The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business is the eighteenth installment of The Amazing Race. It premiered on February 20, 2011 and is the first US season of The Amazing Race to be broadcast in high-definition.
This season featured eleven returning teams from seasons 12 to 17 who would be given a second chance to win, after failing to win their first season.
Production[]
The 18th season of The Amazing Race was subtitled "Unfinished Business" and featured eleven returning teams from previous seasons for a second chance to win the million dollar prize. Host Phil Keoghan described all the contestants as teams that "came so close to winning but for one reason or another just didn't quite make it over the finish line in first place.” Keoghan gave examples of two teams: Zev & Justin from Season 15, who had finished first on a leg, but one of them had lost his passport too late to continue racing; and Kisha & Jen from Season 14, where they took an unfortunately-timed restroom break while racing to the Pit Stop and were eliminated. The prior experience of all the teams in previous seasons allowed the producers to increase the difficulty of the various tasks and challenges they were to face.
All of the teams have been from recent seasons of The Amazing Race with the earliest season represented is the 12th. According to Bertram van Munster, they stayed with more recent teams because "if we're digging too far back, people might not even remember who they were". The 14th season is represented by five of the eleven teams; van Munster called this particular season of The Amazing Race "a very unique season" and justified its larger proportion of teams. Though they had considered mother and son fan-favorites Toni and Dallas from the 13th season, Keoghan stated they felt the other selected teams "have the best stories and the best motivation" for casting. During an interview with CBS's The Early Show, Season 17 runner-ups Brook & Claire revealed they were asked to take part on the season but couldn't due to the Claire's pregnancy.
This season was transitioned from standard-definition to high-definition onto a 1080p through a growing wide trend of high definition format in the American television.
Filming started on November 20, 2010 at the San Gorgonio Pass wind farm near Palm Springs, California where the first task had teams sorting through hundreds of paper airplanes. They were asked to find one that said "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services", which is the full name of the airline Qantas. By finding the correct paper airplane, teams were awarded one of two flights to their first destination: Sydney, Australia. Teams were spotted at Oceanworld Manly around November 22, 2010 and a day later around the mining town of Broken Hill, New South Wales in the Australian Outback. The route travelled 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) in nine countries and five continents including the Race franchise's first visit to Liechtenstein. Filming concluded on December 13, 2010 at the Florida Keys.
There was a new twist introduced for this season, the No-Rest Leg, an old variation of the Superleg that were previously used from The Amazing Race 6 to The Amazing Race 10, and The Amazing Race 14, used the corresponding leg with Pit Stop at the end without a mandatory rest period between them and the following leg.
Teams[]
Episodes[]
Episode | Air Date | Leg | Destination | First Place | Last Place | Finish | Viewership (millions) |
Ratings/Share (18-49) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Head Down and Hold On" | February 20, 2011 | 1 | United States → Australia | Gary & Mallory | Jet & Cord | Ordered to Continue Racing |
9.15[1] | 2.5/7[1] |
2 | "I Never Looked So Foolish in My Whole Entire Life" | February 27, 2011 | 2 | Australia | Zev & Justin | Amanda & Kris | 1st Eliminated 11th Place |
7.67[2] | 2.1/5[2] |
3 | "We Had a Lot of Evil Spirits Apparently" | March 6, 2011 | 3 | Australia → Japan | Zev & Justin | Mel & Mike | 2nd Eliminated 10th Place |
9.78[3] | 2.7/7[3] |
4 | "This Is the Most Stupid Day Ever" | March 13, 2011 | 4 | Japan → China | Margie & Luke | Kent & Vyxsin | Ordered to Continue Racing |
9.44[4] | 2.7/8[4] |
5 | "Don't Ruin the Basketball Game" | March 20, 2011 | 5 | China | Jet & Cord | Jamie & Cara | 3rd Eliminated 9th Place |
10.12[5] | 2.8/8[5] |
6 | "I Feel Like a Monkey in a Circus Parade" | March 27, 2011 | 6 | China → India | Gary & Mallory | Margie & Luke | 4th Eliminated 8th Place |
10.96[6] | 3.2/9[6] |
7 | "You Don't Get Paid Unless You Win" | April 10, 2011 | 7 | India | Flight Time & Big Easy | Ron & Christina | 5th Eliminated 7th Place |
10.48[7] | 2.9/8[7] |
8 | "I Cannot Deal with Your Psycho Behavior" | April 17, 2011 | 8 | India → Austria | Zev & Justin | Gary & Mallory | Non-Elimination Leg |
8.78[8] | 2.4/7[8] |
9 | "We're Good American People" | April 24, 2011 | 9 | Austria → Liechtenstein → Switzerland | Zev & Justin | Jet & Cord | 6th Eliminated 6th Place |
9.37[9] | 2.6/8[9] |
10 | "Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen" | May 1, 2011 | 10 | Switzerland | Flight Time & Big Easy | Kent & Vyxsin | 7th Eliminated 5th Place |
9.20[10] | 2.6/7[10] |
11 | "This Is Where It Ends" | May 8, 2011 | 11 | Switzerland → Brazil | Gary & Mallory | Zev & Justin | 8th Eliminated 4th Place |
8.97[11] | 2.6/7[11] |
12 | Brazil → United States | Kisha & Jen | Gary & Mallory | 3rd Place | |||||
Flight Time & Big Easy | 2nd Place |
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 | Leg 12 | Average | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kisha & Jen | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3.33 | 6-6 |
2 | Flight Time & Big Easy | 5 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 6⋑ | 7 | 1 | 2 | 5⊂ | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3.75 | 6-6 |
3 | Gary & Mallory | 1 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 2ϵ | 1 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3.25 | 6-6 |
4 | Zev & Justin | 4 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3.46 | 5-5 | |
5 | Kent & Vyxsin | 10 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 5⊂ | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 6.00 | 4-5 | ||
6 | Jet & Cord | 11 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 6⊃ | 4.56 | 4-4 | |||
7 | Ron & Christina | 8 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 6.00 | 3-3 | |||||
8 | Margie & Luke | 7 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 5.33 | 2-3 | ||||||
9 | Jaime & Cara | 6 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 9⊃⋐ | 7.80 | 2-2 | |||||||
10 | Mel & Mike | 9 | 6 | 10 | 8.33 | 1-1 | |||||||||
11 | Amanda & Kris | 2 | 11∪ | 6.50 | 1-0 | ||||||||||
Notes | [1] | [2] | [3][4] | [1] | [5][6] | [7] | [8] | ||||||||
Legend:
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Notes:
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Trivia[]
Franchise[]
- First time visit to Liechtenstein.
- First season to have an automatic U-Turn.
- First season to have the first episode end with a cliffhanger.
- Most parent/child teams in a single season, 4 (tied with The Amazing Race Australia Celebrity Edition).
- First season to have only one Speed Bump in the entire race since its introduction.
- First time all-female teams won the race in back-to-back seasons, following The Amazing Race 17.
- First time that there are back-to-back Roadblocks in the final leg.
US[]
- First season to be broadcast in High-definition television.
- First season to have African-American teams finish 1st and 2nd.
- Second time the Finish Line is located in Florida, after The Amazing Race 7.
- Fewest couples in love in standard format: 2 out of 11, tied with The Amazing Race: All-Stars (2014).
- First season with no elimination in the first leg.
- First season in which all Non-Elimination Legs had six or more teams competing.
- First season in which all non-eliminations of any kind had five or more teams competing.
- First season to feature No-Rest Legs (legs 1 and 4).
- First season to visit Oceania in the earlier legs and South America in the later legs.
Season[]
- The first four teams eliminated were all from the same season, The Amazing Race 14.
- Ironically, Kisha & Jen, the only surviving team from The Amazing Race 14, went on to win.
- All the teams that made it to the final leg in their original season were eliminated consecutively from leg 5 until leg 9.
Reception[]
- Andy Dehnart at realityblurred (09/18/2011): "Amazing Race unbelievably wins another Emmy"
External links[]
Get this season on iTunes
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/sdsdskdh279882992z1/sunday-final-ratings-amazing-race-adjusted-up-the-simpsons-adjusted-down/83523/
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/sdsdskdh279882992z1/sunday-final-ratings-academy-awards-adjusted-up-plus-ratings-for-oscars-red-carpet/84094/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/sdsdskdh279882992z1/sunday-final-ratings-secret-millionare-celebrity-apprentice-adjusted-up-brothers-sisters-bobs-burgers-cleveland-show-adjusted-down/85003/
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/sdsdskdh279882992z1/sunday-final-ratings-secret-millionaire-amazing-race-undercover-boss-celebrity-apprentice-adjusted-up-cleveland-show-adjusted-down/85835/
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/sdsdskdh279882992z1/sunday-final-ratings-secret-millionaire-adjusted-up-family-guy-cleveland-adjusted-down-cbs/86680/
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 https://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=27887
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 https://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=28010
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 https://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=28062
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 https://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=28107
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 https://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=28192
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 https://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=28237
- ↑ Kwiatkowski, Elizabeth (March 7, 2011). Exclusive: Mel White talks 'The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business'. Reality TV World. Retrieved on February 26, 2021.
The Amazing Race Season Index | |
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United States | 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26 · 27 · 28 · 29 · 30 · 31 · 32 · 33 · 34 · 35 |
Asia | 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 |
Australia | 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 |
Brazil | 1 |
Canada | 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 |
Central Europe | Cancelled |
China | 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 |
China Rush | 1 · 2 · 3 |
Finland | 1 |
France | 1 |
Israel | 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 |
Latin America | 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 |
Norway | 1 · 2 |
Philippines | 1 · 2 |
Ukraine | 1 |
Vietnam | 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 |