Exclusive: 'The Amazing Race's Nicole Jasper and Travis Jasper talk (Part 2)

The Amazing Race "Married ER Doctors" team of Nicole Jasper and Travis Jasper finished in third place during Sunday night's broadcast of the CBS reality competition's two-hour finale.
 
"Dating Couple" Jason Case and Amy Diaz team was the first team to cross the 23rd season of The Amazing Race's finish line in Juneau, Alaska, claiming the $1 million grand prize. "Exes" Timothy Sweeney and Marie "Reebs" Mazzocchi finished in second place, and "Cousins" Leo Temory and Jamal Zadran were the fourth-place team.


In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Monday, Nicole and Travis talked about their The Amazing Race experience.
 
Below is the concluding portion of Nicole and Travis' interview. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: When I talked to Allison "Ally" Mello and Ashley Covert earlier this season, they mentioned they thought some of the teams were phony -- they'd be different people in front of the camera and off-camera. And when I spoke to Marie and Jamal, they actually both kind of agreed that you two, as well as Jason and Amy, were especially concerned with maintaining a good public image. What's your response to that?

Travis Jasper: Yeah, we were worse on-camera than off.

Nicole Jasper: (Laughs)


Travis Jasper: Let me tell you, we were worse on-camera than off. If you had seen us off-camera, you would have seen. You would've been like, "Oh my God, they need to get a room!" Off-camera, we were better than we were on-camera.

Nicole Jasper: I find that very interesting because very few of those teams were actually ever around us on-camera. I mean, not to be funny.

We were obviously around Tim and Marie because there were a lot of times we were trying to race to the end, but there were very few times that Jamal and Leo were somewhere at the same time with us other than the [octave instrument] and that robot. We didn't have common space where we would interact.

Travis Jasper: Right.

Nicole Jasper: We were very separate.


Travis Jasper: That's right.

Nicole Jasper: The only times we saw the rest of those teams were in the airport and on airplanes, which is exactly what Ally and Ashley commented on when we got on the bus and on the train in Indonesia. They said, "Wow, we're here for the first time with you guys in the front."

We had hardly ever seen them. We were like, "Wow, they're nice girls but we don't know them because we never had a chance to interact with them." So I just find that very interesting.

Travis Jasper: We are a little bit older, and one of the things I don't like to do a whole lot of is just kind of chatting and gossiping. So I was quite uncomfortable with the kind of chatting and stuff. And even if you look at the episode -- I guess it was last night -- they were talking about strategy.

I would comment, but if you notice, I was sort of pacing. I sort of pace when I'm uncomfortable and I was really sort of uncomfortable being in the, "Let's sit around and chat" [situation]. So that's why Nicole and I, we spent a lot of -- our time was really our time. So that's why I said we were better off-camera. When we were off-camera, we were holding hands and enjoying the scenery.


Reality TV World: Based upon what was shown of you guys this season, some viewers believe, Travis, you were a little hard at times on Nicole, like there was never any room for error. How do you feel about the way you came across this season and do you have any regrets? And on your end Nicole, do you think you might've struggled so much in the tasks toward the end because you felt so much pressure?

Travis Jasper: Well for me, a wise man never wishes to be younger, so I never say there is regret. Was it a learning experience? Yes. Was it kind of sobering to see myself on TV saying those words and expressions? Yes. Was that only a small part of the time we were out there? Most definitely.

So I know that the majority of the time, I wasn't frustrated and I wasn't talking to Nicole about tasks and being upset.  You notice that other than one leg, whenever we got to the [Pit Stop] and by the time we got to the finish line, I let it go and I'm smiling at pretty much every finish line and just happy to be moving on. So, you know, regrets? I don't call them regrets -- opportunities and learning moments, yes.

Reality TV World: As far as your alliance with Jason and Amy went, how much of your success do you feel you owed to them? Because when I talked to the pair, they suggested they had carried you to the end.

Travis Jasper: This came up during the Race. You may not know this, but early on, we were pretty dominant and that was before we really had an alliance with Amy and Jason. To us, we enjoyed having an alliance with Amy and Jason because we liked them.


Nicole Jasper: Right.

Travis Jasper: We enjoyed meeting them and becoming friends. Otherwise, alliances were really a distraction for us, and other than really maybe two important moments that they showed on TV, that was really the majority of what they did.

The truth of the matter is, it was a mutual kind of assistance, and there were a number of things that they would do because we were doing it whether it was, "Let's do that Detour." We were the sobering, kind of encouraging ones. "Don't give up, don't change, stay here, do this, do that, let me show you, we can work this [out]."

We were sort of their big brother and big sister. So as you remember, the apartment complex in Poland, I made the agreement of yeah I would help, but I was the one that was actually running the fastest and could've said, "Hey see you later," and we could've potentially won that leg.

It was a mutual assistance. It wasn't that they, by any means, carried us to the finish line. And in fact, we do question sometimes whether we could've still had a better overall run if we had kind of done what we did in the beginning, which was focus on us and kind of enjoy the honeymoon we were having.


Reality TV World: Nicole, you and Amy worked together at that robot Roadblock task right from the start. Do you think there's any chance you could've done it on your own or, because of how physically demanding it was, do you think it was nearly impossible to finish as an individual?

Nicole Jasper: I think that it definitely would've been challenging to do it as an individual just because of how heavy it was, and what the cameras didn't show was those cardboard pieces started to rip, and they actually didn't fit as perfectly as it appeared.

And so, trying to put those pieces through were quite challenging, and both of us struggled. The editing did not portray it as such, but both of us struggled with that, and I think it would've been difficult for either one of us to have completed that.

Because although it was not shown last night on television, there came a point where Amy really became frazzled and I had to tell her -- and she had said to me, "Please don't leave me!" Everyone would've expected me being the one saying that, and I said to her, "I would never leave you. We're going to do this together."

And that's what we decided to do. When I got to the point where I was like, "I can finish this." That's where you saw us kiss and hug and she left. But that was after I had also helped her do hers, so you know, we helped each other and that's what we said we were going to do.

Above is the concluding portion of Nicole and Travis' exclusive interview with Reality TV World. Click here to read the first half. Also, check our The Amazing Race show page for more interviews with the Final 4 teams.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski