Fast Forward



"The Fast Forward is task that, when completed, a team can use to skip all other tasks and go directly to the pit stop."

Only one team may use each Fast Forward. Any team that is beaten to the Fast Forward will have wasted their time and must go back and pick up where they left off. Also, prior to Season 10, each team was allowed to use only one Fast Forward during the whole race, requiring teams to decide when it was most advantageous to use it. With the introduction of the Intersection route marker in Season 10, a team can claim two Fast Forwards in a single race, one while part of a grouped team during an Intersection, and another as a single team.



Availability
Originally, Fast Forwards were offered in every leg of the race (provided that there was as least one team left that had not used one), except for the final two legs. Starting in Season 5, the number of Fast Forwards was reduced to no more than two on the entire race. In the event a Fast Forward was not attempted by any team on a leg, the task involved was not shown, though clue envelopes with the green Fast Forward marker can usually be spotted by the viewers. In Season 18 and Season 19, Fast Forwards were not present. However, they returned in Season 20.

Results
A Fast Forward usually results in the team arriving at the Pit Stop first, but does not guarantee it. In the history of the show, three teams who earned a Fast Forward still arrived last at the Pit Stop. In Season 1, Joe & Bill won the Fast Forward but still arrived last (but were not eliminated due to a penalty received by Nancy & Emily). After winning the Fast Forward on Leg 3 (Mexico-United Kingdom) of Season 3, Dennis & Andrew were still eliminated due to their late arrival into England. After winning the Fast Forward on Leg 10 (India) of Season 20, Bopper & Mark were still eliminated due to their late departure from the pit stop. Similarly, NFL wives Monica & Sheree of Season 4 earned the Fast Forward but only placed 4th in the first leg (behind a three-way tie for first). On Leg 8 of Season 10, Tyler & James and Rob & Kimberly both won the Fast Forward as a result of the Intersection, the first time two teams have ever won the Fast Forward on the same leg. They, however, arrived second and third respectively behind Dustin & Kandice, becoming only the second and third teams ever to place neither first nor last after winning a Fast Forward, which also made Dustin & Kandice become the first and so far, the only team to place first in a leg which has multiple Fast Forward winning teams. In the first season of the Latin American version, Tamara & Matías won the Fast Forward, but arrived in second place, behind Casilda & Casilda.

Chip & Kim of Season 5, Freddy & Kendra of Season 6, the Linz Family of Season 8, Eric & Danielle of Season 11, TK & Rachel of Season 12, Tammy & Victor of Season 14, Kisha & Jen of Season 18, Ernie & Cindy of Season 19, Josh & Brent of Season 21, Zabrina & Joe Jer of Asia 1, Tyler & Nathan Australia 1, Patrícia & Sane of Brazil, Liu Weiwei & Lei Sheng of China 3, LJ & CJ of Philippines, and Carlos & Mauricio of the second season of the Latin American version are the only teams to have ever won without the use of the Fast Forward when there was at least one in the season.

Trivia

 * Eleven of the Fast Forward tasks involved head shaving.