The Amazing Race Season 35 Teams, Ranked

The Amazing Race first aired in 2001, making it one of the longest running reality shows of all time. Since then, the show has won ten Emmy Awards and averaged ten million viewers per season. Host Phil Keoghan leads about a dozen teams all around the world as they compete to win one million dollars. Each leg of the race includes challenges such as Detours, which offer teams a choice between two different tasks, and Roadblocks, obstacles that a single member of the team must overcome alone. These undertakings are designed to showcase the culture of the area where they take place.

Season 35 recently concluded and saw contestants booking commercial flights for the first time since season 33, when airplanes were chartered instead due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the first season of The Amazing Race to visit the country of Solvenia in Central Europe, as well as the first to give out two Express Passes in two different legs of the race. It was also the first time that thirteen teams competed (in the US version of the show), the largest number of teams to date, and the first time that the final three teams consisted of all males.

The Amazing Race - Season 35

13 Alexandra and Sheridan Lichtor

Siblings and Roommates

Alexandra and Sheridan fell toward the back of the pack early on in the race. This meant they were stuck on the second flight to Thailand, putting them in a race against the other six teams on the same plane. They made it to the Detour in 11th place, but difficulty with coordination led to their elimination, making them the first ever team (in the US version of The Amazing Race) to finish in 13th place.

These Chicago consultants came prepared to carefully analyze any challenge in front of them, but found that their slow-and-steady strategy proved a bit too slow. When they came to the detour, they bet on their ability to learn an intricate routine using a traditional Thai sword rather than endure a painful massage that lasted for thirty minutes. The sword challenge ended up taking them much longer, allowing the two trailing teams to overtake them.

12 Elizabeth and Iliana Rivera

Mother and Daughter

Elizabeth and Iliana were able to avoid elimination in the first leg of the race due to Alexandra and Sheridan's difficulties with the Sword Play Detour. Despite securing 10th place in the second leg's roadblock, they ran into problems in the Stock Up Detour, which required them to purchase groceries from Don Wai Market--with the catch that their list of ingredients was spelled phonetically in Thai. They mistook an irrelevant item for one on their list, and the time it took to rectify this mistake ultimately cost them the race.

This team from Tampa had some trouble with navigation, which put them at the back of the pack, which in turn caused them anxiety about completing the Detour as quickly as possible. Their eagerness to finish the Detour led to an error that might have been avoided had they taken their time. But racing is the name of the game, so they didn't really have a choice.

11 Jocelyn Chao and Victor Limary

Married Entrepreneurs

Jocelyn and Victor started off as the strongest team in the race, with Victor's fluency in Thai helping them to finish first in the first two legs. However, when the race went to Vietnam, Jocelyn and Victor's flight was delayed. They struggled through the third leg of the race, finishing tenth, and that's where their luck ran out. Leg 3 was a No-Rest Leg, so they remained behind going into Leg 4. In their final Roadblock, Victor searched for the one tile among thousands that matched the photo he had been provided, but couldn't find it in time.

The elimination of this Albuquerque-based power couple was surprising after such a successful start, and twists like this are why The Amazing Race is one of the best reality TV shows of all time. At the very least, Victor and Jocelyn won a prize for each time they finished first. When it became obvious that they were in last place, Victor refused to throw in the towel, wanting to show his children at home that he would finish what he started.

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10 Joe Moskowitz and Ian Todd

Engaged

These New York-based businessmen began Leg 5 with a challenging Roadblock requiring Ian to balance a stack of pots on his head. The couple landed in the bottom three, dropping into the bottom two after the Big Picture Detour, which instructed them to recreate a painting by matching a selection of cutouts and props to a reference image. Even though they actually completed this detour ahead of Morgan and Lena, the other team at the bottom, the sisters were able to beat Ian and Joe to the finish line.

Joe and Ian plummeted to last place in Leg 5 after placing fourth in Leg 4. It seems the pressure clouded their perception, as they missed small yet crucial details in their final Detour. But even though they knew they were at the back of the pack, they still kept their cool and didn't allow the stresses of The Amazing Race to leak into their relationship.

9 Liam and Yeremi Hykel

Brothers

This pair of brothers started Leg 6 in eighth place out of nine teams, so they were battling uphill from the start. No singular mistake stands out as the cause of their downfall, but bad luck with taxis didn't help--their driver got lost more than once during this leg, which involved a lot of driving.

Liam and Yeremi hovered around the lower middle of the rankings up until their elimination at the end of episode six. The brothers are both recent veterans, so they didn't struggle too much with physical challenges, but tasks requiring extreme attention to detail did trip them up on occasion. Despite being eliminated, they seem to have achieved their stated goal, which was to make up for lost time. They were estranged from one another for a significant portion of their lives and, having reconciled, sought to make some memories together. The incredible opportunities The Amazing Race affords its contestants are why it's one of the best reality shows on Paramount+.

8 Malaina Hatcher and Andrea Simpson

College Friends

Best friends Andrea and Malaina spent most of the race towards the back of the pack until their fortunes took a turn for the better in Leg 5, where they secured fourth place. Unfortunately for them, Leg 7 proved calamitous when they got on the wrong ferry and, instead of getting special coins from the designated money changer, just got change from a regular guy. When they finally reached the first Roadblock, they realized they lacked the coins they needed and were forced to backtrack. By the time they arrived at the second Roadblock, Phil was waiting to inform them they had been eliminated.

This pair from Philadelphia stood out as particularly optimistic and lively. Their vibrant personalities and encouragement of one another meant they never quarreled, despite facing tough competitors. Their undoing was a misinterpretation of directions, causing them to get very lost. Nonetheless, their friendship, creativity, and intelligence shone through in every leg.

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7 Morgan and Lena Franklin

Sisters

Lena and Morgan finished in fourth place three separate times, but also came in ninth and tenth at other points, for an average placement of somewhere around sixth. In Leg 8, they were on track for another fourth place finish, but got lost on the way to the Nebotičnik Skyscraper in Slovenia, which put them in tight competition with Steve and Anna Leigh, who beat them to the Pit Stop.

The marketing executive sisters live on opposite coasts, but are very close. Like many siblings, they bickered constantly. This was bad for their race as they sometimes became frustrated with one another to the detriment of the task at hand. They impressively won an Express Pass, which would allow them to bypass a Detour, by eating a plate full of bugs. But they waited until they had already begun the Detour to use it, so it didn't provide as much of a time cushion as it could have.

6 Robbin Tomich and Chelsea Day

Childhood Friends

These childhood best friends were thrilled to be on The Amazing Race. In Leg 9, the first Roadblock involved Chelsea donning a traditional Slovenian wooden backpack loaded up with wooden kitchen utensils and delivering them to Levstikov Square. However, she forgot to put one of the implements on the backpack, so she had to go back to the start to retrieve it. Then, the pair missed a turn on their way to Pivka Jama cave, and they just couldn't recover from the deficit.

Tensions did run high at times, but perhaps that is a testament to Robbin and Chelsea's friendship, because they finished their race with grace. They played with determination. They never allowed themselves to be discouraged by an unsatisfactory finish, and they worked together to keep their eyes on the prize rather than point fingers in the face of a setback. ​​​​​

5 Ashlie and Todd Martin

Married High School Sweethearts

A strong and optimistic team from the outset, Todd and Ashlie showcased consistent top-half finishes throughout The Amazing Race. They managed to dodge elimination in Leg 9 after Todd missed an exit en route to Pivka Jama in Slovenia. But the tenth leg proved more formidable with the added handicap of starting at the bottom. After Ashlie took a long time to wrap up Leg 10's Roadblock, the couple couldn't make up the time and ended up in last place--though not by much.

Despite some squabbles, Ashlie and Todd didn't get bogged down. The race is stressful, but they started each new day fresh and didn't allow arguments from the past to dampen their attitudes. Being together since high school indicates that they developed tools to overcome disagreements, which served them well in the race.

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4 Steve Cargile and Anna Leigh Wilson

Father and Daughter

This father-daughter duo was one of the strongest teams this season, with two first-place finishes. In Leg 6, they got U-Turned, meaning they had to perform both tasks in the Detour, but still managed to stay in the race all the way to the final four. During the eleventh leg, they got lost on the way to the first location, costing them time, and Steve had trouble with the swimming component of the task, costing more time. Another wrong turn along the way put them too far behind to catch up.

Steve and Anna Leigh made it far in the race, but their journey was not without its share of stress. Steve couldn't run as fast as Anna Leigh, but that didn't stop her from pushing her father to his very limit every step of the way. This led to a few arguments between the two, which were exacerbated by their bottom-half finishes, but they shared fun moments together, too.

3 Rob and Corey McArthur

Father and Son

Rob and Corey maintained their spot somewhere around third place for nearly the entire race. They won an Express Pass in Leg 8, which they used in Leg 10, but after getting lost, it didn't give them the lead they hoped it would. But it was enough to help them reach the final three. Perhaps their only real error was the order in which they decided to complete the challenges in the last leg. They went to the farthest one first and needed to backtrack. They finished in third place by mere minutes.

Corey and Rob have a strong bond that withstood the test of The Amazing Race. Rob is deaf, but both are fluent in sign language, and together they may have had the strongest communication of all the teams. They clearly and calmly communicated their objectives and strategies, not fighting even once. The lowest they ever finished was sixth, and they came in first in Leg 11. If The Amazing Race ever does another "All-Stars" season, these guys have a good shot at returning.

2 Joel Strasser and Garret Smith

Best Friends

These upbeat and humorous best friends flew under the radar at the beginning of the race, but hit their stride toward the end, finishing Leg 10 in first. The dynamic duo continually cracked jokes and made each other laugh, all while keeping their families at the forefront of their minds. They actually led the pack in the last leg, but barely fell behind Greg and John in the final memory task that required them to chronologically order a number of phrases relating to previous challenges.

Garret and Joel were ecstatic and almost surprised by their performance when they clinched the final three. But that's not to say they didn't work hard. Their joviality in the face of hardship, communication under pressure, and relatively unsuspecting manner worked as a finely tuned strategy to get them all the way to the end.

1 Greg and John Franklin

Computer Scientist Brothers

The brothers combined vigor, hustle, and their keen memories to become a dominant force over the course of the race. They had difficulty with the glassblowing component of the final leg, where they were overtaken by Joel and Garret. John and Greg trailed behind until they were able to complete the very last memory challenge first and take the gold.

The computer scientists came in first place four times in a row starting in Leg 6, and they dipped into the bottom half of teams twice. Their eye for detail, knack for memorization, and passing knowledge of French carried them to the end. Their close bond and encouragement of one another ensured that they got there with their relationship even stronger than when they started.

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