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♥♥♥ TAR14: Jennifer Hopka & Preston McCamy - Dating

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Ashe:
Pretty sure the picture that has "Dating" on it will be their intro shot.

ULTIMAN:
Here's an older picture of him, closer to how he used to look.

georgiapeach:
Reality shows make local connections
By Peggy Ussery

Published: February 11, 2009

James “JT” Thomas Jr. always wanted to be on TV. Preston McCamy quit his job for the chance of a lifetime.

The former Wiregrass residents can be seen this week on the CBS reality shows “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race.”

“The actual reality show ‘Survivor’ itself was like the ultimate challenge I wanted to do,” Thomas said, adding his love of the outdoors drew him to the show. “ ... To be tossed out in the woods and have to survive, it sounds great to me. I love it.”

Thomas filled out an application his mother printed off the Internet. In June 2008, he did a walk-in casting call with personnel from the show. The Samson native, who now lives in Mobile, also sent in two home videos.

“From that, they chose me to come to a week-long interview process in California,” the 24-year-old Thomas said.

And then he was chosen to be among the 16 people on “Survivor: Tocantins” in Brazil.

“It’s definitely as hard as I thought it would be,” Thomas said. “I knew it would be hard, but I’ve never had to survive on my own in the wilderness.”

Preston McCamy lived in Dothan between the third and 12th grades. He now lives in Columbia, S.C., where he moved to be closer to girlfriend Jennifer Hopka. It was Hopka, 26, who had tried to get on the reality show “Survivor.” She never made it, but producers liked her and asked if she had someone she could team with for “The Amazing Race.”

Hopka, a nursing student by day and bartender by night, turned to McCamy, a 28-year-old software engineer. He agreed to give it a shot. The couple applied three or four times before finally getting on the show.

“I got to travel around the world with my girlfriend,” McCamy said. “ ... It’s something I couldn’t have afforded to do on my own.”

He even quit his job to do it because he couldn’t get enough time off work. McCamy said he has no regrets. The reality show experience, he said, was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“You only get those chances so many times,” he said.

But McCamy said the couple, who have had their relationship ups and downs, were nervous about what the show would do to their relationship and if they would be able to work together 24-7 with camera crews around them all the time.

“We were pretty sure it was going to make it or break it,” McCamy said. “It was a little nerve-wracking.”

The details of what happened to both McCamy and Thomas during their reality show experience are not being shared publicly per their agreements with show producers.

Thomas, a fan of “Survivor” before appearing on the show, said he was initially worried about how he would react in front of cameras and constantly reminded himself that he would eventually be seen by millions of television viewers.

“I definitely loved the challenge,” Thomas said. “It is as hard as it looks.”

McCamy said he learned some things about himself — good and bad.

“I feel like I’m a lot more driven that I realized,” McCamy said. “ ... I feel more ignorant. It was humbling. I learned I had to work on my communication skills a lot more.”

——————————————
James “JT” Thomas Jr.
Reality show: “Survivor: Tocantins”
Premiere: Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. CST on CBS.
Age: 24
Hometown: Samson, Ala.
Current residence: Mobile, Ala.
Occupation: Manages a black angus cattle ranch in Mobile.
Other: Graduated Samson High School in Geneva County; Bachelor’s in business administration with an emphasis on marketing from Troy University.

Preston McCamy
Reality show: “The Amazing Race”
Premiere: Sunday, Feb. 15, at 7 p.m. CST on CBS.
Age: 28
Hometown: Born in Birmingham; moved to Dothan in the third grade.
Current residence: Columbia, S.C.
Occupation: Software engineer
Other: Graduated high school from Northside Methodist Academy before going to college. Eventually moved back to Birmingham and then relocated to Columbia, S.C.
Partner: McCamy’s teammate is Jennifer Hopka, 26, a nursing student.

http://www.dothaneagle.com/dea/lifestyles/local/article/reality_shows_make_local_connections/58844/

puddin:

Less than 24 Hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :wohoo:

 
'Amazing Race' Posted on Sun, Feb. 15, 2009


Irmo native Jennifer Hopka, 26, and her boyfriend, Preston McCamy, 28, had two goals when they auditioned for the 14th season of “The Amazing Race”: test the strength of their relationship and (duh!) win $1 million.

Hopka, a Midlands Tech nursing student, met McCamy two years ago at a Columbia bar. McCamy moved from his native Birmingham, Ala., to take a job as a software engineer at Backgroundchecks.com in Chapin to be closer to her.

“The Amazing Race” wasn’t Hopka’s first experience with reality television.

She took part in Playboy’s search for its 50th Anniversary Playmate in 2003. The competition was documented in the film “Playboy — The Ultimate Playmate Search.” Hopka posed for a centerfold picture that has never been published.

We talked with the couple about the competition, how they prepared and Playboy.

Why did you decide to audition for “The Amazing Race”?

Hopka: I wanted to try out with Preston because our relationship was at a rocky point to where we needed to figure out if we were going to go for marriage or if we needed to break up and be better off as friends. ... If we couldn’t go around world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — you know, hungry, tired, cold and everything you deal with on the race, then I don’t think we were going to make it together.

McCamy: We thought, if we can’t work together trying to win a million dollars, then how are we going be able to get along when we have kids and everything? For us the main thing was the relationship.

What are some of the strengths you have that helped you in the competition?

McCamy: We felt my strengths were going to be her weaknesses and her strengths were my weaknesses. I do software engineering all day long, and you have to be really analytical when you are thinking about problem solving. That would be my strength. Her strength would be getting us through places. She can talk her way into anything. We could really use that to our benefit.

What did you feel when you found out you were going to be on the show?

Hopka: When I got that phone call saying congratulations, I just cried because all these emotions are running through me. I never thought I would get this chance.

Did you all do anything special to prepare to be on the show?

Hopka: We started out by studying the show a lot, like all the little nooks and crannies of the show. We watched several episodes. And we worked out like crazy.

McCamy: We worked out like fiends. We also tried to find different ways to get in touch with different airlines, and we tried to learn different phrases in different languages.

Hopka: We had all these little notes, but when you get to L.A., they take it all from you. ... You think you are all prepared, but you can’t have any of that.

Was it what you expected it to be?

McCamy: It was a lot tougher than I thought it would be, to be honest. It was really tough.

Hopka: What you don’t see is that it’s a lot of luck. It’s not what kind of relationship you have with your partner or how quick you are; it’s all on luck. And you don’t think of that when you are watching the show. When you are doing it, it’s a lot tougher than you could ever possibly imagine.

Jennifer, do you think Playboy will want to publish your pictures after your appearance on the show?

Hopka: I hope so. I’m waiting on that phone call. That’s one of those things that I didn’t think about until later. I hope that happens, because it was one of the best experiences of my life.

— Natasha Derrick



http://www.thestate.com/entertain-index/v-print/story/684525.html

puddin:
Exclusive: Jennifer Hopka and Preston McCamy talk 'The Amazing Race'

   
By John Bracchitta, 02/17/2009

"Dating Couple" Jennifer Hopka and Preston McCamy don't mean to brag, but they did not expect to be leaving The Amazing Race 14 this early.

ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 
However, after some travel delays, an odd challenge involving cheese wheels and a hill, and getting lost on the way to the competition's initial Pit Stop, the 26-year-old student and 28-year-old software engineer from Columbia, SC became the first couple to be eliminated from The Amazing Race 14.

On Tuesday, Jennifer and Preston talked to Reality TV World about what racing problems they encountered that weren't shown on television, how they managed to blow a thirty-minute lead after arriving near the leg's Pit Stop, and why they ended up on the wrong end of the closest initial Pit Stop finish in the history of The Amazing Race.

Reality TV World: Let’s start right at the end -- Jennifer, it looked like Preston was carrying you on his back for that final sprint to the Pit Stop, did something happen to you?

Jennifer: (Sarcastically) I broke my leg.

Reality TV World: Oh, you broke it...

Jennifer: (Laughs) No, what it really boiled down to was [it was footrace that went] Preston first, [Jodi Wincheski], me -- well the picture that they show has Jodi first -- but Preston was always in the lead and right after they took that picture, that's when Preston put me on his back. But it was almost a line run, it was Preston, Jodi, and me and [Christie Volkmer] were neck and neck.

I was running as fast as I could, but as fast as Christie and I could run it wasn't fast enough so Preston put me on his back to give me that extra push and at the very end -- he only did it for like a couple of steps -- and after that last step he threw me off his back to give me a jump and I just couldn't jump quick enough on the [finish mat] because Preston and Jodie were already on the mat and Christie and me literally [stepped on the mat] foot and foot.

Reality TV World: Oh, so it was really that close at the end?

Jennifer: They said it was the closest in race history for the last two teams. For tenth and eleventh place it had never been that close. It literally was a half-a-second, if that, that we stepped on the mat together, me and Christy. And both teammates have to be on the mat, and [Preston and Jodie] were already there.

We weren't far behind them, it literally was like bam-bam they were on the mat and then bam-bam we were on the mat. We were neck and neck and it was the closest footrace I think I've ever seen in my life.
 
Reality TV World: Okay, and then after that when you were on the mat and found out you were eliminated, [Jennifer,] you told [The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan] that you felt like you had let Preston down. What was that a reference to?

Jennifer: The whole time he was supporting me and I never thought that I could lug 50 to 100 pounds of cheese, I never thought that I [could do any of that], because, you know, we didn't eat or sleep for those three days. That was actually three days of racing that they showed.

I just didn't think I had it in me, and he was supporting me so much, like "You can do this baby, I know it!" I was so proud of myself because I never once stopped and said I can't do this, or I give up. And as we're in the race, I was pushing myself to the limit, but he was behind me 100% [and saying] "You can do this baby, run faster. good job baby, I'm so proud of you."

And in the end it's like, I stepped on the mat last so I felt like I let him down because he was so supportive of me and then it's like "Wah-wah," we're last, you know?.

Reality TV World: Yeah, and actually I was gonna say, Preston you jumped in right after [she said that] to say that she hadn't disappointed you at all...

Jennifer: (Interrupting) Yeah, he's competitive. He was already on the mat. He's very competitive and I knew that his pride was hurting because he never, well... We never expected to be the first [team] out, but I think none of the other teams expected us to be the first out. None of our family and friends expected us [to be the first out], like, nobody would've guessed that. So I just felt like I let him down and I hurt him and I felt like it was my fault.

I don't know if it's because I was having a little loser's regret at the time, but I really, honestly felt like he had pushed me so hard and it was my fault because I stepped on the mat last.

Reality TV World: You two seemed to admit to being a couple that isn't afraid to get into an argument or express your feelings to each other. Do you think having that trait helped you or hurt you as a team on The Amazing Race?

Preston: Well it's always a detriment any time you and your partner on the race are gonna argue. The teams that get along the best always do the best. But you know, we're both very blunt and outspoken people and passionate people, and...

Jennifer: (Interrupting) Our fighting didn't hurt us on the race at all, like because we fought is why we missed our train or because we fought we missed our taxi.

Our arguing never cost us on the race at all at any point. There were two things that mainly, ultimately cost us in the race. One [was] at the beginning at the church, if that would've been a Pit Stop that would've cost us. But other than that, our fighting never got in the way of the race. We were just tired, hungry, irritated...

Preston: The only time we were actually bickering was when we were on the train and somewhere where [we had downtime] and we were tired and hungry and grumpy. On the train when they're showing us bickering, we were last and...

Jennifer: We felt like we were last because we had a taxi error pretty much. We knew that we were probably gonna be last and we didn't know if it was a Pit Stop or not and you have no idea. And then all of the sudden we're just going at it.

Preston: Once we signed that book and knew that we were still in the race, we were lovey-dovey.

Reality TV World: So you feel the show was representative of [your behavior] and didn't show you arguing more or less than what it actually was?

Jennifer: It's TV, they're gonna clip and cut what they want to. I mean it's great for TV, we fought like that in normal life but it never gets in the way of anything. Like we fight, but 10 seconds later we're fine. Us fighting never interfered with the race at all.

Pretty much the main fight we had was in the beginning. Preston was speeding in that Mercedes, and we fought because he was just going too fast. That was a simple little fight...

Preston: (Interrupting) We were in a race! (Laughs)

Jennifer: We fought on the train because we were just tired and we hadn't eaten or slept in three days and at one point we were just like ugh. It was pretty much "Get out of my face, you need to shut up" and  "You need to watch your mouth."

Preston: And part of it was we don't live together, and we've never been around each other 24/7 for an extended period of time.

Jennifer: And you can't just say "Hey, go to your house. Get in your car and leave," you're stuck together. You can't just say "Get out of my face."

Reality TV World: What led to you guys missing that first train in Milan?

Preston: [When we landed in Milan], we came off the plane and we were in first place. We got the first taxi and we were good to go.

Jennifer: We were first place for a long time.

Preston: Our taxi driver didn't speak any English, and we were telling him "Look, you need to take this specific exit, please don't go this way." We were like "No autostrado, no autostrado," whatever.

Anyway foreshadowing -- we should've known it was going to be a bad day -- but our taxi driver and one other team's were the only ones who didn't have a speedpass going through the tolls, and when we came out of there he missed the exit and he takes us into rush hour and we're stuck in traffic for maybe 45 minutes or an hour. Then we go to the wrong customs portion before we get to the train station and that takes another hour or hour-and-a-half. By the time we finally get to the train station we just missed the second train by like 20 minutes.
 
Reality TV World: About how far away was the train station from the airport?

Preston: Maybe an hour at the most?

Jennifer: About an hour [to an] hour-and-a-half. Of course we had to stop, so when all the other cars had speedpasses and they're just speeding on through, we lost our first place because our car had to stop and pay the toll. Then as soon as you pay the toll, that was the exit we were supposed to get off on, and all the other cars are getting off and we're like "We need to go this way, follow those cars." The [taxi driver] looks at us and is like "No," and he's like pointing up and we look up and there's this big sign [saying] that we're not supposed to take that way.

Preston: Right.

Jennifer: So we got stuck in customs for that two hours ultimately because... the  language barrier is pretty much what cost us that leg. We didn't speak his language and we're telling him to go this way and we're speaking to them in a foreign language and he kinda took his initiative and went the way he wanted to and it got us lost the first day. So thank God that [church] was just a stop and not a Pit Stop.

Reality TV World: About how far behind everyone else did you end up arriving at the church?

Preston: Ugh.

Jennifer: I have no idea.

Preston: Man, we were at least a good hour...

Jennifer: At least 30 minutes to an hour.
 
Reality TV World: Given the time of day it was, did either of you suspect the church would be an overnight stop and might give you a chance to makeup some time the next day?

Preston: No, we thought we were done.

Jennifer: I thought it was an elimination (Unintelligible) I thought we were gonna get to the church and they were going to say -- because it was night time -- but I really thought we were gonna get to the place where we needed to go in the plaza and they were gonna say "Run to your next stop, you will be eliminated," and that'd mean right then and there it's over.

It was a big sigh of relief when we were like "Oh my God, this is when we leave in the morning, we're just signing in. We're last, but we're good to go.

Preston: Right.

Reality TV World: During that camp out in Switzerland it seemed like [Steve Cole] was coming down awfully hard on [his wife Linda Cole] for being slow. Did you see any of that conversation, and if so was it as harsh as it seemed on TV?

Jennifer: Yeah, we were there the whole entire time. None of us could sleep because it was very cold and we were actually sleeping in the Swiss Alps and it was snowing. We had one little blanket between Preston and I and we just couldn't sleep, so Preston made a camp fire that we were all sitting around and that's where they had that conversation. We were kinda right beside them as they were having that [talk] because everybody else was around.

He was just kinda saying [you were slow] and "You weren't fast enough," and I mean I think he was a little hard on her. She did try and she gave it everything she had.

Reality TV World: Could you talk a little about that confusing cheese challenge?  Based on what we saw players like Steve, Linda, and Mel doing, it looked like you didn't actually have to carry the cheese down the hill and you could just kind of roll it -- can you explain exactly what the rules were?

Both Jennifer and Preston: The rules were you could not roll it or pull it.

Preston: Yeah, you couldn't roll it intentionally. So what happened was when people fell and broke [their carrier] and [the cheese] rolled down, well that's not really intentional so they just go down and get the cheese and take to the [goal].

Reality TV World: So if it fell all the way down they could take it from the bottom over to the place to drop it off? They didn't have to go back and get another one?

Jennifer: Well they did, it wasn't said that there was going to be a penalty, and the rules said you couldn't push, roll it or do anything that obviously gives you an advantage. So when it was accidentally going off of people's carriers and they realized "Hey, this is a good idea," that's how a lot of people got ahead.

And they didn't show me carrying cheese but I did. I actually slid down the hill like the rest of 'em.
 
Reality TV World: On the show it did seem like a few people were kind of doing a controlled rolling [of the cheese] at some point, were they [actually] not doing that or did people just start to ignore the rule after a while?

Preston: We made it in the second group. The ones in the first group, we didn't really see. We got there right as people like [Mel White] or [Mike White] were finishing up.

Jennifer: All of the cheese carriers in our group were broke, so we decided the best way for almost all of us to get down way we get down was  we could put [the cheese] on a sleigh-type thing. So when Preston and I put our two cheeses on the rest of our carrier that didn't break, it ended up breaking a few steps down the hill, so we didn't have any cheeses carrier left. We had two little boards left. So I decided that I was just gonna put it between my legs and go.

[The episode] showed Mel doing that, [Amanda Blackledge] and I did that, Linda did it. I know a bunch of us put i between our legs and kinda just slid it down the hill because the hill was really wet, it had just rained, and we were sliding in animal poo. There were goats, sheep and cow poop everywhere, so it was a little bit easier to slide in.

Reality TV World: About how long would you say that cheese challenge took you from beginning to end?

Jennifer: I have no idea because my adrenaline was just going so much.

Preston: It might've been 45 minutes maybe?

Jennifer: No, it was longer than that. It was at least, I would say, an hour.

Preston: I don't know.

Jennifer: Plus we didn't really check out watches.

Reality TV World: Christie and Jodi were the last team to arrive [at the cheese challenge]. Do you know about how long after you had arrived that they got there and how much of a jump you had on them?
 
Jennifer: We had about 30-45 minutes.

Preston: Yeah, on the cheese hill?

Reality TV World: Yeah.

Preston: Well on the cheese hill we had about a 20 minute lead, and then after we got done...

Jennifer: (Interrupting) They got there as we were running off...

Preston: No, no, no, no. They were doing the cheese hill while we were doing the cheese hill.

Jennifer: See I didn't see them. I saw them running up.

Preston: They had to go back and get one more cheese after we got finished with ours. So we had a good 30 minute lead in the taxi on the way to the Pit Stop.

Reality TV World: Oh, okay. So what happened there? Did they have a quick cab? Did you have a slow one? Did you just get lost somewhere?

Preston: We still got there 35 minutes ahead of them, we just didn't have any money. None of the teams that took our flight, none of us had enough money to pay for our [taxis] at the end.

Jennifer: The important thing is Preston and I didn't spend any money during the way. The money that we spent was on transportation. We didn't eat, we spent zero dollars. So we didn't have enough money, and for our taxi we were 75 Francs short, so we get there and I'm begging the driver, who either spoke French or German I'm not sure, I'm begging him to let us go. And the other teams had already begged for money, so as we're begging for money everybody's like "No, we've already been hit up," so nobody was giving any money.

So we were begging and I finally went back to the taxi driver and he's yelling at me in this language "I need to be paid!" so I just decide, "Okay we're just gonna run." So we run to go to the Pit Stop, well we ran the wrong way, [we did] what they showed [linda and Steve do on TV], everybody I think went that way because there were speakers going up the mountains that sounded like the yodelers, so it kinda seemed like you had to go up the mountain so that's what we all were doing.

Well we realized that it was the wrong way and we needed to go the opposite way that we were running. Preston and I got back into the little circle in town that we were running through initially and it was "Oh my God I can't believe we just went the wrong way, we're such idiots. Blah, blah blah."

Well, Jodie and Christie had just gotten out of their taxi cab and they heard that, and they're like "Hey." They started running and realized that we were running the wrong way, so then they turned around to go the other way, and then by that time it was just neck-and-neck. It was a footrace, literally a second apart, if that.

Reality TV World: When you guys were eliminated, Jennifer said that she thought The Amazing Race had "made" your relationship.  What’s the status of your relationship now?

Preston: Better than ever. (Laughs)

Jennifer: We're taking donations [to be] on the next The Amazing Race. (Laughs)

We're together. I think it's better than it ever was. It showed us a lot that we didn't know about each other, especially spending 24/7 together.


http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/exclusive-jennifer-hopka-and-preston-mccamy-talk-the-amazing-race-8461.php

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