In a minor upset, Chip and Kim McAllister, the "married parents" team from Coto de Caza, California, were the first team to reach the finish line in Dallas, Texas, and thus became the winners of CBS's Emmy-winning The Amazing Race 5.
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The finale featured a stop in the beautiful mountain resort of Banff, Alberta, site of the mountain events in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. In a "Slide or Ride" detour, teams had to either luge down the luge run in 34 seconds or mountain bike down the Olympic slalom course in 3 minutes (which Brandon & Nicole were unable to do and had to luge instead). However, the main drama of the finale came in the Calgary Airport.
The top two teams -- Colin & Christie and Brandon & Nicole -- booked flights on American Airline Flight 848, the quickest route to Dallas. Straggling into the airport in last place after multiple re-tries on the luge, Chip & Kim learned that the American flight would be delayed two hours and instead booked passage on an United Airlines flight connecting in Denver.
Although the first two teams were able, at the last minute, to squeeze onto the United flight to Denver, they were not permitted to transfer to the United flight from Denver to Dallas under new post-9/11 flight rules, since their bags had been checked onto an American flight. Thus, they were forced onto a later American flight arriving in Dallas 18 minutes after Chip & Kim ... and that bureaucratic tangle determined the end of the race, as Chip & Kim (with an unintentional assist from Homeland Security officials) retained enough of their lead to reach the finish line at Dallas' Trammell Crow Park first.
Surprisingly, the victory of Chip & Kim had been accurately "spoiled" by E! Online gossip columnist Kristen, even though she was incorrect in her claim that Chip & Kim were the only Amazing Race 5 team invited to the Emmys (coverage of Sunday's ceremony showed ALL four of the final Amazing Race 5 teams at the event.)
Amazing Race fans will soon be able to see more of the globe-trotting show -- but not as soon as they once thought. The debut of The Amazing Race 6, which was originally scheduled to begin this Saturday, has now been delayed until October or November. The Washington Post reports that Kelly Kahl, CBS's head of scheduling, acknowledged that the Eye Network may be thinking of moving its only Emmy-winning series from the planned Saturday slot (usually death for a reality show) back into a weekday time slot. Recent rumors have hinted that CBS would like to find a Tuesday or Wednesday night time slot for Race 6-- which can't make the scheduled shows on those nights feel very secure.
Race executive producer Jonathan Littman acknowledged that a weekday slot would be nice, but that he was also just thankful that CBS had stuck with the initially low-rated reality show long enough for it to find both an audience and an Emmy niche. "Sure, I'd love to be on during the week. That would be phenomenal. But, hey, we're just happy to be on the air. . . . It's fairly spectacular in this day and age in television that they've stuck with us. It wasn't a smash hit."
But smash-hit days may be ahead, judging by this summer's ratings. CBS even began casting The Amazing Race 7 earlier this summer -- an unexpected turn of events for a show on the verge of cancellation last summer.
