The Amazing Race season 37 might be coming to an end, but it seems fans won’t have to wait quite as long between seasons of the Emmy-winning competition series as they might have been expecting!
When CBS unveiled its schedule for the 2025-26 fall season, there were quite a few surprising moves on the calendar, including one that we’re certain made Amazing Race fans quite happy. That’s because The Amazing Race season 38 won’t be coming in 2026 as many had expected; it’ll be coming this fall!
That’s right, CBS has decided to bring the show back a bit earlier than expected and slot The Amazing Race into its fall lineup, meaning we’re only going to have to wait a few months between when season 37 wraps and when season 38 begins. CBS has been known to shake up the release strategy with The Amazing Race, with some seasons airing in the fall and others being held until midseason. This is by design, as CBS has been using The Amazing Race as a bit of a filler show, which it has been able to slot into the calendar based on its content needs.
Now, The Amazing Race season 38 coming back in the fall is the good news. The bad news is that we could end up being in for a long wait between seasons after as CBS will not be airing a season at midseason. Instead, it will look to use the 50th season of Survivor to help launch its new Padma Lakshmi cooking competition series America’s Culinary Cup, which will air after Survivor 50 episodes in the spring, followed by new episodes of Hollywood Squares.
Honestly, this makes perfect sense. Survivor 50 is expected to draw strong viewership for CBS with returning favorites heading back to the island for the anniversary season. It’s the perfect opportunity for CBS to launch a buzzy new show in hopes that the strong lead-in will encourage viewers to stick around and watch, a tactic many networks have taken over the years.
As much as we’d have loved to see a new season of The Amazing Race paired with Survivor 50, the truth is that The Amazing Race has established a fan base who will tune in regardless of the time of year or its lead-in. Whereas a new show often relies upon its lead-in program to attract viewers and find its footing. Given that America’s Culinary Cup will be CBS’s first cooking competition show to launch in primetime in over a decade, it makes sense that the network would want to give it a prime spot in its lineup, and launching it behind Survivor 50 is sure to help the show.
What will be interesting is to see whether CBS will choose to bring The Amazing Race back for its next season in the fall of 2026 or if the show will be shuffled back to midseason, which could potentially keep the show off the air in 2026. We saw a similar approach with seasons 32 and 33, with season 32 releasing in the fall of 2020 and season 33 not arriving until January 2022.
It’s likely we’ll have to wait a while to know just what CBS might have planned for The Amazing Race season 39, but for now, we’re looking forward to seeing the show back alongside new episodes of Survivor on Wednesdays this fall on CBS!