The Amazing Race 11 (also known as The Amazing Race: All-Stars) is the eleventh season of the American reality competition show The Amazing Race. Hosted by Phil Keoghan, it featured eleven teams of two, ten returning teams from previous editions and a dating couple with members from two teams that had competed against each other, competing in a race around the world in order to win US$1,000,000. This season visited six continents and nine countries and traveled over 45000 mi. Starting in Palmetto Bay, Florida, outside of Miami, racers traveled through Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Mozambique, Tanzania, Poland, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Macau before returning to the United States, traveling through Guam and Hawaii, and finishing in San Francisco. The season premiered on CBS on February 18, 2007, and the season finale aired on May 6, 2007. Dating couple Eric Sanchez and Danielle Turner, who had competed on opposing teams on The Amazing Race 9, were the winners of this season, while beauty queens Dustin Seltzer and Kandice Pelletier from The Amazing Race 10 finished in second place, and cousins Charla Faddoul and Mirna Hindoyan from The Amazing Race 5 finished in third place.

Production

Development and filming

As early as 2004, there had been talk about an all-star edition of The Amazing Race, with speculation that it would occur during the eighth season, just as it had with Survivor. These rumors were fueled by reports that season 4 winner Reichen Lehmkuhl had been invited to appear in a future all-star race. Speculation continued for the next few years, particularly after CBS aired all-star editions of their two other reality competition series, Survivor and Big Brother. On September 28, 2006, CBS ordered an 11th season of The Amazing Race. In November 2006, the network officially acknowledged that an all-star edition was in production. Host Phil Keoghan was originally skeptical that an all-star edition was feasible. Over time, Keoghan felt that "as we got more and more really good teams, it just seemed like it had to happen." This season traveled a little over 45000 mi, across thirty cities and six continents and was the second season (after season 5) to visit every habitable continent. The new locales visited in this season were Ecuador, Mozambique, Poland, Macau, and Guam. This was the last season to feature the Yield until The Amazing Race 32.

Casting

Phil Keoghan personally submitted a list of fifteen teams that he thought should return. Ten of them were chosen. The team he didn't choose was Eric & Danielle, who did not previously race together. Keoghan said, "I didn't think of that new combination, which actually is a really good one." He also added that the production team's goal for the race "wasn't to pick the best racers," but "to pick the teams that have earned the most attention over the last 10 seasons." Only one team, Uchenna & Joyce, had won their original season, while other seasons' winners criticized CBS' casting process after being omitted, most notably Chip and Kim McAllister (season 5), and B.J. Averell and Tyler MacNiven (season 9). Colin Guinn and Christie Woods from season 5 were invited to participate, but declined due to Christie's pregnancy. They would eventually participate on The Amazing Race 31. Flo Pesenti and Drew Riker, who began dating after meeting during season 3, were invited to participate, but Flo reportedly declined because she felt the first race had brought out the worst in her, and her season 3 winning partner, Zach Behr, was not invited to join her. Rob and Amber Mariano (née Brkich) had gotten married after competing on season 7.

Release

Marketing

This season introduced the Elimination Station, featured on the official website. A series of thirteen web episodes presented the eliminated contestants living together in a common house in their sequester location in Acapulco, Mexico. The series was viewable only in the United States and was available on the Innertube video streaming service on the CBS website, with a new episode debuting immediately following the airing of each new Amazing Race episode in the Pacific Time Zone.

Cast

The eleven teams were selected from among the first ten seasons. Rob Mariano went on to compete on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, Survivor: Redemption Island, and participated as a non-competing mentor on Survivor: Island of the Idols. Rob and Amber both returned to Survivor to compete on Survivor: Winners at War. On May 23, 2016, Rob appeared on a Survivor-themed primetime special episode of The Price Is Right. In 2024, Rob competed on Deal or No Deal Island. Later in the year, Rob competed on the third season of The Traitors.

Results

The following teams are listed with their placements in each leg. Placements are listed in finishing order.

Race summary

Leg 1 (United States → Ecuador)

Leg 2 (Ecuador → Chile)

Leg 3 (Chile)

Leg 4 (Chile → Argentina)

Leg 5 (Argentina → Mozambique)

Leg 6 (Mozambique → Tanzania)

Leg 7 (Tanzania → Poland)

Leg 8 (Poland)

Leg 9 (Poland → Malaysia)

Leg 10 (Malaysia → Hong Kong)

Leg 11 (Hong Kong → Macau)

Leg 12 (Macau → Hong Kong → Guam)

Leg 13 (Guam → United States)

! scope="col" rowspan=2 | Questions ! scope="col" colspan=3 | Answers ! Charla & Mirna ! Dustin & Kandice ! Eric & Danielle ! scope="row" | Who is the least trustworthy? ! scope="row" | Who has the best sense of humor? ! scope="row" | Who is the most overrated? ! scope="row" | Who do you most want to stay in touch with?

Elimination Station

The first five teams eliminated were sequestered at a villa in Acapulco, Mexico to await the finale. Subsequently, eliminated teams telephoned the villa to inform those teams at the villa of their elimination, but continued to run as decoys to throw off spoilers to the final outcome of the season. The sequestered teams met with the decoy teams in the final destination city to cheer on the final three teams as they crossed the Finish Line. CBS posted short videos on its website after each episode aired in the Pacific time zone to show the eliminated teams interacting at the villa.

Reception

Critical response

The Amazing Race 11 received mixed reviews. Linda Holmes of Television Without Pity was critical of this season's cast writing that "there weren't that many teams that didn't halfway suck to begin with, and we still had about a 75 percent chance of a better ending than this. We're all cursed." Simon Brew of Den of Geek wrote that "the procession of camera hoggers in this season ultimately, come the final round, left the audience with a real problem: there was nobody to root for." Roger Holland of PopMatters wrote that "TAR-11 started poorly, stuttered and staggered around the globe like the zombified remains of its former self, and finished on an absolute all-time low." Leslie Seaton of BuddyTV wrote that even though "the season definitely had some exciting moments, I still maintain that I'm not sure an All-Star season is a great idea for this show." Sarah Kickler Kelber of The Baltimore Sun wrote that "all in all, it was a fun season, even if it's not a result I would have predicted." Heather Havrilesky of Salon wrote "this season's challenges were some of the most frustrating and difficult ever". In 2016, this season was ranked 8th out of the first 27 seasons by the Rob Has a Podcast Amazing Race correspondents. In 2024, Rhenn Taguiam of Game Rant ranked this season 20th out of 36.

Ratings