Bad Decisions on "The Amazing Race" Quiz

Answer: Bus

Noted as the most costly cup of tea on the show, Joe and Bill claimed the Fast Forward in Leg 9 of the first "Amazing Race" and found themselves in a comfy first place lead while mother-daughter team Emily and Nancy struggled to catch up with everyone else on their trip through Thailand. Rather than take a taxi directly to the Pit Stop in Krabi, several hundred miles away, they tried to save a buck by heading to a hotel and planning a bus route to their destination.

In the meantime, all of the other teams, including Nancy and Emily, made their way to the Pit Stop at an earlier time. Fortunately, Joe and Bill remained in the game because Nancy and Emily took a twenty-four hour penalty for not completing the Detour. Nonetheless, the choice kept Joe and Bill too far behind and they never made it to the final city in the last leg because they were so far behind the lead teams.

Answer: New York

Heading out from the southern tip of Brazil in Leg 3, Peggy and Claire departed from the Pit Stop late as it was (having accidentally slept through their departure time). All nine remaining teams reached Sao Paolo, Brazil, though each one took at least one connection in their flight to Cape Town on the southern tip of Africa.

The 'Gutsy Grannies' received the worst of the flights deciding to transfer in New York, London, and Johannesburg before arriving in Cape Town. Matters were worsened when their London connection didn't give them enough time to get through security.

They reached the Pit Stop, Lanzerac Manor, around twenty-four hours too late and became the third eliminated team.

Answer: Portugal

In Leg 4, teams headed to Portugal to complete their tasks and upon arriving at the Road Block task in Lisbon, many of the teams were bunched together. After completing the Road Block, teams were instructed to make their way on foot to the Pit Stop, the Torre de Belem, one and a half miles away.

Instead, Heather and Eve hired a taxi and though they got to the Pit Stop in first place, they were forced to take a thirty-seven minute penalty allowing all the other teams to catch up (within a half hour).

As a result, they became the fourth team eliminated from the race. This wouldn't be the last taxi mistake in "The Amazing Race". Read your clues!

Answer: True

In the final leg of "The Amazing Race 4", teams made their way from Australia to Hawaii and then onward to Phoenix, Arizona. Some didn't. While Reichen and Chip and Kelly and Jon would make it to the final destination city by taking a flight from Australia to Tokyo (and then Hawaii), David and Jeff wouldn't be able to reach Hawaii until after the race had already ended. Why? Rather than fly to Tokyo, they opted to head to Sydney to take a more direct flight. Expecting this to work out, David and Jeff arrived too late and their strategy was busted leaving them in Australia days behind the first two teams (much like Joe and Bill in the first season) with no connecting flights.

They received their final clue in the middle of the night in Hawaii.

Answer: He let another team have his taxi

Establishing himself right out of the gate as a nice guy, Dennis (despite Erica disagreeing with the decision) gives Colin and Christie the remaining cab outside a meat-carrying task in the race in order to prove that he's not a 'scumbag'. The two of them fail to catch up to all the remaining teams and check in at the first Pit Stop, the Casapueblo, in last place. That's a shame. There's no way of knowing whether or not the two of them would've made it further in the race, but Colin and Christie, possibly saved from elimination by Dennis' gesture of good faith, made it to an aggressive second place finish in the same season as a result.

Answer: Lori and Bolo

In Leg 9 of the race, teams found their way to Lion Rock in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka. Here, one member simply needed to walk all of the steps to the top of the landmark and use a pair of binoculars to find the location of their next Pit Stop. Lori took on the task for her team and made her way to the top, but Bolo accidentally neglected to hand Lori the most crucial part of her clue: a ticket needed to access the top part of the rock.

As a result, Lori had to run all the way back down to the bottom for her ticket, back to the top to find the Pit Stop, and back down again with the information.

They were eliminated from the race in fifth place due to their crucial mistake.

Answer: They assumed their flight was the quickest

One key point to note: never assume you can sit back and coast through "The Amazing Race". In Leg 9, teams flew from India to Turkey. While Rob and Amber and Ron and Kelly picked what they thought was the quickest flight and simply relaxed on their way to the next clue box on Kýz Kulesi, Uchenna and Joyce and Meredith and Gretchen discovered a flight landing hours before theirs in Turkey.

As a result, the back two teams found themselves needing to rush their way through the city while the front-runners were able to not only take their time, but make mistakes. Rob and Amber beat out Ron and Kelly for third place by less than ten minutes and the latter team arrived in last (to have their money and bags taken away). Certainly a lesson in playing a lax race.

Answer: The Pit Stop was in their hometown yet they still placed last

Leg 4 of this "Family Edition" of the race saw teams of four racing their way from Alabama to Mississippi and then to Louisiana. The Schroeder team, who assumed that a mobile home dealer in Mississippi could not possibly have their clues, were already feeling the brunt of the back of the pack and realized upon opening clues the following morning that they would make up for it in Louisiana, mere minutes from their doorstep near New Orleans.

It didn't work out too well- the family was one of the last to the Detour literally five minutes from where Mark Schroeder worked for several years and they couldn't reach the Pit Stop in New Orleans' French Quarter in a place higher than last. Should've assumed the mobile home dealership...

Answer: BJ

With BJ and Tyler, Eric and Jeremy, and Joseph and Monica literally running into each other on the way from the parking lot to the Pit Stop at the end of a dock in Leg 9, BJ broke off from the pack to climb barefoot across the rocks leading to the dock rather than take the main path.

This caused him to hit the mat in last. Eric and Jeremy and Joseph and Monica placed second and third respectively while BJ and Tyler came in last. Luckily, it was a non-elimination round. The only catch, however, was that they needed to depart with only the clothes on their back and no money. Having come from a wet Detour task down an Australian river, BJ had neglected to wear pants or shoes coming into the Pit Stop and thus started the next leg without either. Luckily, proceeding legs took teams to Thailand and Japan (the former of which gave them a Fast Forward opportunity and the latter of which Tyler had walked ACROSS previously and become fluent in its national language).

They shot to first place and maintained the lead right up to the Finish Line in Colorado...but what a bad move.

Answer: They had no money

After spending most of their money gained over the course of the first two legs of the race (in China and Mongolia respectively) Duke and Lauren opened their clue at the beginning of Leg 3 to discover that $0 would be given to racers on this third leg.

They made their way to Vietnam unable to beg and unable to pay and were subsequently eliminated from the race for their choices leading up to the Detour task. This isn't the first time teams have faced money woes in the race but it is certainly one of the earliest examples in the entire race.