The Amazing Race season 17

The Amazing Race

Beauty Queens, TV Hosts Set for New Season of The Amazing Race
September 1, 2010
Beauty queens, home-shopping TV hosts and a daughter and birth mother recently reunited after 20 years are among the motley cast of characters who’ll scurry tirelessly around the planet during the upcoming 17th season of The Amazing Race on CBS.

Among the more notable contestants: Miss Kentucky 2009 Mallory Ervin, competing with her father Gary; Jewelry Television host and Miss Oregon 2004 Brook Roberts, teamed with fellow TV host Claire Champlin; Internet comedian Kevin Wu (a.k.a., KevJumba on YouTube) and his father Michael; Princeton a cappella singers Connor Diemand-Yauman and Jonathan Schwartz; and birth mother and daughter Andie DeKroon and Katie Seamon.

They’ll be a tired bunch by the end of the race. This season, premiering Sept. 26, will cover 32,000 miles through 30 cities on four continents. The show will make first-time visits to Bangladesh, Ghana, and the Arctic Circle. And for the first time, the team finishing first in the premiere episode will get a surprise, game-changing advantage, according to CBS. –Tim Nudd



Team Home Shopping

Brook Roberts, 27, San Diego, CA, Home Shopping Host
Claire Champlin, 30 Reno, NV, Home Shopping Host
Father/Daughter Team

Gary Ervin, 53, Morganfield, KY, Entrepreneur
Mallory Ervin, 24, Lexington, KY, Miss Kentucky 2009

Team Internet

Michael Wu, 58, Sugar Land, TX, Software Consultant and Content Creator
Kevin Wu, 20, Sugar Land, TX, Student/Internet Entertainer

Team Dating Tattoos

Nick DeCarlo, 26, Henderson, NV, Bartender
Vicki Casciola, 26, Henderson, NV, Hair Stylist

Team a Capella

Connor Diemand-Yauman, 22, Chesterland, OH, Princeton Student
Jonathan Schwartz, 22, Cranford, NJ, Princeton Student

Female Doctor Team

Nat Strand, 31, Scottsdale, AZ, Doctor
Kat Chang, 35, Santa Monica, CA, Doctor

Best Friends Team

Ron Kellum, 45, Los Angeles, CA, Director/Choreographer
Tony Stovall, 42, Tucson, AZ, University of Arizona Doctoral Student

Team Non-Descript Dating Couple

Jill Haney, 27, Marina Del Rey, CA, Hair Stylist
Thomas Wolfard, 30, Marina Del Rey, CA, Ad Sales Director

Team Reunited Mother Daughter

Andie Dekroon, 43, Atlanta, GA, Stay-at-Home Mom
Jenna Sykes, 21, Athens, GA, University of Georgia Student

Team Newly Dating

Chad Waltrip, 26, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Operations Manager
Stephanie Smith, 23, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Hair Stylist

Team Volleyball

Katie Seamon, 23, Rahway, NJ, Beach Volleyball Player
Rachel Johnston, 24, Moorestown, NJ, Beach Volleyball Player

'The Amazing Race' premieres with a 90-minute episode Sunday, September 26.

Gary & Mallory are my favorites <333

I just got done watching this weeks TAR episode.

I have NEVER been more happy for a non elimination week than I was this week. A nice TAR moment.
With that being said though.....can't these teams read a clue?? Unreal how many of them got the task wrong with the wheelbarrows. And then only one team could find the decoder on the wall?? LOL

For some reason I haven't been able to get into this season. Probably b/c it gets pushed back, due to football, and then I always end up coming it mid thru the episode.

tj2377 wrote:

For some reason I haven't been able to get into this season. Probably b/c it gets pushed back, due to football, and then I always end up coming it mid thru the episode.

I can't seem to get into it either! Although the nerdy father and son team I do find rootable

Lorraine wrote:

I just got done watching this weeks TAR episode.

I have NEVER been more happy for a non elimination week than I was this week. A nice TAR moment.
With that being said though.....can't these teams read a clue?? Unreal how many of them got the task wrong with the wheelbarrows. And then only one team could find the decoder on the wall?? LOL

I know Lorraine really these people couldn't think about looking on the other sides of the house. I was happy the father/son team wasn't eliminated also.

Amazing Race’s missing task: there never was a speed bump for Nick and Vicki





The Amazing Race 17 has minor controversy on its hands, as last week’s episode ended in a non-elimination for Nick DeCarlo and Vicki Casciola, but the team didn’t complete the required punishment, a speed bump task, this episode.
The answer lies in last week’s episode: There never was a speed bump task. At the end of the episode, when Nick and Vicki arrive at the mat, Phil says, “This is a non-elimination leg and you will get to race another day.” That’s all he said.
Why didn’t he give them a task? Now comes speculation, because, annoyingly, the episode didn’t tell us, but it seems like they weren’t given an extra task probably because last week shouldn’t have even been a non-elimination leg—or if it actually was a pre-scheduled non-elimination leg, they were given a pass because of a production error. The rather ridiculous equalizer at the start of the leg plus the lack of start times in this week’s episode clearly suggests that production made sure that everyone was even at the beginning of this leg to compensate for a screw-up.
HitFix’s Dan Fienberg summarizes a theory from an IMDB message board discussion that says “Nick had posted on his personal Facebook page that in the Classical Music Detour in the previous leg, there’d been a judging error. Apparently they’d been giving a correct answer, but a judge had been telling them that they were wrong.”
Naturally, that person’s post is a summary of a summary of something someone else read. Why the hell can’t people, you know, include a link or quote from something they’ve read? It’s the Internet after all. Nick’s actual Facebook profile is locked down so his posts aren’t visible, and there is nothing of interest on their team Facebook page. Perhaps we’ll get more clarity later.

http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/the_amazing_race_17/2010_Nov_08_speed_bump

I was wondering what happened, if I possibly missed something. Are the producers getting sloppy or what? I kind of liked the father and son team, sucked that they were the ones eliminated last night.

I was wondering the same thing. WTF didnt they have a speedbump?? I liked the father son team as well but damn, you HAVE to read the clues!! I am not crazy about this season. At this point I am rooting for the father/daughter team.

Oh I read somewhere that apparently the judge at the piano challenge the leg before made a mistake. Nick and Vicki were really correct, but he said they were wrong. Therefore, the speed bump was removed.

Colton!! Where the heck have you been??? Survivor isnt the same without you here...lol.

Colton wrote:

Oh I read somewhere that apparently the judge at the piano challenge the leg before made a mistake. Nick and Vicki were really correct, but he said they were wrong. Therefore, the speed bump was removed.

The show should have explained this to us without leaving us to wonder but I suppose that makes sense.

Thanks Colton

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! :(

The sad thing is tonight was the pageant for Miss Kentucky, so she lost The Amazing Race and her crown all in one night. :(

Jill & Thomas FTW! <3

How about Chad and Stephanie over sleeping and somehow managing to catch up with everyone else and coming in 1st place... are you kidding me? lol
very lucky those 2!

I'm Team Doctors and Team Home Shopping TV Co-hosts

How come Chad and Stephanie can oversleep and be late showing up to the pitstop without some sort of penalty? Their engagement made me want to barf..lol.
I liked the Father/daughter team and am sorry to see them go.

SMOOCHES wrote:

I'm with you Erika, Team ladies FTW!

SMOOCHES! finally someone agrees with me! haha

Amazing Race's Chad and Stephanie Are Married, Expecting, and Regretting That Ice Cream Break





Chad Waltrip, 26, and Stephanie Smith, 23, say they're living the "amazing life" after The Amazing Race. After getting engaged on the race, the two got married this weekend and are expecting their first child. "Things are going great," Stephanie tells TVGuide.com. "We're so excited. We didn't win, but we're still happy with how we did and life is definitely moving on!" Find out their other plans, why they decided to take an ill-timed ice cream break at the airport and more.

TVGuide.com: Why did you decide to get ice cream instead of angling for better plane tickets? Did you really want a Blizzard?
Chad: [Laughs] I just saw how stressed everyone was and I didn't think there was going to be a shot at [earlier flights]. Everybody was on the same plane at that point and we were going to a real remote location. Hey, let's go get some Dairy Queen! But ultimately that was one of the things that cost us in the end. ... I would say I [regret it] now.

TVGuide.com: Were you mad when you found out there were earlier flights?
Chad: I got an earful! [Laughs]
Stephanie: Yeah, he got an earful from me because I wanted to stay and Chad was hungry. I just trusted Chad. We were just glad to know that we were still in it [against Brook and Claire, and Nat and Kat]. When you're at the airport, it's so stressful. You only see five minutes of it on TV, but we were [trying to get better tickets] for three hours and it was frustrating — not just for us, but for the people who were trying to get us flights. You have to weigh your options: Do you want to be stressed and potentially ruin your game mentally? Or do you want to relax and prepare for the next leg?

TVGuide.com: Once you got to Bangladesh, you got lost getting to basically everywhere. What happened at the end? One second it was bright and sunny and the next, it was pitch dark, and both teams were still searching for the Pit Stop.
Chad: We ran around the city. I thought we could get there quicker running with all the traffic there. The locals were so excited and wanted to help, but they didn't understand what we were saying half the time. That, especially in Bangladesh, was key. If you could find someone who could speak English, you were golden, but we couldn't. ... I honestly thought that [Brook and Claire] would've taken a rickshaw or taxi.
Stephanie: Yeah, it really did come down to bad directions because we fought a hard race. Chad and I did everything so fast that we caught up to Nat and Kat even though we got U-Turned, which was unbelievable! My gosh, we showed up probably three minutes behind Brook and Claire [at the Pit Stop]. It's a game of luck and we knew that going into it and coming out of it. We're proud of the race we ran.

TVGuide.com: Do you regret running instead of taking a rickshaw or cab?
Stephanie: I think the Blizzard ice cream was what ultimately did us in. [Laughs]
Chad: It tasted great going down though!

TVGuide.com: You seemed surprised that you were U-Turned.
Stephanie: We weren't. We were frustrated that we were lost from the very beginning and that Nat and Kat caught up that fast. We knew we were a strong team... We did [expect to be U-Turned] if anyone got ahead of us. We knew we were a threat and in the name of the game, if you want to stay in, you have to eliminate the best. I felt like we were one of the better teams.


TVGuide.com: Chad, why did you decide to taunt Nat and her medical degree?
Chad: Well, we caught her, so I was like, "OK, this is it! I've got to throw all my chips in, so let me try to get in her head as best as I can." She's a very intelligent person — both of them are — I mean, they're doctors! She was really struggling and really frustrated that she had been there the longest and two teams who were U-Turned caught up. I tried to slow her up even more. You saw that she said "good luck" afterward. I said "good luck" too. I know how it is. It was nothing personal, but I was going to try to slow her up so Stephanie could gain some ground.

TVGuide.com: You got engaged on the race. Congratulations! What did you have to say to fans who think you argued too much?
Stephanie: Thanks! We actually got married this weekend.
Chad: It's funny. Stephanie and I are very strong-willed individuals. At the end of the day, we never go to bed angry. I learned a lot about myself. I know that there are some things I need to change — and people are right. But I love her with all my heart. She is my soul mate and we're going to continue to work on it. No relationship's perfect.

TVGuide.com: Why did you decide to propose in Oman?
Chad: I really didn't want to do it on the mat. That was my one goal. Ultimately, I said I'll figure it out when I get there because, obviously, you have no clue where we're going. Stephanie has always loved the Middle East and had talked about going to Egypt. I figured that was the closest and we weren't really racing yet, so I had the downtime. The sun was coming up, we were on the water — we both love the water — in the mountains, and I just couldn't ask for a better spot.

TVGuide.com: And you won the leg and a trip to Belize. Is that going to be your honeymoon destination?
Stephanie: You know, I think we're going to do our honeymoon in Disney World. [Laughs] I'm obsessed with Disney and I want to do Mickey's Merry Christmas. I think we're going to do Belize next year. I just found out that I'm three months pregnant! So I'm like, "Screw this! I want to go zip-lining! I want to sip cocktails in Belize!" So I think we're going to go for our one-year anniversary.

TVGuide.com: Congratulations! Post-race life sounds awesome.
Chad: Thanks! We haven't stopped one bit. We just had a wedding. We're fixing up the house. I'm finishing up my master's. Life is good.

Nick is a dick! It's bad enough that he gives up and quits in the middle of a task and leaves Vicki high and dry but the way he verbally and emotionally abuses her is disgusting to watch. I am pretty sure that it's quite indicative of their relationship in general. He needs to get dropped quickly!

....AND I was annoyed that he has yet another opportunity at the million dollars. And I won't be surprised at all if there is an equalizer leg where the 6 hour penalty that Nick and Vicki have will mean nothing.

Nat & Kat: First Female Winners of 'The Amazing Race'
By Roger Catlin on December 12, 2010 11:34 PM





Nat Strand and Kat Chang, the team of doctors and friends jumped from third to first on the last leg of "The Amazing Race" in Los Angeles Sunday to win the finale and the $1 million prize as well as becoming the first female team to win the show in 17 seasons.

"It's about time a girl-girl team won 'The Amazing Race,' said Strand, 31, of Scottsdale, Ariz., who had to overcome her fear of heights in one of the final challenges, involving bungee jumping. "We're both just real proud and honored to be that team. It's been probably one of the best experiences of our entire lives and Kat and I both think it's been life changing.

"It's just been priceless," said Chang. "It really was."

The team pulled ahead when their plane from Seoul landed at LAX, when they were first to grab a taxi, and they stayed ahead throughout, jumping ahead by remaining calm when trying to solve a puzzle.

The team that had been first going into the last leg, the dogged dating couple Jill Haney and Thomas Wolfard, faltered badly when it came time to figure out their clues, as they were with a taxi driver who would neither lend them a phone or professed to not know what the internet was - and yet the couple stayed with the driver anyway.

The third team in the hunt, TV shopping hosts Brook Roberts and Claire Champlin, stopped at a hotel to get on their internet to find their clues.

All three teams would have been aided by a better knowledge of Cervantes.

In addition to being the first time a female-female team has won the competition, it was also the first time such a configuration has finished first and second. And the second place finishers Brook and Claire will hardly have time to go back to their duties as home shopping TV hosts; they'll be back soon as part of the 18th season of "The Amazing Race" in February, full of teams from recent seasons trying once more to win.


They were a great all-around team! Nice to see 2 women run the race with class and determination. They always had a good attitude and ran a fair race and are deserving of the win. As much as I like to watch trainwrecks I do enjoy watching teams like Nat and Kat. I even would have been ok with Brook and Claire winning but my first choice would have been Nat and Kat! Good job ladies!

I was very happy with the outcome of the season finale of TAR. Nat and Kat were awesome from start to finish. Very level headed, non bitchy, intelligent and composed! Loved that they won that final leg and it appears they won it with ease. It was kind of a lame final leg but I was happy they came out on top. They deserve it and what a great team to be the first all lady team to win TAR!!

Did anyone watch the sneak peak to next season? It looks like there is more teams then we have listed. I saw Dallas and his mom. Are they going to be on? They certainly fit the tag of next season "Unfinished business". Remember Dallas left their passports in a cab and they couldnt finish the race. That also happened to another team thats going to be on. Does anyone know why Amanda and Kris are going to be on??? There were so many good and memorable teams that they could have had back. Even those screaming vile brothers would have been better for tv then this duo.