The latest season of CBS’ hit show “The Amazing Race” started Sunday night and Starr’s Mill graduate Brittany Fletcher is a contestant alongside her best friend and fellow Auburn University alum Caitlin King.
Fletcher stated that she has always wanted to be a part of this show.
“It was one of the things on my bucket list,” Fletcher said. “This and being on ‘The Price is Right.’” Fletcher was on “The Price is Right” in 2005 and won the Showcase Showdown. She’s hoping she has the same kind of luck this time around as the prize if she and King win “The Amazing Race” is $1,000,000.
Fletcher and King submitted an audition tape and were flown to Los Angeles for finals week where they went through a number of different interviews. One month later, they were notified they would be one of the 11 teams on the show.
The two friends are big fans of the show and immediately started trying to prepare for things that might pop up during the race. They did team building activities, stayed in shape and worked on communication skills.
“We turned on the tv and put music up loud so there would be lots of noise,” Fletcher said. “And then we would try to solve puzzles and build things.”
King stated that she and Fletcher balance each out other very well.
“ Brittany is more outspoken and quicker to make decisions while I am more reserved and take the time to look at the big picture before coming to a conclusion,” King said. “She can get me pumped up when necessary and I can calm her down when she gets flustered.”
The team did very well in the first episode. They rappelled down a bridge and got on the first flight to Shanghai, China. In China, King got a point off a junior table tennis champion and Fletcher ate the fallopian tubes of frogs in a papaya bowl. The team then found the clue at The Bund, a large plaza in Shanghai, and made the first pit stop in third place.
Both King and Fletcher have traveled outside of the United States before but they said it wasn’t much of an advantage.
“Everyone on the show was well traveled but it didn’t matter if you were in that country before or not,” Fletcher said. “It’s a race, nothing like a vacation.” She added that she soon realized how dependent she was on a cell phone since the contestants couldn’t use theirs. “You don’t realize how hard it is not to be able to communicate. You think you’ll come across at least one local person that speaks English but that wasn’t always the case.”
Obviously neither Fletcher or King could get into specifics about how they did on the show, but they both agreed they would do it again if given the chance.
“How could traveling the world with your best friend not be great?” Fletcher asked.
To follow their adventures on this season of “The Amazing Race,” watch the show Sundays at 8 p.m. on CBS.
