“We Kicked Ass the First Three Legs” – An Interview with The Amazing Race: All-Stars’ Rob & Amber

RealityNewsOnline: Hi, Rob & Amber! Thanks for talking to RealityNewsOnline today. I have to say I’m a little shocked to be talking to you two right now!

Amber: Yeah...

Rob: I’m shocked to be doing my interviews right now, too. Usually I like to be doing them in May.

Amber: We didn’t want to be talking to you right now.

RNO: Was your strategy any different on All-Stars than it was on the first race?

Rob: No.

Amber: No, I don’t think so. Our strategy’s just to win. I think we played it the same way.

Rob: We try to adapt to different situations we’re put in, you know? It’s frustrating for us because a lot of what happened the last episode was not in our control. You know, we couldn’t really... The first thing with the spelling... I had no idea that it had to be spelled properly. They never gave us instructions about that. They just conveniently put a voiceover with Phil saying that after the fact. But it’s not written in any of the clues that we had.

RNO: It wasn’t written in the clue that you had to spell the words correctly?

Rob: Absolutely not. [Phil said] direction didn’t matter, but it was actually written the opposite way in the clue – that the direction did matter. So there’s some confusion still as to what did happen there. If you look at Uchenna & Joyce’s clues, the way they wrote their words, they were illegible. How can you say it’s spelled properly? It was illegible on freeze frame. We just found out all of this last night!

RNO: So you couldn’t ask about it at the time because you didn’t realize that was what was going on?

Rob: Yeah. At the end of the race, with the letters, we couldn’t really do anything about that. It was just a needle in a haystack.

RNO: So you did not realize until you watched the show that the spelling was the issue with the Detour?

Rob: Last night was the first time we found out about that.

RNO: Interesting. So, the other teams clearly saw you as the toughest competition, and rightfully so. Did that focus on you help you or hurt you on the race?

Rob: It didn’t hurt us. If anything it –

Rob & Amber: – helped us!

Rob: The other teams are preoccupied with us.

Amber: It almost becomes, for them – it doesn’t become beating the race – it becomes beating Rob & Amber. That’s a good distraction for them, because we’re concentrating on the race. So I think it actually helps. And actually, it’s respectful, too. I think it’s kind of cool that they [feel that way].

Rob: It’s actually a good goal to have, because if you beat us, that means you’re going to win!

RNO: It worked for Uchenna & Joyce! Do you think your celebrity helped you on the race at all? Did you get more help from locals because of it?

Rob: Not so much this time.

Amber: The first time it did. But this time...

Rob: I don’t even know that it helped us that much the first time. I mean, it definitely – it put us out there – and there were people who helped us because of it. But a lot of it was common sense. It was just asking for help. You know what I mean? Everything we learned, we learned from other racers. We were fans of the show before, and all we did was what they did. But because of the fact that we did it, they made a bigger deal about it.

Amber: This time around, though, we didn’t really get into too many situations like that.

Rob: We weren’t around long enough!

Amber: The people who helped us buy the book [as David & Mary noted in their interview] were actually the third people we approached. They bought the book for us and they had no idea who we were.

RNO: Something that’s changed for you between your two races is that you were engaged the first time out, and married this time. Did the change in your relationship affect your team dynamic?

Rob: Yeah. Now she’s allowed to yell back at me.

Amber: (laughs) I think our relationship has strengthened over time and I think we’ve gotten better at communicating. I think being married and being newly engaged is different. It definitely helped us, but unfortunately, not enough.

RNO: One thing I always appreciated about you guys as a team is how well you used your time on the race. You seemed to do research when you could. You were always looking for opportunities to strengthen your position in the race. Do you think this is one of the keys as to why you’re such good racers?

Rob: I think it’s just common sense and the people who don’t get that and are there to make friends and have a good time are missing the entire point of the race for a million dollars. I mean, you have to use every second that you have to your advantage. The teams that didn’t get that, obviously they’ve either already been eliminated or will be eliminated soon.

RNO: You ran three of the best legs in Amazing Race history. And then we got to this last one. Did you think, at the time, that there was any critical error you made vs. just the luck of the draw in losing this leg?

Rob: Yeah. We spelled Philippines wrong.

RNO: Do you know how to spell Philippines now, Rob?

Rob: No.

(Amber laughs.)

Rob: I was teasing! (laughs)