The Amazing Race 6 | |
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Season 6 | |
![]() Region 1 DVD cover | |
Presented by | Phil Keoghan |
No. of teams | 11 |
Winner | Freddy Holliday & Kendra Bentley |
No. of legs | 12 |
Distance traveled | 40,000 mi (64,000 km) |
No. of episodes | 13 (including 1 recap) |
Release | |
Original network | CBS |
Original release | November 16, 2004 – February 8, 2005 |
Additional information | |
Filming dates | August 13 – September 12, 2004 |
Season chronology | |
The Amazing Race 6 is the sixth 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. This season visited four continents and ten countries, traveling approximately 40,000 miles (64,000 km) over twelve legs. Filming took place between August 13 and September 12, 2004. Starting in Chicago, Illinois, racers traveled through Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Senegal, Germany, Hungary, France, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, and China before returning to the United States, traveling through Hawaii and finishing in Chicago. New twists introduced in this season include the double-length leg and limiting the number of Roadblocks that each team member could perform. The season premiered on CBS on November 16, 2004, and concluded on February 8, 2005. Engaged couple Freddy Holliday and Kendra Bentley were the winners of this season, while dating couple Jon Buehler and Kris Perkins finished in second place, and exes Adam Malis and Rebecca Cardon 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 2004, CBS ordered the sixth season of the show, despite the fact that The Amazing Race 5 had not yet aired. Early renewal was likely due to the success of the changes made in season 5. [3] CBS also delayed the airing of season 6 until late in the fall and moved it out of its proposed Saturday timeslot in order to create a "cool down" period between races, hoping that this would help continue the newfound ratings success. [4]
The Amazing Race 6 spanned a total of 40,000 miles (64,000 km) over ten countries on four continents. The 30 days of filming began on August 13, 2004, and finished on September 12. [5] [6]
This season was the first in which team members had to complete an equal number of Roadblock tasks. No team member was permitted to complete more than six Roadblocks on the entire race. [7] Throughout the season, host Phil Keoghan verbally stated this rule when introducing each leg's Roadblock. This season also reduced the number of times the Yield appeared to three, compared to the previous season, where the Yield had been featured in nearly every leg.
A task in the second leg marked the first time that teams were required to work with each other. The ten teams had to split themselves into two groups of five, each of which had to row a Viking boat across a fjord. [8]
According to Aaron Crumbaugh, the sixth leg was originally planned as two separate legs with the first part being a non-elimination point, where the losing team would have been stripped of their money. However, those planned legs were combined into one after producers realized that begging was illegal in Hungary. [9]
This season featured a visit to Sri Lanka, where filming occurred just a few months before the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. The episodes aired four weeks after the earthquake had devastated the locations the teams had visited. A special message was inserted at the beginning of the episodes in Sri Lanka, dedicating them to the victims and to those helping with the recovery. [10]
This season's cast included eleven teams. [11] Early Show hosts Harry Smith and Dave Price ran the season's first leg with the actual teams as part of a special segment on their morning show. [12]
Contestants | Age | Relationship | Hometown | Status |
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Avi Schneier | 32 | High School Buddies | Brooklyn, New York | Eliminated 1st (in Grindavík, Iceland) |
Joe Rashbaum | 32 | Ventura, California | ||
Meredith Tufaro | 26 | Best Friends | Queens, New York | Eliminated 2nd (in Voss, Norway) |
Maria Sampogna | 26 | |||
Lena Jensen | 23 | Sisters | Pleasant Grove, Utah | Eliminated 3rd (in Häggvik, Sweden) |
Kristy Jensen | 26 | |||
Don St. Claire | 69 | Grandparents | Portola Valley, California | Eliminated 4th (in Berlin, Germany) |
Mary Jean St. Claire | 66 | |||
Gus McLeod | 50 | Father & Daughter | Gaithersburg, Maryland | Eliminated 5th (in Budapest, Hungary) |
Hera McLeod | 24 | Los Angeles, California | ||
Jonathan Baker | 42 | Married Entrepreneurs | Los Angeles, California | Eliminated 6th (in Lalibela, Ethiopia) |
Victoria Fuller | 32 | |||
Lori Harvey | 33 | Married Pro Wrestlers | Molino, Florida | Eliminated 7th (in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka) |
Bolo Dar'tainian | 38 | |||
Hayden Kristianson | 25 | Dating Actors | Chicago, Illinois | Eliminated 8th (in Xi'an, China) |
Aaron Crumbaugh | 25 | |||
Adam Malis | 27 | Formerly Dating | Los Angeles, California | Third place |
Rebecca Cardon | 29 | |||
Kris Perkins | 30 | Dating Long Distance | Long Beach, California | Runners-up |
Jon Buehler | 29 | Scottsdale, Arizona | ||
Freddy Holliday | 34 | Engaged Models | Miami, Florida | Winners |
Kendra Bentley | 25 |
Jonathan and Victoria appeared on a special episode of Dr. Phil to try to improve their marriage. [13] Jonathan and Victoria then competed on Battle of the Network Reality Stars . [14] Later, in a celebrity version of Fear Factor , Victoria attacked contestant Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton (of Survivor: Pearl Islands ), and Jonathan attacked host Joe Rogan, resulting in their expulsion from the show. [15] Aaron competed on the twelfth season of Food Network Star and on Cutthroat Kitchen . [16] [17]
The following teams are listed with their placements in each leg. Placements are listed in finishing order.
Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6a [a] | 6b | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Freddy & Kendra | 4th | 7th [b] | 6th | 5th | 1st | 1st | 6th | 2nd | 4th< [c] | 3rd | 2nd> [d] | 2nd | 1st |
Kris & Jon | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | 1st | 4th | 5th | 2nd | 4th | 3rd | 1st | 3rd | 1st | 2nd |
Adam & Rebecca | 7th | 6th | 5th | 6th | 6th | 6th | 5th | 1stƒ | 5th> [c] | 4th | 4th‡< [d] | 3rd | 3rd |
Hayden & Aaron | 1st | 4th | 1st | 4th | 3rd | 4th | 4th | 6th‡ | 1st | 2nd | 1st | 4th† [e] | |
Lori & Bolo | 6th | 5th | 7th | 3rd | 7th | 7th | 1stƒ | 3rd | 2nd | 5th† | |||
Jonathan & Victoria | 5th | 2nd | 4th | 2nd | 2nd | 3rd | 3rd | 5th | 6th† | ||||
Gus & Hera | 10th | 3rd | 3rd | 7th | 5th | 2nd | 7th† | ||||||
Don & Mary Jean | 9th | 8th [f] | 8th | 8th‡ | 8th† | ||||||||
Lena & Kristy | 3rd | 9th | 9th† | ||||||||||
Meredith & Maria | 8th | 10th† | |||||||||||
Avi & Joe | 11th† |
Destinations | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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At the time it aired, The Amazing Race 6 received negative reviews. Linda Holmes of Television Without Pity called this season disappointing. [22] Scott Pierce of Deseret News said that his immediate reaction after the season finished was, "I'm never going to watch this show again." [23] Reece Forward of Screen Rant ranked this season as the show's second-worst, writing that it was "actively unlikable at points," but the season "escapes the bottom slot due to at least having a few teams that are likable or interesting". [24] Since its airing, this season was ranked ninth out of the first 27 seasons by the Rob Has a Podcast Amazing Race correspondents in 2016. [25] In 2021, Val Barone of TheThings ranked this season as the show's fourth-best season. [26] In 2022, Rhenn Taguiam of Game Rant ranked this season as the seventh-best season. [27] In 2024, Taguiam's ranking was updated with this season ranked 12th out of 36. [28]
In Dakar, Senegal, Kendra Bentley, who had previously decried being in "ghetto Africa", complained, "This city is wretched and disgusting. And they just keep breeding and breeding in this poverty. I can't take it." [29] These comments were largely denounced as racist due to the equation of people in Africa as animals. [30] [31] Bentley later claimed that her comments were taken out of context, saying, "I was actually talking about the government and how they put people in these situations. They don’t give them opportunities for education or birth control." [32] Lesser outrage was also directed at Rebecca Cardon for similar insensitive comments. On the way to the House of Slaves on Gorée Island, Cardon commented, "I'd love to get out of Africa. I can see why so many people escaped." [33] Kevin McDonough of The Spokesman-Review wrote, "Now that's a novel way to look at the Middle Passage." [34]
Later in the episode, Jonathan Baker shoved his wife, Victoria Fuller, who had picked up his bag, which he had dropped during a footrace to the Pit Stop at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. He was modestly rebuked by Phil Keoghan, who had seen Jonathan berating his wife, but had not witnessed the shove. [35] In response, critics and fans decried seeing possible domestic violence on television. [36] [37] [38] Baker later stated that the "shove in Berlin was wrong. It was wrong and I should not have done it. I can't apologize any more because I really felt that it hurt." [39]