Idries Abdur-Rahman and Jamil Abdur-Rahman were eliminated from The Amazing Race during Sunday night's second broadcast of the CBS reality competition's 22nd season.
The "Twin Doctors" became the second team eliminated from the around-the-world competition after they arrived at the Race's second Pit Stop at Motu Tapu, the most photographed island in the South Pacific, in last place. They had struggled with a Detour task in the deep ocean, fell behind from there and just couldn't seem to ever catch up.
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In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Monday, Idries and Jamil talked about their short-lived The Amazing Race experience. Below is the concluding portion of the twins' interview. Click here to read the first half.
Reality TV World: How did you determine who would do what Roadblock task? Were you just alternating back and forth at this point in the Race or did you have a strategic plan?
Idries Abdur-Rahman: I told him, I said, "I did the sandcastles, so you're doing the stilts." (Laughs) So we were definitely alternating on that one.
Reality TV World: You two had made an alliance with four teams -- Jessica Hoel and John Erck, David O'Leary and Connor O'Leary, Chuck McCall and Wynona McCall, and Pamela Chien and Winnie Sung -- in the first leg regarding the Express Pass and giving the second one to the second-place team. Were you surprised by Jessica and John's hesitancy to give the Express Pass to Dave and Connor and their apparent willingness to dishonor the deal?
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Jamil Abdur-Rahman: I was a little bit surprised. I mean, you know, I guess you could look at it one of two ways. I think most people who run the Race, and I guess I'm generalizing, but I think they approach it one of two ways -- one way is, "This is a competition and I'm going to do whatever I have to to win."
And the other way is, "This is a competition but I'm still going to represent myself well." And so, I guess when they were kind of struggling with what to do between whether or not to honor the pact, I guess they kind of fell more in that first category, so I was a little bit surprised. But at the same time, you know, I can certainly understand where they were coming from.
Reality TV World: So since you kind of see both sides of the coin, if you two ended up finishing the first leg in first place, what do you think you would have done? Do you think you would've wavered making that decision as well?
Jamil Abdur-Rahman: No.
Idries Abdur-Rahman: I don't think so. You know, my deal is that I know some people come on and say, "It's just a game and I can do whatever I want to do because it's a game," and while I partially do feel that way, regardless of whether you win the million or not, you're not going to have that money forever.
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What is going to last forever is how your wife, your kids, your patients, and your fans saw you. And if I was known as someone that would do anything to win a game, who says that doesn't extend to life? So I would've definitely honored my end of the agreement.
Reality TV World: When you guys first made that alliance and Express Pass deal, was it strategy on your parts in that maybe you thought it'd be in your best interest because you believed you'd be likely to finish the first leg in either first or second place?
Jamil Abdur-Rahman: Yes and no. I thought we had a good chance to finish first, but that meant we were going to have an Express Pass anyway. But the reason I made the alliance, honestly, was one approach that we had going into the Race was you never know what situation you're going to find yourself in and you never know who you're going to meet.
And so, you want to be on good terms with everybody. And so, if we found ourselves with that extra Express Pass, how do you give it to one team and not offend everybody else?
So we felt if we came up with that alliance, that everybody else who didn't get that Express Pass would understand, "Well, it was nothing personal. It's not that they didn't give it to me because they didn't like me, it's just that we all made this deal and they are honoring their part of the deal." So I feel like it took a lot of pressure off of whoever did win it. So that was really kind of our thought process.
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Idries Abdur-Rahman: It was also just a numbers game. There were five of us on that first flight, assuming -- we kind of thought that one of us would be first to the finish line. If we didn't do that, we'd have a 20% percent chance of getting that Express Pass. If we have that alliance, it goes up to 40% percent, which is almost like a 50/50. So it was a numbers game as well.
Reality TV World: John told the cameras he didn't believe he actually gave the four teams his word on the whole Express Pass deal and said he wasn't in an "honesty" competition. What are your thoughts on that and do you two personally believe he really did give his word on that?
Idries Abdur-Rahman: I felt like he gave his word. Again, I'd have to go back and see tape and see what he said. It could've been one of those "crossing my fingers" kind of thing or "nodding but not agreeing" type of thing. But the impression I walked away with was that we all gave our word. That was my impression.
Jamil Abdur-Rahman: Yeah. I think we all, yeah, were under that impression. Because it wasn't just that we proposed it and everybody shook their heads. Everybody was like, "Woo, yeah! I think that's a good idea and I'm onboard." Everybody put their hands in and did this, "Yeah!" thing. So yeah, I think we were all onboard.
Reality TV World: Considering what you know now, who would you guess Jessica and John will give that extra Express Pass to?
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Idries Abdur-Rahman: Honestly, I have no clue. Watching it now and knowing the angle they were coming from, I really don't know. I think there's going to be a twist. They're going to bring us back. I think that's what's going to happen. (Laughs)
Jamil Abdur-Rahman: Yeah, you heard it here first! (Laughs)
Reality TV World: Did you see your alliance with the four teams lasting for awhile or maybe even until the end of the Race had you two stayed in the game? Was it a temporary plan in your eyes?
Idries Abdur-Rahman: It was temporary to me. I mean, I've watched enough reality shows basically to know that these things don't last forever. And we even kind of said amongst each other, "You know what? This is for now, but if the game goes further and there are less and less teams, it becomes every man or every woman for herself kind of thing." So I didn't see it going till the end, but as long as you can ride it out, that's better.
Reality TV World: How far would you say the Pit Stop was from the area where you completed the stilts Roadblock task? It seemed like a very short distance on foot, so was that really the case?
Jamil Abdur-Rahman: Oh yeah, it was, gosh I don't know, I'd say maybe the equivalent of half a block -- or maybe a little more than that. But you could see -- I mean, I would say within the equivalent of what? Maybe two city blocks or something. It was pretty close.
Reality TV World: While you were racing, who did you think was going to be your biggest competition? Did any other teams stand out to you for being very competitive or strategic for any reason?
Idries Abdur-Rahman: Honestly, I looked at [Bates Battaglia and Anthony Battaglia] as being competition just because they're a young, fit male-male team. I looked at the firefighters [Matthew Davis and Daniel Moss] as competition as well for the same reason.
But honestly, I've kind of learned that there's just enough luck and chance in this game, and life in general, that everybody was competition. But those are the two that I really kind of wanted to keep my eye on.
Reality TV World: Going back to the very beginning of the Race, were you guys disappointed the show didn't follow through with the same $2 million prize they offered last season?
Jamil Abdur-Rahman: Yeah to tell you the truth. Everybody was a little bit like, "Damn!" (Laughs) But my hope was, I was really hoping that maybe they were going to top $2 million and give out $5 million this year! When he said, "$1 million and two Express Passes," I was like, "Well, I'll take it." But I think everyone was a little disappointed.
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Reality TV World: How were you two cast on The Amazing Race? How did you end up on the show?
Idries Abdur-Rahman: We just went to CBS.com and we just looked at the website.
Reality TV World: Was this your first time applying?
Idries Abdur-Rahman: Everybody's going to hate us but yeah. (Laughs) It was our first time.
Reality TV World: Would you guys ever consider doing an all-stars edition if you were given the opportunity?
Idries Abdur-Rahman: Oh my gosh, yeah. I was telling someone this earlier, I absolutely would. I've always dreamed of doing this anyway, and when I got home, I didn't unpack my bags. And we're actually moving now so we're packing up this week, and my wife said, "Are you going to unpack your bag?"
And I said, "Absolutely not." I said, "I know they're going to call me back. We've got to prove ourselves and run the Race that we wanted to run. They're going to call us back to be all-stars and we're going to win." And I said, if they were to call us, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Jamil Abdur-Rahman: I absolutely would too because the one disappointment in all of this was I don't feel like we really got an opportunity to show what we could've did. It's disappointing. So we'd like the opportunity to redeem ourselves and run a good Race.
Idries Abdur-Rahman: Yes, absolutely. In a heartbeat.
Above is the concluding portion of the twins' exclusive interview with Reality TV World. Click here to read the first half.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski