The Amazing Race: Family Edition

The Amazing Race: Family Edition is the eighth season of the reality television show, The Amazing Race. It premiered on September 27, 2005 and ended on December 13, 2005 on CBS.

Development

Casting interviews were conducted in March 2005. Due to the unique format, two rules were changed for this season only - gasoline was covered by production costs (in addition to airline tickets), while the "six-Roadblock rule" in place since season 6 was removed as the teams consisted of four-person families. Some Roadblocks also required two members of each team to participate.

The Family Edition was filmed in a single month (July 2005) and traveled 11,000 miles (18,000 km), spanning only four different countries in North America.

Travelocity and GMC were the official sponsors during this season and provided prizes throughout the race to winning teams on certain legs.

Teams

1st place  Linz Family Siblings	2nd place  Bransen Family Dad and Daughters	3rd place  Weaver Family Widow and Kids	4th place  Godlewski Family Sisters	5th place  Paolo Family Dad, Mom and Kids
6th place  Gaghan Family Dad, Mom and Kids	7th place  Schroeder Family Dad, Stepmom and Kids	8th place  Aiello Family Father and Sons-in-law	9th place  Rogers Family Dad, Mom and Kids	10th place  Black Family Dad, Mom and Kids

Episodes

Leaderboard

This chart shows each teams ranking per leg according to their official check in at the Pit Stop. However, time penalties issued before the start of the next leg due to improperly performed tasks are not reflected here.

Place	Team	Leg 1	Leg 2	Leg 3	Leg 4	Leg 5	Leg 6	Leg 7	Leg 8	Leg 9	Leg 10		Leg 11		Average
1	Linz Family	9	2	2	3	4	2	3	2	1>	3	2	2	1	2.82	5-4-2-4
2	Bransen Family	7	6	1	1	3	3	5	4	2	1	1	1	2	3.18	4-5-4-2
3	Weaver Family	3	1	5	5	2	5<	2	3	4<	2	3	3	3	3.27	2-4-2-7
4	Godlewski Family	1	3	4	4	6	4	1	1	3	4	4			3.10	4-5-2-2
5	Paolo Family	6	8	6	2	1►	1>	4	5						4.13	1-1-3-2
6	Gaghan Family	2	7	7	6	5	6								5.50	2-2-1-1
7	Schroeder Family	5	4	3	7										4.75	2-0-1-1
8	Aiello Family	8	5	8											7.00	0-0-1-2
9	Rogers Family	4	9												6.50	0-0-1-0
10	Black Family	10													10.00	0-0-0-0
Notes					[1]						[2]		[3] [4][5]		[6]
Legend:      The team finished in first place      The team finished in last place and was eliminated from the race      The team finished in last place in a non-elimination leg      The team that won The Amazing Race      The team that crossed the Finish Line second      The team that crossed the Finish Line third ► The team used the Fast Forward pass > The team used the Yield < Recipient of the Yield
Notes: 1: An additional task in Leg 4 was presented to teams as a Roadblock but was aired as a miscellaneous task. The Roadblock tally includes the Roadblock in this leg as every team was shown having a particular member performing it. 2: Legs 10 was a double-length leg, with two Detours and two Roadblocks, and shown over two episodes. The placements listed in the first column reflect the order teams arrived at the leg's halfway point. 3: Leg 11 was a double-length leg, with two Detours and two Roadblocks. The placements listed in the first column reflect the order teams picked up a charter flight to a mystery destination at Olympic Stadium, the leg's halfway point. This leg was shown over a single two-hour episode. 4: The Weaver Family was not shown performing the Roadblock on air, as the Linz and Bransen Families had already crossed the Finish Line. An interview after the race with the family revealed that Rebecca was the team member who did the Roadblock. 5: The Bransen Family won "The Final Amazing Challenge" task shown on the CBS website after the end of the race. 6: The finishes in the first half of the superlegs in Leg 10 and Leg 11 are not counted as part of the average. Only the final finish in the leg is counted toward the average.

Trivia

Franchise

• First season to stay entirely within one continent.
• First time visits to Panama and Costa Rica.
• First season not to have a team penalized nor told to go back and fix the mistake before checking in.
• Most participants in a race: 40 people.
• First time that the penultimate leg was a superleg.
  • Only season with multiple superlegs (not counting No-Rest Legs).

US

• Fewest countries visited, 4.
• One of three seasons to have no teams returning in All-Stars.

Reception

• Harry Smith on The Early Show (08/16/2005): "Amazing Race 8: A Family Affair"
• Gary Levin at USA Today (08/16/2005): "Families compete in new Amazing Race"
• Stephen M. Silverman at People.com (08/17/2005): "New Amazing Race Season a Family Affair"
• R.D. Heldenfels at Ohio.com (10/11/2005): "It's Not That Complicated"
• Dalton Ross at EW.com (10/14/2005): "What's wrong with The Amazing Race?"
• Sal Cinquemani at Slant Magazine (10/19/2005): "Reviewing Family Edition So Far"
• Joanna Slimmer at flowjournal.org (11/19/2015): "Why Family Edition does not suck"
• Robert Voets at USA Today (12/11/2015): "Reality Check - Amazing Race Recaps"
• Andy Dehnart at realityblurred (01/23/2006): "Phil Keoghan thought TAR 8 sucked; CBS exec says the season wasn't particularly successful"

External links

• CBS.com - The Amazing Race: Family Edition