Exclusive: Cedric Ceballos and Shawn Marion talk 'The Amazing Race' (Part 1)

Cedric Ceballos and Shawn Marion were eliminated from The Amazing Race during the fourth episode of the CBS reality competition's 30th season on Wednesday night.


The "Retired NBA Players" became the third team eliminated from the around-the-world competition after arriving at the fourth leg's Pit Stop at a park called Place Des Lices in Saint-Tropez, France in last place.

"I've been watching for 29 seasons with my whole family and I wanted to win," Cedric said following his team's ouster. "We put on a great show; we just came out on the losing end of the Race. I can't complain. I'm not even supposed to be here. God has blessed me to fulfill another dream."

Shawn added, "We got through it together. We win as a team and lose as a team. It hurt to lose, but man, at the same time, we've got to keep our head high because we competed and it was amazing and I salute it."

During an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Cedric and Shawn talked about their The Amazing Race experience and elimination. Below is the first half of what they had to say.


Reality TV World: How long after Eric and Daniel did you arrive at the park when you realized you were going to be matched up against Lucas and Brittany for the last game?

Shawn Marion: Well, we saw them right when we walked in. We were running in full sprint to the Pit Stop, but come to find out, we saw them up ahead and so we just walked. (Laughs) So when we came around the corner, we saw them.

Cedric Ceballos: Well when we read the clue, it said we were going head to head, so we were in a hurry to get there, but we knew a Head-to-Head Competition was coming up.

We knew we didn't have to rush, so we were just like, "Alright, let's look around." We were like tourists just looking around and enjoying ourselves because we knew we had to have a head to head and we knew what that meant, because everybody was waiting on us.

Reality TV World: It must've been frustrating to go out the way you did, because of what appeared to be one ball toss in the game. How do you feel about that?


Cedric Ceballos: It was tough because, you know, some of the stuff they didn't show, because we actually played three games, because it was the first one to three [points] or something like that, the score.

So we were up the whole time, and then that last throw that he threw, it kind of put us in a bad situation. With Shawn having two left, man, it was almost impossible to get closer than they got.

Reality TV World: Cedric, how long did it take you to retrieve both halves of your clue in the dinghy boat. And how long into the task did you finally get the hang of things? I was surprised you were able to keep your cool the whole time.

Cedric Ceballos: Yeah it took me -- I was on there for maybe two to three hours. I don't know. I was just scrambling the whole time trying to stay afloat. They were kind of generous, too, with me in the editing of how long I was out there to the point where I was delusional. I saw other people in boats and I thought it was still people in the competition still out there!

Reality TV World: Oh no. (Laughs)


Cedric Ceballos: I didn't even know I was the last one. That's how long I was out there. I saw other people and was like, "Cool, I'm not the last one. Somebody else is out there."

Reality TV World: Shawn, what was it like to sit back and watch poor Cedric struggle out there on the water? That must've been tough.

Shawn Marion: Oh yeah, it was tough! I've got to give kudos to him, man, it was tough. Because that boat -- I feel like he was bigger than the boat, actually! I was just like, "Wow, I can't believe he got through it."

I thought it was impossible looking at him do it. I was like, "There's no way." But he got through it, and I was just glad [he did]. I was just like, "I don't know how you got through it. I don't know how. Wow."

Cedric Ceballos: Yeah, I mean, they didn't show it, but I feel I broke, like, three oars and some other stuff. I broke a bunch of stuff on those boats that they had me on out there. That was the only boat that they had for me. I broke it with me just being big and strong. It was a little kid's boat.


Reality TV World: At least you didn't break a tooth though, right? (Laughs)

Shawn Marion: Yes!

Cedric Ceballos: Yeah, I would've been hot! I would've been hot if that happened.

Reality TV World: So what about the additional Speed Bump task you guys had to complete? That seemed pretty quick and easy for you. Is that accurate to say?

Shawn Marion: No! I would've felt bad if any of the other teams had to do it, especially a female team. It would've been near impossible for an all-female team to do it. The boats were not light. That was difficult, me carrying the boats from the beach to the shelf. It didn't take us a while, but it was time consuming.


Cedric Ceballos: Yeah, it didn't take us a while, like Shawn said, because of our size and strength, but anybody else -- especially a female crew or a smaller crew, that would've been real difficult for them to do.

It just so happens that that was the only challenge the whole time that we had an advantage on together.

Shawn had an advantage on the trapeze when he was climbing up because he's strong and long, and his extension is a lot longer than everybody else. Other than that, this was the only challenge other than the Roadblock that we took full advantage of because of our height and strength.

Reality TV World: We didn't see much of you guys during the Detour task when you had to make a classic pair of sandals. How did that "Thread" task go? And do you think the leg would've turned out differently had you opted to do the "Bread" task instead?

Shawn Marion: Oh we killed that! We murdered it.

Cedric Ceballos: Yeah, Shawn went bananas on that. I was just his assistant on that. He knew exactly what to do and when to do it, and I just kind of held the shoe so he could just pull everything and nail it in. They didn't give us justice on that!


But we got through that thing real quick, because I just realized instead of doing two different sandals, I said, "Shawn, he knows what he's doing. He's got it. I'll have him make both sandals, and I'll just help and assist with whatever he needs me to do."

Shawn Marion: Yeah! We caught up to the twins on that one. We thought we were in last, but then we got to the shoe place, and we were like, "Oh, we've got somebody here still! Okay, okay. So we're good to go."

That's the one thing about the Race, you know what I'm saying, that people don't really know: You don't know where you're at in the Race, and you don't know how long it's taking people to do all the challenges. So you've just got to play the Race.

Cedric Ceballos: And if we had picked the bread challenge, I don't know, it seemed pretty easy. I didn't know what they were doing; when you're in the Race, you don't know what the other challenge is.

But it seemed pretty easy, although the Racers seemed to have a difficult time. Chris had a difficult time rolling it up accurately, but we figured we had a better chance with arts and crafts, than baking.

Reality TV World: What are your thoughts on the new Head-to-Head Competition. Cedric, you're a huge fan of the show especially, so do you like it? Would you guys like to see it in future seasons or do you think it's unfair how it determines a leg's finishing order?


Cedric Ceballos: I didn't like it because it gives you no advantage when you do run a good race, but it does help out if you are behind. The first time they did it, I think it was in Belgium when we did the French fry race, we had a chance to be first!

And then we had to sit around -- we waited a long time for [Jessica Graf] and [Cody Nickson] to come there, and that's the bad part about it. You run your race well, you come in first, you're at an advantage, and then you have to sit and wait.

And then in that same scenario, we were coming in last to play the game, and it gave us another chance to stay in the game. So it has its advantages and disadvantages, but the hard part about it is that one throw threw us south.

Be sure to check back with Reality TV World soon for more from our exclusive The Amazing Race interview with Cedric and Shawn.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski