Amazing Race's Brooke and Robbie: "This Season Would've Been Super Boring Without Us"

Brooke and Robbie's dominance on The Amazing Race was brief and their downfall, steep. After winning the penultimate leg, only to learn that they had to continue straight into the first four-team finale, the wrestlers were eliminated in fourth place midway through the final leg. Adding insult to injury: They were cut right before doing a Roadblock, and their frenemies Amy and Maya won. "It was pretty hard to watch. We didn't expect it to play out that way," Brooke tells TVGuide.com. "We made it way farther than we could've ever imagined. We're very proud of ourselves. I think we played the game the way we wanted to." Yes, that means reneging on U-Turn deals. See why they did that and if they really had it out for Amy and Maya.

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That was a rough way to go out.
Robbie: Watching it, right when Phil eliminated us, I didn't realize how sad I got. [Laughs] When he told us, you can hear my voice crack and I'm like, [choking up] "I really wanna jump through the window."

They should've at least let you do the task.
Brooke: Yeah. We were just too late. We were like an hour behind. We were so lost. It was just unbelievable. We knew it wasn't happening. .... Taxis were more our downfall during the season. That's more luck. But we weren't prepared to drive in L.A. L.A.'s crazy. We planned to stay behind the surfers, but we ended up in a lane where we couldn't turn the same direction they were going. So it was pretty much over. But that was the absolute worst -- when we saw Phil, my heart just hit my stomach. I just wanted it to be a bad dream.

You were not thrilled, to say the least, about Amy and Maya still being in it. Was it tough seeing them win?
Brooke: It was hard. If it had been any other season, Rob and I would've been standing on the mat for first, second or third. It sucks to make it that far and not actually get to the end. But that's the race. You don't know what's going to happen. There's no point in going, "What if?" But I was very pissed seeing them there! At that moment, I felt sick, like something was going to happen and it did.
Robbie: Not only did we have to keep racing and that there were four teams, but we didn't even get a prize for coming in first.

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I noticed that. I thought maybe they edited it out.
Robbie: No, no. We got nothing. And then at the airport, when Maya and Amy walked in, they tapped us on the shoulder, like, "Hey, buddy!" They were playing it up too and rubbing it in our faces.
Brooke: We were exhausted. It was like 150 degrees out there. Rob was carrying 500 pounds of crap. We finally think we're going to get a break. No break. No prize. Then it's the same damn four teams for the third straight leg. It was such an annoying situation at that point.

You seemed to be targeting Amy and Maya after you went back on your U-Turn deal and lied to them about the clue. What was your thinking there?
Brooke: It wasn't personal with them. We had all agreed to work together and it could've just been us imagining it -- part of it is we were in a hurry and I get frustrated in the moment -- but we thought that they weren't trying to help us. It was like, "Dude, I thought we were trying to work together to get rid of the cyclists. You know what? Screw it. Let's take care of ourselves." At the U-Turn board, we just felt like there was no point because we knew the cyclists were behind us. For me, I didn't know if there was another U-Turn later in the race since you can only U-Turn once.

Why did you lie to them about the clue, especially when you were trying to get the cyclists out?
Brooke: We just didn't want to want to help them. We didn't know if they had tried other places. We wanted to make sure we were getting to the Pit Stop first. Rob and I had no problem lying to anybody on the race. Yes, we made an alliance, but that doesn't mean we're not going to turn on anybody at any point. It's every team for themselves in the end.
Robbie: When we were searching for the clue, they brushed us off a little bit. They said we didn't do a U-Turn, but we didn't have to. We didn't plan it or anything. But it's for $1 million. The episode where Brooke's evil laugh debuted was so funny. It made her look like the meanest person ever, but it was so awesome. It was like a main villain in a horror movie.

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You guys were pretty hilarious.
Brooke: We wanted to be very entertaining. I think we did a great job of that. I'm sorry, but this season would've been super boring without us. If anyone could be more nice and boring -- vomit.

Do you think you were your own worst enemies? You didn't think things through a lot of times, like picking the biggest field in the ox task.
Brooke: That was totally my fault. Neither or us had realized they were different sizes. I was so excited, like, "I'll take that one." That was 100 percent my fault. We had been there for 30 or 40 minutes. I think the dentists did two laps. The scientists didn't even do a full plow. We had a big lead and came in last. I will say that had that not happened, Rob and I wouldn't have made Amazing Race history: worst to first.

You were lamenting your lack of beauty prep on the race. Did you ever feel like a million bucks?
Brooke: [Laughs] I actually think I did a good job. I put my makeup on and my lashes every day. It was very difficult. My hair was always ratted up. I lost lashes during challenges, especially a water challenge. Rob plucked his eyebrows and wore headbands the whole time. We looked fabulous!

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Phil got one pre-race prediction right. He thought you'd come in fourth place and you did.
Robbie: Wow. I would've thought he would've predicted us to come in last like everyone else. That's the bigger surprise! [Laughs]
Brooke: I know! No one thought we'd make it this far. That's funny. If you go back and watch the early episodes, Rob and I were like, "Meh. I don't know what I'm doing." But we got serious!

The Amazing Race returns Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 9:30/8:30c with a special 90-minute episode before moving to its regular timeslot Friday, Feb. 27 at 8/7c on CBS.

Check out our behind-the-scenes footage from the Season 25 start line.

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