The Amazing Race, for the two of you.
Every other show casts a person. The Race casts a relationship. That’s not a slogan — it’s what the casting team says they’re looking at, it’s what the application asks about, and it’s why a season where strangers were paired up is remembered as the one that proved the point.
The show as it stands
Teams of two race around the world across about twelve legs. Each leg ends at a Pit Stop, where the last team to arrive is usually eliminated; the first team to the final mat wins $1 million. Along the way: Detours (choose one of two tasks), Roadblocks (one of you does it alone), U-Turns (force another team to do both Detour tasks), the Express Pass (skip any one task), and the occasional Fast Forward straight to the mat. A race runs three to four weeks.
Season 39 premieres over two nights, September 30 and October 1, 2026. It was filmed a year earlier — September 22 to October 17, 2025 — and every team started with an Express Pass usable through leg six. The route ran Vancouver, Spain, Morocco, Albania (a first for the show), Sri Lanka, Laos, Australia and New Zealand, finishing in Honolulu: about 25,000 miles, and the first season to never touch the contiguous United States.
Who’s on it
Thirteen teams, aged 19 to 73. Two former U.S. national-team footballers, now moms, one of them a two-time World Cup champion. A healthcare executive and her daughter, a Marine officer. A software developer and his daughter, a medical student. A civil engineer and his sister, a dietitian. Two childhood friends, both 27. Two sisters, a bond analyst who DJs and a personal trainer. A dating couple who are both videographers. A retired fire chief, 73, racing with his grandson, 19. A pilot and her husband in HR. Two best friends and moms — a history teacher and a forensic scientist. Two sisters who are estheticians, 20 and 26. Married parents who run an auto body shop. Two brothers in sales.
Nothing about that list says “reality TV.” That’s the point.
The relationship is the show
Lynne Spillman, who cast the Race from season 1: “The Amazing Race is a relationship show.” Talk about the team, not about winning. The casting site’s own advice is that your teammate should be someone close to you — probably not the co-worker you’ve known for three months — and that your video should cover the relationship’s positives and negatives. They love banter.
Elise Doganieri, who co-created it, casts for Type-A, super-competitive people with a sense of adventure — weekend warriors, not pro athletes — and a sense of humour, because you’ll need one on the road. Her co-creator Bertram van Munster puts the engine of the whole show in one question: do these two end the race as friends, or wanting to kill each other. Tannenbaum’s phrase is two diamonds who happen to share a very special and unique relationship.
The proof came in season 29, when 22 strangers met at the start line and picked partners on the spot. It was fine television. Nobody asked for it again.
The field
The Race has a long habit of seating people from the sister shows. Survivor winners Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca ran season 19. Season 31 was all reality alumni. Season 38, which aired in autumn 2025, was cast entirely from Big Brother — every one of its 13 teams had a houseguest in it, and Jag Bains won with his brother.
That’s who applicant teams are up against. It isn’t a reason not to apply. It’s a reason to be a genuinely interesting pair rather than a competent one.
Both of you need
- A valid U.S. passport
- A driver’s licence
- To be 18 or older (19 in Alabama and Nebraska, 21 in Mississippi and D.C.; open calls ask for 21)
- To have known each other at least a year
- To be able to vanish for about four weeks in early autumn
Get the passports moving now. Teams that make it have about a month to sort passports, vaccinations and time off before they fly.
The process
The online form is open all year, but casting actively looks from January to May. After that, a call can come in days or in months. Hayley Keel waited four months after an open call, then was asked for several more rounds of audition videos. Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge did three trips to Los Angeles, sequestered in a hotel and escorted everywhere, and met the other teams for the first time at the start line. One season-34 team reportedly got the call that they’d made the cast in LA traffic, two hours before filming.
And then the wait. Season 39’s casting opened on January 13, 2025 and closed on May 2. The season premieres September 30, 2026. That’s 20 months from the casting call to your face on television, and it’s normal — the pandemic-stretched record is 22.
How people got there
Nick and Mike Fiorito, brothers, sent five polished tapes over seven years and made finals three times. What finally got them in the door was Nick filming himself on his phone, walking to his car, just telling the casting director how badly they wanted it.
Colin Rose and Matt Roberts, best friends from Newfoundland, sent a tape to the Canadian version ten years in a row. They finished second.
Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block applied for four seasons with his partner before touring schedules finally cleared for season 26.
Ana Towns describes her team’s audition as a shoddy, very cringeworthy video. The casting director saw the potential and took a risk anyway. They were not, in her words, a safe bet.
Before you film
Both of you in frame, under 3 minutes, lots of energy, shot when you’re at your best. Talk about how you met, how you travel, how you fight, and what the other one does that drives you mad. The relationship’s ups and downs are the content — not a list of countries you’d like to see.