Exclusive: Max Bichler and Katie Bichler talk 'The Amazing Race' (Part 2)

Max Bichler and Katie Bichler finished second on The Amazing Race's 22nd season during Sunday night's two-hour broadcast of the CBS reality competition's finale.


The "Newlyweds" team just fell short of claiming the $1 million grand prize to "Hockey Brothers" Bates Battaglia and Anthony Battaglia, who were the first team to cross the Race's finish line in Washington D.C. and crowned champions.

"Roller Derby Moms" Mona Egender and Beth Bandimere finished the Race in third place, while "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, Max and Katie talked about their The Amazing Race experience. Below is the concluding portion of their interview. Click here to read the first half.

Check our The Amazing Race homepage for exclusive interviews with the rest of the finale's teams.


Reality TV World: During the premiere, you guys had said that you didn't have many friends at home and mentioned how Katie's likability factor is low when it comes to strangers -- like a "zero." Would you guys mind elaborating a little bit on that? Does it just take people a little while to warm up to you?

Max Bichler: Yeah, so I think that people, just by appearance, they don't really go out of their way, like, "Max and Katie look like a really friendly couple," because we don't. I think we just have self-awareness, and you know, we're not like -- I'm in sales. So I have to be an extrovert all day long.

So when I'm not working, I turn it off and I'm not looking to -- you know, when you're in like a coffee shop and the guy behind you is standing in line and he's like dying to strike up a conversation about something or the weather, it's like, I'm not that guy.

I'm quiet. I'll go sit and eat lunch by myself and do my own thing, and Katie's the same way. And I still stick to that. If you don't know Katie, her likability factor is zero. (Laughs)

Katie Bichler: Yeah, and I think we have self-awareness. So going into it, we weren't going to be surprised if [some teams] were going to be like, "We don't like them..." We know that. We know that's what people automatically think when they see us.


Max Bichler: And I didn't wear a purple and pink button-down [shirt] on the first episode because I wanted to fly under the radar either.

Reality TV World: What were your general opinions of Joey Graceffa and Meghan Camarena? It almost seemed like your alliance working against them was a personal issue rather than a strategic one. And when I talked to them, they believed it kind of was personal -- that they thought teams just didn't like them. What's your response to that?

Max Bichler: My response to that is, I think that they were a little bit misguided, because you know, at the end of the day, it's a TV show and it has nothing to do with personal feelings about people. It's a show where there's a race around the world for a million bucks. And Joey and Meghan, what you didn't see, is a lot of times they had snarky little incidents.

Like in Africa, they cut a line. And I'm trying to think of some other [examples] -- just their general alliances with the "Roller Derby [Moms]" and [John Erck and Jessica Hoel], and Joey and Meghan would kind of give looks and just do things when we were standing to board a plane -- just like creeping towards the front of the line and skipping past you as you were standing there.

So they were like extremely passive aggressive, and that passive-aggressive thing, I know with Katie and I, is the worst. I'd rather you take me head on, like if you don't like me, be like, "Dude I can't stand you." That's fine.


But I think their passive-aggressive character got them disliked by everybody so quickly. It had nothing to do with the actual people that they were. It had everything to do with the race that they were running and the way that they were running the Race.

Reality TV World: Joey and Meghan had also told me they thought Max, you were rude and kind of a jerk, and that Katie, you often acted as the "b word" throughout the season. I just want to give you two a chance to address that.

Katie Bichler: I mean, you know, they can say whatever they want. I'm sure they're really nice people, and on the show, we had a couple chances to talk to them and they were really nice. It just comes down to when you're racing, it's for a million dollars. I mean, it's a show and you have to wipe away any feelings that you have for other people and just try to win. We weren't there to...

Max Bichler: They took everything seriously.

Katie Bichler: Yeah, they took everything a little too seriously.


Max Bichler: We do know that everything that happened, they took it personally.

Katie Bichler: I think that everyone on the show, except Joey and Meghan, they realized that if someone says something to you that was negative or like they were lying to you to try to get someone out, everyone understood that it was a game and no hard feelings at the end. At the finale, you wipe your hands clean and congratulations to the winner, and no hard feelings.

And I don't think they got the "no hard feelings" part. I mean, people said mean things to everybody and nobody has any hard feelings. People would say things and they just took it to heart, and I feel bad that they took everything to heart, but...

Max Bichler: I don't feel bad. Come on man. They put themselves out there. They have almost a million YouTube viewers and they put themselves out there, and I know they're used to being loved by their viewers and stuff, so maybe -- I would think collectively they would have thicker skin being kind of in the pre-teen public eye that they are.

But that's why it surprises me that they took me so personally, because there must be people out there that have negative opinions of them in YouTube land or wherever they live. But yeah, I was really surprised to find out that they were so thin-skinned.


And I mean, it didn't bother me -- I knew that they didn't like me. I knew the whole time they didn't like me. I remember when I made the comments about John being eliminated, Joey was like on the verge of tears, and I could see it was pissing him off. But that kind of encouraged me to keep going on.

Reality TV World: When I've talked to engaged or married couples in the past who have competed on The Amazing Race, they said racing together was like counseling or therapy in a way. Do you think the Race brought you guys even closer together? Because based upon Max's final words, the competition really seemed to test your relationship.  

Katie Bichler: I mean, I think our relationship or our marriage fast forward five years. I think overall it was an extremely positive thing. I mean, we got to learn things about each other in like the first few weeks of our marriage that people don't find out until like 10 years down the road.

Max Bichler: Yeah, I do think it was positive overall on our relationship.

Above is the concluding portion of Max and Katie's interview with Reality TV World. Click here to read the first half. Check our The Amazing Race homepage for exclusive interviews with the rest of the finale's teams.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski