The Amazing Race: A Corrida Milionária was a Brazilian reality competition based on the American series The Amazing Race. Following the premise of other versions in the Amazing Race franchise, the show follows eleven teams of two with a grand prize of R$500,000. The show was split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in foreign areas, interact with locals, perform physical and mental challenges, and travel by air, boat, car, taxi, and other modes of transport. Teams are progressively eliminated at the end of most legs for being the last to arrive at designated Pit Stops. Starting in São Paulo, racers travelled through nine states of Brazil and one Federal District, and Chile before finishing in Dalcahue near Puerto Montt, resulting in the fewest countries visited in an Amazing Race franchise until The Amazing Race: China Rush. The show was hosted by Rony Curvelo and independently produced and aired in a purchased time slot in the Brazilian television network RedeTV!. It premiered on 13 October 2007 and ended on 5 January 2008. Friends Patricia & Sane were the winners, and friends Jonatas & Rafael placed second.

Production

Development and filming

The Amazing Race: A Corrida Milionária covered 15,000 km in 33 days. The series adopted the rules from the American version's tenth and eleventh seasons. With the exception of the Intersection, all clue types were retained in the Brazilian version, as well as the non-elimination penalty. This show also differed from the original format in that while teams leave the Pit Stops in the same order they arrived, the time differences were not always respected. The penalty for not completing a Roadblock was also shorter at three hours compared to four. Route markers are colored yellow and green, reflecting the Brazilian national colours, as opposed to yellow and red in most other versions. Also, contrary to other Amazing Race versions, the eliminated teams did not make an appearance at the Finish Line. Additionally, this is the first Amazing Race franchise whereby they did not end in the same country as it started as the season started in Brazil and ended in Chile. In most versions, the seasons start and end in same country. Notably, in Leg 6, while driving to the Pit Stop, Andréa & Luciana were held up at gunpoint by three men at a stoplight in Fortaleza. The team did not lose anything, but the criminals took the camera and all personal documents from the crew, and ran off as gunshots were fired by the police. Two of the men were later caught and identified, and the camera was recovered. This incident dropped the team from 4th to last place, and no time credit was given for the situation. Part of the robbery was filmed and shown in the sixth episode. In Leg 13, Perri & Maristela became the first team to quit the show in a final leg, after refusing to perform the first task.

Cast

Applications for the first season were open from January until July 2007, and filming occurred in South America during August and September. Narciso & Marcelo are the first openly gay couple to participate in a Brazilian reality show. While Eduardo previously participated in the Brazilian reality game show Sem Saída, in which he won R$50,000.

Results

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

Race summary

Leg 1 (São Paulo → Rio de Janeiro)

Leg 2 (Rio de Janeiro → Minas Gerais)

Leg 3 (Minas Gerais → Bahia)

Leg 4 (Bahia → Alagoas)

Leg 5 (Alagoas → Rio Grande do Norte)

Leg 6 (Rio Grande do Norte → Ceará)

Leg 7 (Ceará → Amazonas)

Leg 8 (Amazonas → Distrito Federal)

Leg 9 (Distrito Federal → São Paulo)

Leg 10 (São Paulo → Paraná)

Leg 11 (Paraná)

Leg 12 (Paraná → Chile)

Leg 13 (Chile)