The Amazing Race 7

The Amazing Race 7 is the seventh season of the American reality competition show The Amazing Race. Hosted by Phil Keoghan, it featured 11 teams of two, each with a pre-existing relationship, competing in a race around the world. This season visited five continents and 10 countries, traveling approximately over 12 legs. Starting in Long Beach, racers traveled through Peru, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Botswana, India, Turkey, England, and Jamaica before returning to the United States, traveling through Puerto Rico, and finishing in Miami-Fort Lauderdale. A new twist introduced this season includes an expansion of the non-elimination leg penalty where penalized teams were stripped of most of their possessions. The season premiered on CBS on March 1, 2005, and concluded on May 10, 2005.
Married couple Uchenna and Joyce Agu were the winners of this season, while engaged couple Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich finished in second place, and dating couple Ron Young Jr. and Kelly McCorkle finished in third place.

Overview

The Amazing Race is a reality television show created by Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri, and hosted by Phil Keoghan. The series follows teams of two competing in a race around the world. Each leg of the race requires teams to deduce clues, navigate foreign environments, interact with locals, perform physical and mental challenges, and travel on a limited budget provided by the show. At each stop during the leg, teams receive clues inside sealed envelopes, which fall into one of these categories:

Route Info: These are simple instructions that teams must follow before they can receive their next clue.
Detour: A Detour is a choice between two tasks. Teams may choose either task and switch tasks if they find one option too difficult. There is usually one Detour on each leg.
Roadblock: A Roadblock is a task that only one team member can complete. Teams must choose which member will complete the task based on a brief clue they receive before fully learning the details of the task. There is usually one Roadblock on each leg.
Fast Forward: A Fast Forward is a task that only one team may complete, which allows that team to skip all remaining tasks on the leg and go directly to the next Pit Stop. Teams may only claim one Fast Forward during the entire race.
Yield: The Yield allows one team to force another team to stop racing for a predetermined amount of time. Teams may use the Yield only one time during the entire race.

Usually, teams who arrive last at the Pit Stop of each leg are progressively eliminated. On pre-determined non-elimination legs, the last arrivals are instead stripped of their provided cash and most of their possessions but able to continue the race. The first team to arrive at the finish line in the final episode wins the grand prize of US$1,000,000.

Production

Development and filming

The Amazing Race 7 took place over 29 days and traveled nearly. Filming began on November 20, 2004, and finished on December 19, 2004. The teams raced through ten countries, five of which were not previously visited on the series: Peru, Chile, Botswana, Turkey, and Jamaica. Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean, was also visited for the first time.
In this season, a change was made to the penalty for arriving last on a non-elimination leg. In addition to being stripped of all their money and receiving no allowance for the next leg, teams were forced to surrender all of their possessions, except for their passports and the clothes they were wearing, for the remainder of the season.
Controversy surrounded the final leg of the season when Rob & Amber and Uchenna & Joyce arrived at the airport in San Juan. They were both sold tickets for a flight leaving later than one whose gate was about to close. While Rob & Amber managed to get on this earlier departing flight, Uchenna & Joyce were shown through the gate as the boarding corridor between the gate and airplane began to shut. After a commercial break, the boarding corridor reopened to allow Uchenna and Joyce to board. No explanation was given as to why the gate reopened, which led to speculation about intervention by the production staff. In the "Revisiting the Race" special feature on the season 7 DVD, Uchenna, Rob, and Phil Keoghan denied the accusations of intervention by the production crew. Uchenna described his experience of finding the same airline agent at the gate who had previously informed him that there was no earlier available flight. Rob described Uchenna running around frantically trying to get onto the flight, which the final edited version of the show did not portray. Phil stated that the decision to reopen the door rested solely with the pilot, and that intervention by the production crew would have resulted in someone leaking such information out.

Contestants

Joyce Agu previously appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation in a recurring role as Ensign Gates. Ron Young was a former Apache helicopter pilot who was shot down in Iraq and held as a prisoner of war for 22 days, and Kelly McCorkle was a former Miss South Carolina. Brian Thomas Smith previously competed on Christmas Fear Factor. Amber Brkich originally competed on Survivor: The Australian Outback, Rob Mariano competed on Survivor: Marquesas, and both also competed on Survivor: All-Stars, where they got engaged at the live finale.

Contestants	Age	Relationship	Hometown	Status
	31	Best Friends	Landrum, South Carolina	Eliminated 1st '
	32	Best Friends	Inman, South Carolina	Eliminated 1st '
	26	Roommates	Oak Park, California	Eliminated 2nd '
	31	Roommates	Oak Park, California	Eliminated 2nd '
	25	Lifelong Friends	Woodbridge, Virginia	Eliminated 3rd '
	26	Lifelong Friends	Woodbridge, Virginia	Eliminated 3rd '
	54	Mother & Son	Hamilton, Ohio	Eliminated 4th '
	26	Mother & Son	Hamilton, Ohio	Eliminated 4th '
	44	Dating On and Off	Canfield, Ohio	Eliminated 5th '
	27	Dating On and Off	Youngstown, Ohio	Eliminated 5th '
	27	Brothers	Santa Monica, California	Eliminated 6th '
	24	Brothers	Santa Monica, California	Eliminated 6th '
	30	Boyfriends	West Hollywood, California	Eliminated 7th '
	22	Boyfriends	West Hollywood, California	Eliminated 7th '
	69	Married & Retired	Easton, Maryland	Eliminated 8th '
	66	Married & Retired	Easton, Maryland	Eliminated 8th '
	28	Former POW & Pageant Queen	Villa Rica, Georgia	Third place
	26	Former POW & Pageant Queen	Greenville, South Carolina	Third place
	29	Engaged	Canton, Massachusetts	Runners-up
	26	Engaged	Beaver, Pennsylvania	Runners-up
	40	Married	Houston, Texas	Winners
	44	Married	Houston, Texas	Winners

;Future appearances
Rob & Amber and Uchenna & Joyce were selected for The Amazing Race: All-Stars.
On May 25, 2005, CBS aired Rob & Amber's wedding at Atlantis Paradise Island in Nassau, Bahamas during a special entitled Rob and Amber Get Married. After competing on The Amazing Race, Rob later competed on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, Survivor: Redemption Island, and served as a non-playing mentor on Survivor: Island of the Idols. Rob and Amber also both returned to compete on Survivor: Winners at War. On May 23, 2016, Rob also appeared on a Survivor-themed primetime special of The Price Is Right. In 2024, Rob competed on Deal or No Deal Island. Later that year, Rob competed on the third season of The Traitors.

Results

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

A placement with a dagger indicates that the team was eliminated.
An placement with a double-dagger indicates that the team was the last to arrive at a Pit Stop in a non-elimination leg. As a penalty, they were stripped of their money, bags, and possessions other than their passports and the clothes they were wearing upon checking in, and they received no money at the start of the next leg.
An italicized placement indicates the team's placement at the midpoint of a double leg.
A indicates that the team won the Fast Forward.
A indicates that the team used the Yield and a indicates the team on the receiving end of the Yield.

;Notes

Race summary

Leg 1 (United States → Peru)

Episode 1: "Courteous? This Is a Race!"
Prize: US$10,000 cash for each racer
Eliminated: Ryan and Chuck

;Locations

Long Beach, California
Los Angeles → Lima, Peru
Lima
Lima
Ancón
Lima → Cusco
Huambutio
Huambutio
Huambutio
Písac
Cusco

;Episode summary

Teams set off from the Shoreline Aquatic Park in Long Beach, California, and drove to Los Angeles International Airport, where they booked one of two flights to Lima, Peru. The six teams on the American Airlines flight arrived 85 minutes before the remaining five teams on the United Airlines flight. Once in Lima, teams traveled by bus to the Plaza de Armas to find their next clue, which directed teams to travel by bus to Ancón.
After arriving in Ancón, teams rode a rickshaw to Playa Hermosa. On the beach, teams searched through sand piles for a set of airline tickets leaving the next morning to Cusco. The second flight to Cusco was delayed due to technical difficulties and the four teams with tickets on that flight were booked onto the third flight, which departed 1 hour 40 minutes after the first.
Once in Cusco, teams found their next clue outside the airport, which instructed them to travel via taxi to Huambutio and receive another clue from the owner of a marked kiosk. From there, teams continued to the top of a gorge, where they rode two ziplines to the bottom in order to receive their next clue.
This season's first Detour was a choice between Rope a Llama or Rope a Basket. In Rope a Llama, teams had to rope two llamas and lead them to a nearby pen. In Rope a Basket, each team member had to carry a basket of alfalfa two-thirds of a mile to a store.
After the Detour, teams went to the Huambutio Police Station and boarded delivery trucks, which departed every 20 minutes and could transport no more than three teams per truck. When the trucks arrived in Písac, teams had to search the local market to find their next clue, which directed them to the Pit Stop: the Convento de la Merced in Cusco.