The Amazing Race 17


The Amazing Race 17 is the seventeenth installment of the American reality television show The Amazing Race. This season featured 11 teams of two, with a pre-existing relationship, in a race around the world.
The seventeenth cycle started on Sunday, September 26, 2010. It aired on CBS in the United States with a special 90-minute premiere, then returned to its normal hour-long format the following week on Sunday nights at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT The season finale was on December 12, 2010. The show was again hosted by Phil Keoghan.
This was the final season filmed and broadcast in Standard Definition.
Anesthesiologists Natalie "Nat" Strand and Katherine "Kat" Chang were the winners of the Race and were the first all-female team to win the American edition of The Amazing Race.
The season was released by CBS DVD on November 4, 2014, in a DVD set including all episodes and the accompanying Elimination Station web series. It was only made available through online purchase, manufactured by Amazon.com's CreateSpace.

Production

Development and filming

CBS renewed the 17th edition of The Amazing Race on January 25, 2010. The season premiered on September 26, 2010, with a special 90-minute episode. The show returned to its regular hour-long format the following week.
This season spanned while racing across four continents with first-time visits to Ghana and Bangladesh. Also for the first time in the show's history, teams crossed the Arctic Circle.
, making this the first season since the 11th season to start in a city other than Los Angeles.
Filming began on May 26, 2010, with the Starting Line at the Eastern Point Yacht Club in Gloucester, Massachusetts, making this the first season since The Amazing Race: All-Stars to start in a city other than Los Angeles. The season ended on June 15, 2010, with the Finish Line in Los Angeles, California.
Prior to the Races broadcast, CBS posted a short preview video clip from an episode on the Internet, showing Brook & Claire competing at a watermelon launching challenge using an elastic slingshot. The clip showed Claire being hit in the face full-on with a watermelon after it failed to launch correctly from the slingshot, leaving her momentarily stunned but otherwise not seriously injured. The clip spread virally on the Internet.
Phil Keoghan began both the season and the video background segments of the contestants standing on the grass mall of Castle Hill in Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Two new game elements were introduced in Season 17. The first was the Express Pass, which was awarded to the team who finished first on the first Leg. The Pass allowed the team to skip any Detour, Roadblock, or Route Info task before Leg 8. Dating couple Jill & Thomas won the Express Pass, which they later used to bypass the Beds Detour on Leg 4. Another new element was the Double U-Turn, where two teams were allowed to use U-Turns in a single leg. Jill & Thomas U-Turned Brook & Claire, while Nat & Kat U-Turned Chad & Stephanie.
During the Leg 3 Pit Stop in Ghana, teams helped renovate the school they visited during the leg.
Following the last episode, a sneak peek for the next season was shown.

Cast

Applications were due on February 4, 2010. Semi-finalist interviews were held in March 2010, and the final casting interviews took place in Los Angeles around March 2010. From there, eleven teams were selected as contestants and filming took place approximately from May to June 2010.
The cast included a team of home shopping hosts, Internet entertainer Kevin Wu – popularly known as "KevJumba" – and his father Michael, Ivy League a cappella singers, and a birth mother and daughter who recently reunited following an adoption over twenty years earlier. This was the first season without a married couple. There were also three beauty queens competing: Mallory Ervin, who competed in Miss America 2010, where she placed fourth runner-up; Brook Roberts, who competed in Miss America 2005; and Stephanie Smith, who was Miss South Carolina USA 2009.
Four all-female teams were cast this season, a record for the American edition, which had previously only cast as many as three in the sixteen prior seasons.
Chad Waltrip proposed to Stephanie Smith during the eighth leg, who accepted. They were married on November 20, 2010. They were the second team to propose on the racecourse after Hayden & Aaron from The Amazing Race 6.

Future appearances

Gary & Mallory raced once again in The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business among a cast of returning teams from seasons 12–17. Mallory also returned on the second All-Star edition racing with Mark from Season 20 to replace an ill Bopper.
Outside of The Amazing Race, Mallory appeared on the Discovery Channel reality show Backyard Oil in 2013. On May 25, 2016, Nat & Kat and Brook & Claire appeared on an Amazing Race-themed The Price is Right primetime special.

Results

The following teams participated in the Race, each listed along with their placements in each leg and relationships as identified by the program. Note that this table is not necessarily reflective of all content broadcast on television, owing to the inclusion or exclusion of some data. Placements are listed in finishing order:
  1. Ron & Tony were issued a penalty for an unspecified amount of time for quitting the coracle task; however, since Ron and Tony checked-in at the Pit Stop last, they were eliminated without the penalty being issued.
  2. Jill & Thomas used the Express Pass to bypass the Detour in Leg 4.
  3. While Nick & Vicki came in last in a non-elimination leg, they did not face a Speed Bump in the following leg. Post-race interviews revealed that the Speed Bump was waived, and that everyone's placement in that leg was equalized at the Detour, in compensation for various production difficulties in the previous leg affecting all of the teams. One of the problems involved the judge at the Classical Music Detour who made erroneous calls causing teams to spend more time at the task than they needed to.
  4. Brook & Claire initially followed Michael & Kevin by taking a taxi from the Tower to the Church of the Savior on Blood when the clue instructed them to travel on foot. After Claire realized the mistake, Brook immediately instructed the driver to turn back to the tower in order for them to correct their mistakes. As a result, they were not issued a penalty.
  5. ^ Chad & Stephanie arrived without their bags having failed to pay the taxi that drove them to the Pit Stop. They were required to return to their taxi, pay their fare, and retrieve their bags before being allowed to check in. During this time, Michael & Kevin arrived in 6th, but were issued two 30-minute penalties totaling 1-hour. Chad & Stephanie returned during Michael & Kevin's penalty time, but were issued a 30-minute penalty for taking a taxi to Church of the Savior on Blood when the clue instructed them to travel on foot. At that time they were the only two teams left to check in at that point, and since Michael & Kevin had more than 30 minutes remaining on their penalty time, Chad & Stephanie were allowed to check-in immediately for a 6th-place finish, with their 30-minute penalty time to be assessed at the start of the next leg; Michael & Kevin were then fell to last place, which resulted in their elimination.
  6. Chad & Stephanie left the Pit Start in Saint Petersburg over 2 hours late because they accidentally overslept. This did not affect their departure placement since they were the last to depart. Later, on the same leg, Chad proposed to Stephanie, who accepted. Their relationship title was changed from "Newly Dating" to "Engaged".
  7. Jill & Thomas initially arrived 1st, but were issued a 30-minute penalty for paying a taxi driver to lead them to the Pit Stop, which was explicitly prohibited in the rules. Chad & Stephanie checked-in during their penalty time, dropping Jill & Thomas to 2nd.
  8. Gary & Mallory were issued a 30-minute penalty for possessing and using maps, which was explicitly prohibited in the clue; however, since Gary & Mallory checked in at the Pit Stop last, they were eliminated without the penalty being issued.
  9. Nick & Vicki elect to forfeit the Detour because they were too exhausted to continue. They arrived at the Pit Stop last, but were notified that it was a non-elimination leg. The 6-hour penalty they would have taken from the Detour was instead applied to their starting time in Leg 11.
  10. Brook & Claire initially arrived 1st, but were issued a 30-minute penalty for taking a taxi to their Detour location when the clue instructed teams to travel either on foot or take the subway. Jill & Thomas checked in during their penalty time, dropping Brook & Claire to 2nd.
  11. By the time Nick & Vicki made it to the Seung-il Bridge in Cheorwon, all the other teams had already checked in at the Pit Stop and it had become too dark for them to safely perform some of the tasks, after they fell behind all the other teams due to the penalty issued at the start of the leg. During the broadcast of the leg, they were only shown performing the Speed Bump and then immediately checking in at the Pit Stop for elimination. In interviews after the episode was broadcast, they revealed that they did the Detour as well.

    Episode title quotes

Episode titles are often taken from quotes made by the racers.
  1. "They Don't Call It The Amazing Race For Nothin!" – Brook
  2. "A Kiss Saves the Day" – Brook
  3. "In Phil We Trust" – Connor
  4. "We Should Have Brought Gloves and Butt Pads" – Kevin
  5. "Tastes Like a Million Dollars" – Kat
  6. "Run, Babushka, Run" – Vicki
  7. "I Want to Be in the Circus, That's Where I Belong" – Brook
  8. "Ali Baba in a Suit" – Nick
  9. "There's a Lot of Nuts and Bullets" – Jill
  10. "I Hate Chinese Food" – Vicki
  11. "I'm Surrounded by Ninjas" – Brook
  12. "Hi. I'm Sorry. I'm in a Race" – Nat

    Prizes

The prize for each leg is awarded to the first place team for that leg. All trips are sponsored by Travelocity.
After elimination, the first five eliminated teams were sequestered at a villa in Cancun, Mexico, to await the finale. 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.

Leg 1 (United States → United Kingdom)

Airdate: September 26, 2010
In the first Roadblock of the Race, one team member had to travel on horseback to a tournament area and use a giant slingshot to launch a watermelon towards a suit of armor standing away. Once they had knocked the armor over, the team member had to find a court jester, who would give them the next clue.
;Additional tasks
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Airdate: October 3, 2010
For this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to sell sunglasses, with each pair sold for at least GH₵3, to make GH₵15 to receive their next clue.
The first Detour of the Race was a choice between Tune In or Check Out. In Tune In, teams had to travel to Adom Electronics and pick up a television antenna setup, bring it to a marked house, and set it up to the customer's preference. Once the television set picked up a proper signal, the house owner would give them their next clue. In Check Out, teams had to bring a fantasy coffin from Emmanuel's Woodshop to a showroom across town to retrieve their next clue.

Leg 3 (Ghana)

Airdate: October 10, 2010
For this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to perform a boxing workout. After first wrapping their hands properly, the team member had to punch a punching bag and then jump rope for 60 seconds on each exercise without stopping to receive their next clue from their boxing trainer.
The Detour in this leg was a choice between Bicycle Parts or Language Arts. In Bicycle Parts, both team members had to use a stick to roll a bicycle wheel's rim down the length of a soccer field and back without touching the rim with their hands or letting it fall over to receive their next clue from one of the school children. In Language Arts, teams chose a proverb with eight highlighted phrases that corresponded to a series of eight Adinkra symbols. Using a nearby decoder key, teams had to locate the eight symbols in a massive word search-like puzzle and circle the correct set of Adinkra symbols to receive their next clue from one of the school children.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: October 17, 2010
For their Speed Bump, Michael & Kevin had to sit on chairs made of ice in the Icehotel for 10 minutes before they could take their next clue and continue racing.
In this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to choose a sled dog team and hitch them to a summer training sled. They then had to take the dogs on a course to a hunter's camp, collect five different flags along the way, trade the flags for fur pelts at the end, and bring the pelts back to the lodge for their next clue. They would have to take a penalty lap around the camp for each missed flag in order to obtain the pelts.
The Detour for this leg was a choice between Sleds or Beds. In Sleds, teams had to use TechSleds to race down a mountain course in less than one minute and 58 seconds to receive their next clue. If teams failed to reach the end before the allotted time, they would have to repeat the run. In Beds, teams had to properly build a traditional Sami dwelling known as a goahti and furnish the inside with furs and a fire pit to receive their next clue from a Sami elder.
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Airdate: October 24, 2010
In the only available Fast Forward of the Race, teams had to drive themselves to the Stornaustet immersive restaurant in Vidrek to participate in a traditional Christmas ritual. Unbeknownst to the teams, they would have eat an entire serving of smalahove, a dish made of a boiled sheep's head, between the two of them to claim the Fast Forward.
The Roadblock required one team member to rappel off the Skjomen Bridge and then signal for one of two waiting boats to give them their next clue. After retrieving the clue from the boat, the team member had to use a mechanical ascender to return to the bridge deck.
The Detour was a choice of Bike or Boat. In Bike, teams had to ride a bicycle along a course to a sign, where combinations of numbers and colors were shown. Teams then had to memorize the combination of the color that matched the color on their bicycle lock, return to the starting point, and then use the combination to unlock their next clue. In Boat, teams had to use a map for reference to navigate a fishing trawler to a specific location. They then had to deliver two cod and a chainsaw to a summer lodge to receive their next clue.
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Airdate: October 31, 2010
The Detour was a choice between Classical Music and Classic Cinema. In Classical Music, teams traveled to Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace and listened to three different compositions playing on three numbered gramaphones. They then entered a music hall full of pianists playing several different compositions and had to take a copy of the sheet music from the pianist playing one of the three compositions. Once the correct compositions were placed in the correct order, a maestro would give teams their next clue. In Classic Cinema, teams traveled to Lenfilm and searched through several hundred filmstrips until they found one matching the film playing in the theatre. When they showed the correct filmstrip to the projectionist, he would give teams their next clue.
In this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to dress up like a, pick up a sack of 50 potatoes, and fill a wheelbarrow with cow manure. A babushka would then show them how to properly plant the potatoes. Once the potatoes were planted, they would receive their next clue from a babushka.
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Airdate: November 7, 2010
The circus-inspired Detour tasks were Circus Band and Circus Clown. In Circus Band, team members had to learn and correctly play a Russian folk song on the accordion to receive their next clue from the band leader. In Circus Clown, teams had to learn plate spinning and get ten plates to spin simultaneously for ten seconds without falling to receive their clue from a clown.
For the Roadblock of this leg, one team member had to clear three gorodki pin formations by tossing a wooden bat to receive their next clue. After two attempts at a formation, the pins would be reset.
;Additional task
Airdate: November 14, 2010
In this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to rappel down the side of the mountain to a field of hundreds of oil lamps, a handful of which held Aladdin's magic ring. Once they found the lamp with the ring, they had to exchange it for their next clue.
The Detour in this leg was a choice between Water Table and Wedding Table. In Water Table, teams have to pump water from a well to fill a water truck and then direct the truck's driver to deliver the water to their assigned house in the neighborhood of Aswat Al Eid. After delivering the water, the customer would give them their next clue. In Wedding Table, teams had to travel to an Arab market and purchase 25 chickens and several other ingredients needed to prepare a traditional Omani dish, maqbous. Once the dish was complete, teams had to serve the dish to a bride and groom for their next clue.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: November 21, 2010
The Detour for this leg was a choice between Balanced Meal or Balanced Bricks. In Balanced Meal, teams had to pick up 30 filled tiffin carriers and take them by boat to a cargo ship in the harbor. After lifting the carriers onto the ship, teams had to bring ten empty carriers back to shore, where they could exchange them for the next clue. In Balanced Bricks, teams had to unload bricks from a supply barge and carry them in baskets on top of their heads to a nearby shop. Once they delivered 100 intact bricks, the shop manager would give them their next clue.
The Roadblock for the leg required one team member to properly assemble a cycle rickshaw using the parts provided in order to receive their clue.
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Airdate: November 28, 2010
For this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to use chopsticks to search among several plates of food on a buffet for one of five pieces of fake food normally used for display. Team members had to eat any real food they picked up. Once they found the fake food, they would receive their next clue from a chef.
The Detour was a choice between Ding Ding and Sampan. In Ding Ding, teams had to ride the Hong Kong Tramways, colloquially known as the "Ding Ding", between Arsenal Street and Causeway Bay Tram Terminus, while looking for three signs that, when combined, would reveal the location of the Pit Stop. In Sampan, teams went to the Jumbo Kingdom's dock and took a pair of budgerigars in a birdcage on a sampan. Then they had to search along the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelters for a boat with the registration number matching the number on their birdcage. When found, teams could then trade the birdcage for the location of the Pit Stop: Statue Square.
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Airdate: December 5, 2010
For their Speed Bump, Nick & Vicki had to clean a M109 Self-Propelled Howitzers; however, this task was not described by Phil on-air because they fell much further behind the other teams due to the previous leg.
For this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to pick a headband and then search among two hundred soldiers practicing taekwondo for the one wearing a matching headband. Once they found the right soldier, the soldier would break open a wooden board that contained the next clue. If not, the soldier would take their headband, and team members had to retrieve another headband.
The leg's Detour was a choice between Full Throttle or Full Bottle. For both Detour options, teams were instructed to travel by subway or by foot to the specified location. In Full Throttle, teams traveled to the Mokdong Ice Rink. There, teams had to put on short track speed skating suits and complete a two-person skating relay of 24 laps around the rink before they were given their next clue. In Full Bottle, teams traveled to Namdaemun Market. There, teams had to put on delivery uniforms and then deliver six large glass jars of ginseng roots to a holistic wellness store without breaking any of them. When they were done, both team members had to finish a bottle of ginseng tonic before they could receive their next clue.
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Airdate: December 12, 2010
The final Roadblock of the Race required one team member to decorate three sections of the theme float for the Tournament of Roses Parade by gluing chrysanthemums to one section, placing roses in special vials of water and then placing them in a section of the float, and then covering a giant cardboard rose with finely ground straw in compliance with the "natural materials" requirement as stated in the rules for decorating the floats. When they completed the float sections correctly, the floral director would tell them that they could obtain their next clue from 2009 Rose Queen Courtney Lee.
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U.S. Nielsen ratings

Canadian broadcaster CTV also aired The Amazing Race on Sundays at 8pm Eastern, Central, & Atlantic.
#AirdateEpisodeViewers
Rank
1September 26, 2010"They Don't Call It The Amazing Race For Nothin!"2.438#8
2October 3, 2010"A Kiss Saves the Day"2.623#3
3October 10, 2010"In Phil We Trust"2.301#7
4October 17, 2010"We Should Have Brought Gloves and Butt Pads"2.989#1
5October 24, 2010"Tastes Like a Million Dollars"2.723#2
6October 31, 2010"Run, Babushka, Run"2.360#6
7November 7, 2010"I Want to Be in the Circus, That's Where I Belong"2.674#4
8November 14, 2010"Ali Baba in a Suit"2.791#2
9November 21, 2010"There's a Lot of Nuts and Bullets"2.632#3
10November 28, 2010"I Hate Chinese Food"2.506#4
11December 5, 2010"I'm Surrounded by Ninjas"2.681#1
12December 12, 2010"Hi. I'm Sorry. I'm in a Race"2.738#1