Amazing Race's Supreme Duo Speak!

Karma is a wonderful thing. After being cheated out of crucial airline tickets by the sudden alliance of air traffic controllers Steve and Dave and father/son team Steve and Josh on the first leg of The Amazing Race 4, Monica and Sheree (a.k.a. The Supremes) wound up outlasting both of their rivals. Sadly, the NFL wives lost a lot of ground when the teams hit India in last week's episode and never recovered. Here, the two review their highs and lows and answer that all-important question: Why did they go for the fast-forward so early on in the race?

TV Guide Online: First off, what happened in India? Coming out of Mumbai's Film City, you guys were right on the heels of the frontrunners, but then you suddenly dropped to the rear of the pack.
Monica: It was a matter of luck that day. At first we were right up in front, although we did fall a little behind the other teams. David and Jeff were very athletically inclined, while Chuck was able to grab Millie's bag and John was able to do the same thing for Kelly so they could go a little faster. Also, we just asked the wrong people for directions. We even asked a police officer and our bus driver, and they both told us a certain way that took us completely out of the way. We had to walk back and that's what really did us in.

TVGO: You weren't the only team that had trouble navigating through the city. It seemed like everyone was a little unnerved by India.
Sheree: The smell was the hardest thing to get used to. As soon as we walked out of the airport, all those smells just hit you at once. Then, our taxi driver was drunk. We asked if we could get another taxi and we couldn't! We had to drive in a taxi with a drunk driver!
Monica: It was depressing too because people would come up to your car and ask you for money. In any other circumstance Sheree and I would have given them some, but we were at that point in the game where we didn't know how much we were going to need. It was so hard to say, "I'm sorry."

TVGO: Chip and Reichen were clearly your biggest fans. Was the feeling mutual?
Monica: Definitely. Sheree and I were not approached by anyone in the beginning of the race; they were the first team to say, "Hey, do you guys want to work together for a little while?" It meant a lot that they reached out to us. These are two strong guys. They didn't really need any help and they came to us. It was a mutually beneficial relationship — we told them a lot of things and they told us things. Later on, after the other teams saw that Sheree and I were pretty capable, we got a lot of offers to be in alliances but we turned them all down.
Sheree: I think everybody underestimated us at first. After each leg, somebody would come up to us and say: "Wow, you girls are tough! We didn't think you would make it!"

TVGO: The first leg is always something of a shock. At what point did you really start feeling comfortable with the race?
Monica: I think by the third leg we kind of knew the routine and knew not to get excited if you had a big lead. So many times you'd have a huge lead and then get bunched up again. We also knew not to get discouraged if we were behind because the same thing could happen. I started feeling more relaxed in the sense of I knew which teams were doing what and who had alliances with whom. By then, we had gotten pretty close to Chip and Riechen and having one team to talk to helped a lot.
Sheree: Also, after awhile you stop worrying about what you look like. Coming off that mountain where we took the fast-forward in the first leg, we could barely breath and we knew that our nostrils were wide open trying to get air in them. After that, it was like, "Who cares if the camera is right there?"

TVGO: Taking the fast-forward that early on raised more than a few eyebrows among hardcore fans.
Monica: If you look at the other Amazing Races though, twice the teams that took the fast forward in the first round won the race or made it to the final three. So, we were thinking, "Well they did it and it worked." Also at the time, we didn't know how far the other teams were behind us. We were there waiting for taxis and there weren't any in sight. All we were thinking was if someone on the third bus takes the fast forward, we're going to be eliminated and the first thing we're going to say is "Why didn't we go for it?" Of course, we were very disappointed when we took the fast-forward and arrived at the pit stop in fourth place! But you can't cry over spilled milk.

TVGO: Knowing what you know now, what's the one change you would make if you were to run the race over again?
Sheree: We wouldn't take the fast-forward. (Laughs)
Monica: Besides that, I think we would try to follow our own instincts a little bit more. A lot of teams were like, "This is what's going to happen," and you start listening to them more than you probably should.

TVGO: What's a moment we didn't see in the finished series that you wish had been included?
Sheree: I would have liked for people to have seen that when we talked to the policeman in India, he told us a certain way that was definitely the wrong way to go. We asked a thousand times and were told a thousand times to go a certain way, and it was always the wrong way. They showed us getting on the bus and getting off the bus, but they didn't show the bus driver completely leaving us out in the cold and not telling us we were going the wrong way.