'The Amazing Race's Nick DeCarlo and Vicki Casciola survive again

"Dating Couple" Nick DeCarlo and Vicki Casciola survived to compete in The Amazing Race's eleventh seventeenth-season leg despite a last-place finish during Sunday night's broadcast of the Race's tenth leg.


"I feel good that we have another chance to stay in the Race, but for the next leg, we need to listen to each other a little bit more and you didn't deal with anything today good," Vicki told her boyfriend after discovering they had managed to avoid elimination.

"I apologize. I definitely want to be better to her everyday," Nick replied.

"I just basically need to see more changes in him than the 'sorries,' because I'm definitely not ready to leave. I didn't come here to quit," Vicki said.

The Amazing Race's tenth seventeenth-season episode began with the Race's four remaining teams leaving the course's ninth Pit Stop in Dhaka, Bangladesh.


Since they had been the first team to arrive at the Pit Stop, "Dating Couple" Jill Haney and Thomas Wolfard were the first team to depart at 8:25AM.

They were then followed by Nick and Vicki at 1:59PM, "Doctors/Friends" Nat Strand and Kat Chang at 4:05PM, and "Home Shopping Hosts" Brook Roberts and Claire Champlin at 5:15PM.

Upon opening their departure clues, the teams were instructed to fly 3,500 miles to Hong Kong, China and make their way by bus and ferry to Cheung Po Island to search for the Cheung Po Tsai Cave where they would then find their next clue.

Despite Jill and Thomas' early head start advantage, all four teams ended up on an equal playing field as they all got on the only available flight to China, which did not depart for Hong Kong until 11:55PM.

Upon arriving at the Hong Kong International Airport, Jill and Thomas snagged the first bus and headed toward the ferry, leaving Brook and Claire, Nat and Kat and Nick and Vicki to all get on the next available bus.


All the teams made it on the same ferry except for Nick and Vicki who missed it by a matter of minutes. Vicki's asthma was acting up and she had trouble running as quickly as Nick in order to make it on the ferry before it departed. However Nick still got frustrated that they had missed the ferry (putting them 30 minutes behind the other teams) and the incident sparked an argument that eventually caused Vicki to break down into tears.

Meanwhile, Nat and Kat were the first team to reach the Cheung Po Tsai Cave in Hong Kong and were followed by Jill and Thomas, Brook and Claire and Nick and Vicki.

After arriving at the cave, the teams received clues which instructed them to travel by ferry and locate the Chinese Majesty Restaurant where they would find their next clue.

Nat and Kat were the first team to arrive at the restaurant and were followed by Jill and Thomas, Brook and Claire and Nick and Vicki.

Once the teams arrived at the Chinese Majesty Restaurant, they received clues which instructed them to complete a Roadblock task that required one team member to use chopsticks and peck his or her way through the vast buffet of food and find one out of five food options that was fake. The member competing in the task was required to eat all the real food he or she picked up, and once the fake food was discovered and verified, the team would then receive their next clue.    


Nat chose to do the Roadblock task for her team and was later joined by Thomas, Claire and Vicki.

Meanwhile, both Claire and Vicki got very sick from the variety of food they consumed, forcing them to vomit and drop even further behind the other teams in the Race.

Nat and Kat remained the frontrunners and were the first team to complete the Roadblock. They were then followed by Jill and Thomas, Brook and Claire and Nick and Vicki.

Upon completion of the Roadblock, the teams then received their next clue which instructed them to travel to the Avenue of the Stars and look for a statue of Bruce Lee, a memorial built as a tribute to the famous martial artist and film star, to find their next clue.

Nat and Kat were the first team to arrive at the Avenue of the Stars and were then followed by Jill and Thomas, Brook and Claire and Nick and Vicki.


Upon finding the Bruce Lee statue, the teams discovered their next clue which instructed them to complete one of two Detour tasks: "Ding Ding" or "Sampan."

"Ding Ding" required the teams to board a 100-year-old street trolley known as a Ding Ding and ride a particular portion of the route searching among thousands of signs for three, that when put together, would reveal the location of the next Pit Stop. When teams found the answer, they could disembark and move on, but if the ride ended before they knew where to go, they would then have to make a return trip and start again.

"Sampan" required the teams to pick up a wooden cage with two parrots and board a Sampan boat and head out to the harbor and search among hundreds of boats for one with a registration number that matched the number attached to their bird cage. When the teams found the right boat, they could then trade their birds for the location of the next Pit Stop. 

Nat and Kat, Brook and Claire, and Nick and Vicki opted for "Sampan" while Jill and Thomas initially selected "Ding Ding."

However Jill and Thomas grew frustrated after traveling on the Ding Ding, quit the task and switched to "Sampan" -- a decision that ended up working out in their favor when they finally managed to successfully complete the boat task.


Jill and Thomas were the first team to complete one of the challenging Detour tasks and were followed by Nat and Kat and Brook and Claire.

After trying unsuccessfully for some time, Nick and Vicki chose to skip the Detour and move on directly to the Pit Stop where they would accept a six-hour penalty for not completing the task. Nick claimed he was exhausted and would no longer waste his time attempting to complete the stressful "Sampan" task. His decision upset Vicki who was determined to finish the Race.

"This is going to be hard to do by myself. I'm so tired -- I don't want to give up, but I need help from him," Vicki said as she briefly attempted to finish the "Sampan" Detour task on her own as Nick lay resting on the boat.

"You're still wasting your time? Jeeze Louise, you are the hardest headed person in the world. Get me out of this place... I can't wait to be home," Nick complained.

"It's been a long day and if he's not going to do it, then I'm not going to try to do this all by myself. I've given it 110% percent today. I have nothing left -- if he didn't want to go so bad I'd still stay, but I don't know what else to do," Vicki explained. 

After the Detour task, the teams received a clue that instructed them to make their way to the center of Hong Kong known as Statue Square, which would serve as the Race's tenth Pit Stop.


Nat and Kat -- who held onto first place for most of the Race's tenth leg -- jumped back into the lead, taking it from Jill and Thomas and arriving at the Pit Stop before any of the other teams. As their reward, they won a trip for two to Brazil.

Jill and Thomas were the next team to arrive at the Pit Stop, followed by Brook and Claire who secured third place.

Given their six-hour penalty for failure to complete the Detour and the fact they had trailed behind the other teams for the entire tenth leg of the Race, Nick and Vicki appeared to arrive expecting their elimination when they arrived at the Pit Stop. However The Amazing Race's host Phil Keoghan then revealed otherwise.

"Nick and Vicki, you are the last team to arrive -- I'm sorry to tell you that this is a non-elimination leg. You are still in the Race!" Phil said.

"Wow!" Vicki exclaimed.

"The next leg of the Race is going to be super tough because you have a six-hour penalty and you have a speed bump and you guys are a long way back," Phil explained.


"We're going to do what we need to do," Vicki said. "We don't want to quit the Race, but this was definitely one of the hardest days ever."

"Nick has a temper, he has a temper and it makes everything 10 times worse. But, we are a team, so we have to do it together." 






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski