Exclusive: Kym Perfetto and Alli Forsythe talk 'The Amazing Race' (Part 1)

The Amazing Race eliminated Kym Perfetto and Alli Forsythe during Friday night's ninth broadcast of the CBS reality competition's 25th season.  


The "Urban Bike Racers" team became the seventh team eliminated from the around-the-world competition after they arrived at the Race's ninth Pit Stop at Fullerton Pavilion in Singapore in last place.

Kym and Alli chose to take a risk by trying to complete the Fast Forward task in order to skip over the rest of the leg's challenges and head straight to the Pit Stop. However, "Married Surfers" Bethany Hamilton and Adam Dirks ended up completing the surfing task before they could, forcing the girls to basically start the leg over.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Wednesday, Kym and Alli talked about their The Amazing Race experience. Below is the first half. Check back with us soon for the concluding portion.

Reality TV World: How far behind Amy DeJong and Maya Warren do you think you finally arrived at the Pit Stop?


Alli Forsythe: We were about 15 minutes behind them. Thanks to the wrestlers [Brooke Adams and Robbie E. Strauss], we had a fighting chance.

Reality TV World: Were you hoping for a non-elimination leg or were you aware of the two that came before you and therefore you didn't even think that was going to be a possibility?

Alli Forsythe: No, we were pretty positive that it would not have been a non-elimination leg. Me personally, I was pretty positive there was not going to be one because there had been one right before this leg. I was hoping for one, but I had a pretty good feeling it wasn't going to be one.

Reality TV World: I think the obvious question is since you had a 40-minute lead on half the teams, why did you decide to go for the Fast Forward? Were you just focused on finishing the leg in first place or did you not feel that 40-minute time gap was significant enough to just keep racing with confidence you wouldn't finish in last place?

Kym Perfetto: We didn't have a 40-minute lead. We had like a 20-minute lead. But also, I thought that -- I mean, I know for me, I was the one that was pushing to do it.


I mean, the tightrope Roadblock, we knew what we were going to be doing, but there's a lot of moments when the field can be equalized so quickly and you feel a lot of pressure at that point to just, like, stay ahead, stay ahead, stay ahead. And I don't know. I was pretty confident that we could get there and accomplish the Fast Forward before anybody else.

Reality TV World: How long were you at the Fast Forward task before Adam and Bethany arrived? How many attempts did you have under your belt at that point?

Alli Forsythe: We had been at the Fast Forward for about 20 to 25 minutes. Kym and I were both able to get down the surfing for two minutes, but it was the simultaneous part that we kept failing at. And I didn't even know until, like, my second or third attempt that we had to be simultaneous.

It was so loud, and I'm sure they told us, but I feel like I didn't hear it. Plus, the water rushing was extremely loud. So, we were just like taking our time at first and I was like, "Oh, we got this!" And then I realized they had to be simultaneous rides. A couple of tries after that, the surfers showed up and we kind of lost our confidence.

Reality TV World: Yes, I was going to ask if seeing Adam and Bethany kind of psyched you out a little bit, if that played any role.


Alli Forsythe: Totally.

Reality TV World: Alli, you got really frustrated with Kym after Adam and Bethany completed the Fast Forward because she was the one who really wanted to do it. Did you carry any bitterness with you throughout the rest of the leg, and Kym, how were you feeling at this point? Did you blame yourself?

Kym Perfetto: No, I mean, at that point, I mean, I was kicking myself after the fact, but [at the time] I felt like we were still in the Race and had to finish it. You know, anything can happen. I tend to me an optimist.

So, I was just like, "Let's just nail the rest of this course and we might not come in last." I was maintaining hope. And then when Alli was getting frustrated, I was just like, "Shut it! Let's finish." And that's when I threw my stuff down and said, "If you want to run the rest of the Race by yourself, (laughs) go ahead!"

Reality TV World: It appeared like Adam and Bethany attempted the surfing task twice with Adam falling off the board the very first time. Is that accurate or did it take them more tries that had just been edited out of the episode?


Alli Forsythe: No, he did have to try twice. And when he got up there the first time, I feel like the surfing challenge was so far out of the way -- it was a very long drive for us -- that I said, "We're going to have to race hard to catch back up anyways. Let's just take this extra minute and see if they get it."

And then when we stuck around, he did fall off on his first try, and he fell pretty hard too. So it's like, "Oh my God, they're toast." So I don't know what Bethany told him between his first try and his second try, but they did get it on their second try.

Reality TV World: Were you girls aware of the whole conspiracy the other teams had to get you girls out or did that come as a big surprise to you watching the episode back?

Alli Forsythe: We knew we were a target for sure. But the way that they all teamed up on us in Malta, we were kind of unaware of that.

Kym Perfetto: No, I was aware of that, remember? Or maybe that was after the fact that [Tim Tsao and Te Jay McGrath] told us. But I know that people were afraid of us and I know that everyone was suspicious of us.


And pretty much, with the U-Turn coming up, that was another reason why I was saying, "Let's go do the Fast Forward," because I felt like if anything slipped up and we weren't first to the U-Turn board, we'd probably get U-Turned.

Alli Forsythe: Yeah, we definitely knew that we were a target.

Reality TV World: You mentioned Tim and Te Jay there. Did they tell you guys something during the Race about that?

Kym Perfetto: We're friends with them now, so truly, I can't remember if it was after the fact.

Alli Forsythe: I remember. It was after we were eliminated. They were like, "Oh, just so you guys know, when you watch it on TV, we all ganged up on you." But we're friends with them now, so they wanted to tell us before we saw it on TV.

Kym Perfetto: (Laughs)


Reality TV World: Did it surprise you that any team in particular was working against you? I don't know if Tim and Te Jay is an example, but it kind of seemed like you got somewhat close to Amy and Maya out there.

Alli Forsythe: We brought Amy and Maya along on that flight because we felt like we could outrun them really easily, and so, it was good to keep another team [close] sort of as, like, a safety.

Kym Perfetto: It was strategy. I wouldn't say it was friendship. I mean, of course we like them now and we're friends with them now, but there wasn't a whole lot of intense bonding going on during the Race -- at least not on my side. I felt like we were pretty Race-minded.

Alli Forsythe: Yeah, I would agree.

Reality TV World: At times, the show made it look like the teams wanted to U-Turn you for personal reasons, like you girls would always go off on your own and not socialize with them. But at other points, it seemed like they were intimidated by how strong you were. What's your take on that? Why do you think they were obsessed with getting you out?

Kym Perfetto: I think it all just came down to them being intimidated by us. We managed -- except for the one episode where the sheep brought us in seventh place -- to stay in the Top 3 for the Race. And I think it was just that we had a target on our backs.


Alli Forsythe: Yeah, and the dentists [Misti Raman and Jim Raman] had their "Save" left, so even if they were U-Turned, I mean, they would just present "The Save." So, it just didn't make sense to U-Turn the dentists unless we had planned it well in advance and U-Turned them the first time and get rid of that "Save" pass.

And in retrospect, [Keith Tollefson] was trying to get us to do that. He mentioned it and, in retrospect, it probably would've been a wise move, but it wasn't done. So, we were the vulnerable team to U-Turn.

And also, because the dentists had "The Save" pass, people wanted to stay on their good side, because they didn't want to get U-Turned by them. It would've been no good to turn around and U-Turn them because they wouldn't be eliminated anyways.

Kym Perfetto: And I don't know if any of the viewers knew this, but they could've given "The Save" pass to someone if they wanted to.

It wasn't required and it wouldn't make sense for them to do that -- ever -- but for some reason, it's like, if the dentists felt they could bring a weaker team along, it would be like -- I don't know. It was an option. They could hand over "The Save" pass. I don't think any of the viewers really realized that.

Alli Forsythe: So it was even more reason to, like, kiss their butts. (Laughs)


Kym Perfetto: (Laughs) Yeah, there was a lot of that going on, so.

Alli Forsythe: A lot of butt kissing!

Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion of Kym and Alli's exclusive interview.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski