The Amazing Race 26 is the twenty-sixth installment of the reality television show, The Amazing Race. It premiered on February 25, 2015, Wednesday, on CBS, before returning to the previous season's regular Friday schedule, beginning February 27.[2] The teams were officially announced on January 20, 2015.
Development
Filming for The Amazing Race 26 began on November 12, 2014, and ended on December 6, 2014. For the first time in the Race's history, all 11 teams will be dating couples, five of which have never met each other prior to the race.[3] Also introduced this season would be the "Date Night" ticket, in which one fortunate team, who retrieves the special clue for each leg, would be able to participate in a one-on-one romantic-related activity.[4]
This season traveled through five continents and eight countries, under a distance of 35,000 miles (56,000 km).[5]
Teams
Laura & Tyler
Blind Dating |
Jelani & Jenny
Blind Dating |
Hayley & Blair
Blind Dating |
Mike & Rochelle
Dating |
|
Aly & Steve
Dating Olympians |
Jeff & Jackie
Blind Dating |
Bergen & Kurt
Blind Dating |
Harley & Jonathan
Dating |
Libby & CJ
Dating |
Jeff & Lyda
Dating |
Episodes
| Episode | Air Date | Leg | Destination | First Place | Last Place | Finish | Viewership (millions) |
Ratings/Share (18-49) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Great Way to Start a Relationship" | February 25, 2015 | 1 | United States → Japan | Jelani & Jenny | Jeff & Lyda | 1st Eliminated 11th Place |
6.16[6] | 1.5/4[6] |
| 2 | "I Got the Smartest Dude" | February 27, 2015 | 2 | Japan | Jelani & Jenny | Libby & CJ | 2nd Eliminated 10th Place |
6.15[7] | 1.1/4[7] |
| 3 | "#MurphysLaw" | March 6, 2015 | 3 | Japan → Thailand | Mike & Rochelle | Harley & Jonathan | Non-Elimination Leg |
6.07[8] | 1.2/5[8] |
| 4 | "The Great Amazing Nasty Race" | March 13, 2015 | 4 | Thailand | Bergen & Kurt | Harley & Jonathan | 3rd Eliminated 9th Place |
6.29[9] | 1.1/4[9] |
| 5 | "Get in That Lederhosen, Baby" | April 3, 2015 | 5 | Thailand → Germany | Aly & Steve | Bergen & Kurt | 4th Eliminated 8th Place |
6.07[10] | 1.3[10] |
| 6 | "Smells Like a Million Bucks" | April 10, 2015 | 6 | Germany → France → Monaco → France | Hayley & Blair | Jeff & Jackie | 5th Eliminated 7th Place |
5.75[11] | 1.1/4[11] |
| 7 | "Back in Business" | April 17, 2015 | 7 | France → Namibia | Matt & Ashley | Aly & Steve | Non-Elimination Leg |
5.46[12] | 1.1/4[12] |
| 8 | "Moment of Truth" | 8 | Namibia | Laura & Tyler | Aly & Steve | 6th Eliminated 6th Place | |||
| 9 | "Can I Get a Hot Tub!" | April 24, 2015 | 9 | Namibia → The Netherlands | Laura & Tyler | Matt & Ashley | Non-Elimination Leg |
5.75[13] | 1.1/4[13] |
| 10 | "Fruits of Our Labor" | May 1, 2015 | 10 | The Netherlands → Peru | Hayley & Blair | Matt & Ashley | 7th Eliminated 5th Place |
||
| 11 | "In It to Win It" | May 8, 2015 | 11 | Peru | Hayley & Blair | Mike & Rochelle | Ordered to Continue Racing |
||
| 12 | "Monster Truck Heroes" | May 15, 2015 | 12 | Peru → United States | Laura & Tyler | Mike & Rochelle | 8th Eliminated 4th Place |
||
| Hayley & Blair | 3rd Place | ||||||||
| Jelani & Jenny | 2nd Place | ||||||||
Leaderboard
| 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 | Laura & Tyler | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 1⋐ | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3.08 | 5-6 |
| 2 | Jelani & Jenny | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4ϵ⊃ | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3.17 | 6-5 |
| 3 | Hayley & Blair | 8 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3.33 | 5-6 |
| 4 | Mike & Rochelle | 7⊂ | 8 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4.75 | 6-4 |
| 5 | Matt & Ashley | 9 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2⊂ | 5 | 5 | 4.90 | 5-3 | ||
| 6 | Aly & Steve | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 6⋑ | 3.75 | 3-3 | ||||
| 7 | Jeff & Jackie | 2 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 5.17 | 2-2 | ||||||
| 8 | Bergen & Kurt | 6 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 5.40 | 2-0 | |||||||
| 9 | Harley & Jonathan | 5 | 4 | 9 | 9 | 6.75 | 1-1 | ||||||||
| 10 | Libby & CJ | 10 | 10 | 10.00 | 1-0 | ||||||||||
| 11 | Jeff & Lyda | 11⊃⋐ | 11.00 | 0-0 | |||||||||||
| Notes | [1][2] | [3] | [4] | [5] | [6][7] | ||||||||||
Legend:
| |||||||||||||||
Notes:
1: The U-Turn featured in Leg 1 was a Blind U-Turn.
2: Jeff & Lyda attempted to U-Turn Jeff & Jackie, who were ahead of them, therefore having no effect on the second slot of the Double U-Turn.
3: Bergen & Kurt decided to take a 2-hour penalty after forfeiting to utilize the provided vehicle where they needed it in order to complete the task at the Gebr. Schwarz Metall Manufaktur in Munich, Germany due to difficulties driving it. Throughout the leg, Bergen & Kurt had to walk or use public transportation. Additionally, Bergen & Kurt got lost in finding the Detour location of their choice and fell behind all the other teams. Phil met with them at where they rested to eliminate them.
4: Jelani & Jenny used the Express Pass to bypass the Detour in Leg 8, however they still had to do one side of the Detour since Matt & Ashley U-Turned them before they got to the board.
5: At the Pit Stop in Leg 11, teams checking-in were informed by Phil that there was no mandatory rest period for the leg. Instead, they were told to continue racing, beginning Leg 12.
6: Leg 12 featured two Roadblocks and no Detour. The team member who sat out the first Roadblock was required to perform the second one.
7: Mike & Rochelle were eliminated at the midpoint at P2 Ranch.
Trivia
Franchise
- First time visit to Monaco.
- Monaco is the smallest country (area) visited by the Race with 2.02 km², surpassing the Unfinished Business' visit to Liechtenstein (160 km²).
- First season ever to not feature a single all-female or family team.
- This is the second season to not feature a friend team (after Family Edition) and the first two-person season to do so.
US
- This season has the second most number of teams without a pre-existing relationship (5 teams), and is the first non-All-Star season to do so.
- Second time visit to Namibia, which breaks the record for having the largest gap between one country's visit in a season and its previous season's visit, which was previously visited in The Amazing Race 2 [24 seasons]).
- The record was previously tied with The Amazing Race 23 (for Portugal, which was previously visited in The Amazing Race 3 [20 seasons]), and The Amazing Race 25 (for the Philippines, which was previously visited in The Amazing Race 5 [also 20 seasons]).[4]
- First season since The Amazing Race 13 to feature a Detour on the first leg.
- First season to feature a U-Turn on the first leg.
Season 26
- Tyler is the most quoted racer for episode titles: 5 episodes
- Every team that was spared on a non-elimination leg was eliminated at some point on the following leg.
Reception
- Andy Dehnart at realityblurred (01/20/2015): "Amazing Race really is becoming The Bachelor"
- Jessica Liese at RHAP (02/05/2015): "Five Broken Game Twists, and how to Improve Them"
References
- ↑ http://www.cbs.com/shows/2015-finales/photos/1003956/these-are-the-season-finale-storylines-for-your-favorite-shows/81801/the-amazing-race/
- ↑ CBS News - "The Amazing Race" season 26 cast revealed
- ↑ Reality Blurred - Amazing Race drops pre-existing relationships for blind date twist
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 CBS.com - The Amazing Race 26 Will Be The Most Extreme Blind Date Ever
- ↑ Wikipedia - The Amazing Race 26
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Zap2it - Wednesday Final Ratings: 'Empire', 'American Idol', 'Survivor' & 'Arrow' Adjusted Up; 'The 100', 'black-ish' & 'Nashville' Adjusted Down
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Zap2it - TV Ratings Friday: 'Cristela' & 'Last Man Standing' Rise, 'Hawaii Five-0' Slides + 'World's Funniest Fails' Flat
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Zap2it - Friday Final Ratings: No Adjustment for 'Glee', 'Hawaii Five-0', or 'Shark Tank'
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Zap2it - Friday Final Ratings: 'The Amazing Race', 'Cristela', 'Hawaii Five-0' & 'Blue Bloods' Adjusted Down
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Zap2it - Friday Final Ratings:'The Amazing Race' Adjusted Up; No Adjustment for 'Grimm' or 'Hawaii Five-0'
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Zap2it - Friday Final Ratings: '20/20' Adjusted Down; No Adjustments to 'Grimm' or 'Hawaii Five-0'
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Zap2it - Friday Final Ratings: 'The Amazing Race' Adjusted Up; '20/20' Adjusted Down
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Zap2it - Friday Final Ratings: "Shark Tank' Adjusted Up; 'Cedric's Barber Battle', 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' & 'The Messengers' Adjusted Down
External links
| The Amazing Race Season Index | |
|---|---|
| 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 |