Bros Find Love (and Hate) on Race

Never let it be said that Brian and Greg Smith didn't leave The Amazing Race (Tuesdays, 9pm/ET on CBS) in style. Before crossing the finish mat in Africa, the California brothers decided to doff all their clothes except for swimming trunks and winter hats, just in case this was a nonelimination leg. "It would have been great if we'd had to wear those for the rest of the race," Brian laughs. Sadly, the unlucky duo joined the rest of the season's Philiminated contestants. Here, they discuss why they weren't able to catch up with the pack — and what's going on in their post-Race lives.

TVGuide.com: Exactly how far behind were you guys? It was surprising that you weren't able to catch up, considering all the problems the other teams were having.
Greg Smith: We started off about 10 minutes behind and thought we had a good chance of catching up. Driving away from the place where we slept, there was a left turn and a right turn. Before we [departed], Brian had seen one team take the left turn, so we decided to go that way without really thinking about it. The thing is, we never saw them turn around and go right. So we took that left turn and kept going for about 45 minutes. Once we realized our mistake, it was another 45 minutes back, which put us about an hour and a half behind. Then we climbed the water tower and had problems with the goats. We actually tried the balancing challenge first, because we thought it would be quicker — we made it two steps and gave up. Then, when we finished the roadblock, all the clues were gone, so we knew going to the mat that we were the last team to arrive. We didn't see another team the whole day.
Brian Smith: It was frustrating because we felt like we had some momentum going after avoiding elimination on the previous leg. But getting lost just threw everything off. There wasn't even a lot to that leg — just driving to the detour and roadblock. It was really simple. So we were pretty bummed.

TVG: You did have a spectacular finish in the previous week's episode in South Africa, though. That final dash belongs in the TAR Hall of Fame.
Greg: Yeah, that was great to watch and great to be a part of.

TVG: It must have felt especially good after experiencing that car crash.
Brian: That was crazy, man. I was driving the car and we were right behind Ron and Kelly, just cruising along. We probably would have passed them at the detour and come in first that leg. But the road was rocky and the car slipped off, hit a patch of sand and just started sliding. I tried to turn the wheels to get back on the road and we flipped over. I thought we were done for sure. Plus the camera guys were hurt, and we were concerned about them. We also didn't know if we'd get a car in time because we were so far away. We were down, but we weren't going to give up. We knew we could catch up on a detour and it turned out we chose the right detour. We also knew if it came down to a leg race in the end, we could definitely beat any team that was in front of us — and we did.

TVG: Boyfriends Lynn and Alex stopped to help you guys, but Rob and Amber drove on by. How did you feel about that?
Greg: First off, Lynn and Alex were great. If they hadn't stopped, I don't know if we'd have been able to take care of an injured person ourselves. Plus they had people in their car who could help us out. Right after they stopped, Rob and Amber came by, and they didn't even slow down. I wasn't very happy about it, but that's the way they run the race.
Brian: It was so cool of Lynn and Alex to stop by because they didn't need to do that. And it was typical of Rob and Amber to fly by. Even after we got to the pit stop, they didn't come up to us to say "Sorry we didn't stop" or "Are you guys OK?" Everyone else was coming around asking us if we were OK and they didn't seem to care.
Greg: They might have cared, but they didn't show it. I think they were just embarrassed.

TVG: So that was par for the course as far as their behavior on the race?
Brian: We got along with every team out there except Rob and Amber. I can say up front that I know everybody on the race, to some extent, except for them. They weren't very social. They definitely didn't interact with some of the teams and they never interacted with us.

TVG: Early on, it looked like you guys hit it off romantically with Megan and Heidi. Has that continued since the race ended?
Brian: It was kind of weird, that first night when we had to sleep on the beach in Peru. Megan and I started talking and we really hit it off. She lives out in L.A. and so do I, and I thought, "Hey, there could be something here." I didn't go on the race to find romance or anything; it just kind of happened. We really just kind of clicked. So Megan and I are still friends right now. Nothing serious, but I see her a lot out there.

TVG: What else has been going on in your lives?
Brian: Well, I'm doing some standup comedy right now. I performed at the Ice House last week and also at the Rainbow Room. I've also got a sketch comedy group that I got Greg involved in. There are nine of us and it's hilarious. We've sold out every show so far. I haven't used any of the race stuff for my jokes. I kind of do the old bachelor jokes about being a single guy.

TVG: I'm sure you get this a lot, but I was rooting for you guys because you reminded me a lot of me and my brother. Did having that bond make it easier to run the race?
Greg: Definitely. We stopped arguing with each other when we were 16 or 17 years old. I can take anything he dishes out at me and, 10 minutes later, I'll forget what he just said because I don't really care. We knew that bond wouldn't break because we're best friends and we've lived and worked together. And we've got all those little handshakes going on.
Brian: Yeah, we've got "the bump," "the bump explosion" — we've got them all down. And they are always evolving. [Laughs]