Perhaps the most popular Amazing Race All-Stars team this season were the Sri Lankan Twins, Natalie & Nadiya Anderson. Falling just short of the finale on their previous Amazing Race stint, the loudmouth sisters were the most competitive team on the show this season, and that’s what made their first-boot exit from the show so especially shocking. Natalie & Nadiya were the first team eliminated from the second All-Stars edition of the show and it was primarily due to their difficulties in finding a wedding dress shop in China, following by feuding with each other when determining which bubble to enter to receive their next clue.
I caught up with Natalie & Nadiya and asked them what went wrong.
Murtz Jaffer: Hey guys, how are you?!
Natalie & Nadiya Anderson: Hi!!!
Murtz Jaffer: That was undoubtedly the most shocking premiere in Amazing Race history. I definitely thought you guys would win the whole thing and I think many fans of the show did. Do you think that this episode proved that winning the Amazing Race is as much about luck as it is about physical strength and skill?
Natalie Anderson: I feel like Amazing Race is a lot of timing, luck and you obviously have to be a good player. Nadiya and I just got the worst cars; we were at the wrong place at the wrong time and nothing. You know how good of a racer we were or could have been played nothing into the placing of the first leg because they were so linear, there was absolutely no hard challenges and so it was just obviously timing and finding this bloody store which all depended on the local leading you there. Nadiya and I had a bunch of lunatics sending us to random stores. It was just really a lot of bad luck, it didn’t really showcase good strong players making placements in the top three or even first place.
MJ: Why was finding the wedding shop so difficult?
Nadiya Anderson: When we landed, we went exactly to the neighborhood (that was simple enough). The problem was that there were so many alleyways and there were so many back streets and nobody spoke English. And I think you saw us with the Afghanimals. They are really fun guys and they are really nice guys but I think the four of us together was just too much craziness going on. We were not listening to each other and I think we were just being completely destructive.
Also as far as the luck thing goes, I think, on The Amazing Race if you are good and you have good luck it is a great recipe to win, however, I think that even if you are good and have bad luck you can absolutely go no where which is kind of what happened to us that day. And we just kept getting crazy and crazier. It just was a downward spiral.
MJ: When the All-Star teams were announced, I was hoping that you guys would align with the Afghanimals and that’s exactly what happened. I was totally rooting for brown power. Do you think they are responsible for your exit and do you blame them at all for not sharing the clue with you after they found it?
Natalie Anderson: Me and Nadiya didn’t go in expecting to work with anybody but it was a long plane ride over to China and on that flight, we kind of just clicked with the Afghanimals. We should have just stuck with them because we had already been with them for three hours. As soon as we split off they found the clue. The problem was that we were so far apart (after we split off from them) that they wouldn’t have had the time to come back and look for us to share the clue. It’s definitely not their fault.
I think once they left us, they just had good luck and Nadiya and I should have just stayed with them instead of breaking off. We just broke off at the wrong time but while we were working with them it was really fun. It was also really stressful so we didn’t really get to enjoy it but they are crazy guys and I am pretty sure if we would have stayed in the race longer we would have made a really strong alliance with them.
MJ: On this season there are five teams from the show’s 22nd season and three teams from the show’s 18th season. You were one of only three teams who weren’t on one of those two seasons. Do you think this was a disadvantage?
Nadiya Anderson: Oh Murtz, everything is a disadvantage. Even if you don’t align with somebody you know how they race, you know what’s going on behind the scenes. So us watching their seasons only gave us a little bit of insight versus actually racing with them. I feel like it would have been a game changer if we had the Chippendales or if we had Trey and Lexi with us. I think it would have been a huge advantage. You just have somebody else that you know you can trust and that you know has your back in terms of a U-Turn… in terms of helping each other out. I think it was a huge disadvantage that we came alone from our season.
MJ: There has been a lot of talk about how many teams were competing for the third time as well. Do you think this that this gave teams like the Globetrotters and the Cowboys an advantage?
Natalie Anderson: I feel like it gives them an advantage but it also gives them so much more to prove that it puts more pressure on them. Coming back the way we did and some of the other teams that made it far on their original seasons (like the Afghanimals), we had a lot of pressure to make it further than we did the first time. Nadiya and I felt that we had to at least make it to the final three, which we obviously didn’t.
So some teams that sucked the first time (not that they sucked but were eliminated early) like John and Jessica… they had less to prove and I think they just raced freely which sometimes puts less pressure on them. Me and Nadiya were crazy the first episode because we thought that we had so much on our shoulders and had so much to prove.
MJ: The last time you guys raced, we were used to you guys cheering each other on and this time it seemed like you clashed a little more. Was it just because of the added pressure of it being an All-Star season that led to you guys arguing a little bit more than the last time?
Nadiya Anderson: Yeah, it was a combination of factors that just had us fighting and arguing the whole time, but for me and Natalie, we argued as much as we got along. Like literally it was a 50-50 split and on a scale from 1-10 I think that argument that you saw was a low four. We always get really aggressive and really volatile with each other so that was really not a big deal for us but we got back in full cheering each other on and then arguing.
And I think the fact that we were racing in the back was an also a huge factor. Natalie and I are used to always racing in the front of the pack and gunning for number one. We never placed lower than fourth except for the time we got out and our one sixth place finish that season. We were always in the front of the pack. Being in the back of the pack was really a game changer for us. We have never raced just to avoid last place. The last time that happened, we got eliminated in France so it was just a different dynamic being at the back. You are just so much more stressed and so much hastier with the decisions that you make. I think it all just didn’t add up properly for us.
MJ: How surprised were you that Mallory replaced Bopper as Mark’s partner and did you have any idea that was going to happen?
Natalie Anderson: Everybody was so crazy on the starting line. We were all ready to go and then they made this switch and it was just shocking. I feel like we were really excited to actually race with Mallory. We loved Mark and Bopper and they seemed like a really cool team too but I remember Mallory being such a forceful energy and I just was looking forward to racing with her. Nobody knew what was happening and I think it took a lot of guts for both Mark and Mallory. Mallory was so nice for going out on a limb to help Mark and Bopper. To go out and race with somebody who she barely even knew.
MJ: When you realized that the clues were in the even-numbered bubbles on the Ferris Wheel, you struggled with the decision of whether to jump in the first even-numbered bubble you saw or to get in one that you knew a clue was in for sure and let more time go by. Do you think that you would have taken the risk if it was your first time on the Race but because it was All-Stars, you wanted to play it safe?
Nadiya Anderson: Yeah, I think because we had been making bad decisions all day and Natalie’s decision to get into the bubble… I asked her ‘are you sure there is no right or wrong?’ and she was like ‘no there is no right or wrong… come on’ and she jumped in an odd and by then we were already in last. Joey and Megan had already given us a sign that they got the right bubble when they got on.
When they gave us the sign, we knew we were already in last place and we were just struggling with the decision to take a chance and put ourselves even further back or to wait a little bit longer and guarantee a right bubble. Honestly at that point it was a lose-lose situation and I think we were just super frustrated with each other, which is why we were arguing. If we were racing for the first time, we probably wouldn’t have been so crazy. We probably would have got it right the first time.
If we were racing in the front of the pack, we would have definitely taken our time making decisions. Just being at the back of the pack, it being an All Stars season, and the pressure of not being eliminated first all also played a huge role. Me and Natalie are usually the people making fun of everybody who gets eliminated first and then here we go and do the same foolish stuff that we made fun of them for. (Laughs)
MJ: When you got to the starting line and saw all the other teams, which ones did you think were your biggest competition?
Natalie Anderson: I didn’t see like there was anybody that was a huge competition. Nadiya and I have said this before but we have a really unique skill set when it comes to other teams. When you see the Globetrotters, you think ‘damn they are really a strong team!’ but Nadiya and I have never had any issues with physical challenges so there was nothing that anyone could defeat us in. There might have been brainier teams, but I didn’t know any of the other team so I wouldn’t have been able to judge.
We weren’t intimidated at all by any of the teams. We just were excited to race with some teams like the Globes. We wanted to be able to get really physical and go head-to-head with them in a really intense challenge. That was something that Nadiya and I would have loved to do. Obviously we never got the chance but none of the teams really intimidated us.
MJ: What’s next for you?
Nadiya Anderson: We actually started Crossfit preparing for our first season and it’s primarily because of that training got us so much stronger and faster to the point where we were able to literally hang with the guys the entire season. And sometimes we beat the guys too! Our endurance was way better obviously then the Rockers. They were so lame! (Laughs). We were so much better than even guy-guy teams. Our current plan is open up a CrossFit in Sri Lanka by the end of this year. We want to give back to our community. We are so proud of being Sri Lankan and we are so proud of where we come from. We want to go back and start the first Crossfit there… even without the million dollars.
MJ: I am sorry that it happened so early on.
Nadiya Anderson: We finally came to grips with it. It was really hard at first but now it is time just to move on. Obviously the million would have gone a long way in setting up a Crossfit in Sri Lanka. Especially when you convert that to Sri Lankan rupees it would have been like ballin’ back home!
MJ: Amazing, I hope to see you guys at the finale. Thank you so much!
Natalie & Nadiya Anderson: Okay thanks.
The Amazing Race All-Stars airs Sundays at 8 PM on CTV & CBS
