{"id":914063,"date":"2026-10-03T00:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T00:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914063\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T00:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T00:34:15","slug":"katie-and-charlotte-schultz-on-their-emotional-the-amazing-race-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914063\/","title":{"rendered":"Katie and Charlotte Schultz on their emotional The Amazing Race exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katie and Charlotte Schultz’s journey on The Amazing Race<\/a> came to an end one week after Zach Johnson and Nate Johnson<\/a>, but the sisters from Kentucky made the most of every moment.<\/p>\n

After getting turned around on the way to a history challenge in Madrid, the sisters faced an even bigger setback when Katie had to search through a pile of rotten tomatoes for a hidden needle while Charlotte could only watch from the sidelines.<\/p>\n

In this Gold Derby Q&A, Katie and Charlotte reflect on their emotional elimination and the season’s twist that gave every team an Express Pass. They also explain why the unusual advantage quickly became a liability, discuss the bond among the season’s female teams, and reveal which remaining competitors they are rooting for to win.<\/p>\n

\"'Big<\/a> \"'Big<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Gold Derby: What did you think of your Amazing Race journey?<\/p>\n

Katie Schultz: It was the coolest experience ever. Obviously, we didn’t see it ending that soon, but even so, every single moment, every single breath, every step along the way was just so much fun. It was the best. I would not trade that experience for anything.<\/p>\n

At the final mat, there were some tears. What was going through your mind?<\/p>\n

Katie: There were more than some tears. I was crying for hours. Charlotte was like, “OK, get over it.”<\/p>\n

Charlotte Schultz: Honestly, we were doing so well being positive throughout the whole day. I think in the back of our minds, we definitely knew that we were going home, but really, until Phil [Keoghan] said that we were eliminated, I was still holding out hope. I was like, “They never do a non-elim in Leg 2, but for us, they’re going to.” And, yeah, that was a lot to take in at the mat, and that was hard.<\/p>\n

Phil told you something like you didn’t leave anything on the table. Is he right? Do you have no regrets? You put your whole heart into it?<\/p>\n

Katie: I think there are no regrets as far as going on and doing it together, all of that stuff. Obviously, there are things along the way that we would’ve done differently, like read a little bit better. [Laughs.] But as far as the whole experience overall, yeah, definitely no regrets.<\/p>\n

Charlotte: Once we did get turned around and started going to the right location, we ran over eight miles throughout Madrid that day. We were booking it everywhere with that backpack, and we tried as hard as we could. We flew through that history challenge, and it wasn’t enough to catch up, but we really were giving it everything we had.<\/p>\n

Katie, how long do you think you were actually searching for that needle in the haystack of tomatoes?<\/p>\n

Katie: Oh my gosh, it felt like forever. I was like, “I’m going to die out here.” No, it probably wasn’t one of the longest ones. An hour and a half? I really don’t know. It was so hard to tell time from in there. Every second felt like an hour.<\/p>\n

Charlotte: And, honestly, leaving, Jenn [Naso] and Jody [Rebhun] did not leave that far in front of us. That wasn’t what set us back so much. It was just the panic of being in last place. We were not prepared for that. We felt so frantic leaving in last that it really screwed with our brains the rest of the day.<\/p>\n

Charlotte, what is it like watching your sister try to find this needle in a haystack while you’re kind of just helpless, standing on the sideline?<\/p>\n

Charlotte: Definitely so helpless. At the beginning, I was having a great time. I got to see her pelted by tomatoes. But, no, as other teams started leaving, that was really hard, and I was just stressing. You can’t do anything but yell out encouragement, and that was so hard just to watch. I felt kind of defeated, honestly, just sitting there in the stands, knowing I couldn’t do a thing.<\/p>\n

Katie, how disgusting did you feel after crawling around in all of that slimy, moldy goop?<\/p>\n

Katie: I smelled so bad. It was disgusting. I felt bad for the people we were on the Metro with. Oh, it was gross.<\/p>\n

Charlotte: And because we were leaving in last place, we saw some of the other teams go and rinse off in those bins of water. We were not going to waste a single second doing that, so she didn’t get cleaned up at all. I thought she was disgusting. She kept coming closer to me, and I was like, “You back up.”<\/p>\n

Daisha Wilks and Dalton Hamby used their Express Pass at the tomatoes. Was that something you were considering, or were you just all in and wanted to find it no matter what?<\/p>\n

Katie: Honestly, when we showed up to the challenge, looking for things is not my strong suit, and I don’t even like tomatoes, so it really wasn’t my challenge. But it didn’t really cross my mind to use the Express Pass because I was like, “There are 12 teams here. We all got here at the exact same time. There’s no way that we’re the most unlucky team. There’s absolutely no way.” It wasn’t a thought in my mind. We didn’t need to be first out of there, but there was no way we were going to be last.<\/p>\n

Charlotte: You saw teams doing belly flops into the pile of tomatoes, and I was like, “They’re having a good time. They’re goofing off. Katie’s going to find it first.” And we were the most unlucky, I guess.<\/p>\n

Katie: So we definitely should have thought about it, but it wasn’t really even a thought in my head.<\/p>\n

Charlotte: It was just hard not to have any strategy. With a pile of rotten tomatoes, there wasn’t much strategy to sorting through anything, so that was just hard.<\/p>\n

\"'The‘The Amazing Race’ Season 39, Episode 1Sara Kempner\/CBS<\/p>\n

Going back to the first episode, when Phil reveals this twist that every team has an Express Pass, what was the first thing that went through your mind?<\/p>\n

Charlotte: Honestly, it was kind of an “Oh, crap” moment. I wasn’t super excited about it, to be honest. It was just a huge wrench in our plans. Obviously, we spent all summer strategizing, and we never thought that this was going to be the twist of the season. Every team having one is just such a different strategy because you see us go later on and try to use our Express Pass, but someone else has already used theirs. When everyone has one, you have to be so proactive with playing it and play it before you need to, because if you wait until the last second, you no longer have the option.<\/p>\n

Katie: It goes from being a security blanket to a liability because there’s so much more uncertainty. The fact that people can just jump ahead of challenges makes it a different game.<\/p>\n

Charlotte: You see in Legs 1 and 2 that there’s only a roadblock and a detour, so teams are skipping half the leg. Since the legs were so short, it was just hard to make up that time if you didn’t skip the challenge.<\/p>\n

You tried to make up the time at the history challenge, right? You asked the person if someone had used an Express Pass, and they had. Was that a bummer?<\/p>\n

Charlotte: We were pretty sure that someone would’ve already played their Express Pass. It was just a shot in the dark, hopefully.<\/p>\n

Katie: We talked about going to the other detour to see if it was an option over there, and then we were like, “There’s no way.” I’m glad we didn’t waste our time doing that.<\/p>\n

Katie, how did you keep calm when you realized your train had gone in the wrong direction and you had to find another train and go back? How did you stay in the present moment?<\/p>\n

Katie: Honestly, I was impressed by how positive we both stayed. We were just like, “OK, this is it. Hopefully, other people got lost. We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” and we just did it. That’s just kind of our personalities. We’re both very positive people. We both just have to go with it. Especially when you’re from a big family, there are a lot of things that happen that you’re not expecting or that you’d prefer didn’t happen, and you just have to adapt.<\/p>\n

Phil Keoghan has said that this is the season of “strong women.”<\/a> Did you feel that on the race? Was there a lot of female bonding going on?<\/p>\n

Charlotte: Absolutely. There are so many strong female teams. We definitely wanted to work with some of those female teams later on down the road. There are just so many impressive women. I remember standing at the start line and going through everyone’s story, and I was just like, “Wow, this is who we’re up against. That’s crazy.” I was so impressed.<\/p>\n

Final question for both of you: Who are you personally rooting for to win this season of The Amazing Race?<\/p>\n

Charlotte: There are some good ones to pick from. For me, it would be Team Burgundy [Cody Langlois and Jaime Tribo]. We had a lot of back and forth on the race. In a different interview, we said that they would be our first team to U-turn, but there was some friendly beef going on. They have such a sweet story, though, doing it for their mom, and they’re hilarious. I love watching them every time they come on the screen.<\/p>\n

I like a good friendly beef.<\/p>\n

Charlotte: Yeah, you’ve got to have some drama on the screen.<\/p>\n

Katie: For me, it would probably be Matt and Michelle [Patterson]. They’re so fun to watch. The energy there is iconic. I love Michelle. Matt’s hilarious, so you can’t help but root for them.<\/p>\n

Charlotte: They’re both so capable. They’re a good team.<\/p>\n

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