The Amazing Race 29

The Amazing Race 29 is the twenty-ninth season of the reality television show, The Amazing Race. It premiered on March 30, 2017 and ended on June 1, 2017 on CBS. The entire season was released on DVD on October 23, 2018.

Production[]

In March 2016, CBS renewed The Amazing Race for the 2016–2017 TV season, but was left off the fall television season for the first time since 2003. Unlike previous seasons, casting calls sought for single applicants who were open to compete, in addition to the standard pairs of applicants.^[2]

Filming began on June 10, 2016 and concluded on July 2, 2016. This season traveled a total of 36,000 miles (58,000 km), across nine countries on five continents.

It was announced in November 2016 that the season was to start airing on April 21, 2017, with a two-hour season premiere^[3] in its regular timeslot of Fridays at 8 pm, but was bumped up to March 30, 2017 due to low ratings for Training Day.^[4] As a result, the season also moved to the timeslot of Thursdays at 10 pm.

For the first time, the entire cast composed of complete strangers who only met each other at the Starting Line. According to host Phil Keoghan, fans had repeatedly suggested this idea to them for years.^[5] This idea was previously explored in The Amazing Race 26, where half the cast consisted of singles who were paired together on "blind dates". Unlike that season, however, this season did not have a romantic theme.

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

Twists/Changes[]

• Strangers: Twenty-two complete strangers met each other for the first time at the Starting Line. Prior to the official start of the Race, a Starting Line Task was held to form the teams. The order the racers completed this challenge determined the order for a schoolyard pick in which the highest-ranked unpaired racer would choose any remaining unpaired racer as his or her teammate, with the process continuing until all eleven teams are formed.
  • Free Transport: The team formed by default would be driven from the Starting Line to Los Angeles International Airport by host Phil Keoghan himself as consolation, instead of having to take a taxi like the other teams. However, this does not guarantee that they would get on the earliest flight.
• Roadblock Limits: This season featured 11 Roadblocks, with team members limited to performing a maximum of 4 Roadblocks by the end of the ninth leg. Either team member was allowed to perform the Roadblock in the tenth leg. The eleventh leg then featured two Roadblocks, with each team member required to perform one, leaving for a maximum Roadblock split of 6-5.
• Express Pass: An Express Pass was hidden in one of the luggages racers claimed during the Starting Line Task. The Express Pass allows them to skip any task of their choosing until the end of the fifth leg.
• Double U-Turn: Double U-Turns are available on certain legs of the Race. The one in the third leg was a Blind Double U-Turn, in which the teams that used it did not have to publicly reveal themselves by using their "Courtesy Of" photo. In addition, for this season only, there was no limit to how many times a team could use the U-Turn.
• No-Rest Leg: Upon checking in at the Pit Stop at the end of the fifth leg, teams were given their next clue by Keoghan and immediately began the next leg. The last place team did not face a penalty.
• 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.
• Rules and Penalties: The following rules and penalties were revealed on this season:
  • A team that is unable to complete a Detour due to hours of operation would incur a 2-hour penalty. The penalty for such an infraction was previously 4 hours, as of The Amazing Race 21.
  • A team that is caught speeding by production would incur a 10-minute penalty, which they must immediately serve before they could continue racing.^[6]

Teams[]

1st place  Brooke & Scott #TeamBrookeandScott	2nd place  Tara & Joey #TeamMomandDad	3rd place  London & Logan #TeamLoLo	4th place  Matt & Redmond #TheBoys	5th place  Becca & Floyd #TeamFun
6th place  Liz & Michael #TeamLizAndMike	7th place  Vanck & Ashton #TeamVanckandAshton	8th place  Shamir & Sara #TheSandSExpress	9th place  Seth & Olive #TeamAmerica	10th place  Jessie & Francesca #SwoleSisters
11th place  Kevin & Jenn #LongHairDontCare

Episodes[]

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	Brooke & Scott	4	6	6	7	6	5	4	3⊂	4	2	1	1	4.08	5-6
2	Tara & Joey	6	7	2⊂	1	1	3	3	1⋐	5	3	3	2	3.08	5-6
3	London & Logan	8	8	5	5	5	6	5	4	3	4	2	3	4.83	6-5
4	Matt & Redmond	3	3	4⋑	4	2	2	1	2	2	1	4		2.55	6-5
5	Becca & Floyd	2	5	8	2	3►	1⋐	2	5⋑	1	5			3.40	4-4
6	Liz & Michael	10	1	1	3	7	4⊂	6	6⊃					4.75	4-3
7	Vanck & Ashton	7	2	3⋐	6	4	7⊃							4.83	3-2
8	Shamir & Sara	5	9	7	8									7.25	2-1
9	Seth & Olive	1	4	9⊃										4.67	1-1
10	Jessie & Francesca	9	10											9.50	0-1
11	Kevin & Jenn	11												11.00	0-0
Notes		[1][2]		[3]	[4]	[5]	[6]		[7]		[8]
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 ϵ The team used the Express Pass somewhere during the leg ⊂ The team used the U-Turn ⊃ Recipient of the U-Turn ⋐ The team that used the second slot of the "Double U-Turn" ⋑ Recipient of a second U-Turn due to the "Double U-Turn" twist
Notes: 1: Due to a storm at the site of the Detour, several teams still performing the Detour received time credits. Time credits given to Tara & Joey and Vanck & Ashton pushed London & Logan from 6th to 8th. This went unaired.[18] 2: Kevin & Jenn initially arrived in 10th, but received a 2-hour penalty for failing to complete the Detour before it was closed down due to safety concerns. Liz & Michael, the only trailing team, checked in before the penalty elapsed, dropping Kevin & Jenn to last and eliminating them. 3: Becca & Floyd initially arrived 5th, but discovered after being checked in at the mat that they were missing Floyd's passport. They were told that they could not be checked in unless they had their travel documents, and backtracked to find it. They were able to find Floyd's passport, and were officially checked in 8th. 4: Shamir was unable to complete the Roadblock as the other teams had already checked in at the Pit Stop. Host Phil Keoghan went to the Roadblock location to inform Shamir & Sara of their elimination. 5: Leg 5 had no mandatory rest period between legs, and all teams were ordered to continue racing. The team who checked in last on this leg did not face a Speed Bump in the next leg. 6: Becca & Floyd U-Turned Liz & Michael, who had already passed the U-Turn point and were therefore unaffected by it. 7: Becca & Floyd received a 10-minute penalty for speeding. They elected to serve it on the racecourse, and was left unaired as it did not affect their placement.[19] 8: On the way to Đền Thái Vi – Bến Thành, Floyd became dizzy due to fatigue from the Roadblock, and medics were called out to their location. Long after all the other teams checked in, Phil came out to Becca & Floyd's location to eliminate them.

Trivia[]

Franchise[]

• Least amount of all-male teams, 1 (tied with The Amazing Race 5, The Amazing Race 6, and The Amazing Race 12).
• Second season to not feature any family teams, after The Amazing Race 26.
• First season to not feature any romantic teams in a standard format, and the second overall, after The Amazing Race: Family Edition.
• Most number of co-ed teams: 9.

US[]

• First season in which the Express Pass was randomly given out in a challenge.
• First season in which teams are allowed to use multiple U-Turns.
• Last season to feature the Fast Forward.

Reception[]

• Simon Alvarez at The Inquistir (12/08/2016): "How Season 29 could make make TAR great again"
• Jessica Carter at CarterMatt.com (12/23/2016): "As The Amazing Race 29 wait continues, so let's profile five (early-season) teams who need to return"
• Joyce Eng at TV Guide Online (03/28/2017): "Keoghan Reveals Why It Was Time for an All-Strangers Season"
• Kevin Jacobsen at Inquisitr (04/11/2017): "Amazing Race ratings slipping, in danger of cancellation?"
• Ken Tucker at Yahoo! TV (05/04/2017): " Has The Amazing Race Lost Its Way For Good?"
• Michael Schneider at IndieWire (05/31/2017): "Host Phil Keoghan on Job Hazards: Too Much Sun and Sensory Overload"
• Andy Dehnart at realityblurred (06/01/2017): "Why Amazing Race 29 ends as a refreshed—and renewed—show"

Gallery[]

Videos[]

29Promo 1

References[]