The Amazing Race (2001)

Name: The Amazing Race
Rating: 6.9

Rating: 6.9

Synopsis

This reality competition sees teams embark on a trek around the world to amazing destinations where they must compete in a series of challenges, some mental and some physical. Only when the tasks are completed will they learn of their next location. Teams who are the farthest behind will gradually be eliminated as the contest progresses, with the first team to arrive at the final destination winning the race and the $1 million prize.

First Air Date: 2001-09-05

Last Air Date: 2025-12-10

Number of Seasons: 38

Number of Episodes: 449

Created By: Bertram van Munster, Elise Doganieri

Networks: CBS

View Technical Specifications on IMDb

Top Cast

Phil Keoghan as Self - Host
Cord McCoy as Self - Contestant
Izzy Gleicher as Self - Contestant
Jag Bains as Self - Contestant
Joseph Abdin as Self - Contestant
Kyland Young as Self - Contestant
Taylor Hale as Self - Contestant
Meghan Camarena as Self - Contestant
Chelsie Baham as Self - Contestant
Tucker Des Lauriers as Self - Contestant

Seasons

Select a Season

None

None (2001)

The Amazing Race 1 is the first season of the American reality television series The Amazing Race. It was broadcast for the first time on September 5, 2001, and ended on December 13, 2001, on American television.

Episodes:

Ep. 1: The Race Begins (2001-09-05)

The teams begin in New York. They need to travel to Johannesburg, South Africa. Cooperation problems surface early on with a few of the couples. The teams have to decide which airport to take to the destination. Once they arrive in South Africa, they must take yet another flight. Before ultimately get to Songwe Village, they must find beautiful Victoria Falls. From there, they must get to Knife's Edge, a cliff. There, they must bungee jump and glide across a rope, eventually getting to the other side. The Pit Stop is located in Songwe Village. Rob and Brennan obtain the Fast Forward near Victoria Falls, allowing them to avoid all other tasks and go straight to the Pit Stop. Matt and Ana are the last to arrive and are eliminated.
Ep. 2: Divide and Conquer (2001-09-19)

The teams start out in Songwe Village,Zameia. When the times depart from the pit stop they must find the Songwe Museum in the village without any signs to indicate where it is located. They must use the help of the villagers. The first to leave are Rob and Brennan but they decide to wait for the members of their newly formed alliance with Frank, Margarita, Joe and Bill. Once locating the museum, the teams must decide in a detour to do one of two tasks involving photography. Then they have to bring the pictures to a chief in another village. Pat and Brenda decide not to do the tasks after failing to find the museum and decide to go for the Fast Forward. They complete this with ease and head to the next pit stop, the Arch de Triomphe in Paris. At the airport, some problems surface between Kim/Leslie and Paul/Amie. Once in Paris,the teams must find a monument through a telescope. For some of the teams this is easy but for others, proves extremely difficult. Kim and Leslie are the last to
Ep. 3: Home for Some (2001-09-26)

At the Arc de Triomphe, at departure times the teams are told to find La Grande Rue, a ferris wheel located somewhere in the city. They will have to get the route marker when the ferris wheel opens. When they get there, they are to do a detour. An ""Easy Walk"" where they must find Foucault's pendulum. There are two nearby, but you must chose the right one .Unfortunately for Pat and Brenda, they do chose the wrong one which puts them far behind the others. The second is ""Tough Climb"" in which the teams must climb to the top of Notre Dame and ring Quasimodo's bell. Kevin and Drew decide to go for the Fast Forward, where they have to retrieve it from a local coffee shop. Then they must head directly to the pit stop which is located in Chateau Les Baux. In the Roadblock, one of the team members must travel through the Paris sewers. Pat and Brenda are the last to arrive and are eliminated, going from 1st in Leg #2 to last in Leg #3.
Ep. 4: Colossal Showdown (2001-10-03)

The teams start off at the Chateau Les Baux in Paris, France. The first task is to find a man in a red hat, standing under a miniature Arc de Triomphe. All they have to discover where the man is located, is a flag and a picture of the man. It seems clear that the alliance between Frank/Margarita, Rob/Brennan and Joe/Bill has officially crumbled. The teams discover that the flag is from Tunisia. Before this discovery, some guess Turkey or Morocco. Paul/Amie at departure, notice the cab they had previously ordered the night before is not there. This causes some anger and Paul debates quitting. All the teams must get to Tunisia. Most take plane but some take boat. When they find the man, they are given a Detour. They must take a ""Full Body Massage"" or ""Full Body Brew"", involving coffee. They must with the given map find one of these two places in busy crowded streets. When these tasks are completed they must get to El Jem Coliseum. There they must run around the coliseum and most find a s
Ep. 5: Desert Storm (2001-10-10)

The seven remaining teams start off in El Jem Coliseum, the pit stop for the fourth leg. Upon departure they are given a route marking which tells them they must find a monument known as the Tataouine which is 300 miles away. Although Paul and Amie arrived fifth in the last leg, production problems cause them to move ahead one place in front of Frank and Margarita. When the teams arrive at the Tataouine, they are given a Detour. They must chose between an easy and a difficult game. The easy game is at a hard to find location and the hard game is at an easy to find location. The games are called ""Puzzle"" and ""Listening"" .All the teams chose Listening in which they must find the clue using a walkie talkie and find where the other one is. There they will find the clue. The clue says that must find a ""yellow and white flag"" in the middle of the Sahara Desert and that there are rocks to guide them there. Some teams are a little bit confused as to how the rocks guide them there. But eventual
Ep. 6: Whatever it Takes to Win (2001-10-17)

The teams start out in the Sahara desert. Kevin and Drew are the first to depart. The clue reads that they must get to the Palace Hotel in Tunis,300 miles away. Joe and Bill are the first to arrive at the clue. They must get to a spot outside the famous Coliseum in Rome. The teams head to the Tunisian airport. Tensions are high at the airport. At one point, Drew ask Team Guido if they want to have one of their legs broke. Joe and Bill laugh at this and don't see it as a threat. Drew then tells the team he was joking. Joe and Bill are the first of the teams to get tickets on the plane and are the last tickets on that flight. When the other teams arrive at the airport, the Guido's (all ready to go) decide to spy on the other teams and at one point, decide to eavesdrop. Teams are getting extremely frustrated when they learn of the air strike in Rome. They are having serious trouble getting tickets. With ""charm,"" Kevin and Drew get tickets for themselves and two other teams (Nancy/Emily an
Ep. 7: Triumph and Loss (2001-10-24)

Tensions are high and it seems that Team Guido is separated from the rest of the group, socially. Teams are still distraught about what happened in the previous leg. The teams are in Rome. Frank and Margarita are the first to leave the pit stop. The first clue is a Detour. The teams must chose between ""Glide"" and ""Ride."" In ""Glide"" the teams must take a glider to the next location and in ""Ride,"" the teams must take a set of bikes to the next location, which is Ferrara. However, the teams must note there is only one glider so they may have to wait for another team to finish the task before they can start. It's first come, first served. Frank and Margarita decide to go for the fast forward which is hidden in a moat at a castle. Rob and Brennan decide to do the glider and are the first to arrive there. Joe and Bill decide to do the biking, where they must find the bike shop. Frank and Margarita obtain the Fast Forward and start heading straight to the pit stop; New Dehli, India. Nancy/Emi
Ep. 8: Competition to the Fullest (2001-10-31)

The teams start off at the Taj Mahal and must find the next route marker, located somewhere on the grounds of the palace. Frank and Margarita are the first to leave because of their fast forward pass from the last leg. Bill and Joe are the next to depart from the pit stop. Frank and Margarita are the first to find the route marker and now must find a yellow and white flag at Palace of the Winds in Jaipur. They must either take a taxi or a bus. Rob and Brennan are the first to arrive at the Palace. The clue is a Detour, in both they have to find a Holy Man by either riding an elephant up a hill or going by boat. Once they retrieve the clue from the Holy Man, they must head to Karni Mata Temple in Deshnoke and from there to Bikaner, a place where rats are considered sacred. Teams well have to get to the Temple of Rats in Bikaner where in a road block, one team member must walk though the temple of rats to retrieve the next clue. Margarita, Brennan, Kevin and Emily perform this task. Fro
Ep. 9: The Unexpected Twist (2001-11-14)

Five teams remain (Kevin/Drew, Frank/Margarita, Rob/Brennan, Joe/Bill and Nancy/Emily) and they must get to the Temple of Dawn in Bangkok from the pit stop. Kevin and Drew are the first to leave. Only two teams are still eligible to use the Fast Forward; Nancy/Emily and Joe/Bill. All the others teams have already used it. Nancy says that she and Emily either get the Fast Forward or they're out of the game. Both teams decide to go for it although Nancy and Emily seem a little hesitant. The teams must get from Dehli to Bangkok either by using train or a bus. When the Temple of Dawn opens in the morning after arriving the previous night (except for Kevin/Drew),they are given a Detour. The teams must get to a monastery in Kanchanaburi by either using a public bus or a private car. The only thing they are given to find the car is a license plate number. The Fast Forward is at the Reclining Buddha. The two teams going for it must perform an old tradition in which they must drop the exact amo
Ep. 10: To the Physical and Mental Limit (2001-11-21)

The teams begin this leg at the Tiger Cave Temple in Krabi. Only four teams remain: Joe and Bill, Kevin and Drew, Frank and Margarita and Rob and Brennan. The first clue directs the teams to Raile Beach in which they must find ""the king"". Rob and Brennan are the first to depart the pit stop. They must take a cab and a boat to get to the next destination. Operating hours end at 5:30 PM and Joe and Bill are set to depart at 6:30 PM so they cannot do anything that night. The teams discover that ""the king"" is a large rock formation and that they must go rock climbing or they can take an extremely long hike, as part of a Detour. All of the teams chose to go rock climbing. Rob injures his finger during the climb. After rock climbing the teams must find there way to Sea, Land & Trek in Bor Tor, Ao Luk, which is a boat rental company. The route info notes that the place closes at 5:00 PM. Rob and Brennan arrive in first place and Joe and Bill arrive in last plce but are not eliminated because
Ep. 11: Fight to the Last Minute (2001-11-28)

The teams traveled from Thailand to Bangkok to Beijing. They performed a series of tasks. Frank and Margarita and Rob and Brennan had to play ping-pong against a local in a Detour. The teams had to buy beetle larvae, chicken feet and squid on the local market, then take it to a cook and in the Roadblock. One of the team members then had to eat it. Relationship problems surfaced for Frank and Margarita as Frank called her a ""moron."" Margarita, Kevin, Joe and Brennan ate the food. Throughout the leg, Kevin/Drew and Joe/Bill were side by side. Nearing the pit stop, Kevin and Drew panicked when they couldn't find the South Gate and arrived last. Joe and Bill were estatic. Kevin and Drew were the last team to arrive and were eliminated.
Ep. 12: Race to the Finish (1) (2001-12-05)

The teams began in Beijing, China. Their first task was to head to Tiantan park and retrieve the clue from a kite being flown by a local. From there they headed to the Great Wall for a Detour. They had to chose between walking up steep steps in close range or flat steps farther away. All the teams chose the steep steps. In this task, we began to see some problems with Frank/Margarita's relationship. Margarita later said they had to work as a team, always in order to win the race. At the top of the Great Wall, there is a clue. The teams have to get to a bed and breakfast in Anchorage, Alaska. All the teams got tickets to San Francisco and from there to Seattle and finally to the destination (Anchorage, Alaska.)When in Alaska, they stayed the night at the bed and breakfast. In the morning they had to perform an old Alaskan ritual, called a ""Blanket Toss"" to find where the next clue was, in which they were ""trampolined"" by the locals. The next clue involved them getting to a glacier, wher
Ep. 13: Race to the Finish (2) (2001-12-13)

The three teams, from Alaska have to travel back to the starting point in New York City where Frank and Margarita live. This worries Rob and Brennan. Frank and Margarita think they have it in the bag but at the final pit stop in Flushing Meadows Park where all the eliminated teams are waiting, Rob and Brennan are the first to cross the finish line. Frank and Margarita are the next team to arrive, obviously disappointed because of their loss. Joe and Bill are informed of Rob and Brennan's win back in Alaska and although they are disappointed they are glad that Rob and Brennan had won the race. In post-race interviews, Frank and Margarita claim they have won more than a million dollars in that of the rekindling of their relationship. Rob is happy to have won the race and to have won it with his best friend, Brennan.