The Amazing Race 34
Season of television series / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Amazing Race 34 is the thirty-fourth season of the American reality competition show The Amazing Race. Hosted by Phil Keoghan, it featured twelve teams of two, each with a pre-existing relationship, competing in a race around the Euro-Mediterranean region to win US$1,000,000. This season visited three continents and eight countries and traveled over 11,000 miles (18,000 km) during ten legs. Starting in Munich, racers traveled through Germany, Austria, Italy, Jordan, France, Spain, and Iceland before finishing in Nashville. Much like the previous season, this season also used a chartered plane rather than commercial airlines to facilitate travel between countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. New twists introduced in this season include the Scramble, where teams could perform the first leg's tasks in any order, and eliminating a team in every leg. The season premiered on CBS on September 21, 2022, and concluded on December 7, 2022.
| The Amazing Race 34 | |
|---|---|
 Region 1 DVD cover | |
| Presented by | Phil Keoghan |
| No. of teams | 12 |
| Winner | Derek Xiao & Claire Rehfuss |
| No. of legs | 10 |
| Distance traveled | 11,000 mi (18,000 km) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | September 21 (2022-09-21) – December 7, 2022 (2022-12-07) |
| Additional information | |
| Filming dates | May 25 (2022-05-25) – June 16, 2022 (2022-06-16) |
| Season chronology | |
| List of episodes | |
Dating couple Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss (from Big Brother 23) were the winners of this season, while long-lost twins Emily Bushnell and Molly Sinert finished in second place, and married couple Luis Colon and Michelle Burgos finished in third place.
Development and filming
Production began on May 22, 2022, with the teams and filming crew departing from Los Angeles International Airport on a chartered Titan Airways Boeing 757, so as to reduce prolonged personal interactions associated with COVID-19 infections much like in the previous season.[1][2] Filming began on May 25, 2022, in Munich, Germany, making it the first time the American version started outside the United States.[3] On May 30, photographs were posted online of sightings in Bologna and Florence, Italy.[3] Jordan was visited for the first time in the entire franchise,[4] with teams racing through Petra on June 2.[5] On June 12, racers were spotted in Ronda, Spain, and the city's tourism office announced that the show had filmed there a day later.[6] Filming concluded in Tennessee in mid-June.[7]
This season originally planned to exclude non-elimination legs for the first time in franchise history.[8] However, after one team received a positive COVID-19 test and was removed from the race, the last team to arrive in the leg received the final departure time as a penalty at the beginning of the next leg.[9] The first leg of the season, announced as the series' 400th leg, featured "a game-changing element" called the Scramble, where teams were told the locations of all of the tasks that they had to complete at the start of the leg and could complete them in any order.[10][11]
Casting
Casting opened in mid-November 2021. Contestants were required to be fully vaccinated.[12]
Broadcast
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On March 9, 2022, CBS renewed The Amazing Race for a thirty-fourth season set to air during the 2022–23 television season.[13] On June 23, 2022, CBS announced that the season would premiere on September 28, following the premiere of Survivor 43.[14] On October 5, the season began airing in the Wednesday 10:00 pm time slot, following Survivor and The Real Love Boat. Starting on November 2, The Amazing Race was moved forward to the 9:00 pm time slot when The Real Love Boat was shifted onto Paramount+.[15]
Prior to the premiere, CBS News Sunday Morning aired a segment with correspondent Tracy Smith competing on the first leg with her husband.[16]
Marketing
Expedia replaced Travelocity as the series' main sponsor.[17]
The cast included Big Brother 23 HouseGuests Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss,[18] former Los Angeles Rams cheerleader Quinton Peron, and former New York Jets and Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan.[19] Rex Ryan was originally asked to compete with his twin brother, Rob Ryan, but the latter was unable to compete due to his work obligations with the Las Vegas Raiders.[20] Aubrey Ares and David Hernandez were not initially selected for the final cast, but were called to compete two hours before The Amazing Race started production.[21]
| Contestants | Age | Relationship | Hometown | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aastha Lal | 33 | Engaged | Marina del Rey, California | Eliminated 1st (in Munich, Germany) |
| Nina Duong | 34 | |||
| Tim Mann | 40 | Golf Buddies | Brentwood, Tennessee | Eliminated 2nd (in Innsbruck, Austria) |
| Rex Ryan | 59 | |||
| Rich Kuo | 32 | Motivational Speakers | Huntington Beach, California | Eliminated 3rd (in Florence, Italy) |
| Dom Jones | 35 | |||
| Linton Atkinson | 50 | Father & Daughter | Brooklyn, New York | Eliminated 4th (in Petra, Jordan) |
| Sharik Atkinson | 23 | |||
| Abby Garrett | 24 | Childhood Sweethearts | Birmingham, Alabama | Medically removed (in Amman, Jordan) |
| Will Freeman | 25 | |||
| Glenda Roberts | 41 | Newlyweds | Norcross, Georgia | Eliminated 6th (in Domme, France) |
| Lumumba Roberts | 41 | |||
| Quinton Peron | 29 | Former Rams Cheerleaders | Pasadena, California | Eliminated 7th (in Toulouse, France) |
| Mattie Lynch | 27 | Vista, California | ||
| Marcus Craig | 38 | Military Brothers | Richmond Hill, Georgia | Eliminated 8th (in Ronda, Spain) |
| Michael Craig | 30 | Alamogordo, New Mexico | ||
| Aubrey Ares | 29 | Ballroom Dancers | Los Angeles, California | Eliminated 9th (in Hrunamannahreppur, Iceland) |
| David Hernandez | 29 | |||
| Luis Colon | 34 | Married | Miami, Florida | Third place |
| Michelle Burgos | 34 | |||
| Emily Bushnell | 36 | Long-Lost Twins | Ardmore, Pennsylvania | Runners-up |
| Molly Sinert | 36 | Palm Beach Gardens, Florida | ||
| Derek Xiao | 25 | Reality Romance | Los Angeles, California | Winners |
| Claire Rehfuss | 26 |
- Future appearances
Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss appeared as clue givers during the first Roadblock of season 35.[22]
In 2023, Luis Colon competed on the second season of The Challenge: USA.[23]
The following teams are listed with their placements in each leg. Placements are listed in finishing order.
- A red placement with a dagger (†) indicates that the team was eliminated.
- An italicized placement indicates a team's placement at the midpoint of a Mega Leg.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3a[lower-alpha 1] | 3b | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8a[lower-alpha 2] | 8b | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Derek & Claire | 1st | 4th | 6th | 7th | 2nd | 4th | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 3rd | 1st | 1st |
| Emily & Molly | 5th | 7th | 2nd | 1st | 5th | 6th | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 4th | 3rd | 2nd |
| Luis & Michelle | 10th | 5th | 4th | 4th | 1st | 1st | 4th | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
| Aubrey & David | 11th | 8th | 3rd | 6th | 8th | 2nd | 6th | 5th | 2nd | 2nd | 4th† | |
| Marcus & Michael | 6th | 1st | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 5th | 1st | 4th | 5th | 5th† | ||
| Quinton & Mattie | 3rd | 10th | 8th | 5th | 6th | 3rd | 5th | 6th† | ||||
| Glenda & Lumumba | 2nd | 2nd | 10th | 8th | 7th | 7th[lower-alpha 3] | 7th† | |||||
| Abby & Will | 8th | 6th | 7th | 3rd | 4th | †[lower-alpha 4] | ||||||
| Linton & Sharik | 4th | 3rd | 5th | 9th | 9th† | |||||||
| Rich & Dom | 9th | 9th[lower-alpha 5] | 9th | 10th† | ||||||||
| Tim & Rex | 7th | 11th† | ||||||||||
| Aastha & Nina | 12th† | |||||||||||
- Notes
- This was a Mega Leg with two Roadblocks and two Detours shown over two episodes. The placements listed for the first half are the order of the teams' completion of the first Roadblock in Bologna.
- This was a Mega Leg with two Roadblocks and two Detours shown over two episodes. The placements listed for the first half are the order of the teams' completion of the first Detour in Málaga.
- Abby & Will were removed from the race prior to leg 5 after Will tested positive for COVID-19.[24]