Exclusive: 'The Amazing Race: All-Stars' runner-ups Jennifer Wayne and Caroline Cutbirth talk (Part 2)

"The Country Singers" Jennifer Wayne and Caroline Cutbirth finished The Amazing Race: All-Stars, the CBS reality competition's 24th overall season and third all-stars edition, in second place during the finale. 
 
Caroline and Jennifer lost the $1 million grand prize to winners David O'Leary and Connor O'Leary, who are "Father and Son Cancer Survivors." Third place went to "Newlyweds" Brendon Villegas and Rachel Reilly.


After 22 cities, nine countries and more than 23,000 miles, Caroline and Jennifer seemed to lose by only a matter of short moments.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World, Caroline and Jennifer talked about their The Amazing Race experience. Below is the concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: Could you tell me your side of the story on the accusation that Rachel had pushed you? Apparently there was a misunderstanding in regards to who got in line first at the airport?

Jennifer Wayne: Yeah, and I'm not sure if we're allowed to really talk in detail about it -- because it also came down to some production things with our crew -- but basically, we were in line at customs first and they were behind us, but I guess our crew wasn't there with us.


So they said that we were there second and she took her elbow and just shoved me back behind her, and we were just standing there. It wasn't like we were racing or anything. We were just standing there. So, I was, for one, in shock. I've never gotten physical with anyone in my life.

Caroline Cutbirth: Girl fight! Girl fight!

Jennifer Wayne: So I was like, "Oh! Okay, go ahead. If it means that much to you, you stand right in front of us." And then she said she never did it, which is weird. And then she apologized after the Race was over and said, "I'm sorry that you think I pushed you." And I was like, "That doesn't make any sense at all." (Laughs) But that's what happened!

Reality TV World: Brendon and Rachel were shown saying a couple times that the Race is not about being polite. And clearly, they weren't trying to be polite. What are your thoughts on their stance? Do you understand where they were coming from at all, or do you feel their behavior went way beyond impoliteness and into bad sportsmanship?

Caroline Cutbirth: You know, there's a million different ways to race, and every TV show needs a good villain. And I think that they didn't really care, you know? They wanted to win and they didn't care how they did it. Jen and I just Race a little differently, like, it actually matters to us that we keep our integrity.


Jennifer Wayne: Yeah, we wanted to win and we raced wanting to win, but we weren't going to play dirty or cheat or get physical or do anything that we would feel bad about, you know?

Caroline Cutbirth: It wasn't worth it to us. There's no fault in [the fact] they wanted to race differently, it's just we didn't want to race that way.

Reality TV World: So I just want to be clear, prior to the final leg, were your issues with Brendon and Rachel mainly a result of them U-Turning Dave and Connor, or did your negative opinions about "Brenchel" derive from other things as well?

Jennifer Wayne: They derive from other things. I mean, you're out there racing and it's just intense and there's certain things that -- there are just little things that add up. And we really liked them to begin with, but towards the end, it was just one thing after the next, and they just weren't really like our cup of tea of people. It's not that we don't like them; We just didn't quite really want to hang around them.

Caroline Cutbirth: And, in the beginning, when there were more teams, they had other people that they hung out with. People just kind of naturally separated into groups of who they got along with.


But once the teams started whittling down and there were fewer and fewer of us, the energy just started overlapping more. So, that's when it kind of got a little more intense. We kind of just avoided them a little bit in the beginning and we didn't really have a problem at all.

Jennifer Wayne: No.

Reality TV World: Looking at the structure of the Final 3 teams, Dave and Connor are father and son, and Dave is obviously a little bit on the older side. Brendon and Rachel were a male and female team, and you two were two females. Going into the finale, did you feel like it was anyone's game or that one or two teams had an advantage?

Caroline Cutbirth: Well the whole race, Jen and I actually believed we could win. We knew that we were the underdogs. We knew that physically, we were the weakest team just because the twinnies [Natalie Anderson and Nadiya Anderson] were the first team out of the Race, so we were the only girl-girl team in the entire race.

And ALL the male-male teams were so strong, so athletic. And the guy-girl teams were so strong. So we knew we had a big disadvantage in that way, but we also knew there was so much more to the Race than being physically strong.


And so, we just raced our own race and we never worried about anybody else, because there's so many things that factor in to the Race. We kind of always thought we had a chance even though we're the unlikely winners. We just always thought we could do it.

Jennifer Wayne: And there's strengths and weaknesses, and everybody has them. We might not have been the strongest physically, but we were very strong in other things, like directions. We totally kicked ass in directions this year. We got maps everywhere we went, we were really good about reading the clues -- which we weren't that great at our first season, so we learned from that and we really read the clues.

We were smart and airtight and made very few mistakes. And so, I think you don't see that because we didn't make any mistakes, but I feel like there were a lot of things that we were really strong at this year.

Reality TV World: Caroline, it seemed like you thought the illusion act failed with Jennifer inside the crate. What was going through your mind when that crate dropped before Jen surprised you in the fireman's suit?

Caroline Cutbirth: I was panicking! I thought she died! (Laughs) I thought Jen had died, and David Copperfield was over there saying like, "Oh my gosh, there's a malfunction. It's gone wrong." And I'm like, "Oh my God! What?!" (Laughs) And then she popped up and I was so relieved. It was such a relief. I was so glad she hadn't died.


Reality TV World: Caroline, could you talk a little bit about having to spot that Motor Speedway sign before skydiving? How many passes did you take until seeing it and how did you even know what you were looking for?

Caroline Cutbirth: Dave and I both got it on the first pass, and that was the only hope that I had for us winning, was because I knew that if he missed it, then I could get [ahead] of him and maybe we could win. But it was hard to see, like I actually thought there was a chance he could miss it, because I almost missed it!

There were so many flashing lights and it was just this tiny little side light that was flashing. It was small and you only have a second to see it, so you're looking amidst all these neon signs, and I was definitely worried. I was very nervous I was going to miss it, but I luckily got it on the first try, and so did Dave! So they won.

Reality TV World: Did you two have a real strategy all season as to who would do which Roadblock task? Did you just go with the flow and pinpoint who should do what based on the clues?

Caroline Cutbirth: We really, really tried -- well, we tried to keep it even, but we also really tried to read the clue. Because picking the right person for the right Roadblock makes a huge difference, and we were actually pretty spot-on this year.

Jennifer Wayne: Mhmm.


Caroline Cutbirth: Except of course for assembling. I needed an Express Pass on that one. (Laughs) But we were really good about taking the right person to do the right Roadblock, and I think that really paid off for us.

Reality TV World: After you girls arrived at the Pit Stop and spoke with Phil Keoghan, did any of the teams say anything to you? Maybe a team said something that stood out in particular?

Jennifer Wayne: You know, I don't think really any of the teams -- it was just us talking to Phil with Dave and Connor... I don't even remember any of the teams saying anything... Afterwards, everyone came up and said, "Great job," and whatever. But there wasn't anything that stood out.

Reality TV World: What would you girls have done with the prize money had you won it? Did you have any big plans for that?

Caroline Cutbirth: I know what I would do! I would buy a house.

Jennifer Wayne: And I would've done the same thing. (Laughs)


Reality TV World: What about buying a house together?! (Laughs)

Caroline Cutbirth: Even though we do everything together, we'd actually need to live in separate quarters. (Laughs)

Above is the concluding portion of Caroline and Jennifer's exclusive interview with Reality TV World. Click here to read the first half.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski