The Amazing Race/Trivia


 * Ascended Fanon: The mat at the beginning of the leg, where teams receive their first clues, has been referred to as the "Pit Start" for years by fans, but it wasn't official until the show included the term during Season 19.
 * Deleted Scene: Several deleted scenes are put up on CBS.com following each episode. One of the more notable ones came from the All-Stars premiere, where the teams on the second flight out of Miami randomly ran into Season 4 winner Chip.
 * Executive Meddling: Most equalizers at least appear to occur naturally within the course (such as with flight schedules), but sometimes the course is noticeably engineered to keep teams from getting separated too much, like when Bill & Joe fell a day behind at the end of Season 1. This is usually done with a charter bus or plane, or by manipulating operating hours of businesses. The producers may not be able to outright slant (or borderline fix) the show as much as other CBS reality shows, but most of the sync points are to keep the teams from getting too far ahead or too far behind and let them get a fighting chance. And as shown by a couple instances wherein a team got stuck and was a day behind or managed to get very lucky and waltzed right to the finish line way before the others, they do not always do this.
 * The most blatantly engineered example (that can be proven) of such course manipulation took place in Season 11, where Dustin & Kandice sat around for half a day, waiting for a charter bus, because two teams were still running leg 7 when they started leg 8, after which they hit an Intersection, which knocked them back into a virtual tie with the teams they had beaten by over twelve hours in the previous leg.
 * In leg 9 of Season 20, it's pretty obvious that the producers intervened to get Bopper & Mark past a Roadblock so they wouldn't quit on what was supposed to be a non-elimination leg, though at least they waited until all the other teams had finished the leg to do so. See how Bopper goes from pleading with Mark not to kill himself to encouraging him to take just one more try.
 * Fan Nickname: Even ignoring season-specific nicknames for teams and individual racers, we have "The Philbrow" (Phil's Fascinating Eyebrow), "Philimination" (being Eliminated From the Race by Phil), "Exposition Hands" (An Insert), "Killer Fatigue" (the point when stress starts to take its toll on the racers), "Mercy Kill" (automatically eliminating a team that is trailing to the point that it's simply not possible for them to catch up, barring all the other teams dropping dead before they get to the Pit Stop, instead of making them finish the leg), "NELs" (short for Non-Elimination Legs), and the "Super Leg" (for those double length legs which last two episodes).
 * Hey Its That Guy: Heeeey, is that Rob & Amber? And Ethan & Jenna? And Alison? And Jordan & Jeff? And Brendon & Rachel?
 * Brian Smith (Season 7) was Zack on The Big Bang Theory and is a rather prolific commercial actor.
 * Jet & Cord originally appeared on Kevin & Drew Unleashed, a three-episode series starring the titular Season 1 racers.
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: Seasons 8-12 have no official release on DVD or digitally.
 * Real Life: Mean Character, Nice Actor: Due to editing showing mostly bad moments of some teams, several racers are nicer in real life than they appear to be in the show, one of the best examples being Ray (Season 7). Also notable is Joe & Bill (1), the Ur Example of this, who were toned down on All-Stars because they initially didn't like their portrayal.
 * Real Life Relative: Phil's father was the Pit Stop greeter when the show visited New Zealand in Season 13. Said Pit Stop was actually at the ranch his father owns.
 * Screwed By the Network: Attempted and failed following Season 11. CBS cut the budget, forcing them to reduce Season 12 by two episodes, ordered only one season instead of the usual two, and decided to use it as a mid-season replacement show. When Season 12 finally did air, it was put in a Sunday-night slot and constantly delayed by football games running over. Despite all this, the ratings for Season 12 were the best since Season 7, and it got a full renewal for 2008-2009.
 * Sequel First: Some seasons are aired out of order in other countries, which usually doesn't make a difference, except in those markets that aired All-Stars before Season 10, meaning these fans were introduced to Dustin & Kandice and David & Mary prior to their original season airing.
 * Throw It In: The double length "Super Legs" were created by mistake in Season 6. Leg 6 was supposed to be a normal non-elimination leg with the losing team getting all their money taken away, but the production crew found out too late that it was illegal to beg in Hungary. So instead, they cut the Pit Stop out of that leg, and cobbled together a clue and an "operating hours" equalizer to keep the teams busy. In following seasons, Super Legs would be preplanned, including their own fake mats where Phil got to tell the teams they were still racing.
 * What Could Have Been: Prior to being turned into the ill-fated Family Edition, Season 8 was originally slated to be an All-Star season, including Season 4 winners Reichen & Chip.
 * Colin & Christie (Season 5) were originally slated to appear in the first All-Stars until Christie got pregnant. Considered one of the best teams to ever run the race, if not the best, every single team (except fellow Season 5 team Charla & Mirna) listed them as that season's biggest snub. Their absence meant we missed out on a possibly epic Final 3 of Colin & Christie, Rob & Amber, and Dustin & Kandice, plus a Rob vs. Colin showdown to see who really was the ultimate "Alpha Male" racer.
 * Flo and Drew, who started dating after Season 3, were invited back for All-Stars. Flo refused because she didn't want to race without Zach, and she thought the Race brought out the worst in her.
 * Kelly & Jon (4) were also invited back, but dropped out at the last minute.
 * Similarly, Brook & Claire (Season 17) were originally slated to appear in "Unfinished Business" until Claire learned that she was pregnant.
 * Jill (3 & 11) was originally a finalist to appear on Season 1 with her brother, then he later died in 9/11, and she started dating John Vito...
 * Uchenna & Joyce (7 & 11) made it all the way to the pre-race sequester for Season 6, only to be cut at the last minute.
 * Margie & Luke (14 & 18) and two other family members were in consideration for the Family Edition.
 * Mike White was originally chosen for season 13 with director friend Jon Kasden. Jon backed out, and Mike was paired with his father for Season 14.
 * Season 8 had a leg in Belize that was cancelled due to Hurricane Emily.