The Amazing Race Asia 1 is the first installment of the show, The Amazing Race Asia and the second version of the reality television franchise The Amazing Race. It premiered on November 9, 2006 and ended on February 1, 2007 on AXN.
Development
After demand from their own viewers demanding for a local version, AXN Asia purchased the rights to produce The Amazing Race Asia. Immediately, over 1000 teams applied for the first season. Non-Asians were allowed to participate as long as they lived in the country they represented for a certain amount of undisclosed time.
Allan Wu was announced as hot in July 2006. Shortly after, production began on the first season which ultimately aired from Fall 2006 to early 2007.
Sony Electronics Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd, AirAsia, Caltex, MSN, Nokia, Bintan Lagoon Resort, Ford, and Tourism Malaysia were the official sponsors of the seasons and would provide the prizes awarded to first place teams on certain legs.
Unlike the US version, teams were only allowed to take flights on one airline, AirAsia, as they were the official airline sponsors. In addition, the products of sponsors were more heavily involved in the tasks in order the cover the costs of the season.
Teams
Zabrina & Joe Jer
Co-Workers  |
Mardy & Marsio
Brothers  |
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Sharon & Melody
Best Friends  |
Aubrey & Jacqueline
Actress/Model Template:The Philippines |
Jeena & Ernie
Married Template:The Philippines |
Episodes
| Episode # | Leg # | Title | Air Date[1] | Destination | First Place | Last Place | Finish | Viewership (in millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "I Don't Think I Can Do This" | November 9, 2006 | Malaysia | Mardy & Marsio | Sandy & Francesa | Non-Elimination Leg |
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| 2 | 2 | "They're Speedy, They're Fast and They're First" | November 16, 2006 | Malaysia → Indonesia | Sahil & Prashant | Jeena & Ernie | 1st Eliminated 10th Place |
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| 3 | 3 | "Give Me the Strength, Give Me the Strength" | November 23, 2006 | Indonesia | Howard & Sahran | Aubrey & Jacqueline | 2nd Eliminated 9th Place |
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| 4 | 4 | "Just Shut Up and Do It" | November 30, 2006 | Indonesia → Australia | Andrew & Syeon | Howard & Sahran | Non-Elimination Leg |
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| 5 | 5 | "It's Blowing Like Your Mum's Pants on a Windy Day" | December 7, 2006 | Australia → New Zealand | Andy & Laura | Sahil & Prashant | 3rd Eliminated 8th Place |
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| 6 | 6 | "What Have You Been Eating!" | December 14, 2006 | New Zealand | Sandy & Francesca | Melody & Sharon | 4th Eliminated 7th Place |
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| 7 | 7 | "Don't Stand There Doing Nothing!" | December 21, 2006 | New Zealand → Singapore → Thailand | Andy & Laura | Zabrina & Joe Jer | Non-Elimination Leg |
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| 8 | 8 | "My Legs Are Shaking Like Jelly" | December 28, 2006 | Thailand | Mardy & Marsio | Howard & Sahran | 5th Eliminated 6th Place |
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| 9 | 9 | "This Is Totally, Totally Out of This World!" | January 4, 2007 | Thailand → India | Andy & Laura | Sandy & Francesca | Ordered to Continue Racing |
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| 10 | "War Has Begun!" | January 11, 2007 | Sandy & Francesca | Andy & Laura | 6th Eliminated 5th Place |
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| 11 | 10 | "This Is Going to Be Embarrassing!" | January 18, 2007 | India → United Arab Emirates | Sandy & Francesca | Mardy & Marsio | Non-Elimination Leg |
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| 12 | 11 | "Oh My Goodness, I Have to Eat a Brain!" | January 25, 2007 | United Arab Emirates | Andrew & Syeon | Mardy & Marsio | 7th Eliminated 4th Place |
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| 13 | 12 | "24 Days, 15 Cities, 39,000 Kilometres and It Comes Down to This" | February 1, 2007 | United Arab Emirates → Malaysia | Zabrina & Joe Jer | Andrew & Syeon | 3rd Place | |
| Sandy & Francesca | 2nd Place |
Leaderboard
The following teams participated in the Race, with their relationships at the time of filming. Placements are listed in finishing order:
| 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 | Zabrina & Joe Jer | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3.75 | 6-6 |
| 2 | Sandy & Francesca | 10 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 1> | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3.67 | 6-6 |
| 3 | Andrew & Syeon | 5 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3.58 | 6-6 |
| 4 | Mardy & Marsio | 1 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 1► | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3.64 | 4-6 | |
| 5 | Andy & Laura | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5< | 4.33 | 5-4 | |||
| 6 | Howard & Sahran | 9 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 5.00 | 4-3 | |||||
| 7 | Sharon & Melody | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 5.00 | 2-3 | |||||||
| 8 | Sahil & Prashant | 8 | 1► | 4 | 5 | 8 | 5.20 | 2-2 | ||||||||
| 9 | Aubrey & Jacqueline | 4 | 6 | 9 | 6.33 | 1-1 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Jeena & Ernie | 2 | 10 | 6.00 | 0-1 | |||||||||||
| Notes | [1][2] | [3] | [4] | [6] | [7] | [8] | ||||||||||
Legend:
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1: Andrew & Syeon initially arrived 1st. However, they did not follow the trail as instructed in their clue to the Pit Stop, and were asked to complete it before checking in. Four teams checked in during that time period, dropping them to 5th.
2: For unknown reasons on the subsequent Leg, the starting placements of Howard & Sahran and Sahil & Prashant were switched, resulting in Howard & Sahran starting in 8th place and Sahil & Prashant starting in 9th.
3: Five of the nine teams arrived at the Pit Stop after applied a four-hour penalty for failed to complete the Roadblock (only Joe Jer, Marsio, Andy, Syeon and Aubrey). The initial placements for all teams are as follows (The four italicized teams were not given the penalty):
- 1st: Zabrina & Joe Jer; 2nd: Howard & Sahran; 3rd: Sandy & Francesca; 4th: Mardy & Marsio; 5th: Andy & Laura; 6th: Andrew & Syeon; 7th: Sharon & Melody; 8th: Sahil & Prashant; 9th: Aubrey & Jacqueline. However, Aubrey & Jacqueline were not issued the penalty and was eliminated.
4: Laura suffered an injury to her left Leg on the way to Oceanworld in Sydney, Australia. After the tests were done, she was allowed to continue the next Leg of the race.
5: Howard & Sahran were issued a four-hour penalty because Howard failed to complete the Roadblock. They checked in the pit stop last, but were notified as a non-elimination Leg. The 4-hour penalty they took from the roadblock would be instead applied at the starting time at Leg 5.
6: Sahil & Prashant initially arrived 5th, but were issued a 1-hour penalty because they were driven around in a private vehicle in Devonport, breaking a Race rule prohibiting hitch-hiking. The last three teams (Sandy & Francesca, Mardy & Marsio and Sharon & Melody) checked in during their penalty time and were eliminated before the one hour penalty had elapsed.
7: Andy & Laura were caught speeding at 146 km/h while the speed limit was 100 km/h. The penalty was 2 minutes times the number of km/h by which they had exceeded the speed limit. They were issued a 92-minute penalty to be assessed at the start of the following Leg, therefore departing at the pit-start last.
8: Leg 9 is a double-length Leg with two Detours and two Roadblocks, shown over two episodes. The Yield appeared before the second Detour.
Recoards
Franchise
- First season to have an all-female team win the race.
- First season to visit Indonesia.
- First time to have a team representing Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Singapore, India, and the Philippines.
- First season to have the first leg as a non-elimination leg.
- First season to have five non-elimination legs (in the standard format).
- First season to have only ten teams participate in the race (in the standard format).
Asia
- First season to visit Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, India, and UAE.
- First season to visit the continent of Oceania.
- First season to implement the non-elimination penalty where the last team to arrive at the non-elimination leg were required to turn over all the money they accumulated throughout the race and they were not receive any money on the next leg.
- First season to have a Virtual Pit Stop where teams met Allan at Pit Stop mat, only to have him hand them the next clue instead of checking them in.
- First introduction of the Yield which allows any one team to force another team to stop racing for a predetermined amount of time
- Most amount of female contestants in a single season to reach the final three, 4.
- Only season to have multiple Fast Forwards available on the race.
- Only season to not have an all-male team reach the final three.
Reception
- Surajit Agarwal at Television Asia (04/01/2006): "AXN to WOW Asian audiences with original productions: the Amazing Race Asia will be AXN's biggest initiative in the region."
- indiantelevision.com (07/15/2006): "Over 1000 teams apply for AXN's The Amazing Race Asia"
- Jerry Donato at PhilStar Global (10/08/2006): "New twists and turns in The Amazing Race Asia"
- exchange4media News Service (10/10/2006): "The Amazing Race Asia’ set to debut on AXN this November"
- Walden Sadiri at Manila Bulletin (11/05/2006): "The 'Amazing Race Asia' Is On"
- Vicki Rothrock at Variety (11/14/2006): "Race ratings roar"
References
| 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 |