The Amazing Race 12 is the twelfth season of American reality competition show The Amazing Race. Hosted by Phil Keoghan, it featured eleven teams of two, each with a pre-existing relationship, competing in a race around the world in order to win US$1,000,000. This season visited four continents and ten countries and traveled over 30000 mi. Starting in Los Angeles, racers traveled through Ireland, the Netherlands, Burkina Faso, Lithuania, Croatia, Italy, India, Japan, and Taiwan before returning to the United States and finishing in Anchorage. New twists introduced in this season include the U-Turn, which replaced the Yield and allowed one team to force another team to perform both Detour tasks on a leg, and a new non-elimination leg penalty called the Speed Bump, which is an extra task that the team who finished last had to perform on the subsequent leg. The season premiered on CBS on November 4, 2007, and the finale aired on January 20, 2008. Newly dating couple TK Erwin and Rachel Rosales were the winners of this season, while father and daughter Ronald and Christina Hsu finished in second place, and grandson and grandfather Nicolas Fulks and Donald Jerousek finished in third place.

Production

Development and filming

In May 2007, CBS confirmed The Amazing Race was picked up for a twelfth season. It was originally to be scheduled in the mid-season of the 2007–08 TV season. However, when Viva Laughlin was canceled in October, The Amazing Race 12 debuted early to take the time slot. The Amazing Race 12 spanned 30000 mi in 21 days. The season covered four continents, visiting ten countries (five of which were not previously visited by the series), while traveling entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. The newly visited countries were Ireland, Burkina Faso, Lithuania, Croatia, and Taiwan. The shortened filming schedule was initially attributed, in part, to the removal of non-elimination legs, which would have been a first on The Amazing Race. However, host Phil Keoghan told Kynt & Vyxsin in the seventh leg that there were two non-elimination legs this season. This season introduced two new twists to The Amazing Race: the U-Turn and the Speed Bump. Positioned just after a Detour, the U-Turn allowed one team to force another team behind them to complete both sides of the Detour. The Speed Bump was a penalty task for a team that finished last in a non-elimination leg, and had to be completed during the next leg in addition to other tasks. The U-Turn and the Speed Bump each occurred in two episodes of The Amazing Race 12.

Marketing

Two days after the series premiere, CBS launched an Amazing Race page on social networking site Facebook via Facebook Ads. The site contained interactive contents such as maps, trivia, a travel log, and prizes. The site also included a tie-in with the Where I've Been application.

Cast

This season's eleven teams included married lesbian ministers, dating Goths, and siblings. Executive producer Bertram van Munster felt that "it was not intentional" for casting to leave out young-male teams commonly found in past seasons. He also said that it was pure coincidence for 15 of 22 racers to be residents of California. During The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business, Christina Hsu revealed that she was engaged to Azaria Azene. They married in March 2011. After the season ended, Kynt & Vyxsin applied for third season of The Amazing Race Asia but were turned down by producer Michael McKay due to their prior Amazing Race experience. Their audition was shown on the "Racers Revealed" episode of the season. Kynt & Vyxsin and Ronald & Christina competed again on The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business, with Kynt having changed his name to Kent.

Results

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

Race summary

Leg 1 (United States → Ireland)

Leg 2 (Ireland → Netherlands)

Leg 3 (Netherlands → Burkina Faso)

Leg 4 (Burkina Faso)

Leg 5 (Burkina Faso → Lithuania)

Leg 6 (Lithuania → Croatia)

Leg 7 (Croatia → Italy)

Leg 8 (Italy → India)

Leg 9 (India → Japan)

Leg 10 (Japan → Taiwan)

Leg 11 (Taiwan → United States)

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Elimination Station

The first five teams eliminated were sequestered at a villa in Portugal to await the finale. Subsequently, eliminated teams telephoned to inform the teams at the villa of their elimination, but continued to run the race as decoys to throw off potential spoilers. The sequestered teams met up 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, which showed the eliminated teams interacting at the villa.

Reception

Critical response

The Amazing Race 12 received positive reviews. Linda Holmes of Television Without Pity called it a good season. Heather Havrilesky of Salon was positive towards this season's cast writing "there are some pretty amusing teams this season". In 2016, this season was ranked 6th out of the first 27 seasons by the Rob Has a Podcast Amazing Race correspondents. In 2021, Jane Andrews of Gossip Cop ranked this season as the show's 9th best season. Val Barone of TheThings ranked this season as the show's 3rd best season. In 2024, Rhenn Taguiam of Game Rant ranked this season 11th out of 36.

Ratings