The Competition

The Amazing Race is a television show that airs on CBS, currently Sunday evenings.

The Amazing Race is a reality television competition, typically between eleven teams of two, in a race around the world. The race cycle is divided into a number of legs, normally twelve; each episode generally covers the events of one leg. Each leg ends with a Pit Stop, where teams are given a chance to rest and recover before starting the next leg twelve hours later. The first team to arrive at a Pit Stop is often awarded a prize such as a trip, while the last team is normally eliminated from the race. Some legs are non-elimination legs, where the last team to arrive may be penalized in the following leg. The final leg of each race is run by the last three remaining teams, and the first to arrive at the final destination wins the show’s price, one million dollars. The average length of each race is approximately 25 to 30 days.

During each leg, teams follow clues from Route Markers—boxes containing clue envelopes marked in the race’s red, yellow, and white colors—to determine their next destination. Travel between destinations includes commercial and charted airplanes, boats, trains, taxis, buses, and rented vehicles provided by the show, or may have the teams simply travel by foot. Teams are required to pay for all expenses while traveling from a small stipend (on the order of one hundred dollars) given to them at the start of each leg. Any money left unspent can be used in future legs of the race. The only exception is air travel, where teams are given a credit card to purchase economy-class fares.

Clues may directly identify locations, or may contain more cryptic riddles such “Travel to the westernmost point in continental Europe” that teams must figure out. Clues may also describe a number of tasks that teams must complete before continuing to race. As such, teams are generally free and sometimes required to engage locals to help in any manner to decipher clues and complete tasks. Tasks are typically designed to highlight the local culture of the country they are in.Such tasks include:

• Route Info – A task to be completed by the team before they can receive their next clue.
• Detours – A choice of two tasks. Teams are free to choose either task or swap tasks if they find one option too difficult. There is generally one Detour present on each leg of the race.
• Roadblocks – A task only one team member can complete. Teams must choose which member will complete the task based on a brief clue about the task before fully revealing the details of the task. Most races limit the number of Roadblocks one team member can perform. There is generally one Roadblock present on each leg of the race.
• FastForward – A task that only one team may complete, allowing that team to skip all remaining tasks and head directly for the next Pit Stop. Teams may only claim one Fast Forward during the entire race.
• Intersections – Tasks that require two teams to work together until otherwise instructed.
• Yields – A station where a team can force another trailing team to wait a pre-determined amount of time before continuing the race. Teams may only yield any other team once per race.
• U-Turns – A station, located after a Detour, where a team can force another trailing team to return and complete the other option of the Detour they did not select. Teams may only U-turn any other team once per race.
• Speed Bumps – A task that only the team arriving last in the previous non-elimination leg must complete before continuing on the race.