Exclusive: 'The Amazing Race: All-Stars' eliminees Natalie Anderson and Nadiya Anderson talk (Part 2)
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 02/28/2014
The Amazing Race: All-Stars eliminated Natalie Anderson and Nadiya Anderson during the premiere broadcast of the CBS reality competition's 24th overall season and third all-stars edition.
The "Twin Sisters" team, who finished in fourth place on Season 21, became the first team eliminated from the around-the-world competition after they arrived at the Race's first Pit Stop at Guangzhou Opera House in Guangzhou, China in last place.
In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Monday, Natalie and Nadiya talked about their very short-lived The Amazing Race experience. Below is the concluding portion of their interview. Click here to read the first half.
Reality TV World: You girls really struggled finding a clue at the Ferris wheel. How many bubbles did you end up going inside and therefore how many full rides did you take before getting a clue?
Natalie Anderson: We only went in two stupid bubbles, but obviously the first bubble, it takes f-cking almost 30 minutes to go around. So you're sitting there like a duck and you can't do anything. We're just sitting there, and that's obviously when me and Nadiya started arguing, because you're stuck in a bubble with nothing to do.
So we're getting to the end of the Race and we're in last place, so what else are we going to do? Smile and dance and sing? Obviously we immediately start fighting because there's nothing else to do, and then we got back in and out of the bubble, but Nadiya -- because I made the wrong decision first -- she was second guessing my decision to go in the right bubble.
So we missed another bubble! We missed two bubbles, and then we went in the fourth one, and I can understand why she didn't want to trust me, but then she wasn't making decisions either. So we were just sitting around. She wanted to wait for the twelfth one. (Laughs)
Reality TV World: I'm glad you clarified that because it didn't seem to make sense what you two were actually fighting about. I didn't know if there was a real issue there or whether it was just the annoyance of waiting around, like you just mentioned.
Natalie Anderson: Yeah, basically the first time we argued in the bubble was because I was like, "No, I see the clue!" I knew there were some teams who had the actual clue in it, so I was like, "You idiot! I see [the clue] in there!" So I was like, "Let's go!" And then getting there, we realized, "Sh-t. It's the outside clue but the inside doesn't have anything in it." It said, "Try Again."
So then when I was like, "It's f-cking in that one," but Nadiya was like, "No, let's just wait for one we know is legit," and that's when we were just hesitating back and forth. And then we finally just got in one, and luckily, it was right and we finally got the clue. But at that point, we were already doomed.
Reality TV World: How long did it take you to finish what seemed to be a quick Roadblock task -- flipping in the air?
Natalie Anderson: We were hoping that was going to be the first of maybe two challenges, because in our first experience on The Amazing Race, the first leg was really tiring and really long and it had two challenges.
And it had a lot of room for error on other people's parts, whereas this [time], the only big error you could have made was not figuring out which store to go to and to get your clue. And that's when me and Nadiya messed up.
The Roadblock took me all of like 10 seconds once I was up in the air to flip, you know, they had to suit us up and everybody suiting up and putting on that stupid-ass outfit all took the same amount of time.
So it's not like I could've put on my outfit faster than somebody else and try to beat them to the stupid tower. We [finished] in the order you came. The Roadblock was an easy-peasy challenge. Nobody faltered, so there was absolutely no way for us to change our position at that time in the Race.
Reality TV World: How far behind Joseph "Joey" Graceffa and Meghan Caramena do you think you two girls finally arrived at the Pit Stop?
Nadiya Anderson: I saw them at the flipping challenge. But when we got there, Joey was already in the air, and you know, Natalie was changing while Joey was flipping. So while Natalie was getting ready there, Joey and Meghan came down, and I said, "Good job guys." I knew we were last at that point because I heard Joey spazz out and say, "Oh my God, the Pit Stop! We're going to the Pit Stop next!"
And I knew at that point there was absolutely nothing we could do because the leg was very cut and dry. It was very boom, boom, boom. And there was nothing that -- Natalie and I were looking forward to some hardcore, physical, really tedious challenges so that we could make up time, but we weren't lucky enough to get that.
Reality TV World: You two obviously had some time to think about racing strategy before the show began filming. What did you two plan to do differently this time around, if anything at all? Did you think of ways you could improve your race from the last time?
Nadiya Anderson: I think, you know, we were pretty happy with how we raced. We're a hot mess and we're crazy, but usually, it comes around in a way that is actually beneficial to us, because we always need a fire under ourselves and we're always gunning for first.
We obviously thought about, you know, "We need to calm down and read directions, stay cool a little bit when it comes to making critical choices," but it kind of goes all out the window when you're in a situation that is so high-stress. I mean, we talked about it all night and day before we came but everything went out the window. It's just kind of hard to keep focused.
Reality TV World: Who did you think was your biggest competition while you were out there and were you actually surprised to see any of the other 10 teams competing again?
Natalie Anderson: I mean, you know, you hear about some teams, but me and Nadiya didn't really look at any of the teams as competition just because we have a really good skill set when it comes to racing versus other teams.
So, say an all-girl team that wasn't physically strong might look at a guy-guy team and be like, "Oh my God, how can we hang with the guys?" But me and Nadiya would never be -- that would be our least concern because we think we can hang with the guys physically.
If anything, one of the things me and Nadiya would've seen as a threat more was one of the personality teams that had a way to take positions calmly and collectedly, kind of like the Beekmans [Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge] who go under the radar -- somebody very different to us and almost seem like a non-threat but secretly is a big threat.
But we came in really excited to race with the teams, like when we saw the [Globetrotters Herbert "Flight Time" Lang and Nate "Big Easy" Lofton], we were really excited, and [Mallory Ervin], we were really excited when [William "Bopper" Minton and Mark Jackson] did the switch at the starting line. We were really excited to race with them.
Obviously we didn't get to bloody race, which sucked, (laughs) but those are some of the teams. We didn't see a challenge. At the end of the day, we got out because for us, the nature of the first leg wasn't suited for a team like us.
We would've thrived in a really physical, hard challenge. This was a really good leg for people who can make decisions on their own calmly, and it's just really [about] the navigation, and me and Nadiya, it wasn't our best.
Reality TV World: Were there any teams you had been expecting would be on the all-stars edition that weren't there? Maybe you felt certain teams deserved to be there but didn't get the chance.
Nadiya Anderson: Yeah, I mean, me and Natalie were the only people from Season 21 and we were the only people, you know, that hadn't kind of been with anybody else before coming on [the show]. Because even some of the all-stars, they were on a season together or had raced as all-stars together.
I feel like if [Jaymes Vaughan and James Davis] or [Trey Wier and Alexis "Lexi" Beerman] were on the season with us, it would've been a completely different ballgame. As well as being way more fun, it would've been great to have people on the Race that we could've trusted and people who would've been a no-brainer to work with. We wouldn't have had our guards up at all.
Reality TV World: How did your own return to The Amazing Race come about? Had you girls been campaigning for it all along or did producers contact you and it was a surprise?
Nadiya Anderson: It was a total surprise. I mean, when we got back, fans and people on Twitter and whatever, Instagram, were saying, "The Amazing Race: All-Stars is coming up and would you guys do it?"
And me and Natalie always were very vocal and expressive about the fact we would totally be down for an all-stars, and then it was a total surprise when they contacted us. And obviously our answer was "hell yeah."
Natalie Anderson: Coming back was like getting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity twice. Obviously Nadiya and I didn't make the best of this opportunity, but you know, it's something that I would never have said "no" to. It was a no-brainer, but I'm not really sure how they wrangle up the teams. But it seemed like it was just a really good mix of people and a very different cast. So it was really fun to be a part of it.
Reality TV World: How did you feel about Mallory substituting for Bopper since he got sick as Mark's partner? And if you were in their shoes, do you think either one of you would be okay racing with someone else? Would you go through with it?
Natalie Anderson: You know, honestly, Mark and Bopper, we didn't know them. We just watched them, and it was cool to watch them race. Honestly, I feel like Mallory was put in a crazier situation than Mark, because at the end of the day, Mark still got to race for his friend. Mallory was doing this for Mark and Bopper.
She was, you know, substituting for a person that wasn't physically fit to race. It sucked that he couldn't race with his best bud or whatever, but I feel like Mark and Bopper are the same person, and so Mallory brought another dynamic to the team.
I feel like together, Mark and Mallory could really do some damage racing, especially since she was in the Final 3 with her father. But you know, it was a crazy situation at the starting line. Me and Natalie were excited to see Mallory, so we didn't get to race, but we were really excited to see her at the starting line.
Nadiya Anderson: And yeah, I think me and Natalie's personalities and how we interact and how we react, I don't think anybody would want to race with us. Us wanting to race with somebody would be a different story, but I don't think anybody else would want to race with us.
We're just way too intense and, you know, I feel like if we talked to anybody else the way we talk to each other, I feel like there would be tears. And by the end of the leg, it'd be a hotter mess than me and Natalie. So, no, I don't think we'd do that.
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