Fall TV Blog

There will be some familiar faces competing on the new season of The Amazing Race!

Big Brother winner Jordan Lloyd and her fan-favorite boyfriend Jeff Schroeder will make up one of the 11 teams racing almost 40,000 miles on the 16th edition of the show, which premieres Feb. 14 (8 p.m. EST) on CBS.

Departing from Los Angeles, the teams will have to make their way on public transportation to LAX, where they’ll hop a flight to their first destination, Chile, where they’ll face one of the most daunting Roadblocks in the show’s history, according to a CBS press release.

Also competing: Caite Upton, the former Miss South Carolina Teen USA who became a YouTube sensation after flubbing her answer to a question from pageant judges. Now a model, she’ll race with her boyfriend Brent Horne.

To learn more about the contestants — including a pair of undercover detectives, a World Series champion coach and his daughter, and cowboy brothers — competing on The Amazing Race, watch the video below. (more…)

Ericka Dunlap, 27, and Brian Kleinschmidt, 27, only placed third in The Amazing Race 15, but this Nashville couple (a.k.a. Mr. and Miss America) were consistently fun to watch thanks to her dramatic meltdowns and their witty repartee. The aspiring country singer and her marketing tour manager husband spoke with PEOPLE about keeping it real on The Race. –Carrie Bell

It must have been frustrating to gain the lead and then lose it because you can’t bungee bounce.
Brian: It was a tough challenge and it was a blow to our spirits to lose the lead but it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. They made it look like we were there for an hour when in actuality we were probably only there for an extra 10 or 15 minutes. The thing that really killed us was that our dealer in the poker room miscounted some chips.
Ericka: It sucked to lose the lead. We were in first place for the first time ever and it seemed like destiny to achieve that when it really counted. We arrived at Love about 13 minutes ahead of Meghan and Cheyne but couldn’t get the damn flowers. When they got there and she got it, I started to get very anxious and frustrated. The more frustrated I got, the worse I performed.
Brian: It felt like we lost a million dollars by about four inches. Ericka is much shorter than Sam and Meghan. She came so close and grabbed a handful of petals almost every time. But that’s life. (more…)

Sam, 23, and Dan McMillen, 21, bickered their way to second place on The Amazing Race 15. The gay brothers and students from Liberty, Mo., discussed their many controversial moments (Elbowgate! Taxigate! Franzgate! Pixelationgate!) with PEOPLE as well as how coming out on TV compared with telling their conservative family that they are both gay upon returning home. –Carrie Bell

It was a close second. Hard feelings?
Sam: When looking at my bank account, it would be nice if a half a million extra dollars was in there but despite sounding cliché, it really is a priceless experience.
Dan: It was harder to keep the secret for four months than to lose. Everyone has been bugging us about what happened and we couldn’t say a word. I’m just glad we’re able to talk about placing second. And honestly, we got to see all these fantastic places on someone else’s credit card and got some money out of it. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Not even how much you fought? (more…)

After finishing first six times in 11 legs, The Amazing Race 15 was Meghan Rickey and Cheyne Whitney’s to lose — and the San Diego-based couple did not disappoint. Rickey, a publicist, and Whitney, an after-school band manager, both 23, talked with PEOPLE about how the competition affected their relationship, how they intend to spend their $1 million prize and if wedding bells will be ringing soon. — Carrie Bell

You were a strong team from the start. What do you attribute your consistent winning streak too?
Cheyne: It comes down to the fact that we have known each other for so long and we work very well together. Our strengths balance out each other’s weaknesses. We stayed focused on ourselves and didn’t think about what other teams were doing or how. It has been our dream for five years to go on the Race together and we were just happy to be there doing it. (more…)

Anything can happen in Vegas — and for these racers, it did! After visiting eight countries and logging more than 25,000 miles in 21 days, San Diego-based Meghan Rickey, 23, and Cheyne Whitney, 23, were the first team to cross the finish line at Wayne Newton’s house in Las Vegas on The Amazing Race and were crowned winners of the CBS series’ 15th installment and the million-dollar prize by host Phil Keoghan.

While they appeared stunned (Cheyne asked, “For real, bro?” while Meghan claimed she couldn’t feel her body), the All-Americans were generally favored to win as they had placed first on the most legs, were physically fit and kept their fighting to a minimum. As with most reality show winners, both claimed the cash was secondary to the experience. “The experience is life-changing and the money is not even as important as what we got to do together,” Cheyne explained in his post-win interview segment. “She was one of the strongest competitors even compared to the guys. I’m so happy she’s mine.” She added, “This has been a learning experience. Every step of the way has been so neat. I learned so much about Cheyne. He’s a good person and friend [who will] be there for me throughout my life.” (more…)

The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan has never guessed the final three teams on day one, and his losing streak remains intact for the 15th installment of the series, a “truly fantastic season” that concludes Sunday night on CBS. “I never know [who will make it to the finale] and that’s what makes the show work. The audience is left guessing every step of the way,” he told PEOPLE. He also gave his assessment on the remaining teams who will battle for the jackpot on the Race’s last stop, Las Vegas. –Carrie Bell

The All-Americans
Meghan Rickey, 23, and Cheyne Whitney, 23, of San Diego, Calif.
Strengths: Apart from having the most first-place showings of any team ever, “they have that wonderful, youthful enthusiasm about life and completely embrace new experiences. They have questioned each other’s actions, but somehow [always] worked things out. I’m sure the Race has tested their relationship more than any other experience to date. I’m most surprised by Meghan’s incredible transformation. At the start, she told me she was focused on facing her deep-seated fears and wanted to use this experience to change the way she approached life. She has stepped up for her team throughout and pushed way beyond her comfort zone.”
Weaknesses: “Being young could be their downfall. The pressure could finally prove to be too much when so much is on the line. It’s imperative that they slow down enough to make the right decisions and not let their boundless puppy-like enthusiasm steer them in the wrong direction.”
Best Strategic Move: Going for the Fast Forward in Dubai. “That was a strong power play that paid off big time. They’ve never been scared to go for it.” (more…)

It was the decision heard around the world. On the second-to-last leg of The Amazing Race, Nathaniel ‘Big Easy’ Lofton, 28, exited a roadblock he couldn’t figure out and told his partner Herb ‘Flight Time’ Lang, 32, that he wanted to take the four-hour non-completion penalty. It sealed the fate of the Harlem Globetrotters, arguably the fan-favorites, but the Louisiana natives talked to PEOPLE about not letting the choice taint their take on the trip and their rivalry with brothers Sam and Dan. –Carrie Bell

How long did you attempt the Kafka task before taking the penalty? And did you regret making that decision?
Big Easy: I was there for three-and-a-half hours before I decided. I couldn’t think clearly anymore. I don’t regret the decision. I had the answer on the paper so I thought I had used it already and got it wrong. Whatever was on the paper, I wasn’t going to try again so I would have been there even longer than the penalty if I was trying to come up with an answer.

Did you think it was even remotely possible that you might make the final three after the penalty?

(more…)

The final four teams zoomed around Prague on Sunday for the penultimate leg of The Amazing Race, which had plenty of bickering, (more) villainy by the brothers, an impressive comeback and the fall of fan-favorites. A few more travel tips were established, including the most important Race rule (besides “Don’t lose your passport”). –Carrie Bell

Get Hooked on Mnemonics: Leading the pack, All-Americans Meghan and Cheyne arrived first at the Ekotechnicke Museum, where teams searched a room of ringing phones for five with a voice on the other end that revealed a letter. Meghan repeated the letters and assigned each one an animal whose name began with the same letter. It took her only two tries to unscramble Kafka’s first name, Franz, for the bureaucrats holding the next clue. Other teams didn’t do as well, but Brian (a.k.a. Mr. America) wisely wrote down all possible permutations and handed in the one that made the most sense. This allowed him to surpass a highly frustrated Big Easy even after the teetotaler got tipsy at the absinthe-making speed bump. (more…)

The Czech Republic welcomed the final four for a leg filled with trickier clues, feats of upper-body strength, bickering, failed alliances and transportation theft. The following travel tips were gleaned from watching the episode, which was more heated than last week’s elbow-gate. — Carrie Bell

1. Don’t mock your traveling companion. Especially if you don’t know what you’re talking about either. One brother inquired if they speak Spanish in Prague. The other laughed at his stupid question just before foolishly declaring Prague a country.

2. If you have time to lean, you have time to surf the net. Teams had a few hours to kill at the Estonian airport and yet only two teams bothered to use the readily available computers to deduce what a vintage Praga (an antique convertible) is despite the fact that they were instructed to find one. Meghan decided to fib about the definition before she overheard the Globetrotters figure it out. The brothers lucked out when they arrived simultaneously with The All-Americans and could watch them run to the car. Otherwise, it would have be candelabra-gate all over again. Which it kind of was when Mr. And Miss America arrived solo and clueless (more…)

After finishing last in a non-elimination round and being penalized with a speed bump, construction manager and mortgage broker Gary Tomljenovich, 47, and his college student son Matt, 22, couldn’t catch up to the other teams in Estonia and were Philiminated on this week’s episode of The Amazing Race. The Montana-based father-son duo recently discussed with PEOPLE their adventures in cross-dressing, finding candelabras, male bonding and more. –Carrie Bell

You had a great run for two people who had spent so little time together in recent years. What was your strategy?
Gary: We went in trying to put our many differences aside. We realized we had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we wanted to take advantage of it to the best of our ability. In order to do that, we had to get along. We set the goal early on to have fun and that eased a little bit of the stress.

Before the Race began, you were worried about embarrassing your mom and wife. How has she reacted to your television debuts?
Matt: She has been embarrassed about a few things — mainly dad wearing a dress. (more…)