Jaime Edmondson and Cara Rosenthal became the third returning team eliminated from The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business during Sunday night's broadcast of the fifth episode of the CBS reality competition's all-stars edition.

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On Monday, the "Former NFL Cheerleaders" talked to Reality TV World about their The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business experience -- including how long Jaime actually spent assembling on the dinosaur skeleton that exhausted her, whether they feel Vyxsin Fiala and Kent Kaliber's decision to U-Yurn the women contributed to their ouster, why they don't resent Vyxsin and Kent's U-Turn move, and what part of Kent and Vyxsin's gameplay they do have an issue with.

Reality TV World: So it obviously looked like assembling that dinosaur skeleton was pretty physically exhausting. Do you have any idea about how long you were out there doing it, Jaime?

Jaime Edmondson: About four hours.

Reality TV World: Four hours? Wow.

Jaime Edmondson: Yeah. (Laughs) Yeah.

Reality TV World: Cara, what did you think while that was going on? Was that Roadblock task a situation where you could have realized what was wrong and told Jaime something to help her, or was it one of those tasks where even if you knew the problem you couldn't tell her?

Cara Rosenthal: It was the latter. Even if you knew, you had to keep quiet, and I suspected that I did know because -- just because of where we were seated -- and I wasn't the only one in this position.

There were other teammates who weren't doing the Roadblock that where we were sitting on this kind of raised rock, we could see some of our teammates and we could kind of see what they were doing looked a little different than the ones that were finishing up.

So, we could see and I had a feeling I knew what the problem was, but you can't say anything. So, it's a very frustrating situation to be in, but yeah. That's about that. That's it! (Laughs)

Reality TV World: Jaime, it looked like Kent Kaliber and Christina Hsu both made the same backwards pelvis bone mistake that you did -- was that how you discovered your own mistake, or how did you finally figure out what the problem was?

Jaime Edmondson: No, I didn't look at anyone else's dinosaur. I built the whole thing and he kept saying I built the whole thing but they won't tell you what's wrong. They'll just tell you if it's unsafe -- which is two different things -- [unsafe] means your joints aren't locked in, but you can build the whole thing and the joints would be locked and they can't say that it's wrong.

I think that this piece in particular was designed to be able to fit in either direction because it was the anchoring piece. That's what held the whole dinosaur together. It was the hip bone. So, it held every other piece in place.

So, I think it was probably cut in a way that you put it in either direction and it still worked. (Laughs) So, when he kept saying that it was not safe, it was not safe, he wasn't saying, 'No, that's not correct,' with no clue as to what's wrong.

It's just, I looked at each piece one by one and finally realized it was the anchoring piece. That was like a blow, because in order to fix it, I had to take the whole thing apart. I was so exhausted at that point. The pieces were so heavy and the step stool was so uneven.

I was falling off it left and right on the ground and I'm thinking -- I think I actually said to the paleontologist at one point -- I'm like, 'You keep saying my dinosaur is unsafe. I think it's unsafe that I'm on this step stool utterly exhausted carrying pieces that are bigger and heavier than me and falling off it. It's not worth breaking a leg over.'

You know? That's what I think is unsafe. But it was disappointing to realize the piece that I needed to fix was going to require me to build the whole dinosaur all over again, just because  I was so, so worn out. My shoulders -- lifting it above my head -- were just on fire.

Reality TV World: The show showed you appearing to be very certain you actually didn't have the strength to take it all apart and then put it back together again.

Jaime Edmondson: I thought, I mean, I physically felt like, 'It's been four days. We haven't eaten a thing in four days. We haven't showered in four days. We haven't slept in four days, and I've been here for four hours.' I'm like, 'Cara, just...' and we knew that we were last. So, that was the thing. It wasn't like it was me hopeless.

I'm like, 'Cara...' I looked over and said, 'I don't think I can physically do this. Should we just take the time penalty? Because it's not going to matter anyways because we're in last.' And Cara wouldn't make the decision for me.

She said, 'This is your task. You have to decide. I will support you either way. If you want to leave if you don't think you can do it, we'll go and I'm not mad at you. I'll support you. If you want to finish it, it's your task.' I knew that she wanted me to finish it.

Reality TV World: So about how much do you think of that four hours total actually came after when you knew you were in last place and you had to take the whole thing apart and put it back together again?

Jaime Edmondson: About an hour of it.

Reality TV World: Wow. So given how long it took you two to complete the Roadblock afterwards, do you believe the U-Turn was responsible for your elimination or do you think you still would have finished last even if you hadn't had to go back and do the other Detour task?

Jaime Edmondson: The U-Turn probably only took about 15 minutes of our time. The doll task was one of the most -- It was probably one of the most -- easiest tasks I've done in either Race.

It was not comparable to the solar panel ["Embrace the Future" Detour] task at all as far as time consuming and the amount of energy and what not that it took to do it. Actually, when we stopped for gas again, that took about an hour.

Reality TV World: That gas stop was an hour?

Jaime Edmondson: Yes, because you actually had to get off the highway and go into the city in China. Anyone who's been there knows that it's very congested and the turns of the streets -- so it took him about an hour to actually get off the highway, get to the gas station, and get back to the highway again.

Reality TV World: So based on what you said about it taking you another hour to take everything apart and put it back together, I guess you guys were about an hour behind Zev Glassenberg and Justin Kanew when you got to the Pit Stop?

Jaime Edmondson: Yeah, I mean, it would have been very interesting.

Cara Rosenthal: Yeah.

Jaime Edmondson: It would have been very interesting because we had the [extra] Detour which was probably, the Detour itself probably took us 15-20 minutes, and then it wasn't that far of a drive. Maybe it was an extra half-hour between driving from the U-Turn to the Detour.

Doing the actual Detour was quick -- about 15-20 minutes -- so maybe an hour and a half between the gas stop and the extra Detour. So, it obviously would have been pretty interesting.

Reality TV World: One other thing that didn't seem to work in your favor Sunday night was the fact that one of the teams behind you was Gary Ervin and Mallory Ervin, who were able to use their Express Pass to skip the Roadblock. Do you also feel that that played a big role in your elimination, or are you pretty confident Gary would have probably been able complete the skeleton anyways?

Cara Rosenthal: I mean, I definitely think Gary would have been able to complete the skeleton. Everyone, including Jaime, completed the skeleton. Do I think that -- I mean, I think if Gary had been put in versus Mallory, it would have made the difference -- I think that...

Jaime Edmondson: Gary was the one who said, 'I'm going to do it.' I definitely think if Mallory was the one who was going to do it if they didn't have the Express Pass -- she's just so tiny and that thing was tall and I'm 5'9" and I couldn't reach unless I stood on the step stool -- it probably would have made a difference, but Gary was going to do it. Cara and I noticed that Gary was very confident when it comes to doing manly stuff -- like building things (laughs)

Cara Rosenthal: Right.

Jaime Edmondson: But they definitely got lucky, don't you think Cara? Them having the Express Pass?

Cara Rosenthal: Oh yeah.

Jaime Edmondson: I didn't realize that they were still behind us.

Cara Rosenthal: I think they used it and I think they used it when it counted. I mean, they used it correctly. They got there and they saw all these other teams who had been there for a long time -- I mean, there was no team who got in and out of there in less than an hour, except for [Jet McCoy] and [Cord McCoy] -- at least an hour it took every other team.

In many cases, it took a couple to several hours, and Jet and Cord were -- I mean, Jet just killed it -- I don't know. There's no other way to say it. It was unbelievable to watch it happen.

I was like, 'One second there was no dinosaur and the next second, he was done.' It was incredible. But with the exception of him, everyone else really struggled and had to take their dinosaurs apart and put them back together. I mean, it was lengthy.

It was a lengthy task, and I think that Gary and Mallory, having that Express Pass and using it when they did, it was the right time to do it. Definitely. Like Jaime said, we'd all been racing for four days and we were exhausted. You know? they got a break before everyone else did, so.

Reality TV World: There seemed to be a bit of confusion when you guys all got to the U-Turn station right on top of each other, but Sunday night's show made it look like Vyxsin Fiala initially agreed with your suggestion that her team should U-Turn the Globetrotters team of Nathaniel "The Big Easy" Lofton and Herbert "Flight Time" Lang. Was that actually the case?    

Jaime Edmondson: Yeah, it was the case. Yeah. We didn't realize -- neither one of us realized, my team or the other team realized -- that we were actually like the third and fourth teams to get there.

We thought because the solar panel were so heavy and took a long time to do, that we must be at the end of the pack. If either one of us had realized that we were actually like third or fourth place, we wouldn't have wasted the U-Turn. You know? But we thought...

Cara Rosenthal: I think Kent and Vyxsin would have still used it.

Jaime Edmondson: Because they...

Cara Rosenthal: But not on us.

Jaime Edmondson: Right.

Cara Rosenthal: I don't think they would have done it on us, because it wouldn't have made sense. We were right there, you know?

Reality TV World: So did that whole exchange actually play out just the way it was shown last night, or was there more to it that viewers didn't see?

Jaime Edmondson: Nope, it played out just like that. I mean, we thought, 'Okay. The only team behind us were the Globetrotters. Let's keep the teams behind us,' and Vyxsin agreed with that.

Then Kent and I were like, 'Oh, well it's a Double U-Turn so both teams can be U-Turned.' Cara and I are not mad about the U-Turn at all, because we've always been very honest.

We've always said from the start that we are reasonable people and we realize that the Race utilizes these tools, and we think it's ridiculous when people don't use the tools that are given to them to advance themselves if they need it. I mean, Kent and Vyxsin had a penalty. They needed to use the tools that were given to them.

So, we have no issue with actually getting U-Turned. I've been a big fan of the show since the beginning and I've always thought it ridiculous of teams who "boohoo" and whine and cry and are shocked and say, 'I can't believe we would be U-Turned.'

I mean, really? This is a race for a million dollars, and you know going into it -- you've seen it happen season after season -- you have to think that this can happen to you, and you have to think, 'I might have to do it to someone at some point.'

So, actually, getting U-Turned was, we were just like, 'If you're going to do it, just slap it up there so we can move on.' That's more of what we were really, really concerned about.

Cara Rosenthal: Whatever. Let's not play around with the photos. I was like, 'Just do it if you're going to do it!' We gotta go! (laughs)

Jaime Edmondson: Exactly.

Cara Rosenthal: And the only reason we did it to the Globetrotters is, like Jaime said, they were literally the only team that we believed was behind us. Otherwise, I assure you, we wouldn't have chosen two six-foot almost...

Jaime Edmondson: Nine.

Cara Rosenthal: ...strong, athletic men to U-Turn, because I mean, you know. (laughs)

Jaime Edmondson: If I had known, and I don't know if Cara agrees, if I had known that Gary and Mallory were behind us, I would have chosen to U-Turn them because I would have hoped they would use their Express Pass at the Detour.

Cara Rosenthal: Yeah... I agree it would have been nice to flush it [out].

Reality TV World: Following up on what Jaime said, it almost looked like the Globetrotters may have been one of those teams that did get upset that the U-Turn was used on them. So, were they really upset at you guys, or were they just joking around?

Cara Rosenthal: I think that they didn't have an issue.

Jaime Edmondson: I did not have a problem with them, yeah.

Cara Rosenthal: Yeah, Jaime was doing her dinosaur. I talked to Flight Time. The first thing I said when I saw them was I said, 'I'm so sorry man, but we had no choice.'

I said, 'You were the only team we thought was behind us and we knew was behind us.' And he's like, 'It's cool.' He's like, 'We would have done the same.' I said, 'If we hadn't been U-Turned, I mean, I'm not sure at that point, like Jaime said, we would have...

Jaime Edmondson: If we had gotten to the mat and had a minute to like realize what was going on, I don't -- I mean, we probably wouldn't have used it at all. So, it was unfortunate, but no, yeah.

Cara Rosenthal: I think he was a little peeved at first, but honestly, he wasn't particularly peeved at us because we were sort of the middle [pack] people, and everyone on the Race understands that if you were U-Turned, you are going to U-Turn someone else. You have to. It's not an option, but I think in general all the teams were pretty peeved at Kent and Vyxsin for even being in the Race.

Reality TV World:  Kent and Vyxsin were only still around to U-Turn you guys because there hadn't been an elimination at the previous Pit Stop and then there seemed to be a pretty big bunching point at the train station that allowed them to catch back up with everybody. What were your thoughts about that -- did it frustrate you even more to lose under those circumstances, or do you just consider that part of the game?

Cara Rosenthal: There was some point at the train station while we were waiting and we realized that Zev and Justin got there and said, 'For sure they saw Kent and Vyxsin at that tiny zodiac task Roadblock,' that literally the teams were feeling -- I mean, there was a general consensus that we were going to revolt if any team went [home next] besides Kent and Vyxsin -- just because it seemed horribly unfair.

You know, like anything in the Race, the way you move is to advance after you complete tasks, right? That's what you do, and one of the tasks we had to overcome, Jaime and I left in last place. To overcome this task was getting ourselves to the airport, the Narita airport in Japan.

We had 11 hours to get ourselves there and it was only a two-hour drive and we made it with plenty of time to spare, and so if anyone could do it, I mean, it was done by the two people in last place. So, it seemed unacceptable to me that a penalty wasn't awarded that was appropriate for something that there was really no excuse for missing.

And then it really infuriated me to find out they had lied about why it took them longer than 11 hours to get where they needed to go. I understand not wanting to tell people about the 30-minute penalty or whatever, I get that. But why you would lie about what had happened three days prior, made no sense to me.

It makes me mad. (laughs) Which is really hard to do.

Reality TV World: I know we're about out of time, but just to clarify that situation, last week's episode had suggested there was only really one flight, but Sunday night's episode made it sound like there were actually other flights. So what was the situation there?

Jaime Edmondson: There was one mandatory flight that we were told -- capitalized in bold, mandatory flight -- that was only offered once a day, every 24 hours. That mandatory flight was only offered once a day and we were told that we had to take the next mandatory flight, so that's what they received the 30-minute penalty for -- for taking an alternate flight.

That's why it's really such a slap in the face. We all had to take a mandatory flight and they chose to take a different flight and only get the 30-minute penalty, when in reality, that next flight out -- if they had taken that mandatory flight -- was 24 hours later.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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