Jennifer Hopka and Preston McCamy were the first pair to be eliminated from the new season of The Amazing Race. Their dominant, head-butting, Type A personalities were in conflict throughout the entire first leg, and they just couldn’t get it together, putting them in last place. They did an interview after the episode aired- here are the highlights:
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: (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.
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.
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.”
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.
It’s great to hear they are still together. Producers can edit TV to look pretty much any way they want, but judging by how they reacted at the elimination, they are really still in love. Good for them!
[image: CBS]
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