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 30,000 miles (48,000 km) during eleven legs.
Starting in Los Angeles, racers traveled through Ireland, the Netherlands, Burkina Faso, Lithuania, Croatia, Italy, India, Japan, and Taiwan before returning to the United States and finishing in Anchorage.
[4] However, when Viva Laughlin was canceled in October, The Amazing Race 12 debuted early to take the time slot.
The shortened filming schedule was initially attributed, in part, to the removal of non-elimination legs, which would have been a first on The Amazing Race.
Executive producer Bertram van Munster felt that "it was not intentional" for casting to leave out young-male teams commonly found in past seasons.
[1] During The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business, Christina Hsu revealed that she was engaged to Azaria Azene.
CBS posted short videos on its website after each episode aired in the Pacific Time Zone, which showed the eliminated teams interacting at the villa.