Exclusive: 'The Amazing Race' model Brittany Oldehoff talks (Part 2)

The Amazing Race eliminated "Best Friends" Jessica Versteeg and Brittany Oldehoff during Friday night's broadcast of the CBS reality competition's 28th season.


The two models became the third team eliminated from the around-the-world competition after they arrived at the Race's fourth Pit Stop at the center of town in Chamonix, France, in last place.

Brittany and Jessica struggled with the Detour task and then started the Roadblock task in last place, when everyone refused to help Jessica figure things out.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Monday, Brittany talked to Reality TV World about her The Amazing Race experience. (Jessica was out of the country and could not participate in the call). Below is the concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: You girls were confident you'd do well at the Swiss Army Knife task, and you were disappointed about having to do the bench task. After watching the episode back and seeing both tasks unfold, do you still wish you could've made the knife, and do you think that ultimately might've saved you from elimination?


Brittany Oldehoff: Yeah, I mean, there's always so many things that you could do different that you wish you would have. Our strategy for picking Detours was to pick the one that we thought was the funnest, so if we did get eliminated, we wouldn't really care. I, ugh, did not want to count newspapers. It sounded boring; It was boring. It was annoying and it was frustrating.

I would have much rathered built the Swiss Army Knife, and I think we probably would have arrived at the Roadblock with [Sheri LaBrant and Cole LaBrant] and [Burnie Burns and Ashley Jenkins] actually, who probably would've ended up helping us had we needed it.

Reality TV World: Did you have a little bit of an alliance forming with those two teams?

Brittany Oldehoff: It's weird because I don't think any of us on the show really referred to things as "alliances" versus friendships. We were really close with them and [Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl], so I wouldn't really call it an alliance, but I mean, we had a close friendship.

Reality TV World: How long did it take you to finish the Detour task at the bench? The show said it took you three attempts to get it right?


Brittany Oldehoff: It actually took us four attempts! I'm kind of thankful CBS only showed three. (Laughs) But it was awful! It was awful. I can't even tell you. We were probably there anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, and I think after the last team left before us, which was the girls, we were almost done. We had half of the bench left [to test] and then we were done.

Reality TV World: During that bench Roadblock task, were you aware that teams were helping each other?

Brittany Oldehoff: We found out later. I mean, there's always a whole bunch of things that are never shown that I wish they'd show, some stuff behind-the-scenes. But we found out later that a lot of the teams got answers not only from other teams, but from locals.

So, everyone was kind of cheating and we didn't realize that until, like, the end. So at that point, it just really didn't matter, but I mean, everything happens for a reason. So I can't really complain.

Reality TV World: Going into the Race, were you worried you'd be underestimated because you're models and have beauty-pageant history and what not? And did you feel that play out at all while you raced?


Brittany Oldehoff: Everybody definitely underestimated us until Leg 2, and I think that's actually why everybody ganged up on us, which I get. Because had it been Tyler and Korey who were last and confused, nobody would've helped them probably except for Jessica and I.

So I completely get that, but we were actually really good at everything, and we did everything fast. I mean, we impressed a lot of people all the time. Like the Tejo challenge, that took us 10 minutes. We showed up second-to-last for the fish-cooking challenge, and we were done before everybody.

We did everything really quickly and people saw it. Even [Blair Fowler]'s father [Scott Fowler] pulled me aside on one of the legs and was like, "You guys are really good! You're athletic, you're smart, you guys really have a good team going." They all said they underestimated us. (Laughs)

Reality TV World: Were you fans of The Amazing Race before appearing on the show, and if so, did you actually apply? Or did producers contact you about the opportunity because of its social media theme?

Brittany Oldehoff: Okay, so we were actually supposed to be on Season, I think it was 23. They had reached out to Jessica. So I was going to do it with Jessica, but I had a death in the family and there were conflicting contracts, so we ended up pulling out last minute.


And then, the producers actually contacted my modeling agency and I was like, "Oh my gosh! This is the perfect time to do it, because three years ago we had planned on doing it."

So I called Jessica and was like, "Would you want to do it now?" And she was like, "Yeah!" So, it was kind of both, I guess you could say, but we didn't essentially end up signing up until the contract was right and everything was fair to our careers. And yeah, we watched multiple seasons in order to prepare ourselves. My mom is a huge fan and I know Jessica is [too].

Reality TV World: What was your motivation for going on The Amazing Race? Because a lot of viewers are wondering whether the teams this season just went on the show for self-promotion because of what they do professionally. Obviously television exposure couldn't hurt, so I want to get your thoughts on that. 

Brittany Oldehoff: I mean, it makes me so mad that people say that, and I get frustrated on social media with some people. That's definitely not the reason that anybody's doing it. I don't think that any single person would sign up for the show just for that purpose, especially because it's reality, and you sign off your rights to make it look however CBS wants you to look.

I think all of them wanted the money; We definitely wanted the money. But at the same time, we were being realistic and we also wanted an adventure. We knew there was a one in eleven chance it was going to be us, and unfortunately, it wasn't. So we wanted to make the best of the ride.


Reality TV World: Were you starting to think about which team you'd go after at the next U-Turn? Maybe it would be the team you found most threatening?

Brittany Oldehoff: Okay, so I'm sure you're aware there was an unaired U-Turn and nobody used it. Had we, for whatever reason, stayed, after that whole thing -- if we got to keep racing and there was a non-elimination or whatever -- we would've U-Turned, oh my gosh, I can't even tell you.

We were so frustrated with those three girls. We probably would've U-Turned [Erin White Robinson and Joslyn Davis] just for telling Jessica the wrong flag, but I mean, even though it was unintentional at the time, we were upset. So, we definitely would have. We would have.

Reality TV World: Would you like to race again? Is that something you and Jessica have discussed?

Brittany Oldehoff: Yeah, I mean, if they invited us back for all-stars, we would definitely do it, especially because we know that we could and we know what to expect and we know not to over-pack and all these things that you don't know the first time. We also wouldn't help anybody! I know that sounds mean, but we learned our lesson.

Click here to read the first half of Brittany's exclusive The Amazing Race interview with Reality TV World.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski