"The Amazing Race 12" spanned in 21 days, making it the shortest "Amazing Race" course since the Family Edition of Season 8. The season covered four continents, visiting ten countries (five of which were not previously visited by the series), while traveling entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. The newly visited countries were Ireland, Burkina Faso, Lithuania, Croatia, and Taiwan (Republic of China). Also, for the first time, the Finish Line was not in the continental United States. The shortened filming schedule was initially attributed, in part, to the removal of non-elimination legs, which would have been a first on "The Amazing Race". However, host Phil Keoghan told Kynt & Vyxsin in Leg 7 that there were two non-elimination legs in this season. Most prior seasons without "To Be Continued" or "superlegs" had four non-elimination points. With this season only having two non-elimination legs, the number of episodes was reduced by two. This is also the last season to date to air both a Detour and a Roadblock the Final Leg.