, challenges, placement of non-elimination legs, and introduction of the Speed Bump and U-Turn as highlights. [45] TheThings writer Val Barone listed it as the show's third-best season. [46] Gossip Cop 's Jane Andrews ranked The Amazing Race 12 as the show's ninth-best season, crediting the cast as a major aspect of the season's success, particularly voicing that she was entertained by Nathan & Jennifer's frequent arguing. [16] GameRant 's Rhenn Taguiam agreed that the cast was a highlight of the season, calling it "diverse" and "unique", ultimately listing the season as the show's 11th best of the first 34. [21]
The Amazing Race 12's premiere episode had the highest premiere ratings of the show's history. [27] [35]
Order | Episode | Rating/Share (18-49) | Viewers (millions) [47] |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Donkeys Have Souls, Too" | — | 13.72 |
2 | "I've Become the Archie Bunker of the Home" | 3.1/8 [48] | 10.48 |
3 | "Please, Lord, Give Me Milk" | 3.8/9 [49] | 11.86 |
4 | "Let's Name Our Chicken Phil" | — | 11.80 |
5 | "We Really Burned Bridges, For Sure" | 3.4/8 [50] | 11.26 |
6 | "Cherry on Top of the Sundae That's Already Melted" | 3.8/9 [51] | 11.95 |
7 | "This is Forever, Now" | 2.8/8 [52] | 8.97 |
8 | "Honestly, They Have Witch Powers or Something" | 2.5/6 | 9.69 |
9 | "I Just Hope He Doesn't Croak On Us" | — | 11.99 |
10 | "Sorry, Guys, I'm Not Happy to See You" | 3.8/9 [53] | 11.65 |
11 | "The Final Push" | 3.1/7 [54] | 9.75 |
# | Episode | Viewers (millions) | Rank (Overall) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Donkeys Have Souls, Too" | 2.14 | #8 [55] |
2 | "I've Become the Archie Bunker of the Home" | 2.03 | #7 |
3 | "Please, Lord, Give Me Milk" | 2.09 | #9 |
4 | "Let's Name Our Chicken Phil" | 1.86 | #10 |
5 | "We Really Burned Bridges, For Sure" | 2.10 | #9 |
6 | "Cherry on Top of the Sundae That's Already Melted" | 2.02 | #5 |
7 | "This is Forever, Now" | 1.32 | #12 |
8 | "Honestly, They Have Witch Powers or Something" | 1.62 | #1 |
9 | "I Just Hope He Doesn't Croak On Us" | 1.71 | #4 |
10 | "Sorry, Guys, I'm Not Happy to See You" | 1.85 | #5 |
11 | "The Final Push" | 2.04 | #3 |
In February 2014, it was announced that season 12 and season 13 were set to be released on DVD by CBS in are being brought out by CBS and CreateSpace. It contained three discs covering every episode. Special features were the "elimination station" videos. [56] Season 12 eventually released on DVD on March 24, 2014. [57]
Ten cities, four continents, nearly 30,000 miles, TK and Rachel you are the official winners of The Amazing Race.
Fly to Vilnius, Lithuania!!! When you land, drive yourselves to Trakai Castle. Then, search the ground for your next clue.
Once at the bottom, choose a rope ladder and finish assembling it. Then, scale the city walls.
All in all, it was one of the most successful Races in many seasons, and after the twin debacles of All-Stars and Family edition, it was sorely needed.
{{cite podcast}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)