Life partners Joe Baldassare and Bill Bartek couldn't overcome airport delays and a time penalty and became the next team were eliminated from the Amazing Race.
"We really had a lot of bad luck with airports," says Joe in an interview with CTV.ca.
Known as the "Guidos" from the first season of the Amazing Race, Joe and Bill arrived at the airport in Zanzibar, Tanzania, as one of the last teams to catch a flight out of the country, along with Eric and Danielle.
The teams landed in Kilamanjaro, Tanzania, on their journey to Warsaw, Poland. But because of another delay, they arrived minutes late of catching a connecting flight. An extremely frustrated Joe ran out onto the tarmac and tried yelling and waving at the plane with no luck. But to no avail. The two teams ended up being more than 12 hours behind the other racers.
Just as the two teams finally arrived in Poland, the first sets of teams were way ahead of them, and had already finished that part of the race. Instead of waiting for them to finish, the other teams began the next part of the race.
But it wasn't over yet for Joe and Bill, who ended up finishing after Eric and Danielle, as they were informed it was a non-elimination leg of the race. However, they were given a penalty, and told that if they didn't finish first in the next leg, then they would have to wait 30 minutes at the finish line.
The next leg was emotional for all the teams, as it took them for a visit to the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
At the final roadblock of the leg a member of each team had to dress in a full suit of medieval armour and walk a horse for half a mile. The Guidos finished the challenge and landed at the finish line in fifth place.
However, due to their 30-minute penalty, they had to step aside as Eric and Danielle arrived minutes later, meaning Joe and Bill were eliminated.
"The Amazing Race" all-star edition features teams from all 11 seasons of the show, and will undertake a 28-day, 45,000-mile trek through 28 countries to win US$1 million. It airs Sunday nights on CTV.
CTV.ca: How did it feel when you were eliminated from the race?
Joe: It wasn't so bad. We can't say it wasn't anticipated.
Bill: We're very competitive people and it was hard to face the fact that it was the end of our run. It was an incredible opportunity and our time has passed, and we very graciously accepted that fact.
CTV.ca: Do you think the time penalty was fair? Especially after being so far behind to begin with?
Joe: Yeah, I do. It's the rules of the game and there's not too much you can do about it. We all accept those things in advance.
Bill: It's always a woulda, shoulda, coulda thing. You just have to accept the cards that are dealt to you and accept that. It wasn't our time.
CTV.ca: What was biggest challenge on the race so far?
Joe: Probably the hardest thing to do this season was deal with all the "airport karma." We really had a lot of bad luck with airports. We spent 28 hours alone in the Johannesburg airport, trying to fly to Dar es Salaam. It's hard trying to keep your spirits high when things are going so poorly for you, when you've fallen from the front of the line to the back of the pack.
Also, the rules of the game had changed from when we were first on. Before, once you bought a ticket, you were stuck with it. Now you can just keep buying tickets and buying tickets, and eventually you'll get there, and at the end you just turn in all your unused tickets. We weren't as adept at making all these reservations and dealing with travel agents, like other teams were.
Bill: The race is much harder now that it was in the first season. And the competitors this time around, there are no slackers in this group. Usually there are always three or four teams who are just there for the adventure. We didn't really have any slack at all this time - if you made one mistake then you're out. We saw that clearly with Rob and Amber.
CTV.ca: How do you feel about the way you were portrayed this time around? Was there anything that viewers didn't see that you wish they did?
Joe: I think we were fairly well portrayed this time around, compared to the first season where we were seen as villainous, and I didn't think we were any more villainous than anyone else was. We consciously tried to tone it down this time.
CTV.ca: Was there any hesitation at all in deciding to come back a second time for "The Amazing Race"?
Joe: There was no hesitation whatsoever. We were hoping they were going to do an all-stars for years and years, ever since the concept was brought out well before "Survivor." Out of 120 odd teams, only about 24 were approached to be on the show, and we were one of the final 12 selected, so we were very fortunate.
Bill: Part of our strategy was to stay involved on the Internet. We blogged for CBS and BuddyTV, and it was primarily to stay visible. Because there were so many teams, we could have easily dissolved into obscurity with all those reality shows out there. So we figured if we wanted to have a chance, we knew we had to stay visible.
CTV.ca: Anything you'd like to say to your fans in Canada?
Joe: We love Canada, I spend lots of time up there in Gananoque. I'm very fond of it all and we have lots of friends in Montreal.
Bill: I'll say from "Team Guido" to the Canadian fans that we appreciate you all, and you should lobby CTV to sponsor a Canadian Amazing Race!
