The Amazing Race 6

The Amazing Race 6 is the sixth season of the American reality competition show The Amazing Race. Hosted by Phil Keoghan, it featured eleven teams of two, each with a pre-existing relationship, competing in a race around the world to win US$1,000,000. This season visited four continents and ten countries and traveled over 40,000 miles (64,000 km) during twelve legs. Starting in Chicago, racers traveled through Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Senegal, Germany, Hungary, France, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, and China before returning to the United States, traveling through Hawaii, and finishing in Chicago. New twists introduced in this season include uniting teams for a task, the double-length leg, and limits on team members' Roadblock performances. The season premiered on CBS on November 16, 2004, and concluded on February 8, 2005.
Engaged couple Freddy Holliday and Kendra Bentley were the winners of this season, while dating couple Jon Buehler and Kris Perkins finished in second place, and exes Adam Malis and Rebecca Cardon finished in third place.
In May 2004, CBS ordered the sixth season of the show, despite the fact that The Amazing Race 5 had not yet aired. Early renewal was likely due to the success of the changes made in season 5. CBS also delayed the airing of season 6 until late in the fall and moved it out of its proposed Saturday timeslot in order to create a "cool down" period between races, in the hopes that this would help continue the newfound ratings success.
The Amazing Race 6 spanned a total of 40,000 miles (64,000 km) over ten countries on four continents. The 30 days of filming began on August 13, 2004, and finished on September 12. The Amazing Race made its first trip to seven new countries: Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, and Senegal.
This season was the first in which team members had to complete an equal number of Roadblock tasks. No team member was permitted to complete more than six Roadblocks on the entire race. Throughout the season, host Phil Keoghan verbally stated this rule when introducing each leg's Roadblock. This season also reduced the number of times the Yield appeared to three, compared to the previous season, where the Yield had been featured in almost every leg. This trend would continue in subsequent seasons.
A task in the second leg marked the first time that teams were required to work with each other. The ten teams had to split themselves into two groups of five, each of which had to row a Viking boat across a fjord.
According to Aaron Crumbaugh, the sixth leg was originally planned as two separate legs with the first part being a non-elimination point, where the losing team would have been stripped of their money. However, those planned legs were combined into one after producers realized that begging was illegal in Hungary.
This season featured a visit to Sri Lanka, where filming occurred just a few months before the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. The episodes aired four weeks after the earthquake had devastated the locations the teams had visited. A special message was inserted at the beginning of the episodes in Sri Lanka, dedicating them to the victims and to those helping with the recovery.
This season's cast included married professional wrestlers, dating actors, high school buddies, engaged models, and a team of married entrepreneurs. Early Show hosts Harry Smith and Dave Price ran the season's first leg with the actual teams as part of a special segment on their morning show.
Jonathan & Victoria appeared on a Dr. Phil special to try to improve their marriage. Jonathan & Victoria then competed on Battle of the Network Reality Stars. Later, in a celebrity version of Fear Factor, Victoria attacked contestant Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton (of Survivor: Pearl Islands), and Jonathan attacked host Joe Rogan, resulting in their expulsion from the show. Aaron competed on the twelfth season of Food Network Star and on Cutthroat Kitchen. Victoria had a cameo appearance on Whose Line is it Anyway?. Rebecca Cardon was in the reality show Kill Reality and appeared on the Bravo reality series Work Out.
The following teams are listed with their placements in each leg. Placements are listed in finishing order.
At the time it aired, The Amazing Race 6 received negative reviews. Linda Holmes of Television Without Pity called this season disappointing. Scott Pierce of Deseret News said that his immediate reaction after the season finished was "I'm never going to watch this show again." Reece Forward of Screen Rant ranked this season as the show's second-worst, writing that it "is actively unlikable at points," but the season "escapes the bottom slot due to at least having a few teams that are likable or interesting". Since its airing, this season was ranked 9th out of the first 27 seasons by the Rob Has a Podcast Amazing Race correspondents in 2016. In 2021, Val Barone of TheThings ranked this season as the show's 4th best season. In 2022, Rhenn Taguiam of Game Rant ranked this season as the seventh-best season. In 2024, Taguiam's ranking was updated with this season ranked 12th out of 36.
The fifth episode featured two of the more controversial moments in the show's history. In Dakar, Senegal, Kendra Bentley, who had previously decried being in "ghetto Africa" complained, "This city is wretched and disgusting. And they just keep breeding and breeding in this poverty. I can't take it." These comments were largely denounced as racist due to the equation of people in Africa as animals. Bentley later claimed that her comments were taken out of context saying, "I was actually talking about the government and how they put people in these situations. They don’t give them opportunities for education or birth control." Lesser outrage was also directed at Rebecca Cardon for similar insensitive comments. On the way to the House of Slaves on Gorée Island, Cardon commented, "I'd love to get out of Africa. I can see why so many people escaped." Kevin McDonough of The Spokesman-Review wrote, "Now that's a novel way to look at the Middle Passage."
Later in the episode, Jonathan Baker, angry at his wife, Victoria Fuller, for picking up his bag which he had dropped during a footrace to the mat, shoved her. He was modestly rebuked at the mat by Phil Keoghan, who saw Jonathan berating his wife but hadn't witnessed the shove. In response, critics and fans decried seeing possible domestic violence on television. Baker later stated "[t]he shove in Berlin was wrong. It was wrong and I should not have done it. I can't apologize any more because I really felt that it hurt."