Blame the first-ever “U-Turn.”
Bickering couple Lorena Segura and Jason Widener were eliminated from CBS’ “The Amazing Race” after a new twist imposed by another team forced the contestants to backtrack during a West African leg of the competitive reality series.
“We were already an hour and a half behind,” Widener told The Associated Press in a phone interview Monday. “It was definitely kicking us while we were down.”
Similar to the “Yield” introduced in the fifth season, the “U-Turn” obstacle allows racers to choose a trailing team to go back and finish a previously uncompleted “Detour” challenge. In Segura and Widener’s case, that meant they had to search for gold after already learning an African dance routine while racing through Burkina Faso.
“All the producers said we did that leg faster than anybody,” says Widener.
The “dating couple” team doesn’t hold any animosity against “friends” team Jennifer McCall and Shana Wall, the blondes from Los Angeles who targeted them with the “U-Turn.”
“Lorena’s obviously an emotional person, but we’re not super drama queens,” says Widener. “We forgive them.”
“We know it’s a game,” adds Segura. “We would’ve done the same thing if we were in their situation.”
During the previous leg of “The Amazing Race,” Segura broke down and began crying while attempting to milk a camel during for a “Roadblock” challenge. Widener says he was surprised at how emotional Segura became during the fiasco.
“It’s really affected me,” says Segura. “It’s been really hard to hear people call me psychotic, emotional and whiny.”
The couple, both actors from Sherman Oaks, Calif., are still dating but not engaged.