The all new season of theAmazing Race is set to debut tonight on CBS at 8:30/7:30c.
The 17th season of the show will follow 11 teams as they travel over 32,000 miles, spanning over four continents and 30 cities with inaugural visits to Bangladesh, Ghana and a Trek Deep into the Arctic Circle.
Additionally, for the first time in the show’s history, the Team to finish in first place during the premiere episode will be awarded a surprise, game-changing advantage.
The new season will feature contestants from all walks of life, including a team of home shopping hosts, newly dating couples, an Internet entertainer, Ivy League a cappella singers and a birth mother/daughter Team who were recently reunited after the mother gave her newborn daughter up for adoption over 20 years ago.
Phil Keoghan returns as the show host in tonight’s 90 minute premiere.
The cast photos and bios below!
Katie Seamon, 23 and Rachel Johnston, 24 (Beach Volleyball Players)
Chad Waltrip, 26 and Stephanie Smith, 23 (Dating Couple)
CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE CAST PHOTOS!
With the new edition of Big Brother currently airing, a lot of the show’s fans have been wondering what is going on with last season’s favorite Jeff Schroeder.
Jeff, who came close to making the BB final 2 last year, has since appeared on the Amazing Race this year with girlfriend & fellow BB alum Jordan Lloyd. While the couple came way short of winning the show, it seems Jeff is now ready for a new adventure.
In a new interview with PEOPLE, Jeff discusses being the host of Around the World for Free, a web series for CBS.com that will take him across the world for 100 days with no money and with viewers determining where he goes, how he gets there and where he stays. Jeff also confirms that he and Jordan are still together, and discusses how they make their long-distance relationship work.
Excerpts from Jeff’s interview below -
You have said that doing a travel show was your ultimate dream and now it’s been realized. How does it feel?
Not to be too philosophical, but I’ve learned that anything can happen if you really believe in it and want it enough. I’ve been saying it for a long time and I know that BB and The Amazing Race were springboards for me to get this show. But it’s an amazing feeling to realize a dream.
So many things can go wrong in 100 days. Are you nervous?
If you look for problems or if you go out looking for the bad, then you’re going to find it. I have to focus on the positive and keep telling myself that there are good people out there and that everything is going to be good. My attitude is that I know things are going to go well but I’m hopping things go even better!
Are you catching up on your world cultures or are you going into this fully blind?
Obviously I’m no world traveler but I kind of want to go in blind. I want to learn as the audience learns. I think I’m an average, everyday guy and I want everyone else to be on my page. I want to go into this with an open heart and open eyes.
How are you and Jordan doing?
We’ve had our bumps but no break-ups and everything is going great. We only get to see each other every two weeks or so. We have to travel back and forth but we vacation together and do a lot of fun things together. Lately I’ve been busy with the show and she’s been busy with school, but having to work with a long-distance relationship really worked out for us because when we finally get a break from what we’re doing we’re so excited to see each other. So far, so good.
The Amazing Race finale aired last night with three teams vying for the top $1 million prize. In the finals were the cowboys, the models and the brothers.
So who came out on top? Well after a long race, which ultimately ended at the Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the Pious brothers, Daniel and Jordan (pictured far right), came out on top of the competition. Coming in a close second were the cowboys, which consisted of brothers Jet and Cord McCoy from Tupelo, Oklahoma.
The models and dating couple, Caite Upton and Brent Home, came in a distant third after having some issues with their imcompetent cab driver. The models however put the nail in their own coffin when they forgot to take their money and other items with them after leaving the Star Wars challenge, thus having to turn back around. That basically put them out of the competition.
The best part of the night came when model Caite attempted to apologize to the lesbian team, consisting of Carol and Brandy, only to have Brandy snap back at her. “I don’t want to hear sorry from you. You purposely whacked us,” said Brandy. Caite however handled the situation well, replying, “I’m the one standing here and not you.” This didn’t exactly come as a surprise because even in their post show interview, Brandy and Carol continue to hold a grudge.
Another controversy from the finale came when the Pious brothers cut in line, in front of the cowboys, at the airport. A number of fans feel this was a dirty move. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to matter, as the brothers were able to move up to first class during their flight to San Fran, thus putting them in first place.
TELL US – WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE FINALE? DID THE BROTHERS PLAY DIRTY?
TVGuide.com:How far behind Dan and Jordan were you?
Michael: I feel we were 10 minutes behind. I spoke to Daniel after. He had a horrendous cab ride as we did. He reacted a little differently to his cab ride. It felt like forever and watching it again, it felt like forever. I want to say 10 — 20 minutes tops. We finished [the Roadblock] right after them. … [The Roadbloack] was just looking for a needle in the haystack. At one point, I was taking everything out of the case and leaving them out, but I was told you couldn’t do that. You had to put them all back.
TVGuide.com: Why didn’t you do pork dumplings?
Louie: There were prior episodes from prior seasons where you had to order the food in that language, so I was worried about that. I think Mike and I brought that up. We decided not to risk it. … But looking at it now, it looked kind of easy. … [When we saw Dan and Jordan were still at the Roadblock,] we were very motivated. I was pumped to see them still there, still searching. I was like, “We can do this. We’ve got this.”
TVGuide.com: Why were you willing to work with them at the beginning of the leg?
Michael: When the brothers came back to get us, I was ecstatic. Louie had more of a feeling that he wanted to leave them and go on our own. We work better alone, but I wanted our competition with us. … It would’ve worked had we gotten a little bit more of a break. We’re not going to sit and whine about it afterward. It’s the game. Louie: My whole thing with Dan and Jordan being with us was that I drilled them with a million questions before searching the area [for the Garden Bridge], and one of them was, “Did you use the translation service?” Dan said, “Yes, I did.” But they didn’t have any answer of where it was or what it was. When we found, maybe an hour later, a taxi and asked for the translation phone, the [translator] was like, “Yes, it’s a bridge. You have to drive there by taxi.” … That’s when I got really mad.
TVGuide.com: Did you ever think about ditching them?
Louie: I was kind of excited in the cab ride when we were in front, and they got stuck at the light and we lost them. I thought they were going to get lost. I was kind of pumped at that point, but obviously that didn’t happen. It is what it is. I get a lot of phone calls: “Oh, the brothers really used you guys.” I said, “No, they played the game.” TVGuide.com: You U-Turned Joe and Heidi, and he’s still not over it, judging from the Elimination Station videos.
Michael: He needs to get over it. I’ll be honest with you. That was the only time on the show that the edit wasn’t 100 percent because I had to talk Louie into U-Turning them. I had my heart set on Joe and Heidi from the beginning. It was 50 percent business, 50 percent “I couldn’t stomach ‘em.” One of his [passport stamps] was China. I thought, “There’s a possibility we could go to China,” so do I want to bring somebody who speaks Mandarin to Asia? No way! Then there’s the whole thing on the bus — he was a negative factor. Other people didn’t like him. He was mean to Daniel and Jordan. He needs to get over it. Joe is hung up on Joe. Louie: Every single Elimination Station video, he’s out of control. People are posting, “Give it up. Let it go, Joe.” C’mon! He was negative all the time and he was like a Mr. Know-It-All. He’d make comments on the bus about everyone, and me and Mike are sitting right in front of him. Like, “Dude, we’re right here.”
TVGuide.com: What did you say to each other at the finish?
Michael: We talked about it a little bit. I said it’s part of the game. Jet and Cord said to me, at the final four, I think, “Mike, if a U-Turn comes up and we get there first, we’re U-Turning you.” I laughed. I said, “I think that’s a compliment.” If they or anyone else U-Turned us, I would say, “Great move.” It is what it is. We thought Carol and Brandy were a threat — not physically — but because they were world travelers. They were in decent shape, but everywhere we went, they were like, “Oh, I know somebody from Singapore, I know somebody from here who speaks French, who speaks Spanish.”
TELL US – WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN OUT OF THE 3 REMAINING TEAMS?
Dating couple Carol Rosenfeld, 47, and Brandy Snow, 40, had their journey cut short on Sunday as they found themselves eliminated from the 16th season of The Amazing Race.
Carol and Brandy, also known as the “lesbians” had none other than dating models Caite Upton and Brent Horneto thank, as the models’ u-turn played a big factor in their elimination. In this new interview with TV Guide, Carol and Brandy speak on their feud with Caite and Brent, why they think Caite has a problem with them as lesbians, and what they would have done with the U-turn.
Excerpts from their interview below -
TVGuide.com: What was your first thought when you saw that you were U-Turned by Brent and Caite?
Brandy: Just shock. In a common-sense world, strategy dictates, you know, “take the stronger team out.” They didn’t do that. I had no idea how personal it was. We never really had any negative interactions with Caite or Brent. We didn’t seek out a friendship with them, but we also didn’t have an opportunity to race alongside them except in Malaysia when they passed us on the stairs. When they did that, you didn’t see us pissed. I actually told Caite that she did a kick-ass job. Just like how I said to Mike, “You’re a rock star.” We both were very complimentary and supportive of the other racers. To watch the name-calling and hatred unfold has been an emotional rollercoaster. It’s also surprising because you don’t know it’s happening until you watch it. You know, them calling us “the mean lesbians.”
TVGuide.com: They hardly ever referred to you by your names.
Brandy: Yeah, it’s like, “I have a name!” Carol: I don’t want to go to the point where I say she’s homophobic because that’s a pretty severe indictment of somebody. I don’t know. People will have to be the judge of that, but you watch it and you don’t know this is going on, and you like to think that in this day and age, people of a much younger generation would be a little more open-minded. It is what it is. She was clearly obsessed with beating and eliminating us. I think she very clearly had a problem with us as lesbians, not with us as individuals because she never individually indicts one of us as having done anything specifically wrong to them.
TVGuide.com: A lot of fans think you would’ve U-Turned Brent and Caite if you had gotten there first. Would you have?
Carol: No! We would’ve U-turned the cowboys. There’s a clip online from the Malaysia leg where Phil asked us, “Who would you like to see leave?” We said, “We wouldn’t really want to see anybody go.” We were like, “Let everybody do their best and the chips will fall where they may.” We knew the U-Turn was part of the game. Our strategy then was that the cowboys appeared to be the strongest team and then the second strongest team was Mike and Louie. They’ve each won the most legs. Brandy: The cowboys set a record in Malaysia. No one had ever before gone from last to first with a Speed Bump. They’re strong competitors, they’re smart competitors, and we were focused on the race, not the racers. We would not have made it personal — not that we had a reason to make it personal with any team.
TVGuide.com: From your point of view, there was no feud between you and Brent and Caite at all?
Brandy: Right. What we find fascinating in the way this has been skewed, that there is a feud. There was no feud. You have to have two parties participating for there to be a feud. We were the object of her hatred and derision. There wasn’t a feud until [Sunday's] episode where it exploded! I don’t like being attacked. I don’t like being blindsided and that’s exactly what happened when they U-Turned us. Seriously, we’re in the Seychelles and I’m bonding with Caite over a kitty! It was very stunning for it to happen. We had no clue they would U-Turn us or that they hated us like that. Now America’s starting to believe there is a feud.
TVGuide.com: What are you up to now?
Brandy: Work! Carol: Yeah, work. I recently had a death in the family … so dealing with that and trying to ignore all this hoopla. Being called a “mean lesbian” versus losing a parent, you know, [the former is] not going to affect me the rest of my life. Now we’re going to be the fierce lesbians!
TELL US – WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE LAST EPISODE? WERE YOU HAPPY TO SEE CAROL AND BRANDY GO?
The duo appeared on The Bonnie Hunt show this week during which they discussed their time on the show, shared that they were still together and even admitted to being “in love,” (we can all let out a collective awwwwwwww).
Jordan, 23, revealed her plans to go back to school this summer, and Jeff, 31, is back at his old job. Though the couple is currently in a long distance romance, they did not rule out moving in together in the future. A video of their appearance courtesy of TVGrapevine is below.
The duo also gave an interview to TVGuide, excerpts from that is below -
TVGuide.com: When you got to the Detour and saw that Brent and Caite were still looking for the grapes, why didn’t you choose to do the same? Did you think doing the glasses would be faster?
Jeff: We actually started with the grapes and then switched to the glasses. We knew we were really far behind, so we thought they were out there for hours, when they weren’t. I feel like I really screwed up on the Race. I think you should stay where the competition is and beat them at the task, but my choice was always to go down the unbeaten path. “Listen, they’re doing this. Let’s do the other one because I can do anything as well as anyone else.” That just wasn’t the case. I should’ve listened to Jordan a little bit more because I think it hurt us a few times. … I mean, I’m an athlete, so we should’ve picked soccer right away [in Germany]. But I heard Brent and Caite say they’re going to do soccer, so I just picked the other one. … But [we] like to make mistakes. Jordan: It was also my fault because I didn’t speak up enough. I was like, “OK, well, if he thinks we can do it, let’s do it.”
TVGuide.com: Last time we talked, you said you were done with TV. Do you still feel the same way?
Jeff: I think we’re going to take a vacation from reality TV. I think people are getting sick of us, too. We need to let all parties settle down a little bit. As far as reality shows go that are on the air, I think Amazing Race is definitely top-notch. It wins Emmys and it’s the classiest way you can go reality. Jordan wants to go on the Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels! [Laughs] I can drive the bus! Jordan: Shut up! I want an Amazing Race re-do. Jeff: We want Amazing Race against fifth-graders!
TVGuide.com: Are you sure you can beat them?
Jeff: No, but it would be a great show. We’d be neck-and-neck all the way! We’ll pitch that one to CBS.
It was nice watching Jeff and Jordan on the Amazing Race, and tough to see them leave the show, but it just seemed at times that they didn’t want it bad enough – for example, when they refused to eat the sauerkraut during one of the earlier competitions. And let’s face it, though very cute together, these two are not the brightest bulbs of the bunch.
TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON JEFF & JORDAN LEAVING THE SHOW? WHO ARE YOU ROOTING FOR NOW?
Click The Read More Button To Watch The Video of Jeff & Jordan On The Bonnie Hunt Show –
TheAmazing Race kicked off the premier of it’s 16th edition last night, and there to compete for the $1 million grand prize was America’s favorite couple from Big Brother – Jordan Lloyd and Jeff Schroeder.
The duo got off to a great start as they managed to come in first place after the first race to Chile. Though, the winners of the show will not be known for weeks to come, Jeff, 31, and Jordan, 22, open up about their Amazing Race experience in a new interview with PEOPLE.
The best news of all? The couple is still very much together and even credit their time on the Amazing Race for making them “stronger.”
Excerpts from their interview is below -
Were you fans of the Amazing Race before signing on? Jordan: It’s kind of funny. I’ve been part of two reality shows and I had never watched either one before. I had to YouTube it, just like I did with Big Brother and figure out what everything meant, like ‘detour,’ ‘roadblock’, and all that other stuff. Jeff: I had watched it a couple of times, but I wasn’t a die-hard fan.
Did your experience together on BB help you, or hurt you? Jeff: I think it helped us, and played to our strengths. I’m sure that brothers and sisters, or mothers and daughters had issues after a week of being together non-stop. What was a strain on other teams was a positive for us; we didn’t have to worry about being together all of the time, we were already use to it.
Did traveling together put too much strain on you two, or do you think that it actually made you stronger? Jeff: It was definitely a strain… Jordan: (interrupting) I think it made us stronger! Jeff: (laughs) Let me finish. It was definitely a strain on the relationship, but it definitely made us stronger. The fact that we went through the hard times that we did is a testament to our relationship. This show really pushed us to the max, and it was tough, but we’re still a couple, we’re still here, and it show’s a lot that we’re still together.
You two went from being locked in a house for three months with a bunch of lunatics to traversing 5 continents and eight countries in a race against other cutthroat teams. Are you two just gluttons for punishment? Jeff: (laughs) No, but I look at it as an amazing story, how Jordan and I met, and how things have been working out between us. It’s definitely something to tell the grandkids type of story, and hopefully things keep working out the way they have, because as crazy as it’s been, it’s a serious relationship. I love the way things are and I wouldn’t trade it or change it for anything.
TELL US: DID YOU WATCH THE PREMIER? HOW FAR DO YOU THINK JEFF & JORDAN WILL GO?
CBS has finally unveiled the identities of the 11 teams that will be competing of the 16th season of the Amazing Race. And as previously reported, Big Brother’s Jeff Schroeder and Jordan Lloyd will indeed be on the show as a team.
The new season is set to premier on Sunday, February 14 at 8PM ET/PT. Another surprising cast member is 20-year-old Caite Upton, the former Miss South Carolina Teen USA who made headlines and became infamous when she gave a such as nonsensical answer during the interview portion of the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant.
As always, the members of each team already have a pre-existing relationship of some kind. For this season, five of the teams are couples who are married or dating, while four teams feature family members and two are friends or co-workers.
This season’s cast features the usual assortment of models, actresses and model/actresses, it however also features several contestants with more unusual occupations — including a baseball coach, a bull rider, a cowboy, two (soon-to-be former, apparently) undercover detectives, and a 71-year-old personal trainer.
40,000 miles were covered during this season, including visits to five continents and eight countries. The race which began with public transportation to LAX airport (a first for Amazing Race), consisted of the teams flying to Chile, where they encountered “one of the most daunting Roadblocks in the history of the series,” according to CBS. Sounds fun!
THE CAST PHOTOS OF EACH OF THE 11 TEAMS AND BRIEF BIO IS BELOW! –
Dating couple from “Big Brother 11,” Jordan Lloyd and Jeff Schroeder. Jordan is a 22-year-old receptionist from North Carolina and Jeff is a 31-year-old advertising salesman from Illinois.
Father & daughter teammates Steve Smith and Allison Smith from Encinitas, California. Steve is a 57-year-old pro baseball coach and Allison, 23, works in marketing and sales.