Exclusive: Bates Battaglia and Anthony Battaglia talk 'The Amazing Race' (Part 1)

Bates Battaglia and Anthony Battaglia were crowned champions of The Amazing Race's 22nd season during Sunday night's two-hour broadcast of the CBS reality competition's finale.


The "Hockey Brothers" team was the first team to cross the 22nd season of The Amazing Race's finish line in Washington D.C., claiming the $1 million grand prize.

"Newlyweds" Max Bichler and Katie Bichler finished second, while "Roller Derby Moms" Mona Egender and Beth Bandimere finished the Race in third place. "Friends and Country Singers" Caroline Cutbirth and Jennifer Kuhle were eliminated in fourth place just before the final leg. 

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Monday, Bates and Anthony talked about their The Amazing Race experience and victory. Below is the first half of their interview. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion and more interviews with the Final 4 teams.

Reality TV World: Congratulations on your big win you two. So what do you guys plan to do with the money?


Bates Battaglia: Ugh, I want to buy Anthony new teeth.

Anthony Battaglia: My name's Anthony, I ran The Amazing Race and I'm going to buy new teeth.

Reality TV World: Getting into the final Pit Stop, how far ahead of Max and Katie do you think you arrived when you won the Race?

Bates Battaglia: Well, we brought the thunder, so I'm pretty sure we were quite a bit ahead of them.

Anthony Battaglia: But it wasn't until the one Roadblock where Bates got the guy that gave him the briefcase and he pulled ahead. That's where we kept going. (Laughs) Yeah, it was right after the briefcase when we were good to go.


Reality TV World: How about a time frame? Did you get to the Pit Stop like 20 minutes ahead of Max and Katie or something like that?

Bates Battaglia: Oh, we got there at the same time! But I pulled a pretty sweet maneuver where I ran ahead and definitely pulled something out.

Anthony Battaglia: (Laughs)

Reality TV World: How confident were you leaving that final globe task that you were going to win? Did you think it was possible another team could caught up to you or were you just trying to not get too excited at that point?

Bates Battaglia: Yeah.


Anthony Battaglia: We thought we were in first. We kind of knew we were in first and we were on our way going in the cab and we're like, "Man, if we do something wrong..." We thought we were going to like pull up to the mat and [The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan] was going to be like, "You did something wrong," or something like that. Because that's how we felt the whole time, but, you know.

Bates Battaglia: Yeah, we knew we were ahead, but we were still -- at the same time -- we were pretty nervous. We felt that it was too good to be true the whole time.

Anthony Battaglia: We always read the directions and were like, "Oh man, we did something wrong. We did something wrong." But it obviously worked out in the end.

Reality TV World: The show made it seem like you guys did get lost for a little bit on your way to the final Pit Stop -- or at least you feared getting lost because you knew you had a lot to lose. So just to clarify, it sounds like you didn't get lost?

Bates Battaglia: Surprisingly, considering how everything went during the whole Race, surprisingly, we actually found our way for the first time pretty well.


Anthony Battaglia: We had the best cab driver the entire race. His name was Tony and we wanted to pay him every dollar we had in our pockets.

Bates Battaglia: Yeah, he was pretty legit.

Anthony Battaglia: Yeah, he was the best cab driver we had the entire race, and I think he was a factor. He was a factor in our win.

Bates Battaglia: A factor. (Laughs)

Anthony Battaglia: Yeah, I think pretty much he won the Race for us, this last leg.


Reality TV World: Bates, during last night's show, you mentioned you spent some time in Washington D.C., so sounds like you had a home court advantage there. I know you played for the Capitals for a bit, but how long exactly did you live in D.C. for, and would you say your knowledge of the area did actually assist in how you two ran that leg?

Bates Battaglia: Maybe a little bit. I did play there for about a year, but I didn't know the area that well. But at the same time, it definitely didn't hurt.

Anthony Battaglia: But he's a dipsh-t. So, that's always a factor, because Bates is really a big dipsh-t. And you can quote me on that! You can quote me on that.

Reality TV World: You guys obviously struggled with the Titanic dinner service task. It seemed like Anthony, you just weren't handing out the correct dishes to the guests, and Bates, you simply seemed exhausted from running back and forth. Could you explain what happened there? Where did the confusion come in and how did you determine which mistakes needed correcting?

Bates Battaglia: Well, I will tell you exactly [what happened].

Anthony Battaglia: Oh, you don't want me to help out?!


Bates Battaglia: Ding-dong over here.

Anthony Battaglia: What color is chartreuse [a yellowish-green color]. You don't even know what color chartreuse is!

Bates Battaglia: I don't know what color chartreuse is.

Anthony Battaglia: I'm just saying! So we had to figure out what color is chartreuse, and this guy, I asked him. I was like, "What color is chartreuse? Is it red or is it green?" And he wouldn't tell me, so.

Bates Battaglia: I don't know!

Anthony Battaglia: So I picked red because I thought that's what it was. And ding-dong over here didn't help me out and then he went running for...


Bates Battaglia: Because I was doing the hard part. I was running.

Anthony Battaglia: Yes well, he didn't help.

Bates Battaglia: It was an ass-kicker.

Anthony Battaglia: You gotta help a brother out!

Bates Battaglia: Well.

Anthony Battaglia: Now we know what color chartreuse is -- at least I know. I asked you [Bates] last night and you still don't know.


Bates Battaglia: I still don't know what color that is.

Anthony Battaglia: We haven't talked about it until this day because this guy is so mad at me still about it.

Reality TV World: (Laughs) How long would you say it took you to complete that Detour task, any idea?

Bates Battaglia: Way too frickin' long. I'll tell you why. I ran up and down those stairs probably -- I'm going to say 10-15 times.

Anthony Battaglia: Well I'm going to say you needed to lose a little weight, so I made you do it on purpose. He's fat. He's a fatty! He eats a lot.

Bates Battaglia: This kid. What a jerk.


Anthony Battaglia: (Laughs)

Reality TV World: Okay. (Laughs) Bates, thinking back to that spy Roadblock task with the briefcases, how long do you think that took you and what was your reaction watching Max struggle with it during last night's episode? It seemed like he just simply ran out of luck at that point.

Bates Battaglia: Yeah, that was pretty, I don't know, that was luck of the draw there. Because I honestly got away with that pretty good. I had no idea that it took him that long.

Anthony Battaglia: We had luck on our side just like the sandcastles [in a previous leg].

Bates Battaglia: Yeah, it was kind of like the sandcastles.

Anthony Battaglia: I mean, the whole race, it's a lot of skill and this and that, but I mean, right there, there was a lot of luck involved. And that's how we won the whole thing, right there.


Bates Battaglia: Yeah, it was pretty lucky. I just grabbed the right guy and boom!

Above is the first half of our exclusive interview with Bates and Anthony. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion and more interviews with the Final 4 teams.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski