Season 31 of The Amazing Race is officially under wraps! The reality TV-themed season started off with 11 teams from Survivor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race vets, and ended with one team winning $1 million! Nicole Franzel and Victor Arroyo were the final non-Race team competing in the finale along with Leo Temory and Jamal Zadran; Colin Guinn and Christie Woods; and Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl.
The finale began with Leo and Jamal (“The Afghanimals”) arriving to the first road block first — and solving the puzzle immediately. Christie and Colin arrived next; Nicole and Victor were third, and Tyler and Korey were in last place. However, the Big Brother pair quickly found out that all the other teams were working together, trying to get them out. While Victor tried to solve the puzzle, Korey and Christie continued to whisper to each other. Despite that, Victor still finished before them both. When Korey finished first, he left without telling Christie the answer. It took her going back to the beginning and starting off in order to finish the task. While she broke down crying afterward, Colin reassured her that she did great.
They detour was — of course — two difficult challenges. One was a rowing challenge, while the other was a cab ride in which the teams had to memorize an extremely long route. With a lead, the Afghanimals tried the rowing first and immediately decided to switch. Neither was easy, giving Christie and Colin a chance to catch up when arrived at the rowing. Tyler and Korey, as well as Nic and Vic, had such difficulty in the water, they decided to switch, too.
The Afghanimals were the first to complete the seemingly impossible taxi challenge, followed by Tyler and Korey, who actually cried when they were done. Upon meeting Phil, though, there was another challenge for the four remaining teams: find eight items in a giant outside market and recreate a set-up. Christie and Colin completed the rowing challenge and found Phil next, with Nic and Vic arriving last.
Leo and Jamal, who’ve competed on the Race twice and were sent home both seasons during the 11th leg, finished first this time, followed by Tyler and Korey. They also helped Colin and Christie, who came in third place. Nic and Vic didn’t make it to the final three.
The Final Race
In the last hour, the last three teams flew back to the United States, landing in Detroit — which happens to be Tyler and Korey’s home state. The first road block was both a numbers and a heights challenge. One competitor had to propel off of the Guardian building face first, while reading numbers off the windows.
After memorizing the numbers, they had to use them to open a very complex vault. Leo finished first, but struggled to open the vault. Tyler and Colin finished propelling at the same time, but Colin was the first to get the vault open. Colin and Christie tried to go to a fowling warehouse — but had lost their cab. With that, Tyler and Korey took the lead. They finished the fowling challenge first. However, Colin was extremely athletic and quickly also finished the challenge.
Next, teams had to physically create five records inside a warehouse. Shortly after Tyler and Korey began, Christie and Colin arrived. Through all of that, Leo had actually briefly stopped working the combination because he was stumped — he had misread the directions. Finally, he completed it, and the team finished the day, even though they were in last place through it all.
Colin and Christie sped through the record challenge and moved into first place. Next, the teams had to search for their clue amongst a group of musicians playing outside. Once they found it, they had to assemble a five-piece drum set. However, the music was so loud around, it was tough to communicate.
While both teams finished their drum sets, they were both missing tiny details. When Colin became frustrated, Christie reminded him to stay calm — and it worked. Shortly after, they figured out their detail. Almost immediately after, Tyler and Korey finished, too. However — it wasn’t fast enough.
Colin and Christie won the $1 million prize!
