The Amazing Race season 14 Cast!!!

Exclusive Interview with Tammy and Victor Jih of The Amazing Race

Posted on 05/11/2009 by Gina in Amazing Race 14, Cast Interviews
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by Gina Scarpa



On last night’s season finale of The Amazing Race, Tammy and Victor pulled off the near impossible. Not only did they cross the finish line first and become the winners of The Amazing Race, their entire alliance made it to the final leg and finished the race as well. Tammy and Victor started the race as a force to be reckoned with but a meltdown in Romania almost cost them the race. They regrouped, got focused, and never looked back. Today, the winners of The Amazing Race spoke to RealityWanted in an exclusive interview about life during the race and what the future has in store for them.



Q. Gina, RealityWanted: I know you’ve had to keep the fact that you won a secret for quite some time. What have things been like since the finale aired last night?
Tammy: It’s been a whirlwind. I haven’t had a chance to process it all. We were so lucky that our mom and dad were able to fly out from Taiwan to New York last night. They had no idea that we had won. It was so incredible to share that experience with them.

Victor: It allows us to feel special and like rock stars for a little while!



Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Whose idea was it to try out for the race?
Victor: Definitely Tammy’s idea. I’ve been the longer fan. I’ve watched since season 1 and even endured season 8, the family edition. I’ve always thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to be on the show?” but it took Tammy to actually say, "Let’s do it".



Q. Gina, RealityWanted: I liked you guys from the very first episode and then, you struggled in Romania, and I started to get nervous. Tell me about that leg of the race, now that you have some perspective on it.
Victor: I still have difficulties watching that episode. I’ve watched it once and cannot watch it again. Episode 3 should be called “Everything Bad That Could Happen To Victor”.
Tammy: And Tammy. I had to wear white spandex!
Victor: In hindsight, I feel like we needed Romania to do well on the race. I felt like it was my responsibility to make sure that we do well. I realized that, in order to win The Amazing Race, you need two people. Going into Romania, we would fight. We could never agree on tactics. I think that we both compromised a little bit out of Romania.
Tammy: It paid off on a personal level as well.



Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What was your strategy going into the race, when it came to working with other teams? We saw you working closely with teams at times and then breaking off on your own when necessary.
Victor: It was interesting watching that and seeing what other teams would say. We shared a personal sized pizza with Margie and Luke and Jamie and Cara on the first leg of the race. We talked about alliances and talked about how great it would be if we were the final three teams in the race. Jaime said, though, that we should mutually want each other to be in the final round but race for ourselves. We had an alliance from day one.



Q. Gina, RealityWanted: How surprised were you that you were actually able to pull things off and get your alliance, in tact, to the final leg of the race?
Tammy: I was totally surprised! When we were all waiting for our flights from China to Hawaii, we were just marveling at how incredible it was that we were the final three teams.



Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Do the two of you have plans to keep traveling?
Victor: Oh definitely! Tammy’s already claimed the Galapagos trip. She made it clear that she’d rather go with her boyfriend than me. We’ve always loved traveling before. What the race has done is made me realize that it’s fun to travel in places that I otherwise wouldn’t want to go.
Tammy: We traveled in our comfort zone and we stayed in hotels that catered to Westerners. After doing the race, I realize how incredible it would be to an adventure traveler!

Tammy and Victor winning =

Amanda & Kris at the finish line =

Lurgie and the Gingerbeats losing =

An Exclusive 2nd Place Detour with Cara and Jaime The Amazing Race

After 14 seasons of The Amazing Race, the all-female teams have had a hard time finishing the race in first place to capture the million dollar prize. This season it was former NFL cheerleaders, Cara and Jaime, who broke through The Amazing Race defense to score an all-female touchdown to become one of the final three teams up for competition in the last leg in Maui. Although Cara and Jaime ran a strong, often emotionally explosive race through Switzerland, Romania, Russia, India and China before touching down in Maui, the former NFL sideline girls failed convert their Amazing race extra point for the victory in Hawaiian overtime.

After struggling on the beaches of Maui to transport a dead pig for ceremonial burial in the final Detour, Cara and Jaime forged ahead to catch up to the first place mother and son team of Margie and Luke and the brother and sister team of Tammy and Victor who were in second place. Although Luke was well out in front of the other teams during the final Road Block, which was a skill testing surfboard puzzle based on all the previous countries in the race, Victor breezed through challenge while Luke faltered, which opened a window of opportunity for Jaime who also passed Luke to leave the Road Block in second place behind Tammy and her brother. When it was all said and done for the 14th season of The Amazing Race, Cara and Jaime couldn't catch Tammy and Victor who hit the mat first to win the race and the million-dollar prize. But the all-female, former NFL cheerleading team did hit the mat in second place not too far ahead of Margie and Luke who Jaime helped get over the final Road Block.

The morning after the nail-biting season finale of The Amazing Race 14, we took an exclusive one-on-one detour with Cara and Jaime to find how more about the final leg in Maui, the amazing yet frustrating dynamics of the race, how they felt about their luck with cab drivers, which Road Blocks they would go back in time to repeat, and whether either Cara or Jaime will ever eat pork after getting a swine beat down on the beach in Maui.

THE DEADBOLT: So, Jamie, the race was emotional I take it?

JAIME EDMONDSON: Yes, it is emotional.

THE DEADBOLT: From what we did or didn’t see, what frustrated you the most?

JAIME: I’d say our luck with the taxis was very frustrating. At least it just never went our way. It went our way once to get us into the final three. That taxi driver actually did understand and he drove like he was in the Indy 500. But other than that one taxi, it just never went our way. And you can’t blame the other teams for getting the luck with the taxis because it’s really out of everyone’s hands, but very frustrating for me. I can accept losing because I didn’t compete. I can’t accept losing at the hands of someone else.

THE DEADBOLT: Cara, were you surprised that the cab company didn’t find the address for you guys?

CARA ROSENTHAL: No. By that point I was not surprised at all. With our luck, just through this whole race, for anyone to have been really helpful or knowledgeable about their own terrain and working track would’ve been far too convenient and too lucky for us. So at that point, I was not shocked that the woman wouldn’t help us. I was just like, ‘Wow.’

JAIME: It was like the road only went two ways, front or back, and it’s very frustrating.

THE DEADBOLT: So how tough was the laid back vibe of Hawaii compared to the other cities?

JAIME: You know, it wasn’t that he didn’t understand that we were in a race. It’s just that he didn’t understand until, actually, the very last ride up to the finish mat what we were saying to him, which was, ‘This is for a million dollars, sir. Please, this is worth a million dollars to us.’ You know, have a little urgency. Then he finally got it when he realized we were coming in second place. You know, I guess it was good he got it in the end. Better late than never, I suppose.

THE DEADBOLT: In what ways do you think your alliance with Margie and Luke helped you along the way?

CARA: I don’t know. I think that Jaime would agree that the way it helped us most is it enabled us to make a really wonderful friendship with them. I mean, the reality is our "alliance" was pretty limited to telling each other we were on the same flight. Then we were on the same flight when we told each other. They didn’t help us at the tasks. The one time that they did uphold our very loose alliance was actually an alliance the three final teams made at the point when we were heading to Russia.

And we thought that we were the three teams going to be racing each other to the final and we said, ‘We don’t care who it is if anyone is on our plane or behind us, we will all U-Turn them.’ And it just so happened that it was Mike and Mel and Amanda and Kris to save each other, and that was the only time we really had an alliance that altered the course of the race. Other than that, it was pretty much just sharing information. And to be completely honest, we shared information with Victor and Tammy just as often and as much as we did with Margie and Luke, and vice versa. They did with us as well, absolutely.

THE DEADBOLT: If you could go back, what Road Block do you wish you could’ve performed in place of the other?

JAIME: I would say I would’ve done the foot massage for Cara just knowing how much she despises having her feet touched and how painful it was for me to watch her in pain. So I would have rather taken it on. But it wasn’t an option because I had just done three Road Blocks in a row and we had to have Cara catch up and we couldn’t max out. We wanted to go into the final leg having the option of either one of us being able to do the final Road Block. So putting us at an even five and five and that sixth Road Block wouldn’t be ...

CARA: Well, we also didn’t know at that time that it was going to be a foot massage. We thought maybe a body massage and I was even a little bit anxious about that because I just - You know, I was a ballerina for my whole life and I’ve had so many disgusting foot injuries and I guess I’ve just created a mental paranoia, for lack of a better term, about having my feet dealt with, touched, especially with that massage. You know, she’s hitting pressure points where I can recall, "Wow, I had broken bones there. So I think that’s probably why it was so incredibly painful for me and I had a very bad reaction. Jaime can tell you; for about a month after we were like, ‘Oh, my God, when are your feet going to recover?’ Because they were still bruised and I had blood pools in one of my arches. I mean, it as not a pretty sight.

JAIME: Yeah, I would’ve done that one just so I wouldn’t have to watch her in pain. It was heart-breaking to be helpless and watching it, and I was covering my ears waiting for it to be over because you just feel so helpless. I imagine it must be what a man feels like watching his wife give birth ... I’m just joking, I’m pretty sure childbirth is even worse than that.

CARA: [laughs] Maybe not for me, because I’m not nearly as paranoid about that, for some reason, as I am about pedicures. But for me, I would’ve liked, just for the experience of it, to do the bungee jump. Jaime really stepped up to the plate. Before I left, I told my mother - My mother, bless her, she was like, ‘I don’t want you doing skydiving, bungee jumping. I don’t want you doing any of these wild adventures. I was like, "Mom, I’m going on The Amazing Race, these are promises I can’t make to you." She said, "If you don’t have to bungee jump, please don’t do it." And Jamie knew about that, because we were joking about it, so Jamie said, "Fine, I’ll do it, but your parents owe me a steak dinner," which they are getting her.

THE DEADBOLT: Are you guys ever going to eat pork after carrying the pig?

CARA: I actually don’t eat pork as it is, I’m Jewish. So it’s not an issue for me. Actually, one of my family members said a really funny comment to me. They said, "Doesn’t it just figure that pork and Jesus got you in the end, Cara." So it was a little inside funny joke I got a little chuckle out of. [laughs]

Jaime refuses to answer questions about her behavior; Margie and Luke “regret” fight with Kisha and Jen

In the most ironic and most self-unaware post-Amazing Race interview ever, Jaime Edmondson—who spent most of the season berating cab drivers and other locals before redeeming herself during the finale—refused to answer questions about her behavior, and complained about the way she’s being treated.
During Jaime and Cara’s conversation with Reality TV World, Jaime admits she called 911 for directions in Hawaii (and I was joking when I suggested she was the type of person to call 911 instead of using Google), and has the nerve to get hostile when challenged as to why she, as a former police officer, would do such a ridiculously moronic thing. Instead of answering the question, Jaime says, “you’re really rubbing me the wrong way. I mean your tone and the way that you’re trying to insinuate that everything that I’m doing is wrong or bad, I don’t appreciate it” and then says, “If you’re going to treat me this way then I’m not going to have an interview with you.”
Jaime, if most people took that approach with your awful self, you and Cara never would have made it to the final three, and probably never have left the United States. Ugh, ugly hypocrite. I take back everything nice I said about her.
When asked a question about her generally ugly behavior on the race, Jaime bails on the phone call, and Cara is forced to answer the question. “Jaime didn’t hold back. Jaime was herself and I guess, you know, people have misunderstood or misinterpreted that that was the only form of communication she had was getting frustrated with the taxi cab drivers,” she said, adding that after each leg, Jaime would apologize to cab drivers she yelled at.
Meanwhile, the race’s other ugliest moment—besides nearly every moment Jaime was on screen—was the confrontation between Jen and Kisha and Margie and Luke. Regarding that, Margie told TVGuide.com, “I think it was [blown out of proportion.” We all have a responsibility in that. We should’ve just all let it go. It became more than it was. There were some hurt feelings. But everything since has been great. We love Kisha and Jen, and I don’t think there are any hard feelings now.”
Margie elaborates in an interview with After Elton, saying, “there’s no animosity left” and says, “There were a lot of misunderstandings, a lot of hurt feelings. We were exhausted. We’ve definitely made up with Kisha and Jen. We have so much respect for those women. They are fantastic athletes. They are wonderful women who contribute so much to the community with their jobs. They’re just fantastic people. That is the one regret we have on the race that one little brief skirmish we had.”
Also in the After Elton interview, Luke comments on the show’s refusal to identify him as gay (“CBS didn’t want to add too many labels, a gay this or a gay that. … I think they didn’t want to confuse people by adding too many labels to me.).
And not that she needed to, but Margie provides even more evidence about why she’s an incredible person and parent, she says that when Luke came out to her at 19 via text message, “I was like, ‘Thank you for telling me.’ And he was like, ‘You’re not mad?’ And I just said, ‘Why would I be mad? I’ve known your whole life.’ [laughs] It doesn’t change who Luke is. He’s my son. He’s a wonderful person.”
Regarding his mom and her time on the race, Luke said, “Before the race started, Mom used to doubt herself about her strength. I never doubted my mom for one second. I knew she could do it. I knew with a positive attitude she could do it. I knew she was the right team partner for me.”

Jamie has been judged too harshly about this... big deal get over it!

Love it!! She proved what a tool she is!!