Andy DehnartThe Amazing Race season 32’s premiere is titled “One Million Miles” because the CBS reality competition has traveled 1 million miles during its 32 seasons of globetrotting reality competition.
But TAR 32 had its own incredible journey that’s lasted more than two years. Here’s a look back at what the show and its cast have been through.
The Amazing Race season 31—which aired last summer—was the "reality showdown" season. After it finished filming in July 2018, the show started casting for regular teams of two.
Notably, Lynne Spillman, the long-time CBS casting director responsible for finding some of the most memorable characters in reality TV history, had just been fired from Survivor by Jeff Probst. But she did cast TAR 32.
Amazing Race 32 filmed in November 2018—almost two years ago!
Thanks to the community of fans who follow the production in real time, most notably on the site Reality Fan Forum, most of the teams were quickly identified, and so was the route, along with some spoilers
As of January of this year—more than a year after filming—CBS still hadn't scheduled the show.
I talked to executive producers and creators Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri, who told me they didn't know when it was going to air, but were hopeful it'd air within six months.
They were also working on another global reality competition, which we talked about.
Amazing Race season 32 was nowhere to be found, but CBS hadn't given up on The Amazing Race.
They ordered season 33, and it started filming that on Feb. 22, 2020.
Of course, we know what happened next. The Amazing Race 33 stopped filming days later, and the cast and crew went home because of the escalating worldwide crisis. That was still several weeks before the United States shut down.
Meanwhile, The Amazing Race 32 was still on a shelf.
Eventually, in April, CBS announced a premiere date: the week after Survivor 40: Winners At War concluded.
The lack of The Amazing Race was disappointing, but Tough As Nails turned out to be an absolutely wonderful reality competition.
Then CBS scheduled Amazing Race 32 for fall—airing behind Survivor on Wednesdays.
But Survivor season 41, alas, was not able to be filmed. In fact, there's still no clear idea when it'll resume filming.
Survivor wasn't able to be filmed, but The Amazing Race 32 did stay on CBS's fall schedule, and in August, finally got a premiere date: Oct. 14, 2020.
That's less than four weeks from the two-year anniversary of its filming.
The cast of The Amazing Race 32 has had to keep the results of their race secret for two years.
A former cast member told me that the teams, from the winners to the first team out, have to wait until after the season finishes airing to get paid. That'll be more than two years later, since TAR 32 won't conclude until December.