The Amazing Race 18 (also known as The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business) is the eighteenth season of the American reality competition show The Amazing Race. Hosted by Phil Keoghan, it featured eleven teams of two, each returning from a previous edition of the series, competing in a race around the world for US$1,000,000. This season visited five continents and nine countries, traveling approximately over twelve legs. Starting in Palm Springs, California, racers traveled through Australia, Japan, China, India, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Brazil, before returning to the United States and finishing in the Florida Keys. New elements introduced this season included the no-rest leg, where teams immediately began the next leg immediately after finishing the previous one, and an automatic U-Turn penalty for the last team to finish a particular task. This season was also the first to be filmed and broadcast for high-definition television. The season premiered on CBS on February 20, 2011, and concluded on May 8, 2011.
Sisters Kisha and Jen Hoffman from The Amazing Race 14 were the winners of this season, while Herbert "Flight Time" Lang and Nathaniel "Big Easy" Lofton of the Harlem Globetrotters from The Amazing Race 15 finished in second place, and father and daughter Gary and Mallory Ervin from The Amazing Race 17 finished in third place.
Format
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 present 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 present on each leg. U-Turn: The U-Turn allows one team to force another team to complete both options of the Detour before they can continue the race. Teams may use the U-Turn only one time during the entire race. Speed Bump: A penalty for teams who finished in last place on a non-elimination leg. It required the team to complete an additional task in the following leg that only they had to complete. Most teams who arrive last at the Pit Stop of each leg are progressively eliminated, while 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 18 was the first season to be broadcast on high-definition television. While most other prime-time television shows had already transitioned to high definition, including other reality television shows, previous seasons of The Amazing Race used standard-definition television due to the cost and fragility of high-definition recording equipment.
Filming started on November 20, 2010, at the San Gorgonio Pass wind farm near Palm Springs, California. Teams were spotted at Oceanworld Manly on November 22, 2010, and a day later around the mining town of Broken Hill in the Australian Outback. Other locales cited as destinations were Yokohama, Japan, where teams swam in freezing waters near Mount Fuji, and the series' first visit to Liechtenstein.
At the end of the first leg in Sydney, Australia, and the fourth leg in Lijiang, China, teams were ordered to keep racing and given their next clue. The first team to check in was still awarded a prize, but the last team to check in was not eliminated and did not have to perform a Speed Bump. The Express Pass, introduced in the previous season, allowed a team to bypass one single task later in the season. The last team to complete the first task was forced to complete a U-Turn in the next leg, performing both tasks of the leg's Detour.
Casting Phil Keoghan described all of the contestants as teams that "came so close to winning, but, for one reason or another, just didn't quite make it over the finish line in first place.” Keoghan gave examples of two teams: Zev and Justin from season 15, who had finished first on a leg, but lost a passport too late to continue racing; and Kisha & Jennifer from season 14, who took an ill-timed restroom break while racing to the Pit Stop and were eliminated. The prior experience of all the teams in previous seasons allowed the producers to increase the difficulty of the tasks and challenges. All of the teams were from recent seasons of The Amazing Race. According to Bertram van Munster, they selected more recent teams because "if we're digging too far back, people might not even remember who they were". Season 14 was represented by five of the 11 teams; van Munster called that "a very unique season" and justified its larger proportion of teams. Although they had considered mother and son fan-favorites Toni and Dallas Imbimbo from season 13, Keoghan stated they felt the other selected teams had "the best stories and the best motivation" for casting. During an interview with CBS's The Early Show, season 17 runners-up Brook Roberts and Claire Champlin revealed they were asked to take part on the season, but could not due to Champlin's pregnancy.
Release Marketing Snapple served as a sponsor this season, with "Snapple Real Facts" introduced during commercial breaks. The sixth leg of the season in Kolkata, India, featured several tasks involving a papaya-and-mango flavored tea that Snapple had developed and named after the show. Ford also sponsored the season, with their new Focus serving as a prize during the eighth leg.
Contestants
ContestantsAgeRelationshipHometownStatus 25EngagedThe Amazing Race 14Pismo Beach, CaliforniaEliminated 1st(in Broken Hill, Australia) 27 70Father & SonThe Amazing Race 14 Lynchburg, VirginiaEliminated 2nd(in Yokosuka, Japan) 40 Los Angeles, California 32Former NFL CheerleadersThe Amazing Race 14 Fort Lauderdale, FloridaEliminated 3rd(in Kunming, China) 28 Boca Raton, Florida 53Mother & SonThe Amazing Race 14Colorado Springs, ColoradoEliminated 4th(in Kolkata, India) 25 61Father & DaughterThe Amazing Race 12 Tacoma, WashingtonEliminated 5th(in Ramnagar, India) 29 Washington, D.C. 31Cowboys & BrothersThe Amazing Race 16 Ada, OklahomaEliminated 6th(in Zermatt, Switzerland) 30 Tupelo, Oklahoma 35Dating GothsThe Amazing Race 12Los Angeles, CaliforniaEliminated 7th(in Zermatt, Switzerland) 32 28Best FriendsThe Amazing Race 15 Sherman Oaks, CaliforniaEliminated 8th(in Niterói, Brazil) 31 Los Angeles, California 53Father & DaughterThe Amazing Race 17Morganfield, KentuckyThird place 25 34Harlem GlobetrottersThe Amazing Race 15 Brinkley, ArkansasRunners-up 29 New Orleans, Louisiana 30SistersThe Amazing Race 14 The Bronx, New YorkWinners 26 Louisville, Kentucky The teams cited the following details from their respective races as their reason for having "unfinished business":
From The Amazing Race 12 Kent and Vyxsin: They suffered a communications breakdown in Tuscany due to their lack of experience driving a manual transmission vehicle, resulting in them coming in last on a non-elimination leg and having to complete a Speed Bump on the next leg. They also wasted their U-Turn by erroneously using it on a team who was ahead of them. Note: In season 12, Kent went by the name Kynt. Ron and Christina: They had a lead for most of the final leg in Anchorage until Christina had difficulty at the final Roadblock. From The Amazing Race 14 Amanda and Kris: They were U-Turned by Margie and Luke in Siberia. Jaime and Cara: Their taxi driver in Maui got lost on the way to the final Roadblock destination. Kisha and Jen: They were U-Turned in Beijing. In addition, on the way to the Pit Stop, Jen took an emergency bathroom break after drinking four bottles of water during the Roadblock, allowing Jaime and Cara to squeak past them to the Pit Stop. As a result, they came in last place and were eliminated. Margie and Luke: They were in the lead for most of the final leg in Maui, until Luke stumbled at the final Roadblock, costing them the win. Mel and Mike: Their taxi driver took them to the wrong place in Phuket, putting them behind all the other teams. They could not recover from this setback and were eliminated. From The Amazing Race 15 Flight Time and Big Easy: Big Easy could not complete the Roadblock in Prague, and took a four-hour penalty, resulting in their elimination. Zev and Justin: After checking in first in Phnom Penh, they realized they had lost Zev's passport and were unable to find it before all of the other teams checked in. From The Amazing Race 16 Jet and Cord: On the plane from Shanghai to San Francisco during the final leg, Dan and Jordan were able to move up to first class, giving them a lead that Jet and Cord were never able to overcome. From The Amazing Race 17 Gary and Mallory: They got lost for many hours trying to find the Roadblock location in Oman and ended up losing to Nat and Kat by five minutes. Future appearances Margie and Luke, Flight Time and Big Easy, and Jet and Cord returned for a third time to compete on The Amazing Race: All-Stars. Mallory Ervin returned on the same season to partner with Mark Jackson when his partner, William "Bopper" Minton, was not medically cleared to compete. Flight Time and Big Easy and Jet and Cord appeared on The Amazing Race: 25 Years Around the World.
Outside of The Amazing Race, Mallory appeared on the Discovery Channel reality show Backyard Oil in 2013. On May 25, 2016, Flight Time and Big Easy appeared on an Amazing Race-themed primetime special of The Price Is Right. Mike White later competed on Survivor: David vs. Goliath. Flight Time and Big Easy appeared on 100 Day Dream Home in 2021. In 2026, Mike White competed on Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans.
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, and had to perform a Speed Bump task in the following leg. An italicized and underlined placement indicates that the team was the last to arrive at a Pit Stop, but there was no rest period at the Pit Stop and all teams were instructed to continue racing. There was no required Speed Bump task in the next leg. A indicates that the team used an Express Pass on that leg to bypass one of their tasks. A indicates that the team used the U-Turn and a indicates the team on the receiving end of the U-Turn. +Team placement (by leg) Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Kisha & Jen 3rd 4th 4th 5th 4th 6th 3rd 4th 2nd 2nd 2nd 1st & Big Easy 5th 2nd 5th 6th 6th 7th 1st 2nd 5th 1st 3rd 2nd Gary & Mallory 1st 9th 2nd 3rd 2nd 1st 4th 4th 3rd 1st 3rd Zev & Justin 4th 1st 1st 8th 8th 4th 2nd 1st 1st 4th Kent & Vyxsin 10th 7th 7th 9th 5th 5th 6th 3rd 3rd Jet & Cord 11th 3rd 6th 2nd 1st 2nd 5th 5th Ron & Christina 8th 10th 3rd 4th 7th 3rd Margie & Luke 7th 5th 8th 1st 3rd Jaime & Cara 6th 8th 9th 7th Mel & Mike 9th 6th Amanda & Kris 2nd Notes
Race summary
Leg 1 (United States → Australia)
Episode 1: "Head Down and Hold On" (February 20, 2011) Prize: The Express Pass (awarded to Gary and Mallory) Locations Palm Springs, California (San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm) (Starting Line) Los Angeles → Sydney, Australia Sydney (International Airport Railway Station → City Centre)