The Amazing Race 20

The Amazing Race 20 is the twentieth 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 in order to win US$1,000,000. This season visited five continents and ten countries and traveled over 36,000 miles (58,000 km). Starting in Santa Barbara wine country, racers traveled through Argentina, Paraguay, Italy, Austria, Germany, Azerbaijan, Tanzania, India, and Japan before returning to the United States and finishing in Oahu. The season premiered on CBS on Sunday, February 19, 2012, and the two-hour finale aired on May 6, 2012.
Married couple Dave and Rachel Brown were the winners of this season, while U.S. Border Patrol agents Art Velez and J.J. Carrell finished in second place, and Big Brother dating couple Brendon Villegas and Rachel Reilly finished in third place.
CBS renewed the series for its 20th season on June 16, 2011. Filming for this season began on November 26, 2011 with teams spotted at Los Angeles International Airport. This season spanned a little over 36,000 miles (58,000 km) in twenty-two cities and five continents, with first-time visits to Paraguay and Azerbaijan.
The cast included former Big Brother contestants Brendon Villegas and Rachel Reilly, Major League Soccer players Elliot and Andrew Weber, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus clowns Dave and Cherie Gregg, and professional golfer Maiya Tanaka, who had previously appeared on the Golf Channel's reality competition The Big Break. It also included a pair of federal agents (who lied to other teams by saying they were kindergarten teachers), United States Border Patrol agents, and dating divorcés.
On September 8, 2012, Brendon & Rachel were married.
Brendon & Rachel were later selected for The Amazing Race: All-Stars along with Bopper & Mark. However, Bopper was unable to compete due to signs of pancreatitis, so he was replaced at the last minute with Mallory Ervin (from season 17 and Unfinished Business) to form a composite team. Art & J.J. returned to compete on The Amazing Race: Reality Showdown, as did Rachel, but partnered with her sister, Elissa.
After this season, Bopper & Mark were awarded a check for $10,000 from the hosts of the daytime talk show The Talk. On May 25, 2016, Bopper & Mark appeared on an Amazing Race-themed primetime special of The Price Is Right, while Rachel Reilly appeared the night prior on a Big Brother-themed special. On July 31, 2018, Brendon & Rachel appeared on a special Survivor vs Big Brother episode of Fear Factor and won $50,000 for UCLA Cancer Research. In 2019, Maiya Tanaka competed in the ABC reality show Holey Moley, while Misa competed the following year. In 2022, Reilly was a contestant on the USA Network reality competition series, Snake in the Grass. She also competed on the 2023 Peacock reality TV series The Traitors. In 2025, Reilly competed on Worst Cooks in America Celebrity Edition: Heroes vs. Villains.
The following teams are listed with their placements in each leg. Placements are listed in finishing order.
The Amazing Race 20 received mostly negative reviews. Michael Hewitt of the Orange County Register wrote that this season "started with great promise" but by the end was "sputtering to a close". Scott Von Doviak of The A.V. Club regarded this season as "probably one of the weaker ones overall". Daniel Fienberg of HitFix was negative towards this season largely due to its cast, writing that "sometimes this is the best-cast show on TV. That was not the case this season." Patrick Hodges of CinemaBlend called it a pretty uninteresting season. Reece Forward of Screen Rant ranked this season as the show's worst, writing that there were "many creative, memorable tasks, and the season did produce one of the biggest fan favorites ever with Mark & Bopper. However, all of the cons of season 20 outweighed the pros, when the teams that last the longest are unpleasant and most of the others simply aren't memorable at all. As great as the actual race part of The Amazing Race is, the cast is always what's most important, and season 20 fails tremendously on that front." Conversely, this season was ranked 10th out of the first 27 seasons in 2016 by the Rob Has a Podcast Amazing Race correspondents. In 2022, Rhenn Taguiam of Game Rant ranked this season as the fifth-best season. In 2024, Taguiam's ranking was updated with this season becoming the seventh-best season.
No episode aired on April 1, 2012, due to CBS's broadcast of the Academy of Country Music Awards and CTV's broadcast of the Juno Awards.
Canadian broadcaster CTV also aired The Amazing Race on Sundays. Episodes aired at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Central, and Atlantic (9:00 p.m. Pacific and Mountain). The only exception to this was the broadcast of the second episode which conflicted with CTV's broadcast of the 84th Academy Awards; The Amazing Race was shown instead at 6:00 p.m. in the Eastern, Central, and Atlantic time zones, and immediately after the broadcast of the Oscars in the Pacific and Mountain time zones.