The Amazing Race (Latin America)


The Amazing Race, formerly known as The Amazing Race en Discovery Channel, is a reality game show based on the American series of the same name, The Amazing Race.
On 15 October 2008, a Latin American version of the show was announced by Discovery Channel Latin America in association with Disney. The first season was produced by Argentinian television production company RGB, while the second season was produced by Venezuelan television company Cinemat. On 25 January 2011, it was announced that Space in association with Disney was going to produce the third season of the Latin American version of the race, thus retitling the show to The Amazing Race, dropping the en Discovery Channel. This season was also produced by Venezuelan television company Cinemat.
The show is the second Latin American version of the franchise. The first was, the Brazilian version of the franchise. It was also the first version in the Spanish language.
For the fourth season, a special Portuguese-language edition of the show, Edição Brasil, was made. It was hosted by Brazilian model and actor :pt:Paulo Zulu|Paulo Zulu. It featured teams from Brazil in a race mostly concentrated across Brazil.
The original presenter for the show was Guatemalan journalist Harris Whitbeck who presented the first three seasons. For the fifth season, the show was presented by Colombian model María "Toya" Montoya, a former contestant on the third season. She was also the first female host of any version of The Amazing Race. The grand prize for the winning team is $250,000, $750,000 less than the original American version's $1,000,000 prize.
Applications for the fifth season were opened for Brazilians on October 13, 2012. On February 13, 2013 applications were also opened for the rest of Latin America until March 31, 2013.

The Race

The Amazing Race is a reality television competition between teams of two in a race around Latin America. The race is divided into a number of legs wherein teams travel and complete various tasks to obtain clues to help them progress to a Pit Stop where teams are given a chance to rest and recover before starting the next leg twelve hours later. The first team to arrive at a Pit Stop is often awarded a prize while the last team is normally eliminated from the race. The final leg of each race is run by the last three remaining teams, and the first to arrive at the final destination wins the 250,000 cash prize.

Teams

Each of the eleven teams are composed of two individuals who have some type of relationship to each other. A total of 66 participants have joined so far.
The participants are all required to be able to communicate in Spanish. As well as Portuguese for Brazilian citizens. The contestants chosen to appear are from various Latin American countries and not limited to one country of origin. Participating countries include all citizens in Latin America except Cuba, French Guiana, Puerto Rico and Lesser Antilles. Additionally, teams from Jamaica and the Bahamas can participate.

Route Markers

Route Markers are yellow and red flags that mark the places where teams must go. Most Route Markers are attached to the boxes that contain clue envelopes, but some may mark the place where the teams must go in order to complete tasks, or may be used to line a course that the teams must follow. The route markers in the first two seasons were coloured blue and black, including the clue envelopes, and the Pit Stop mat is in Red, blue and black color.

Clues

Clues are found throughout the race in sealed envelopes, normally inside clue boxes. They give teams the information they need and tasks they need to do in order for them to progress through the race.
Clues are written in both Spanish and Portuguese.
During the race, teams may encounter obstacles that may affect their position:
When the Intersection was introduced in season 2, it had drastically different rules than the American version. As opposed to two teams working together, the Intersection had two teams compete against each other in a task as they compete for higher placement; however, in season 3, the Intersection would have two teams working together, as in the American version.
Both Yield and U-Turn are seen in separate legs and because of that, a team can use each once during the Race. Teams may not Yield or U-Turn another team if both teams are within each other's lines of sight.

Legs

At the beginning of each leg, teams receive an allowance of cash, usually in U.S. dollars, to cover expenses during the race.
Teams then have to follow clues and Route Markers that will lead them to the various destinations and tasks they will face. Modes of travel between these destinations include commercial and chartered airplanes, boats, trains, taxis, buses, and rented vehicles provided by the show, or the teams may simply travel by foot. Each leg ends with a Pit Stop where teams are able to rest and where teams that arrive last are progressively eliminated from the race until only three remain. In some legs, the first teams to arrive at the Pit Stop win prizes, usually from the show's sponsors.
In this version, airports are treated like Pit Stops. Teams arrive at the airport and, in lieu of finding a flight, write down the time that they arrived at the airport. They will then be released from the destination's airport with the same time gaps.
Each race has a number of predetermined non-elimination legs, in which the last team to arrive at the Pit Stop is not eliminated and is allowed to continue on the race. The non-eliminated team is required to do a Speed Bump sometime during the next leg.
On all seasons, the season finale has always had 2 legs, with the final 3 teams instructed to go to the Pit Stop. The first team to arrive in seasons 1, 4 and 5 got a prize and their next clue to the final destination city and the last team did not get a penalty..

No-break legs

Starting from season 3, no break legs were introduced as similar to the eighteenth season of the American version, with the first team to arrive winning a prize and their next clue, and the last team having to complete a Speed Bump on the following leg.

Rules and Penalties

Most of the rules and penalties are adopted directly from the American edition; but in some cases, the Latin American version has been seen to have a unique set of additional rules.

Rules

The show first aired in 2009 with the first season premiere airing on 20 September 2009 and ending on 13 December 2009. The six seasons have aired yearly, with the first episode airing in mid/late September and the last one airing in mid/late December. Season 6 was the last to air, and there has been no news since of any further seasons.

Rankings

CountrySeason 1Season 2Season 3Season 4Season 5Season 6
Winner / 11th3rd3rd / 11thWinner / 2nd / 8th
4th / 5th4thAll9th
3rd10thWinner6th
7th / 8th5th / 6th2nd / 5th6th / 7th5th / 7th
6th4th
8th
8thWinner / 4th
8th
6th / 10thWinner / / 7th4th / 9th8th / 11th3rd / 9th
9th
11th7th
2nd
2nd9th10th5th / 10th10th / 11th

Mexico is also the runner-up in this season.
All the teams in the fourth season are from Brazil.
Juanjo & Beto are the first binational team, representing both Guatemala and Mexico.
Argentina is also the 3rd place in this season.
CountryWinnerRunner-upThird-placeTotal
2136
1113
1113
1012
1001
0101
0101
0101
0000
0000
0000
0000
0000

Countries and locales visited

As of the sixth season, the Latin American version of The Amazing Race has visited 15 countries and has visited only the Americas.
North AmericaSouth America

  • Costa Rica
  • Curaçao
  • Dominican Republic
  • Guatemala
  • Mexico
  • Panama
  • Argentina
  • Bolivia
  • Brazil
  • Chile
  • Colombia
  • Ecuador
  • Peru
  • Uruguay
  • Venezuela

    • Number of times visited

    RankCountrySeason visitedPit Stops
    14 12
    23 7
    23 7
    23 15
    23 7
    23 6
    72 3
    72 4
    72 3
    72 3
    111 1
    111 1
    111 1
    111 2
    111 1