Murtz On The Scene: Exclusive Interview With The Amazing Race All-Stars‘ Joey Graceffa & Meghan Caramena

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It was a tough leg for Joey Graceffa and Meghan Caramena as the YouTube sensation best friends arrived in Malaysia in last place, making them the third team to be eliminated from The Amazing Race All-Stars. The pair started behind the proverbial 8-Ball as they didn’t make it onto the first flight to arrive in Borneo and fought to survive for the rest of the leg. I had the chance to catch up with Joey and Meghan to find out what happened.

Murtz Jaffer: Hey guys. Sorry that you were eliminated. Joey, did it really just come down to bad luck at the start of the leg because really, it was just the teams that didn’t make it onto the first flight that had to struggle to stay in?

Joey Graceffa: Yeah, it was really frustrating this time around. It didn’t really seem like there was any true skill required in the challenges and it all just mattered on where you started on each leg. That basically determined where you were going to end up. There weren’t enough places to hold people up so other teams could catch up.

MJ: Meghan, at the end of the episode you talked about how you guys thought you were a tough team, but didn’t really have a chance against the ‘veteran teams..’ Would you be able to explain what you meant?

Meghan Caramena: I meant the people who have come on for their third time. Like if it was my third time on the race, yeah I would have everything in order, I would know not to make certain mistakes and to do things right. So that was really tough, those teams did really stick ahead because it was like they knew the race like the back of their hand. We were a tough team and I still think we are. Like Joey said, it wasn’t a matter of skill. No one was making mistakes.

MJ: I said was it frustrating that there were so many teams there that were waiting for the third time?

MC: It did slightly unfair, I love all those teams, I think they are amazing but it did put everyone else at a slight disadvantage.

MJ: Were you guys surprised at the challenges this season? Instead of being super physical or puzzle-based, they seemed random. There were the challenges in this episode (shoot bird statues), finding random wedding dresses, and while there were some difficult things like building a raft, for the most part… it seemed like luck has been more critical this season than in previous ones.

JG: Yeah, it was surprising, I saw the second All-Stars [Unfinished Business] and I had this vision of ‘holy crap it’s going to be super intense, we are going to have lots of double legs and we are going to keep going and the challenges are going to be so tiring!’ Honestly I was really surprised at the first leg. I was like that’s it? We are not going anywhere? we are not doing anything? There’s no detour? So this time round it felt really different and it was weird.

MJ: This week, it was you guys, Brenchel and John and Jessica battling to stay in. Did you guys think that it would be tough to beat two of the more physically dominant teams that were on this season?

MC: No I didn’t. We all made mistakes in the past, so I knew it was going to be one of us going home. I was hoping it wouldn’t be us. Joey and I are really good at any type of building or puzzle challenge, so I was hoping that would be on our side but the taxi just completely threw us out of the game. If we had gotten a better taxi, it might have been a different situation. I think Brendon and Rachel might have been going home.

MJ: Do you think that it was strategy by John/Jessica and Rachel/Brendon to all race together knowing that it was likely that they could beat you in a footrace to the pit stop if it came down to it?

JG: I don’t know if it was a strategy or anything but we helped each other out. John actually called us a taxi when they saw that we didn’t have one, so I don’t think their intent was malicious or anything. Or that they were just like ‘oh let’s just team with them because we are stronger.’ We generally just wanted to help each other out and make it as far as possible. I don’t know about Brendon and Rachel. We were not as close with them.

MJ: Based on the edit, it seemed like it really came down to your taxi not waiting for you as the root cause for your exit from the show. Is that what it ultimately came down to?

JG: It’s not the taxi’s fault; it’s our own fault for not telling the taxi to wait for us. That was our fault, not really having the taxi wait.

MC: The thing with the taxi is that it almost broke down several times on the way to the waterfall. Initially, we had told ourselves before we left, ‘let’s make sure we hold that taxi’ but because the taxi was so awful, we just wanted a new one. We left the airport at the same time as everyone else and we showed up ten minutes later; so that’s how horrible the taxi was. If we did have it stick around, I don’t think our circumstances would have been that different because it was just that horrible.

JG: And I feel like if we had shown up that first, we would have seen that there were no other cars and we would have held it regardless. But we showed up there last and we felt like there were other cars there, so we were like ‘oh there are other cars here, we’ll be fine’, but in actually, it was their cars.

MJ: Meghan, I was enjoying your tweets when Jen and Caroline asked for the second express pass from the Cowboys. What did you think about that move and would you have preferred if they just had completed building the car on their own?

MC: Of course I would have. I don’t know if you watched our season when we were on with them? They relied on the hockey player to do everything for them. I mean they did finish some of the challenges on their own but it was just so typical of them. They were in a tough spot, like Caroline was FREAKING OUT! She was asking everyone at the roadblock to help her… she was even asking John. She was like ‘can you help me? I don’t know how to do this!’ and she seriously didn’t even try.

She was already giving up before the challenge had even started and that was frustrating to me because I was working on it, Margie was working on it and I mean just because you are a girl, it doesn’t mean you don’t know how to put stuff together. She kind of doubted herself too quickly and they went back to their old tricks. I guess it works in their favor, it did work in their favor. I mean they got their express part but that was the frustrating part for me. To feel like a girl blamed her inability to do it on being a girl and that she couldn’t figure it out on her own.

MJ: And was it doubling frustrating for you Meghan considering you had seen it one season before and then now it was the same thing all over again?

MC: Oh yeah totally. I wasn’t trying to be malicious when I said what I said and I’m not sorry for any of that. I think I was being honest and it’s frustrating seeing it again a second time and I’m not out to hurt anybody’s feelings but everything I said when I was on the race and I was upset is the truth. They resorted to that.

MJ: Joey is it surprising to you because I have to say this season is not really going down the way I thought it would; like I thought you guys were going to be contenders, I definitely thought that Natalie and Nadiya would be in the end game. Have the results surprised you so far?

JG: Yeah, I was shocked when Natalie and Nadiya got eliminated first just because they made it so far in their first season but yeah, it was definitely a different game this time around than I think anyone is used to, so yeah.

MC: It was weird because usually with All-Stars, they have the double league and they want to keep the All-Stars on as long as they can but it seemed they wanted to get the teams out as quick as possible. That was weird, I have never seen it happen on a race. For an All-Stars I think our expectations was shot, we didn’t know what was happening.

MJ: Yeah, and it’s weird to have three eliminations that are back-to-back-to-back. Meghan, do you think you and Joey are too nice for the Amazing Race?

MC: No, everyone goes on the race and it’s nice…

JG: We are! We definitely are too nice for The Amazing Race!

MJ: Meghan, what’s next for you? I know you just did the DanceOn YouTube challenge and are filming a music video. Can you tell me more about what fans can find on your YouTube channel?

MC: I’m taking my channel in a completely different direction, we are in pre-production for a bunch of really amazing shows. I want you to be able to go on my YouTube channel and make it feel almost like you are watching television, (like that’s how great the quality of the content is). So we’ve been writing and working on all that, you can expect some really amazing things for the next couple of months on my YouTube channel. Joey and I are working on a web series too.

MJ: Joey, what’s next for you?

JG: I’m working on the second season of my web series Storytellers right now, so I am in pre-production for that and then still daily blogging and working on a few other big projects.

MJ: Amazing, Megan I have tried to interview you four times, the last time on The Murtz Show I had internet problems, one time like the phones wouldn’t connect so I feel like I have finally captured the unicorn, I finally have the Megan interview.

MC: [Laughs] oh my gosh, that’s crazy!

MJ: Amazing, thanks you guys so much; hopefully I’ll see you at the finale.

MC: Definitely.

JG: All right.

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.