The Amazing Race 16 is the sixteenth season of the 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 five continents and nine countries and traveled over 40000 mi. Starting in Los Angeles, racers traveled through Chile, Argentina, Germany, France, the Seychelles, Malaysia, Singapore, and China before returning to the United States and finishing in San Francisco. This season also saw the return of the Intersection. The season premiered on CBS on Sunday, February 14, 2010, and the finale aired on May 9, 2010. In Canada, the show premiered on the A-Channel instead of CTV due to the 2010 Winter Olympics, but it returned to CTV after the Winter Olympics concluded. Brothers Dan and Jordan Pious were the winners of this season, while cowboy brothers Jet McCoy and Cord McCoy finished in second place, and models Brent Horne and Caite Upton finished in third place.

Production

Development and filming

The sixteenth season spanned 40000 mi across five continents and nine countries, including a first-time visit to the Seychelles. Racers were observed leaving Los Angeles International Airport on November 28, 2009. Racers checked into a Pit Stop in Puerto Varas, Chile, on December 2, 2009. Filming of the show also was reported in Bariloche, Argentina. Production crews were reported in Singapore, particularly in the Bugis area and the Singapore Flyer, on December 16. In the episode which aired on February 28, 2010, and featured the contestants departing Chile, Phil Keoghan acknowledged the February 27, 2010, Chilean earthquake in a special opening. Leg 4 featured an Intersection for the first time since season 11. Additionally, teams did a Roadblock together for the first time, where one person from each of the Intersected teams worked together to complete the Roadblock.

Casting

Applications were originally due on July 10, 2009, but the deadline was extended. Semi-finalist interviews were held in August 2009 and the final casting interviews took place in Los Angeles in September and October 2009. Filming took place in November and December 2009.

Cast

Notable cast members included Big Brother 11 HouseGuests Jordan Lloyd and Jeff Schroeder, professional bull rider Cord McCoy, and Cleveland Indians third-base coach Steve Smith. Caite Upton was the 2007 Miss South Carolina Teen USA, who gained international notoriety after giving a convoluted response to a question asked to her during the Miss Teen USA 2007 pageant. Jet & Cord raced again in The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business. They raced again in The Amazing Race: All Stars. Jordan & Jeff competed on Big Brother 13 a year after this season. The two returned to the Big Brother house three years later on the thirty-third episode of Big Brother 16, where they got engaged. In 2015, they also appeared on Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars 3. On May 24, 2016, Jeff Schroeder appeared on a Big Brother-themed primetime special of The Price Is Right. Jeff also appeared on the second episode of Big Brother: Over the Top to host a Power of Veto competition and on the penultimate episode of Big Brother 20.

Results

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

Race summary

Leg 1 (United States → Chile)

Leg 2 (Chile)

Leg 3 (Chile → Argentina)

Leg 4 (Argentina → Germany)

Leg 5 (Germany → France)

Leg 6 (France)

Leg 7 (France → Seychelles)

Leg 8 (Seychelles → Malaysia)

Leg 9 (Malaysia → Singapore)

Leg 10 (Singapore → China)

Leg 11 (China)

Leg 12 (China → United States)

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Elimination Station

The first five eliminated teams were sequestered at a villa in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to await the finale. CBS posted short videos on its website after each episode to show the eliminated teams interacting at the villa.

Reception

Critical response

The Amazing Race 16 received mostly negative reviews. Andy Dehnart of reality blurred called it a "relatively weak season". Michael Hewitt of the Orange County Register wrote that "stupidity and luck ruled, and the game-changing plays came via two lethal U-Turns. As TV in general goes, season 16 was fine entertainment. But as 'The Amazing Race' goes, it was a disappointment." Daniel Fienberg of HitFix wrote that "there were too many dull teams and too many dull tasks and too little rewarding of excellence or punishing of the stupidity that ran amuck all season long. This group of contestants got to see some great locations and do some great stuff, but nothing was hard enough or challenging enough. Even a lame season of 'The Amazing Race' is still better than most of what passes for reality TV. Perhaps, though, this 'Amazing Race' installment has just paled in comparison to a classic All-Star edition of 'Survivor' currently being played out." In 2016, this season was ranked 24th out of the first 27 seasons by the Rob Has a Podcast Amazing Race correspondents. In 2024, Rhenn Taguiam of Game Rant placed this season within the bottom 13 out of 36. Conversely, Luke Dwyer of TV Fanatic called this season a blast, praised the locations and tasks, and said that it "was one of the more entertaining in recent memory and Dan and Jordan's victory was well deserved."

Ratings

No episode aired on April 18, 2010 due to CBS's broadcast of the Academy of Country Music Awards and CTV's broadcast of the Juno Awards.

U.S. Nielsen ratings

Canadian ratings

Canadian broadcaster CTV also aired The Amazing Race on Sundays at 8 p.m. The first three episodes were aired on A-Channel. When the show returned to the said network, episode four aired an hour earlier than its normal start time due to the network's broadcast of the 82nd Academy Awards.