The Amazing Race 1

The Amazing Race 1, originally broadcast as The Amazing Race, is the inaugural installment of The Amazing Race (US) and the reality television franchise The Amazing Race. It ran from September 5, 2001 to December 13, 2001. The entire season was released on DVD on September 27, 2005.^[1]

Development

The inaugural season of The Amazing Race traveled 35,000 miles (56,000 km) within 39 days, through 4 continents, 9 countries, and 24 different cities.

The first race was marred by several production difficulties such as filming delays due to an airport strike at the Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport in Rome and a sandstorm in Tunisia, with the latter prompting production to prolong the teams' stay in the Pit Stop for 36 hours instead of the standard 12 and eventually moved to Gabès to commence Leg 6.^[2]

It was originally going to premiere in between May and July 2001, but was held back for the fall once CBS saw the final product in order to obtain a larger viewing audience.^[3] Broadcast was postponed a further week due to the September 11 attacks, which occurred six days after the premiere.

Teams

1st place  Rob & Brennan Best Friends/Lawyers	2nd place  Frank & Margarita Separated Couple	3rd place  Joe & Bill Life Partners	4th place  Kevin & Drew Fraternity Brothers	5th place  Nancy & Emily Mother/Daughter
6th place  Lenny & Karyn Dating	7th place  Paul & Amie Engaged	8th place  Dave & Margaretta Married 40 Years	9th place  Pat & Brenda Working Moms	10th place  Kim & Leslie Roommates
11th place  Matt & Ana Married

Route Map

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	Leg 12	Leg 13	Average
1	Rob & Brennan	1►	3	3	6	4	3	3	3	1	1	2	1	1	2.46	5-7
2	Frank & Margarita	3	4	2	4	5	1	1►	2	2	2	1	2	2	2.38	9-3
3	Joe & Bill	2	2	4	1	2	2	2	4	4►	4	3	3	3	2.77	7-4
4	Kevin & Drew	9	5	1►	2	1	4	4	1	3	3	4			3.36	5-5
5	Nancy & Emily	10	8	8	3	3	5	5	5	5					5.78	2-7
6	Lenny & Karyn	4	9	7	7	6	6	6							6.43	2-5
7	Paul & Amie	8	7	6	5	7									6.60	3-1
8	Dave & Margaretta	7	6	5	8										6.50	3-1
9	Pat & Brenda	5	1►	9											5.00	1-0
10	Kim & Leslie	6	10												8.00	2-0
11	Matt & Ana	11													11.00	0-0
Notes		[1] [2]	[3]		[4]	[5]	[6]	[7]		[8]				[9]
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
Notes: 1: Leg 1 had an unaired Roadblock which required a member of the team to cook a whole ostrich egg for both team members to eat before heading to the Pit Stop. This Roadblock was shown partially on DVD release, but Pat & Brenda and Matt & Ana were not shown completing this Roadblock. 2: Dave & Margaretta originally finished 7th, but they were issued a penalty for improperly performing the Detour. The penalty affected their departure time instead. 3: Dave & Margaretta initially were checked in at the Pit Stop in 6th Place, but they were again penalized for not completing the Roadblock correctly, hence falling to 8th Place, with their penalty extending their stay at the previous Pit Stop. 4: Paul & Amie arrived 5th at the Pit Stop but started the next leg at 4th Place after being given a time credit due to a production error. 5: Paul & Amie mistakenly arrived at the Pit Stop while accidentally skipping the Roadblock. However, since they were already in last place, they were eliminated without being penalized. 6: Frank & Margarita and Joe & Bill originally checked in at the Pit Stop at 1st and 2nd Place respectively, but both teams incurred a 30-minute penalty for not following a clue correctly before they were officially checked in. However, their placements were not affected. 7: Lenny & Karyn were given a time credit due to production error. However, it did not affect their placement. 8: Nancy & Emily and Joe & Bill initially arrived at the Pit Stop in 4th and 5th Place, respectively, but the former's decision to deliberately forfeit the Detour incurred them a 24-hour time penalty, moving the latter in 4th Place. 9: Joe & Bill were so far behind that when they reached the last Detour, their next clue informed them that the race was over.

Reception

Pre-Production

• Zap2It (09/13/2000): "Bruckheimer, CBS join for new reality 'Race' "
• Zap2It (07/24/2001): "Amazing Race Kicks Off CBS Fall Season"

Pre-Season Reviews

• Gary Levin at USA Today (08/02/2001): "CBS trouts out Amazing Race"
• Warren Berger at New York Times (09/02/2001): "A Long Trip, With Someone You Know"
• John Levesque at Seattle P-I (09/03/2001): "Amazing Race has plenty of gumption"
• Anita Gates at New York Times (09/05/2001): "Bungee Jumping to Save Minutes: It's Called Reality"
• Rob Owen at Post-Gazette (09/05/2001): "TV Reviews: 'Lost' and 'Amazing Race' both leave starting line -- best bet on CBS's 'Race' "
• John Carman at SF Gate (09/05/2001): "Reality TV thinks globally / Players roam the world"
• Matt Roush at TV Guide Online (09/05/2001): "Two for the Road"
• Andy Dehnart at realityblurred (09/05/2001): "Amazing Race debuts tonight"

Post-Season Reviews

• Gary Levin at USA Today (12/13/2001): "Momentum carries Race to finish"
• The Trades (12/25/2001): "Roundtable Discussion on The Amazing Race"
• Andy Dehnart at realityblurred (09/05/2011): "The Amazing Race is 10 today"
• Joe Reid at Decider (09/05/2015): "Today In TV History: The Amazing Race First Sent Americans Careening Around The World"

Trivia

Franchise

• First season to visit the United States, South Africa, Zambia, France, Tunisia, Italy, India, Thailand, and China.
• First season to start and finish in the same city.
• First season to feature eleven teams.
• First season to have four Non-Elimination Legs.

US

• This is the first season to have team(s) that made it to the final leg, but never finish the race, as Joe & Bill were too far behind the other two teams that already made it to the Finish Line.
• First season that the Finish Line was located in the contiguous United States.

Season 1

• Coincidentally, the top three teams in the first leg happened to be the final three teams of the season.
• Host Phil Keoghan did not greet teams upon arrival at the Pit Stop other than the last placing team.
• No teams of siblings were on this season.

External links

• CBS.com - The Amazing Race 1

References