The BEST Episodes of The Amazing Race
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Oct 24, 2021
Network: CBS
This reality television game show pits 11 teams against each other in a worldwide, 30 to 40-day journey through diverse cities and countries spanning the globe. The first team to reach the final destination will be rewarded with $1 million.
#1 - The Final Push
Season 12 - Episode 11 - Aired Jan 20, 2008
Ronald Hsu & Christina Hsu, TK Erwin & Rachel Rosales and Nicolas Fulks & Donald Jerousek are the three teams racing for the top prize of one million dollars. TK and Rachel have issues with a Detour, while Donald comes down Nicolas after he makes a mistake. Meanwhile, Ronald watches as Christina hangs on for her life in a challenging task.
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#2 - It's a Great Place to Become Millionaires (2)
Season 20 - Episode 12 - Aired May 6, 2012
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#3 - If I Were In Town, I Would Ask For Your Number (2)
Season 11 - Episode 8 - Aired Apr 1, 2007
Unhelpful locals and a tricky language barrier cause one Team to falter as their rivals surge ahead in a double Race leg through Poland. An All-Star fan favorite Team cannot overcome a time penalty and fall victim to the clock and are eliminated.
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#4 - Amazing “Crazy” Race (2)
Season 23 - Episode 12 - Aired Dec 8, 2013
The final teams take part in a human bowling competition in Tokyo; one team wins $1 million.
8.36 #5 - This is the Worst Thing I've Ever Done in My Life
Season 15 - Episode 7 - Aired Nov 8, 2009
The lack of cooperation hinders one team's efforts at an explosive Detour. Also, during the series' first ever "Switchback," Teams return to one of the most infamous Roadblocks in the history of the show.
8.32 
#6 - We're Not Working With Anybody, Ever, Anymore!
Season 15 - Episode 9 - Aired Nov 22, 2009
Tempers flare when one team goes back on their word and a Team spirals into last place when their taxi is stolen by another Team.
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#7 - This is Not My Finest Hour
Season 15 - Episode 6 - Aired Nov 1, 2009
Teams go to The Netherlands, One team tells the others a personal secret. Also, the stress of the race is mounting as one contestant breaks down in tears.
8.13 
#8 - Man, They Should Have Used Their Fake Names
Season 9 - Episode 10 - Aired May 3, 2006
The teams receive a clue instructing them to travel fifteen miles from their Pit Stop at the South Breakwater to the Silver Bells Tower. Tensions ensue when Eric and Jeremy cancel other teams taxis and then shift the blame to Joseph and Monica. However, it doesn't affect placings as all teams make the same flight to Darwin, Australia --- 1,700 miles away. The teams wade through crocodile-infested waters for a clue and then travel 50 miles to an airfield in the town of Batchelor. One team just manages to reach a Yield before another and then Yields the team they beat. In a Roadblock, one member of each team must take part in a tandem skydive. The teams then travel to the Magnetic Termite Mounds where they face a Detour choice of either Wet or Dry. Some teams fall behind after choosing the extremely challenging Wet task, requiring them to hike and swim one mile through treacherous wilderness. The other two teams choose Dry and duplicate a note on a didgeridoo. While one team arrives comfortably in first place, the rest find themselves facing a three-way foot-race.
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#9 - Desert Storm
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired Oct 10, 2001
The seven remaining teams start off in El Jem Coliseum, the pit stop for the fourth leg. Upon departure they are given a route marking which tells them they must find a monument known as the Tataouine which is 300 miles away. Although Paul and Amie arrived fifth in the last leg, production problems cause them to move ahead one place in front of Frank and Margarita. When the teams arrive at the Tataouine, they are given a Detour. They must chose between an easy and a difficult game. The easy game is at a hard to find location and the hard game is at an easy to find location. The games are called "Puzzle" and "Listening" .All the teams chose Listening in which they must find the clue using a walkie talkie and find where the other one is. There they will find the clue. The clue says that must find a "yellow and white flag" in the middle of the Sahara Desert and that there are rocks to guide them there. Some teams are a little bit confused as to how the rocks guide them there. But eventual
8.12 
#10 - Mow'em Down Like Grass
Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired Apr 12, 2005
The teams travel from their Pit Stop at the Khwai River Lodge to Lucknow, India. The teams then take a series of flights, some prescheduled and some that they have to schedule themselves to make their way to Lucknow, India. Some teams stick with the pack and secure a later flight, while two less-liked teams manage to make their way onto a slightly earlier flight. Once in Lucknow, the teams all choose not to Yield each other and then do a Roadblock that involves searching heavy steel boxes for one of ten clues. Some teams get lucky and find them quickly, while one has a real time of it, but makes it out okay in the end. The teams face a Detour with a choice of Solid or Liquid. All teams pass on Solid, which involves smashing coal and instead choose Liquid, which requires them to make tea deliveries to five people at a local business. As one team lags behind, they receive a standing ovation when they reach the Detour clue. A surprise waits for the teams as they make their way to a locati
8.09 
#11 - It Was Like a Caravan of Idiots
Season 14 - Episode 4 - Aired Mar 8, 2009
The eight remaining teams set off from the Vila Panoramic and receive a clue instructing them to fly through Moscow to Krasnoyarsk, Siberia and then travel to the hydroelectric dam depicted on the back of Russia's ten ruble note.
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#12 - You Look Like Peter Pan
Season 13 - Episode 11 - Aired Dec 7, 2008
The final three teams, Nick & Starr Spangler, Andrew Lappitt & Dan Honig amd Ken & Tina Greene set off from their Pit Stop at VDNKh Park and receive a clue instructing them to fly to their final destination city: Portland, Oregon.
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#13 - Accidental Alliance
Season 24 - Episode 9 - Aired Apr 27, 2014
Tension rises as the finish line gets closer; three teams form an alliance.
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#14 - Do It for the Hood! Do It for the Suburbs!
Season 15 - Episode 5 - Aired Oct 25, 2009
The seven remaining teams depart the Souk Madinat Jumeirah pitstop, staying in Dubai. The Roadblock involving retrieving a watch to use to unlock a briefcase and Detours of weighing a half-millon dollars in gold or assembling a dozen hookahs are made even worse by stifling 130° heat. But Mika faces the ultimate test of courage when a six-story waterslide clashes with her dual fears of water and heights.
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#15 - Sorry, Guys, I'm Not Happy to See You
Season 12 - Episode 10 - Aired Jan 13, 2008
The four teams travel from Osaka, Japan to Taipei, Taiwan. One person celebrates their birthday on this leg, but the only present she wants is a place in the final three.
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#16 - Your Target Is Your Partner’s Face
Season 14 - Episode 2 - Aired Feb 22, 2009
The remaining teams set off from their Pit Stop in Stechelberg in the Burmese Alps and receive a clue instructing them to fly to Munich, Germany and then drive to Ruhpolding, where they will ride a cable car to the top of the mountain. A scramble for flights results in eight teams boarding the earliest-arriving flight, with two lagging behind.
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#17 - Sleep Deprivation is Really Starting to Irritate Me
Season 9 - Episode 6 - Aired Apr 5, 2006
The teams take off from their Pit Stop at the Tempio di Segesta and receive a clue instructing them to drive 135 miles to Catania, Sicily and find the Antiteatro, Romano. This theater doesn't open until 8:30 A.M. and B.J. and Tyler jokingly put up an "official" sign-in sheet which is quickly declared a phoney by Eric and Jeremy. As it stands, these two teams are the only ones to make it in at the opening time, as the others find themselves stuck in traffic or confused on directions. After counting heads on the fence surrounding the grounds of the theater, the teams do a Detour --- Big Fish, requiring each member to carry a 17 kilo swordfish 1/3 of a mile, or Little Fish, requiring them to travel 1/3 of a mile to the same market and then sell 4 kilos of small Sicilian fish. The teams then travel approximately 40 miles to Siracusa, where one member of each team does a Roadblock requiring them to score a goal in kayak polo. Finally, they make their way on foot to the PIt Stop, the natural spring Funte Aretusa, and another team is eliminated.
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#18 - Do You Know How Much Running I Did Today, Phil?
Season 9 - Episode 9 - Aired Apr 26, 2006
The teams receive a clue instructing them to travel by plane over 9,000 miles to Perth, Australia. After receiving money from some of the teams (following being stripped of all cash and possessions in the last leg), B.J. and Tyler then make the same flight as everyone else, disappointing them, as they were hoping they might miss it. Once in Australia, the teams travel to the State War Memorial in King's Park and then receive a clue directing them to travel to Rottnest Island via ferry. They then travel on tandem bikes to a lighthouse and then do a Detour. Sand requires them to drag forty large branches to a marked sand dune (a task called "brushing the beach") while sea requires them to search through fifty crayfish traps and retrieve two crayfish (one per member.) The teams then travel to Fremantle Prison where one member of each team takes part in a Roadblock. The task requires them to search inside the unused prison for a Duracell flashlight and batteries. They then travel through wet and dry waterways to locate a clue. It's a close race to the Pit Stop at South Breakwater by the Fremantle Fishing Club and one team finishes literally right behind another. Unfortunately for another team, this Pit Stop is the end.
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#19 - 5 Continents...10 Countries...And More than 59 Thousand Miles!
Season 9 - Episode 12 - Aired May 17, 2006
One team is ecstatic thinking they have a serious advantage when they learn the location of the next destination...a place they’ve been to and where they know the language two teams race in paddle boats that look like ducks during a sprint to the first pit stop of this 2-leg finale.
8.03 
#20 - I Feel Like I'm in, Like, Sicily
Season 16 - Episode 10 - Aired Apr 25, 2010
After noodling their way through their first Roadblock, Teams are forced to complete a second Roadblock, and the fate of two Teams lies in the hands of confused cabbies
8.01 
#21 - I Feel Like a Monkey In a Circus Parade
Season 18 - Episode 6 - Aired Mar 27, 2011
Overwhelmed by a swarming sea of people on the congested streets of India, one team narrowly dodges a traffic collision while another's clumsiness threatens to spoil their chances of acing the Detour.
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#22 - They Don't Even Understand Their Own Language
Season 16 - Episode 11 - Aired May 2, 2010
The Final 4 teams struggle with the language barrier in Shanghai while sorting through hundreds of golden Buddhas and thousands of Chinese stamps in their pursuit for a spot in the Final 3.
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#23 - I've Been Wanting a Face-Lift for a Long Time
Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired Mar 29, 2005
In a two-hour episode, the teams travel from the Pit Stop at a polo club called The Martina to Johannesburg, South Africa. Once there, they take part in a Detour that involves either rappelling into and then searching an underground cavern or collecting five items and giving them to the appropriate tribes. Later, the teams do a Roadblock that requires them to search a market for five items and then deliver them to a local orphanage. As the teams race to complete these tasks, one pulls ahead with a Fast Forward, while one team-member suffers a nasty injury. It ends up being a tight finish, but all teams continue onwards for the next leg. This leg sees the teams traveling to a nature reserve, where they one of two scheduled shuttles and feed lions. Later, the Roadblock involves throwing spears. Afterwards, the teams ride Humvees and choose between a Detour task of grinding corn or filling ostrich eggs with water. One team crashes their vehicle and falls behind, but the race to the Pit St
8.00 
#24 - Good Thing I Took That Human Anatomy Class in High School
Season 9 - Episode 5 - Aired Mar 28, 2006
The teams take off from their Pit Stop in Munich, Germany and receive a clue instructing them to fly 850 miles to a one-hundred-year-old opera house in Palermo, Italy. One team manages an early flight and takes off to a nice lead. Once at the opera house, the teams receive a clue instructing them to travel 42 miles in a marked car to Castellammare del Golfo. There, they face a Detour --- Laundry, in which they must search through 2,400 items of laundry or Foundry, in which they must transport a heavy bell. Finally, the Roadblock requires one member of each team to assemble a Greek statue, but they are not told that there are two additional pieces. Once they complete the statue, they travel on foot one mile to the Pit Stop at the Tempio di Siegesto. One team makes a critical error by heading for the Pit Stop before the Roadblock, but ultimately different circumstances cause another team's downfall.
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#25 - Courteous? This Is a Race!
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired Mar 1, 2005
A new group of teams takes off from Long Beach, California on two flights to Lima, Peru. The new teams include "Survivor couple" Rob and Amber, son and mother Susan and Patrick and pals Ryan and Chuck, among others. Once in Peru, the teams follow clues taking them many miles to various destinations and exploring the country and its mountains. Tasks include riding ziplines and traveling by several forms of local transportation. Several teams fall behind after carelessly not searching carefully before locking in times on a task that put them behind the rest of the pack. Many teams express a desire to outfox, outwit and outrace Rob and Amber. A Detour, Rope a Llama or Rope a Basket, gives teams a choice of either leading llamas into pins or carrying heavy baskets two-thirds of a mile. Some teams struggle with the llamas, while other teams breeze through their chosen task. A true photo finish of mere seconds sends one team home.
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