The Amazing Race 15

The Amazing Race 15
Season Information
Version:	United States
Continents Visited:	3
Countries Visited:	9
Cities Visited:	20
Distance Traveled:	25,000 mi (40,233 km)
Starting Line:	Sixth Street Viaduct, Los Angeles, California
Finish Line:	Casa de Shenandoah, Las Vegas, Nevada
Filming Dates:	July 18, 2009 - August 7, 2009
Season Run	September 27, 2009 - December 6, 2009
Number of Legs:	12
Number of Teams:	12
Winners:	Meghan & Cheyne
Runners-Up:	Sam & Dan Brian & Ericka
Cast
Season Chronology
Previous:	The Amazing Race 14
Next:	The Amazing Race 16

The Amazing Race 15 is the fifteenth season of the reality television show, The Amazing Race. It premiered on September 27, 2009 and ended on December 6, 2009 on CBS. The entire season was released on DVD on May 21, 2014.

Production

Applications were originally due by February 24, 2009, but the deadline was later extended. Semi-finalist interviews were held between March 20 and March 29, 2009. Following this, finalists were invited to Los Angeles between April 23 and April 30, 2009, for final interviews.

Filming began on July 18, 2009 and concluded on August 7, 2009. This season traveled a total of 25,000 miles (40,000 km), across nine countries on three continents. Production was impacted by the 2009 swine flu pandemic, affecting which locations the Race could visit and what challenges could be featured.

Beginning with this season, teams may encounter a task which had a significant impact on a previous season. Although teams have encountered tasks from previous seasons in the past, this season began the practice of billing these tasks as "Switchbacks", which may have an increased difficulty from its previous iteration.

Travelocity was the only official sponsor of the season and would provide the prizes awarded to first place teams on certain legs.

Twists/Changes

• Expanded Cast: For the first time since The Amazing Race 10, the Race featured 12 teams.
• Roadblock Limits: This season featured 12 Roadblocks, leaving for a maximum Roadblock split of 6-6.
• Midpoint Elimination: Teams faced a Starting Line Task to earn tickets to their first destination. However, only 11 sets of tickets were available. The team left without tickets would immediately be eliminated.
• Speed Bump: A team that came in last place on a Non-Elimination Leg would encounter an additional task in the following leg that only they would have to perform.
• U-Turn: U-Turns are available on certain legs of the Race. The one in the third leg was a Blind U-Turn, in which the team that used it did not have to publicly reveal themselves by using their "Courtesy Of" photo. Ultimately, neither this nor a U-Turn in the tenth leg were aired.
• Rules and Penalties: The following rules and penalty were revealed on this season:
  • If a team quits a Roadblock and takes the standard 4-hour penalty but is not forced to leave the Roadblock location due to hours of operation and all teams have arrived at the location, that team would serve their penalty on-site immediately.
  • A team that quits a Route Info task would incur a 2-hour penalty.

Teams

Meghan & Cheyne  1st place  Meghan & Cheyne Dating	Sam & Dan  2nd place  Sam & Dan Brothers	Brian & Ericka  3rd place  Brian & Ericka Married	Flight Time & Big Easy  4th place  Flight Time & Big Easy Harlem Globetrotters	Gary & Matt  5th place  Gary & Matt Father/Son
Maria & Tiffany  6th place  Maria & Tiffany Professional Poker Players	Mika & Canaan  7th place  Mika & Canaan Newly Dating	Lance & Keri  8th place  Lance & Keri Engaged	Zev & Justin  9th place  Zev & Justin Friends	Marcy & Ron  10th place  Marcy & Ron Dating
Garrett & Jessica  11th place  Garrett & Jessica Dating On and Off	Eric & Lisa  12th place  Eric & Lisa Married Yoga Teachers

Episodes

Episode		Air Date	Leg	Destination	First Place	Last Place	Finish	Viewership (millions)	Ratings/Share (18-49)
1	"They Thought Godzilla Was Walking Down the Street"	September 27, 2009	1	United States → Japan	Meghan & Cheyne	Eric & Lisa	1st Eliminated 12th Place	10.40	3.4/8
						Maria & Tiffany	Non-Elimination Leg
			2	Japan → Vietnam	Gary & Matt	Garrett & Jessica	2nd Eliminated 11th Place
2	"It's Like Being Dropped on Planet Mars"	October 4, 2009	3	Vietnam	Flight Time & Big Easy	Marcy & Ron	3rd Eliminated 10th Place	9.95	2.8/7
3	"Sean Penn Cambodia Here We Come"	October 11, 2009	4	Vietnam → Cambodia	Sam & Dan	Zev & Justin	4th Eliminated 9th Place	10.52	3.2/8
4	"I'm Like Ricky Bobby"	October 18, 2009	5	Cambodia → United Arab Emirates	Meghan & Cheyne	Lance & Keri	5th Eliminated 8th Place	10.92	3.1/7
5	"Do It for the Hood! Do It for the Suburbs!"	October 25, 2009	6	United Arab Emirates	Meghan & Cheyne	Mika & Canaan	6th Eliminated 7th Place	11.22	3.4/9
6	"This Is Not My Finest Hour"	November 1, 2009	7	United Arab Emirates → Netherlands	Sam & Dan	Maria & Tiffany	7th Eliminated 6th Place	11.22	3.3/8
7	"This Is the Worst Thing I've Ever Done in My Life"	November 8, 2009	8	Netherlands → Sweden	Flight Time & Big Easy	Gary & Matt	Non-Elimination Leg	11.62	3.5/8
8	"We're Not Meant for the Swamp"	November 15, 2009	9	Sweden → Estonia	Meghan & Cheyne	Gary & Matt	8th Eliminated 5th Place	11.39	3.2/8
9	"We're Not Working with Anybody, Ever, Anymore!"	November 22, 2009	10	Estonia → Czech Republic	Meghan & Cheyne	Brian & Ericka	Non-Elimination Leg	12.19	3.7/9
10	"It Starts with an "F", That's All I'm Saying"	November 29, 2009	11	Czech Republic	Meghan & Cheyne	Flight Time & Big Easy	8th Eliminated 4th Place	11.61	2.4/8
11	"Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound"	December 6, 2009	12	Czech Republic → United States	Meghan & Cheyne	Brian & Ericka	3rd Place	12.32	3.7/9
						Sam & Dan	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	Meghan & Cheyne	1	6	2	5	1►	1	2	2	1	1	1	1	2.00	5-6
2	Sam & Dan	9	2	5	1	5	3	1	4	2	2	2	2	3.17	6-6
3	Brian & Ericka	6	10	4	3	2	4	5	3	4	4	3	3	4.25	6-6
4	Flight Time & Big Easy	5	3	1	2	3	6	3	1	3	3	4		3.09	5-6
5	Gary & Matt	7	1	3	4	4	5	4	5	5				4.22	4-5
6	Maria & Tiffany	11	7	6	8	6	2	6						6.57	2-5
7	Mika & Canaan	10	8	7	7	7	7							7.67	1-5
8	Lance & Keri	3	4	9⊂	6	8								6.00	3-2
9	Zev & Justin	2	5	8	9									6.00	2-2
10	Marcy & Ron	4	9	10										7.67	1-2
11	Garrett & Jessica	8	11											9.50	1-1
12	Eric & Lisa	12												12.00	0-0
Notes		[1][2][3]		[4]	[5]		[6]	[7][8]				[9][10]
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 or continue racing in a no-rest 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 U-Turn ⊃ Recipient of the U-Turn
Notes: 1: Eric & Lisa were eliminated at the Starting Line as per the provisions of the starting line task. 2: Mika & Canaan arrived at the Pit Stop in 10th place, but had lost one of the tourists that they were required bring with them. They were required to backtrack to find their missing tourist before being allowed to check in. This did not affect their placement. 3: Maria & Tiffany arrived at the Pit Stop in 11th place, but had lost two of the tourists that they were required bring with them. Rather than backtrack to find them, Maria & Tiffany elected to take a 2-hour penalty. Because they were in last place and it was a Non-Elimination Leg, the 2-hour penalty would be applied to their starting time for the next leg. 4: In an unaired scene, Lance & Keri used a Blind U-Turn on Sam & Dan. However, Sam & Dan were already in front of them and the U-Turn had no effect. 5: Zev & Justin initially arrived 1st, but discovered after being checked in at the mat that they were missing Zev's passport. They were told that they could not be checked in unless they had their travel documents, and backtracked to find it. All other teams checked in to the Pit Stop before they could find Zev's passport, resulting in Zev & Justin being eliminated. 6: Mika & Canaan did not finish the task at the Atlantis, The Palm resort due to Mika's fear of heights and swimming/water and incurred a 2-hour penalty for quitting the slide task. Already in last place, they proceeded to the Pit Stop where they checked in and were eliminated without the penalty being applied. 7: Brian & Ericka initially arrived 5th, but were issued a 30-minute penalty because they did not travel by bicycle to the Detour as instructed in their clue. This did not affect their placement. 8: Maria & Tiffany failed to complete either of the Detour tasks and elected to take a 24-hour penalty for failing a Detour. Already in last place, host Phil Keoghan came out on the race course and eliminated them while waiting out the penalty . 9: Brian & Ericka initially arrived 3rd, but were issued a 30-minute penalty for writing down the letters during the Roadblock before entering the supervisor's office, which was explicitly prohibited in the clue. This did not affect their placement and was unaired. 10: Big Easy decided to forfeit the Roadblock and was issued a 4-hour penalty. By the time they arrived at the next Route Marker at the Kryocentrum, all the other teams had already checked in at the mat, and the clue instructed them to go directly to the Pit Stop, where they were eliminated.

Trivia

Franchise

• First season to visit Estonia.
• Most number of couples in love, 7 (tied with The Amazing Race 6),
• Least number of all-female teams in standard format: 1 (tied with The Amazing Race 29, The Amazing Race Vietnam 2013, The Amazing Race Vietnam 2014, The Amazing Race: Ecuador, and The Amazing Race: China Rush 3).
• Zev Glassenberg is the first autistic contestant, having been previously diagnosed by Asperger syndrome.
• Marcy & Ron are the oldest dating couple.
• First season to feature a Starting Line Task and a Switchback.
• First season to have a team be eliminated at the Starting Line.

US

• First season to visit the Czech Republic.
• First season to have the first leg end in a Non-Elimination Leg. Eric & Lisa were eliminated in the first leg but not at the Pit Stop. Instead they were eliminated at the Starting Line. No one was eliminated in the first Pit Stop.

External links

• Get Season 15 on iTunes