Louie Stravato, 47, and Michael Naylor, 45, found themselves the latest team to be eliminated from the Amazing Race this past Sunday.
In a new interview with TV Guide, the cops/buddies discuss their elimination, why they chose to work with Dan and Jordan, plus why Joe and Heidi need to get over their u-turn.
Excerpts from their interview below –
TVGuide.com: How far behind Dan and Jordan were you?
Michael: I feel we were 10 minutes behind. I spoke to Daniel after. He had a horrendous cab ride as we did. He reacted a little differently to his cab ride. It felt like forever and watching it again, it felt like forever. I want to say 10 — 20 minutes tops. We finished [the Roadblock] right after them. … [The Roadbloack] was just looking for a needle in the haystack. At one point, I was taking everything out of the case and leaving them out, but I was told you couldn’t do that. You had to put them all back.
TVGuide.com: Why didn’t you do pork dumplings?
Louie: There were prior episodes from prior seasons where you had to order the food in that language, so I was worried about that. I think Mike and I brought that up. We decided not to risk it. … But looking at it now, it looked kind of easy. … [When we saw Dan and Jordan were still at the Roadblock,] we were very motivated. I was pumped to see them still there, still searching. I was like, “We can do this. We’ve got this.”
TVGuide.com: Why were you willing to work with them at the beginning of the leg?
Michael: When the brothers came back to get us, I was ecstatic. Louie had more of a feeling that he wanted to leave them and go on our own. We work better alone, but I wanted our competition with us. … It would’ve worked had we gotten a little bit more of a break. We’re not going to sit and whine about it afterward. It’s the game.
Louie: My whole thing with Dan and Jordan being with us was that I drilled them with a million questions before searching the area [for the Garden Bridge], and one of them was, “Did you use the translation service?” Dan said, “Yes, I did.” But they didn’t have any answer of where it was or what it was. When we found, maybe an hour later, a taxi and asked for the translation phone, the [translator] was like, “Yes, it’s a bridge. You have to drive there by taxi.” … That’s when I got really mad.
TVGuide.com: Did you ever think about ditching them?
Louie: I was kind of excited in the cab ride when we were in front, and they got stuck at the light and we lost them. I thought they were going to get lost. I was kind of pumped at that point, but obviously that didn’t happen. It is what it is. I get a lot of phone calls: “Oh, the brothers really used you guys.” I said, “No, they played the game.”
TVGuide.com: You U-Turned Joe and Heidi, and he’s still not over it, judging from the Elimination Station videos.
Michael: He needs to get over it. I’ll be honest with you. That was the only time on the show that the edit wasn’t 100 percent because I had to talk Louie into U-Turning them. I had my heart set on Joe and Heidi from the beginning. It was 50 percent business, 50 percent “I couldn’t stomach ’em.” One of his [passport stamps] was China. I thought, “There’s a possibility we could go to China,” so do I want to bring somebody who speaks Mandarin to Asia? No way! Then there’s the whole thing on the bus — he was a negative factor. Other people didn’t like him. He was mean to Daniel and Jordan. He needs to get over it. Joe is hung up on Joe.
Louie: Every single Elimination Station video, he’s out of control. People are posting, “Give it up. Let it go, Joe.” C’mon! He was negative all the time and he was like a Mr. Know-It-All. He’d make comments on the bus about everyone, and me and Mike are sitting right in front of him. Like, “Dude, we’re right here.”
TVGuide.com: What did you say to each other at the finish?
Michael: We talked about it a little bit. I said it’s part of the game. Jet and Cord said to me, at the final four, I think, “Mike, if a U-Turn comes up and we get there first, we’re U-Turning you.” I laughed. I said, “I think that’s a compliment.” If they or anyone else U-Turned us, I would say, “Great move.” It is what it is. We thought Carol and Brandy were a threat — not physically — but because they were world travelers. They were in decent shape, but everywhere we went, they were like, “Oh, I know somebody from Singapore, I know somebody from here who speaks French, who speaks Spanish.”
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