Yahoo Lifestyle 'The Amazing Race 37's Scott and Lori Thompson Reveal Who Hurt Them the Most in Surprise U-Turn Vote (Exclusive)
Pack your bags, because The Amazing Race is back! Every week, Parade'sMike Bloom will bring you interviews with the team most recently eliminated from the race.
Scott and Lori Thompson tell me they have no massive expectations of doing well on The Amazing Race. Granted, the married couple are huge fans of the show, and together had lost 170 pounds in their preparation to race around the world. But, as they stated on the course multiple times, they were cumulatively one of the oldest teams on the race, a duo more likely to "slog" than run to a Pit Stop. In spite of that, their time on the race was the furthest thing from a slog. Scott and Lori's camaraderie, decision-making, and attention to detail had them rising through the ranks in the tasks. In one particular highlight, the two went from touching down in Japan tied for last place to finishing later that day all the way up in second, a testament to their racing skills.
Of course, while Scott and Lori happily reveled in their success, their track record was not forgotten in the minds of the other racers. When Jonathan and Ana Towns gave them the most weight as part of the "Driver's Seat," as an example, they were shocked, but proved their mettle by pushing through and finishing with aplomb. At that task in particular, many of the teams believed that Scott and Lori were playing up their age and lack of speed to hide their status as a threat. And so, when the second-ever "Double U-Turn Vote" happened, it was no surprise that they were put up for nomination. However, it was quite the surprise to Scott and Lori, who felt burned by those they considered their race family. And the heat would continue to crank up throughout the day, as Scott and Lori battled Jonathan and Ana to avoid finishing in last. And unfortunately for "mom and dad," a costly coral conundrum had their chances all washed up, shockingly eliminating one of the frontrunners to take it all.
Now, out of the race, Scott and Lori talk about their reaction to the U-Turn Vote, whether they were playing up their age as the other teams indicated, and how they respond to fans feeling they were "screwed" out of a million dollars.
Related: Everything to Know About The Amazing Race 37
Talk to me about your fandom and what made you decide to go from viewers to racers.
Lori Thompson: We've watched every episode of every season religiously. We had a notebook, because Scott often is at work or he's busy with whatever, and I would write down what the challenges were. And then so I'd be like, "Okay, we're gonna do this or that." And so sometimes we would agree, and sometimes we wouldn't. And so we'd kind of like talk it out with each other. And we've always been in love with it. We thought it would be so fun, not only to travel around the world, but to experience these crazy challenges that are so unique to the culture, to the little community. It was so specific of where we were at. If we traveled there, we would have never done these types of challenges or found these opportunities to make these amazing experiences. So yeah, we've loved it from day one.
Did you always want to race together?
Lori: No, we always wanted to do it together. But we have eight sons. And so for 15 years of The Amazing Race, I was pregnant or nursing, and I absolutely could not do The Amazing Race. And so we just watched and enjoyed it. And then the last year, almost a year ago, I came home and I'm like, "Scott, we're making an audition tape for The Amazing Race!" And he's like, "Okay." And I'm like, "No, right now. Hop in the car. We're doing it right now." And he was like, "Well, should we practice?" I'm like, "No, we're doing it." And we got on! [Laughs.]
Scott Thompson: One take, 10 minutes. We had to pare it down because we could only do four and a half minutes. But it was awesome. A good example of kind of the banter that we're just used to and accustomed to.
Well, let's fast-forward to the end of your race. When you found out you were U-Turned, you decided to do Coconuts first, hoping that you could mentally recuperate during Coral. Was that the case? Or were you just so fatigued by Coral that that's what caused you to fall into last?
Lori: No, I felt like we did it the right way. I mean, it's like 90 plus degrees, 100% humidity. It is so hot, and we had to run. They don't show how far you have to run to move the coconuts back and forth. It was so far. It looked like we had jumped in the ocean. We were absolutely drenched. And then, finally, being able to do the coral under the shade was a little reprieve. But no, I don't think it had anything to do with our mindset. I felt like the coral changes colors when they dry. And so we just had our coral out too long. And so the slight change of color, we felt like we had it correct over and over and over again. And then we're like, "Maybe we should re-wet it. And so we re-wet it." And it was one piece that needed to be changed, because it was like green or purple that was slightly different with the color.
Scott: And I think for us, it was a strange territory for us to be in. Because every single challenge we had been in was either detail-oriented or memory-associated, we were banging out in one attempt or two attempts. So to go 15, 17 attempts, whatever it was, the final tally, was just so bizarre for us.
Well I'm sure helping compound the stress was the fact that you were U-Turned. When you were getting votes, you said that it was akin to being betrayed by your sons. Was that something you were saying to guilt the other racers? Talk me through your reaction to getting those votes?
Lori: No, we were surprised. So before we had voted, they separate us. And I was like, "Oh, Scott, I have a bad feeling in my gut." It's like that mom intuition, when I know my kids snuck out or ditched school or did something naughty. "I don't know what it is, but I know something is bad." And Scott's like, "No, no, we're good. Everybody likes us. We really, genuinely do like everybody." We felt like we had a rapport with everyone. And so when first Mark and Brett turned the thing, you could see this shock. And then what they didn't show is, I look at Scott. I'm like, "I told you!" I knew it because we were in the front with Jack and Carson and Jonathan and Ana. So it had to be two of us. So I wasn't as surprised until the very end, which, again, editing kind of changed.
But it was Nick and Mike that hurt our feelings. We felt the almost closest with them. And for them to vote against us. We were like, "Oh, for reals?" That was kind of a surprise. Because I thought we had that genuine connection where we were going to try to help each other. Maybe not be a complete, total ally with each other throughout the whole race. But we just had a moment at the rice thing with them that we felt like they wouldn't have voted for us. Regardless of if they did or didn't, we were still going up with Jonathan and Ana. But that was just more of the vote that kind of hurt our feelings a little bit more.
Lori, you say at one point, "They're not my friends anymore." Where did that come from? And did that attitude change over the course of the day as you were coming to terms with what happened?
Lori: So when almost all the teams are saying, "Lori and Scott," again, my feelings were hurt with what Nick and Mike voted for us. But it was when Mark had made comments of saying that were totally outlandish and complete lies. Of saying, "You guys aren't really this nice or this kind."
Scott: "It's gameplay. It's social gameplay."
Lori: "You guys are faking it. You guys are pretending to be all of our friends." And we were like, "Whoa, okay! Time out for the game. No, we are legit 'cup is half full' people. We are kind. We are cheering." And that's another thing they don't show. Every single challenge that I'm not participating in, I am literally jumping up and down, screaming, clapping, cheering every single team on. Because I do genuinely want everyone to do their best against our best.
Scott: And I mean, you even see it in that episode with us leaving in the taxis. Jonathan and Ana are little bit more despondent. We're like, "We might win this leg." We weren't counting ourselves out of it just because we had been Double U-Turned. We knew we were capable. As long as we operated toward our strengths, we would be really strong teams still. But then you even notice Lori, when she's like, "Oh, Jonathan, got the clue. Wait, but that's good. Like, good for him." You can see her struggle with the competition of it. We love these people for who they are. We're just in a race for a million dollars, and it's at our cost. So it's hard to juggle those two things sometimes.
Lori: So I had made that comment of "we're not friends" to Mark, because he had kind of said, "Oh, you guys are fake." And I don't like drama. In real life, I don't like negativity and drama. So I'm like, "We're not going to be friends because of how you're portraying us, which is totally outlandish and absolutely wrong." Since then, everyone is Kumbaya and we love each other and everything is absolutely fine.
Another thing the teams were saying when they voted for you was the things you would say to each other at Roadblocks, that you were playing up being the oldest and slowest team to minimize your threat level. How accurate is that?
Lori: Well, the first part with cheering. With Scott, is it doesn't matter if there's a camera crew or contestants or if Scott and I are alone, that is Scott to a tee. He is my biggest cheerleader. He is cheering no matter what I do. No matter how big or small it is, he is yelling and screaming for me. So people kind of perceive that as he was shoving it in other people's faces. And I'm like, "No, no, no. That is Scott." How he is and how we are to our kids, and our kids are towards us. We are definitely loud, but we love that. I feel like it's a talent of ours. My kids can be anywhere on the field or anywhere in a game, and they can hear us cheering them on, to know that we support them and love them. And that's what Scott was doing. In letting me know how hard that was, and I'm going as fast as I can, that he has my back no matter what.
Scott: And I think one of the things Lori's been huge about professing for years now is you're not just a mom. It's this mentality of, sometimes we wear these roles we've assumed as badges and responsibilities that we cater our lives to. And so oftentimes it's reminding her of the fact that you're a 49-year-old mom up there killing the bamboo or threshing that rice like a champion. It's not meant to rub in other people's faces, but just to remind her of what an amazing champion she is, of this whole idea of what we're trying to portray.
So then what was your reaction when the teams felt you were trying to use that as a way to not come across as threatening?
Lori: I honestly felt like we were slow in the fact of the footrace. I know we could have beat Melinda because she was having some issues, and she's a little bit older. And at the time Pops as well, he hurt his knee or ankle, I can't remember. But if we were all on a line, "on your mark, get set, go," we would have come in almost last. And that's what I kept saying. We are not fast. We are sloggers; we are "slow joggers." These younger kids that are stronger and more athletic will run circles around us. But yes, in a specific challenge, we could focus and get that task done, we were more quick at getting the task done. But just running, you saw in Episode 4. We finished before Jack and Carson. They beat us to the mat because they outran us. We are slower, and maybe I didn't explain that as well. I just said we were a slower team, and they perceived that I was saying overall we were slow.
Scott: I think what we were very good at was being decisive about what we knew our strengths were, and how to avoid our weaknesses as much as possible.
To that point, one of the reasons why they may have felt you were undervaluing yourself is because you had such a strong track record before this leg. You finished in third place for your group in the opening leg. Then in Japan, you went from arriving in last all the way up to second, and followed that up with first and third-place finishes. Did that surprise you, given what you said earlier about your speed?
Scott: I think that it surprised us. I thought we were going to be playing from the middle of the pack most of the time. We never underestimated ourselves. We thought we would be playing from the back, playing catch-up most of the time. And we surprised ourselves a little bit by how well we were doing so early on. But it also didn't surprise us that there were things that we found we were really good at. And again, being so good at being able to be teammates with each other, knowing what she's strong at, where she needs to step up, or strengths versus my weaknesses, has been something we've been doing for 26 years. So it wasn't hard to do on a race.
Lori: But we were never worried. That's something about The Amazing Race, the very first "rip and read," and you're running, if you're in last place, that honestly almost doesn't mean anything, because so much can happen. He got the drums on the first time. There's so many things that could happen. So when people are so nervous and worried at the very beginning, we never were. I knew we were behind a little bit, but we thought, "Oh, we could just make up a couple spots and we would be fine." But we never were worried. Because I'm like, "Anything is possible." And the second he busted out those drums with amazing Bernie, I was like, "That's the wonder team right there." They killed that challenge, and then we just went on from there.
In gauging the fandom since last night, I think there's a lot of opinions along the lines of, "Scott and Lori were screwed." And, to your earlier point, you are authentically optimistic people. So how do you look back on your experience, given the fact that it came to such an abrupt end after having so much momentum in the first four legs?
Lori: Yeah, the most comments we've been getting from last night to this morning is, "You guys got screwed," all these negative things. And, guys, these contestants didn't just randomly vote for us! This is part of the game. They were asked to choose a team, and really, they felt like Jonathan and Ana and us were a threat, that we were really good. And we were really good! We got third place, second place, first place, third place. We were doing really good. Our trajectory was amazing. So you can't get mad at these contestants for voting for us when that's part of the game. We don't take anything personal. And again, I didn't take any of those votes personal until Mark had mentioned some comments; that's what we took personally. That's when I was like, "Well, I don't like that part." That didn't jive with me at all.
Scott: And I think Lori's comments there towards the end of the episode was what I think hits me the hardest. Our thing here is that we just felt like we had a little bit more to give. We weren't done. We wish we could've said, "No."
Lori: "Phone a friend!" Something, something!
Finally, you're the parents to eight boys. I've made a joke previously that that's four teams for future Amazing Race seasons. Would they be interested in following in your footsteps?
Lori: Yeah, I was just talking to them last night. Because [you] had mentioned, "Jesse Tannenbaum made the best decision by putting Scott and Lori on the race. Because now they have eight sons. They have [four] more seasons." So I'm asking, "Who would you go with?" And they're like, "Oh, I would choose this brother. I would choose this brother. I can't choose that brother. We would just battle. Oh, but I would choose this brother." And so it was really funny. Just last night, we were talking about how that would be so fun. The Thompson legacy, team pink!
