Reichen Lehmkuhl Talks About Life in New York City and on “The A List”

Reichen Lehmkuhl first came into the public eye when he and then-partner Chip Arndt won The Amazing Race as an openly gay couple. They later split and Reichen famously dated Lance Bass at the time when the former NSync singer came out publicly.

Reichen has written a book (Here’s What We’ll Say) and dabbled in acting (Dante’s Cove on Here! TV and the off-Broadway play My Big Gay Italian Wedding) and has now circled back to reality television as one of the stars of the new Logo series The A List which premiered last night.

He talked to Socialite Life about the new show and how it came about. Here is the interview:

Socialite Life: Hi Reichen! What are you up to?
Reichen Lehmkuhl: I'm shopping for an event. I'm receiving an award from the New York Liberal Democratic Club.

SL: Congratulations! And congratulations on the new show, I saw it and it's really entertaining.
Reichen: I can't wait to see it! (Laughs)

SL: How did you end up getting involved with The A List?
Reichen: Actually, it was a year ago in October, I was asked if I was willing to move to New York to do this show and at the time I couldn't just take off from Los Angeles, so I said "no". And then, this year I put on my Facebook that I was moving to New York to do an off-Broadway play and the same casting director saw it and asked me if I would come in and do an interview for the same show, because they still hadn't cast it yet and they still wanted to do it. So I came in and they put me on tape for Logo and then, three days later, they called me and said they're going forward with this show and they wanted me. It's pretty cool.

SL: You wrote a book about your experience as a gay man in the military, "Here's What We'll Say". Was it hard for you to come out and tell your story?
Reichen: You know, it was cool to write it because I was getting it all out - all of my thoughts and feelings. When I went to publish it, yeah, it got a little scary because I knew I was exposing the way LGBT people were treated behind the closed gates of the US military and service academies and I knew I was going to get some backlash from that. So it was something that I really had to keep a thick skin about and just do it.

SL: I heard that there may be a film version of your story in the works. Is that true?
Reichen: It is true. A production company in Los Angeles has just purchased rights to shop it around the Hollywood studios. They're in the process of doing that right now. A screenplay has already been adapted and it's brilliant. It's awesome. I've already read it and it's looking good right now.

SL: This show couldn't have arrived at a better time, with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the spotlight. How do you feel about Lady Gaga bringing the DADT issue front and center?
Reichen: I'm just so happy that Lady Gaga, who's probably the most well-known person in the world right now, would come out and support this cause that we've been fighting for so long - since 1993, when "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was born. I think she's kind of brand new to the cause to a lot of us, but it doesn't matter because she's using this huge voice that she has - bigger than any voice we've ever had - to bring attention to it, and that's what we need. The more that people are aware of the problem, the more it's going to get fixed - because the name "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" gives Americans this false feeling that everything's fine. If you just go in and don't say anything, no one's going to ask you and you can serve - but it's not like that at all. There's a horrible environment in the military of homophobia and discrimination and violence associated with homosexuality and someone can just accuse you of being gay, you didn't tell anyone and nobody asked you, but if someone accuses you of it, an investigation starts. So DADT does nothing and there's been over 14,000 discharges of gay people since DADT, so it tells you that the policy doesn't work.

SL: I know you're very involved in activism and advocacy for DADT organizations - in fact, you donate 10% of the profits from your Fly Naked jewelry line to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. Can you tell me a little bit more?
Reichen: All of my work with DADT is with the SLDN and the focus of my jewelry line is to bring more awareness to the issue and also to help the SLDN and that's why we 10% of the gross proceeds to fight the ban.

SL: What was your most awesome experience from being on The Amazing Race?
Reichen: My most awesome experience was running up that last hill and beating the second place team by seven minutes and having Phil Keoghan say "You just won a million dollars!" There's nothing like that!

SL: Aside from Amazing Race, you've done a lot of traveling. What do you think is a place everyone should put on their "bucket list" to visit?
Reichen: Everyone should go to the islands off of Cairns, Australia and charter a boat and dive for like three days on the Great Barrier Reef and stay on one of these amazing islands with perfect weather, the most beautiful water and just hang out there for a few days. I stayed on Bedarra Island for a week and it was probably the most heavenly vacation I've ever had in my life. I was truly relaxed. I laid in a hammock all of the time, looked out at the water and read books. It was so quiet and so nice.

SL: What is it about New York that is so appealing?
Reichen: Well, you know I always said up until this past April, when I moved here to do the play, that I loved New York City to visit, but I could never live there. And then, it's crazy, once you get an apartment here and you have a job here, and you feel a little settled and safe, it's amazing (laughs). You walk out your door and everything's at your fingertips. You can have anything you want, meet anyone you want at any hour of the day. There's so much energy here and people are so eager here to talk and get to know you and exchange ideas and I think people are very open here, compared to LA. People in LA are very nice but I think there's a lot of pressure in LA - and I kind of fell under this too - to always say everything in your life is just wonderful because having everything in your life being wonderful is what you depend on putting out there to make sure you keep getting work (laughs). Where here, I find more people are open about the everyday s**t that goes on in their lives.

SL: A lot of the first episode revolves around your work on the play (My Big Gay Italian Wedding). Was that a fun experience for you?
Reichen: It was a lot of pressure, but it was amazing. I know the show is probably going to show my weakest moments, because that's good TV, but I had to learn how to dance and learn to sing some of these songs and I ended up pulling through to the point where people told me, "Wow, you're good at this and you can really do this." It's cool to have that feeling of accomplishment.

SL: Is acting in the theater something you want to continue to pursue?
Reichen: Yeah. Right now, I'm really interested in this new play coming to Broadway called Yank! It's about a gay service member in the army during World War II. I've met with the producers and we're in initial talks about some sort of involvement that I could have in the play. If I don't have a part in the play, I want to be some sort of associate producer or a promoter because I think it's such a cool story and I want to be a part of it.

SL: We didn't get to see you actually sing or dance on The A List. Would you ever be interested on appearing on Dancing with the Stars?
Reichen: I'd love to do Dancing with the Stars. I think I would have to work harder than most people but I think I could make it work!

SL: You've done so much in your career already. Is there anything you haven't done yet that you really want to do?
Reichen: Yes. I think I want to get a little more personally political. I would love to run for office one day. I don't think in the next few years, but I want to get a little more serious and kind of study up on the legislative system in our country and, even if I do something on a local level, I think it would be cool to be politically involved - so I see that happening for me down the line. But right now, I'm really stimulated by theater and acting and the business of television - and especially reality television, which I think is the strongest and fastest-growing genre of entertainment right now and I feel so lucky to be a part of it.

SL: How do you feel about having cameras following your every move and having it all out there for the world to see - and comment on?
Reichen: Well, I've been through it a lot before, this is the fourth reality show I've done. People really scrutinize me and my life and I think I'm finally to the point where I'm doing and saying what I want to do and say and not worrying about what people think. Someone's always going to have a problem with what you do or say and there's always going to be someone who thinks you should have done it differently or better but, you know, everything you do, there's so many choices you have and the way that you do it. You just put yourself out there and hope that it's interesting enough for people to watch or relate to and that's what I'm doing.

SL: Out of everything you've done, what is your proudest accomplishment?
Reichen: My proudest accomplishment is definitely graduating from the Air Force Academy because it was really hard - it was the hardest four years of my life. Everyday was hard - not only because of the things I had to do - but just to mentally tell yourself not to quit for four years because it's everyday. You're always under the gun and, especially being in the closet, I had so many reasons to quit and I didn't - I stuck it out. My second greatest accomplishment is definitely writing my book because I wrote it myself on my laptop, with my own fingers and every word is mine and it's helping people. It makes me so happy to receive emails from people thanking me for writing it, they relate to it, they tell me "I can remember that happening to me" and it just feels awesome.

SL: One last quick question, what does the tattoo on your back say?
Reichen: It says "Only God can judge me". When I finally broke free of the very public relationship and break up I had, I was getting so concerned about what people were writing about me and I read lie after lie after lie and it horrible to be judged in such a mass audience type of way. I remember I was in Hawaii and I got inspired by those words and I went and had it stuck on my back so I'd remember it forever.

SL: What's next for you?
Reichen: This will make you laugh, because you've listed all of these things I've done, but I got a letter from this soldier in Afghanistan, actually a pilot, and he was telling me that he was in this unit that was very secret, under the gun and all of the communication in and out of the unit was being monitored by intelligence and he was gay. He couldn't write in emails or phone calls or even letters how he was feeling to his partner and neither could his partner. They couldn't communicate for a period of four months and it drove him crazy to the point where they didn't know if either one of them was still into the relationship. So when he sent me this letter, he had read my book when he got out of the unit and he thanked me for the book and for what I was doing with DADT - and the letter made me cry. I wrote a poem about it and my friend who read the poem said, "You should make this a song". So, I play the guitar - I've played since I was seven but I've never performed in public or anything, so I wrote this song, I wrote the music, wrote the lyrics and I played it for this music producer and he said "We're going to make this into a single". So we are recording this single now called "Up to the Sky" and we're even making a music video. So I have a hit single coming out with a music video!

You can keep up with Reichen via his website. And don't forget to watch the next episodes of The A List on Mondays at 10:00 pm (ET) on Logo.

Reichen Lehmkuhl Does Ask and Does Tell

To say that Reichen Lehmkuhl is militant when it comes to raising awareness regarding lifting the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, would not be an understatement at all.

In fact, it perfectly encapsulates the 36-year-old’s passion for spreading the word on the political hot potato, which he addressed last month in Las Vegas during his appearance at Deployment Vegas. The annual gathering is for gay military men and those who champion them.

Lehmkuhl, who served as a Captain in the Air Force prior to his honorable discharge, has since spent his time in the trenches as a spokesperson for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and has a flight-themed jewelry line, Flying Naked, with proceeds benefiting the aforementioned organization.

It has been seven years since Lehmkuhl, and then partner Chip Arndt, won “The Amazing Race”; and he is now in the midst of dipping his toe back into the reality TV pool with his appearance on the upcoming LOGO series, “The A List: New York,” which has been likened to Bravo’s popular “Real Housewives” franchise, and features him and his boyfriend Rodiney Santiago in their day-to-day existence.

Lehmkuhl took time out his very busy schedule, which also includes taping of the new series and his starring role in the off-Broadway production of My Big Gay Italian Wedding, to chat with The Rage Monthly about a number of reality-themed topics; from being affiliated as one of its stars to the realism of there being a lifting of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Seeing as Lehmkuhl has been one of the few LGBT faces to win on a reality competition, we thought we’d get his two cents worth on how these shows represent the community as a whole.

“I think depending on the show, it’s portraying all different sides of the gay community,” he said, “It’s funny, as I get older, I’ve come to learn that there are so many kinds of people who happen to be gay; that you can’t fault any single show for depicting the gay community any single way.

Because who’s to say that straight acting gay people should be more acceptable than feminine acting gay people, or professional gay people should be regarded in a higher esteem than artsy gay people?"

“I’m kind of at the point where I’m non-judgmental about all of the different kinds of gay people that are in the community.”

As far as which of the many reality shows that populate the airwaves, he does have a favorite that he’s partial to, in terms of how the community are showcased on it. “‘The Amazing Race’ has done it the best, because they’ve shown a lot of different kinds of gay people,” he answered.

“They’ve embraced the whole spectrum of the gay community. Our gay watchdog organizations that we have; there’s almost this pressure to show the gay community in a way that might be more acceptable to the straight community,” he explained.

“So that we have a better chance of getting rights, and I’m getting militant in my older age in saying, ‘We should be able to be how we are, and still be respected to have the same rights as everyone else.’ When you’re talking about reality shows, especially ‘The Amazing Race, ‘ I think they applaud that mindset.”

One mindset that may not have Lehmkuhl giving a standing ovation to is the labeling of being a “reality star,” as he has branched out into other avenues of the entertainment field with acting roles, including his turn as Trevor on “Dante’s Cove.”

He explained his connotation of the term. “Ah, reality star,” he said with a laugh. “Someone who has a really hard time getting respect in the legitimate acting world; I think it takes a special kind of person to really stick with it, and try to parlay their reality world fame into things that are more constructive and respected more in the entertainment industry.”

As previously mentioned, he is in the midst of filming “The A List: New York” and is both “totally excited and scared to death” to be swimming back in the waters of reality TV, as this experience is far different than his turn on “The Amazing Race.”

“It’s scary, the cameras are with me all the time,” he stated. “It’s an eight episode series, and we’re shooting for three and a half months; and the show is with me, basically, six days a week and sometimes twelve hours a day."

“And they’re showing everything,” Lehmkuhl exclaimed. “Viewers of the show are going to see my life, like my family and friends probably haven’t even seen it. It’s so intense, this show, and it’s scary to be opened up like that. But at the same time, it’s so much fun and so exciting.”

As far as the series being similar to the Real Housewives brand, Lehmkuhl feels that it will stand on its own merit.

“It’s definitely a unique show, because it will be the only one that’s totally gay and depicting these six guys’ lives,” he professed.

“You’ll be able to relate to it more, and there’s every kind of gay person on the show – name the kind of guy and he’s on there. I think everyone’s going to have a favorite and everyone’s going to have someone they hate.

And, I think the show will be appealing to a lot of people outside of the gay community, because it’s a kind of social experiment.”

Another aspect that he sees as beneficial is that it’s a great cross-promotional tool for the gay rights causes he supports through appearances on the lecture circuit, as well as highlighting his attempts to eek out time to write a tongue-in-cheek follow-up to his 2006 memoir Here’s What We’ll Say, which he plans to title It Will Be Great Exposure.

“I’m having a time in my life, where I’m not getting the chance to sit down and write,” he recounted. “I’m actually heading to a store right now to buy a desk, so I can sit down and write more.

The first quarter will be my time as a gay officer in the Air Force and everything I went through living a double life, and then I’ll go into meeting Chip, doing “The Amazing Race,” meeting Lance (Bass) and going through a breakup on the grocery store newsstand tabloids.

“I’ve been through some other really hard stuff that I’m going to reveal and open up about, hopefully to help other people who might have gone through the same things.”

And this is the exact reason why he became involved with Deployment Vegas, as he knows first hand about the types of experience the military men have gone through.

“It’s really important for me and I feel so lucky to have been invited by the organization to speak to them,” Lehmkuhl said. “And I know it’s an organization that relates to me and what I’ve been through, and I relate to them and what they’ve been through."

“I think it will benefit me as much as it will benefit them (the men participating). I’ll love getting together with these guys and having that camaraderie with them, and we can all talk and share stories.

To stand before them and tell my story is cool, but I want to hear their stories, as much as they might want to hear mine. When you’re in the military and you’re gay, you withstand emotional torture leading a double life and it’s very difficult.”

If Lehmkuhl had his druthers, and in a perfect world, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would become a thing of the past. “If I had it my way, I would be best friends with the President and talk him into signing an executive order to stop the discharges immediately,” he proclaimed.

“At two discharges a day, at the rate we’re running, I’d put all those discharges on the shoulders of the President. "We’re really torturing people who are willing to give their lives in their profession; name one other profession where people are willing to give an actual beating heart for that profession,” he stated.

“You’re taking those kinds of honorable people and ripping them from their careers, humiliating them, and everyday we’re doing this to a couple of men and women. It has to stop! In an ideal world, which is not the one we live in, that’s what I would do."

“In the real world, I have high hopes that the Senate will pass this Defense Budget Bill. It’s a lot of work and will take a lot of convincing.”

The A-List: New York will premiere next month on LOGO.

Gay and Straight Brothers Win "Amazing Race"

A brilliant midflight move to first class helped propel brothers Daniel and Jordan Pious to victory in the season finale of “The Amazing Race.”

Although all the contestants were booked in coach, Daniel and Jordan sweet-talked their way into first class during the long flight across the Pacific, which meant they would be able to get off the plane first -- ahead of the coach passengers.

The brothers from Barrington, R.I., stormed off the plane with a lead that they never relinquished and finished easily ahead of Oklahoma cowboy brothers Cord and Jet. Models Brent and Caite finished third.

Daniel and Jordan won the $1 million prize.

Jordan, who is openly gay, is a huge fan of the show and his wealth of knowledge about previous races paid off at the end, especially when he was prepared for the memory game that often stumps contestants. Jordan said several times during the competition how he has often dreamed of winning the race.

"I love my little brother," said Daniel, 24, "and it's so great knowing that I could help him make his No. 1 one dream come true."

Jordan, 22, complimented the bond that he has with his brother, who he called his best friend. "This race just really confirmed for us, the strength of our relationship and the bond that two brothers and best friends can have," Jordan said.

Among the road blocks in the final leg of the race, which was in San Francisco, was that one member of each team had to climb a rope up Coit Tower, the landmark atop Telegraph Hill. And in another high-tech road block, one member had to "direct" the other through a complicated virtual world set up at Industrial Light and Magic, which was filled with "Star Wars" characters.

The finish line was at Candlestick Park, home of the 49ers. It was there that harsh words were exchanged between Caite and the lesbian team of Brandy and Carol. From the beginning of the race around the world, both teams took an extreme disliking of each other. The lesbian team was eliminated in an earlier episode after Brent and Caite forced their rivals to go through a U-turn, which caused them to finish last during an elimination round.

Brandy blasted Caite for the u-turn, saying that she and Brent should have targeted a much stronger team such as the cowboys. Brandy also rejected Caite’s attempt to apologize for the strategic tactic. While the dramatic catfight may have helped TV ratings, it took some of the glamor off the win by Daniel and Jordan.

Reality Sweethearts Jeff and Jordan: The Amazing Race Made Us Stronger

After falling for each other in the Big Brother house last summer, salesman Jeff Schroeder, 31, and salon receptionist Jordan Lloyd, 22, decided to take their new relationship for a test drive around the world on The Amazing Race. While they didn’t win any money this time around, the couple agree the experience gave them new tools to make their long-distance (he’s in Chicago. Illinois; she’s in Charlotte, North Carolina) relationship last.

So sad to see you guys go as you never ceased to entertain.
Jeff: At least we accomplished something.

Much of the entertainment value came from Jordan’s ditsy moments — the granddaddy of them all being confusing Noah’s Arc and Joan of Arc.
Jordan: I was like, “I don’t want to watch this episode because I know they’re gonna show that stupid thing I said about Joan.” If I ever learned about her, that was a long time ago and I’d forgotten. Racing, you’re not always thinking straight and the first thing that came to my head when I heard Arc was Noah and animals. It made me feel better when Caite said the same thing. At least I wasn’t the only one.

Where did you go wrong? Biggest misstep?
Jordan: Directions. It was cold. We didn’t communicate well with each other. The whole cab ride in Germany really threw us off for the next two legs. That guy took us probably 40 minutes out of the way and put us so far behind. It just went downhill from there.
Jeff: That really messed with our heads. It’s hard to play catch-up.

It must be hard to swallow when bad luck — or even worse, bad directions — are to blame for your elimination.
Jeff: If you can’t trust a tourist office, who should you get directions from? But one hand washes the other. When something good happens in life, usually something bad happens. We got sent on some unfortunate cab rides and got some bad directions, but we also got saved by a non-elimination [round] and a U-turn. We should have been off the show two weeks earlier. Not winning wasn’t the worst thing ever. We had a great time doing the show. We learned a lot about each other and doing the show made us a stronger couple.

Glad to hear you guys are still dating. Many contestants who have known each other much longer weren’t so lucky.
Jordan: The Race helped us learn more about each other. A lot of things I didn’t understand about Jeff going in, I understand now. Like sometimes I felt he was yelling at me because he was raising his voice. I kept telling him, “Lower your tone with me.” I learned that’s just Jeff being competitive. I thought it was going to make or break us. It just made us stronger.

Jeff, is it fair that people accused Jordan of holding you back?

Jeff: I was worried about that going in and sometimes she could have tried a little harder, but I was also too competitive. It kept me from communicating well with Jordan. I was trained in sales and she was never in sports so she doesn’t share my way of thinking. I dealt with her like a coach would a player, but that’s not the way to do it with her. You have to talk a little softer and understand where she’s coming from. But we learned from it. She turned it up a level and I toned it down a little and that’s going to help us throughout life.

Is this it for you guys and reality TV or is there another show you’re hoping to get on?
Jeff: I think people are getting tired of us and need a break, so we’re going back to our regular lives. We loved every minute of our 15 minutes of fame and I’m sure we’re gonna miss it, so I would never say never.

Big Brother’s Jeff Schroeder and Jordan Lloyd Take on The Amazing Race

They capped off their inexplicable run on Big Brother with Jordan Lloyd emerging as the season 11 champ and Jeff Schroeder taking home the prize as America’s Favorite Player. But before the ink was even dry on their BB checks, America’s reality sweethearts signed on to compete in the 16th edition of CBS’s The Amazing Race, which started last night (February 14th).

With 11 other teams, eight countries and five continents standing between them and the ultimate prize, the couple who hadn’t even had a chance to take a vacation together faced a whole new set of obstacles. Jeff, 31, and Jordan, 22, sat down with People magazine to talk about their new challenge.

Were you fans of the Amazing Race before signing on?
Jordan: It’s kind of funny. I’ve been part of two reality shows and I had never watched either one before. I had to YouTube it, just like I did with Big Brother and figure out what everything meant, like ‘detour,’ ‘roadblock’, and all that other stuff.
Jeff: I had watched it a couple of times, but I wasn’t a die-hard fan.

Did your experience together on BB help you, or hurt you?
Jeff: I think it helped us, and played to our strengths. I’m sure that brothers and sisters, or mothers and daughters had issues after a week of being together non-stop. What was a strain on other teams was a positive for us; we didn’t have to worry about being together all of the time, we were already use to it.

Did traveling together put too much strain on you two, or do you think that it actually made you stronger?
Jeff: It was definitely a strain…
Jordan: (interrupting) I think it made us stronger!
Jeff: (laughs) Let me finish. It was definitely a strain on the relationship, but it definitely made us stronger. The fact that we went through the hard times that we did is a testament to our relationship. This show really pushed us to the max, and it was tough, but we’re still a couple, we’re still here, and it show’s a lot that we’re still together.

Do you think you two are lucky that you made it through this without going for each other’s throats?
Jordan: (laughs) I think the main problem was that I was too laid back about things, because I’m not that competitive, and Jeff is so competitive. We didn’t really meet in the middle, so it went from one extreme to another.
Jeff: I need to turn it down, and she needs to turn it up, (laughs) but there were moments when I did want to strangle her, and I’m sure there were times where she wanted to kill me.

Was there ever a point where things got so hard that you two almost threw in the towel?
Jeff: There was one point, but as much as we joke around about strangling each other, and argue, we were never, ever going to throw in the towel. We were never going to quit by any means. I don’t think it was ever an option for either one of us.
Jordan: Yeah, but it was the only time though. It was the worst ever, and I was about to cry but I didn’t want to look like a baby.

If you had a choose between slop for a month, and a Race food challenge, which would you take?
Jordan: I’d eat slop. Before we went in, I told Jeff that I would do all the height challenges, because he’s kind of scared of heights, but that he had to eat all of the gross stuff. I can’t stand anything fishy, or oily, and I can’t eat a bug, and I know that Jeff will do it.
Jeff: I would take care of eating weird stuff, but if there was something that had to be jumped off of,(laughs) it was going to be Jordan.

You two went from being locked in a house for three months with a bunch of lunatics to traversing 5 continents and eight countries in a race against other cutthroat teams. Are you two just gluttons for punishment?
Jeff: (laughs) No, but I look at it as an amazing story, how Jordan and I met, and how things have been working out between us. It’s definitely something to tell the grandkids type of story, and hopefully things keep working out the way they have, because as crazy as it’s been, it’s a serious relationship. I love the way things are and I wouldn’t trade it or change it for anything.

Jordan, when Jeff says that it’s a story, ‘to tell the grandkids,’ what goes through your mind?
Jordan: (laughs) That he’s being nice today, he’s being real sweet! Normally when I talk like that he’s like, ‘Jordan, take it easy!’

SPOILER ALERT! Jeff and Jordan ended in first place on the first episode of the 16th edition of The Amazing Race.

Big Brother Sweethearts Jeff & Jordan to Compete on The Amazing Race

There will be some familiar faces competing on the new season of The Amazing Race!

Big Brother winner Jordan Lloyd and her fan-favorite boyfriend Jeff Schroeder will make up one of the 11 teams racing almost 40,000 miles on the 16th edition of the show, which premieres February 14th at 8:00 pm (ET) on CBS.

Departing from Los Angeles, the teams will have to make their way on public transportation to LAX, where they’ll hop a flight to their first destination, Chile, where they’ll face one of the most daunting Roadblocks in the show’s history, according to a CBS press release.

Also competing: Caite Upton, the former Miss South Carolina Teen USA who became a YouTube sensation after flubbing her answer to a question from pageant judges. Now a model, she’ll race with her boyfriend Brent Horne.

To learn more about the contestants — including a pair of undercover detectives, a World Series champion coach and his daughter, and cowboy brothers — competing on The Amazing Race, watch the following video.

“Amazing Race” Runner-ups Dan & Sam McMillen Talk to AfterElton About the Show

A new interview with the Amazing Race's gay brother team, Dan and Sam McMillen, was posted on http://www.afterelton.com/ today, the day after the airing of the finale of The Amazing Race in which they finished in second place.

Here are some excerpts from a chat with the brothers who were intensely competitive:

AE: Last time we talked, only one episode had aired and you were still a little nervous about how you would be edited. What do you think of the end product? Was it a fair representation? Dan McMillen: We were happy with it in the end. We were a little upset when they first started editing us as the villains, but then we got over it. And the way they made it look like we argued so much when other teams argued just as much. I guess it’s a little bit of a bummer because that’s a little misleading, but we are not at all upset at being the villains or anything like that just because it was so fun. We added the drama the show needs. It was really cool to play that role.

AE: You mentioned that some of the bickering was editing, but the two of you did bicker. A lot. You’d almost think you were brothers or something. How did you feel watching it together? Has your relationship changed as a result of the race?
Sam McMillen: I think for us it was more entertaining than anything. We’re weren’t upset watching it. We weren’t angry or disappointed with how it got edited. We just had a great time with it. It definitely did make us a little more conscious of how we treat each other. When you’re a sibling and in the middle of a fight, you don’t really think about the effect it might have on that person because siblings compete so much. Watching it has made us rethink how we want to be treating each other, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’re still going to bicker and argue.

AE: At the big volleyball challenge, you guys were both the recipients of some heavy duty blurring action, while we couldn’t help but notice Cheyne did not need the same attention. Is there something you’d like to tell us? Just how hot were those Estonian boys anyway?
SM: Here’s the deal. Cheyne had black boxers on so you couldn’t see everything for him. Dan had lighter-colored boxers on, I had paper-thin little shorts on, and so you could just see too much. Apparently, the outline was too obvious, so they had to blur everything. No, we were not getting excited by the Estonian hotties, despite what everyone else seems to think. There’s not too much that’s erotic about playing volleyball with your brother in a little town in Estonia.

For the complete interview, click this link: http://www.afterelton.com/people/2009/12/sam-mcmillen-dan-mcmillen.

Jon Gosselin on Survivor or The Amazing Race

Imagine this:

Jon Gosselin, on an abandoned island. Surrounded by great white sharks. Scampering up trees to hide from wild, angry boar. Trying to build a hut with giant palm leaves, only to wake up covered in fronds. Having to rip apart his precious Ed Hardy clothes and eat them for nourishment. No quasi-fug girlfriends. No Christian Audigier. No ATVs. It’s a pretty nice image, right?

Well thanks to the good folks at CBS, we might actually get to see that happen. Jon Gosselin is taking meetings to appear on “Survivor” or “The Amazing Race.” Instinct tells me Jon’s not exactly adept at anything involving strategy, but it’d sure be fun to watch for an episode or two until he tripped and quit.

Fall TV Premieres: Sunday Night

As the official Fall TV premiere comes to a close we have several of our favorites coming back to another season of love, betrayal, laughter, and mysteries...and that's only what "Desperate Housewives" has in store for us.

Here are the new and returning shows for tonight.

THE AMAZING RACE (CBS 8:00 pm): Contestants in The Amazing Race's 15th installment begin their frenzied spirit around the world from Los Angeles and immediately jet off to Tokyo, where things get rather spicy. The 21-day race offers an array of contestants including Harlem Globetrotters, female professional poker players, a man with Asperger's syndrome and of course, a highly combustible husband/wife tandem.

AMERICAN DAD (FOX 9:30 pm): Dad's fifth season his hard on Son Steve, who goes to a Vietnam War restaging and gets a case of Post-Traumatic-War-Reenactment Stress Disorder. On the Christmas episode, CIA agent Stan Smith spends the end of the holidays trying to rescue his wife Francine from the Antichrist.

BROTHERS & SISTERS (ABC 10:00 pm): Another health crisis kicks off season four and all bets are on Nora (Sally Field) to be the won stricken by the crisis. In other story lines, Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke Macfarlane) pursue parenthood via surrogacy; Kitty (Calista Flockhart) and Robert (Rob Lowe) try to mend their marriage; Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) gets luck with a stud (Gilles Marini); and Nora and Holly (Patricia Wettig) lock horns over planning Justin (Dave Annable) and Rebecca's (Emily VanCamp) wedding.

CALIFORNICATION (Showtime 10:00 pm): With Karen (Natascha McElhone) away, Hank (David Duchovny), who takes a job teaching writing at a university, will play with three women: a twentysomething student/stripper (Eva Amurri); his thirtysomething teacher's aide (Diane Farr); and the fourtysomething head of the English department (Embeth Davidtz), who's married to the college dean (Peter Gallagher). It will be an interesting third season.

THE CLEVELAND SHOW (FOX 8:30 pm): Family Guy's Cleveland Brown and his son, Cleveland Jr., return to their hometown of Stoolbend, Virginia where he marries his first love, Donna, who has two kids of her own. This show will tell the story that "The Brady Bunch" never told.

COLD CASE (CBS 10:00 pm): Season seven finds Detective Rush (Kathryn Morris) off her game. Things will go haywire in her life. A military-academy official (Daniel Baldwin), who almost killed Rush, will remain a thorn in her side. And as she reconciles with her father (Raymond J. Barry), she'll have mixed feelings about her new found step mom and half siblings.

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (ABC 9:00 pm): Season six's central plot stems from an attack on a "beloved character" in the premiere. Suspects will include the Bolens, Wisteria Lane's newest clan headed by Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos) and Jeffrey Nordling (24) who are running away from something. In other story lines, Lynette (Felicity Hoffman) will hide her pregnancy from boss Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira), Gaby (Eva Longoria Parker) will battle with niece Ana (Maiara Walsh), and Bree (Marcia Cross) will discover her sexuality in a major way through her affair with Karl (Richard Burgi). Plus, last season's cliffhanger of who is Mike (James Denton) marrying, either Susan (Teri Hatcher) or Katherine (Dana Delaney), will be answered in the first minute of the premiere show.

DEXTER (Showtime 9:00 pm): Showtime's crafty drama, about a Miami police blood-splatter analyst who satisfies his own sociopathic blood lust by killing murderers on the side, returns for season four with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) facing down his biggest nemesis yet...fatherhood and an intriguing mass murderer Arthur aka the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow).

EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION (ABC 8:00 pm): Season seven will bring more celebrities on the "Get on the Bus" campaign, including Patricia Heaton, Mary J. Blige and Ashley Tisdale.

FAMILY GUY (FOX 9:00 pm): During the eighth season, Family Guy's creator will have a "Spies Like Us" reunion with Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase, the return of James Woods, and an "Empire Strikes Back" spoof.

THE SIMPSONS (FOX 8:00 pm): The 20th anniversary of the longest running prime-time cartoon series stars with Homer getting a whipping from a personal trainer (Seth Rogen) in order to get him into shape to play a big-screen superhero. Later int he season Bart also gets a girlfriend (Sarah Silverman), an older prankster (Jonah Hill) serves as a cautionary tale to Bart, and Krusty finds romance when a princess (Anne Hathaway) joins the show.

All show times are based on Eastern Time.

Meet the Teams of The Amazing Race!

Just days before taking off on their mysterious and grueling journey around the world, the teams of the 15th season of The Amazing Race have been revealed. Use this handy guide to get a leg up on your office pool before the new season starts September 27th on CBS.

Maria Ho (26) and Tiffany “Hot Chips” Michelle (25)
Hometown: Los Angeles
Relationship: Professional poker players who’ve been friends for five years
Why They’ll Win: Cooler heads often prevail in this contest and these card sharks have plenty of practice controlling their emotions. “If you let other people get in your head and lose your calm, you will make a crucial mistake,” Michelle said. Plus, they’re both fit, single and they’ve also traveled extensively together for tournaments. Ho speaks Mandarin while Michelle is fluent in sign language.
Why They Won’t: There has never been a victorious all-female team. But Ho is disregarding the odds: “Poker is a male-dominated profession,” she says. “We’re used to being underdogs.”

Mika Combs (22) and Canaan Smith (26)
Hometown: Nashville
Relationship: An aspiring country singer and waitress and a songwriter who’ve been dating for a few months
Why They’ll Win: Trying to break into the music business, they’ve gotten used to performing in front of strangers, tackling jitters, long hours, late nights and skipping meals. “I’m used to going from sun up to sundown and she spends 15 hours on her feet waiting tables,” Smith says. “We always do what we need to get by.”
Why They Won’t: Their combined list of fears is a mile long — snakes, heights, roller coasters, water. “I brought my hot pink floaties [because] I don’t have confidence yet,” Combs admitted. And then there’s that whole thing about only knowing each other for eight months.

Marcy Malloy (60) and Ron Shalita (59)
Hometown: San Francisco
Relationship: Advertising photographer and a day trader/math tutor who met online a year ago
Why They’ll Win: To prepare, they went rock climbing and did a ropes course to overcome Shalita’s fear of heights, swam in the frigid bay, drove a Winnebago and walked on stilts. Malloy even practiced breathing in small spaces (she’s claustrophobic) and set up a balance beam in her living room. “It’s been a big lark preparing; intense experiences bond people,” says Malloy, who speaks three languages and was raised around the globe as a military brat.
Why They Won’t: Being the oldest team hasn’t been worked in the past. But considering Marcy takes trapeze classes, these are not your average senior citizens. “We want people to write us off as the old couple they don’t have to worry about,” he said.

Eric (41) and Lisa Paskel (43)
Hometown: Encino, Calif.
Relationship: Yoga studio owners who have been married for 19 years save for an eight-month divorce
Why They’ll Win: They’re survivors. Both overcame addiction, saved their marriage after a break 11 years ago, raised two daughters and regularly train celebrities like Jessica Biel. “There’s nothing that can separate Eric and I now. Not heaven or hell, water or stress and certainly not a bad taxi driver,” Lisa pledged. “We may kill each other or make sweet love the whole time, but the opportunity to be one on one with my man is priceless.”
Why They Won’t: They’re vegans in a contest that usually features bizarre food-eating challenges. They intend to employ mind-over-matter disassociation tactics to choke meat down, but neither wants to go there. “Even when I ate meat, I would have turned down camel penis,” he said.

Nathaniel “Big Easy” Lofton (28) and Herb Lang (32)
Hometown: New Orleans and Bossier City, La.
Relationship: Teammates on the Harlem Globetrotters for five years
Why They’ll Win: These expert jetsetters spend eight months a year touring the world together (Lang’s been to 65 countries; Lofton 35). Having lived through Hurricane Katrina, Lofton could only come up with two things that scare them: “I just hope we don’t have to watch a scary movie or go into a haunted house. The black guys always die first. I’m also afraid of Herb’s mom. If we lose because we did something stupid, she will wring our necks.”
Why They Won’t: Others might fear their overused passports and laundry list of talents (swimming, fish-gutting, adventurous palettes) and align against them. “We don’t want to be on the wrong side of the U-turn,” Lang said.

Lance Layne (41) and Keri Morrlone (33)
Hometown: Salem and Peabody, Mass.
Relationship: A lawyer and finance manager set to marry two weeks after the end of the race
Why They’ll Win: Wedding costs have left them without money for a honeymoon, so they’re motivated. “I’d like to see the big animals in Africa. I see us as lions on the race so it’d be nice to mix with our own kind,” he said. “I’m used to yelling and deceiving and persuading. We have stressful jobs so we don’t get a lot of sleep. We work out a lot.”
Why They Won’t: With the wedding album on her mind, she refuses to do appearance-altering tasks. “We cannot shave our heads get tattoos,” she said. “We have to have hair in my pictures.”

Meghan Rickey (23) and Cheyne Whitney (23)
Hometown: San Diego
Relationship: A public relations exec and student who met playing tetherball in grade school and became a couple after reconnecting at a frat party
Why They’ll Win: They’re all-American — young, beautiful, in great shape (running and water sports are their specialties), college-educated, extremely close and determined to have a grand adventure before getting hitched. He explained their plan: “We’re going in knowing we need to stay relaxed and tone down our competitiveness. It’s a marathon not a sprint.”
Why They Won’t: Whitney rolled his ankle playing Frisbee on the beach two weeks before departure: “[It was] black and blue and swollen. His uncle, a doctor, was like, ‘He’ll be fine in four to six weeks.’ Only we knew we didn’t have that kind of time.”

Garrett Paul (28) and Jessica Stout (27)
Hometown: Aptos and Larkspur, Calif.
Relationship: A day trader and freelance editor who met studying abroad in Spain and have dated on and off for seven years
Why They’ll Win: Traveling is less hobby and more lifestyle for this bilingual (Spanish) couple who’ve done the bulk of their vacationing together. “My parents took me out of school when I was 13 and we [spent 12] weeks in Europe and Africa to instill that love of travel,” Paul said, adding that the twosome had also explored Europe, the South Pacific, Central and South America together.
Why They Won’t: She admits to having a fiery Latin temper and there’s got to be a reason why they’re on their fourth (and, according to both, final) take on this relationship.

Dan (21) and Sam McMillen (23)
Hometown: Kansas City, Mo., and Fort Worth, Texas
Relationship: Gay brothers who only just came out to each other last year
Why They’ll Win: They have a healthy sibling rivalry, but are 10 times closer since sharing their secret. They believe being physically fit “polar opposites” will help them run a well-rounded race and when brains or brawn fail, they’ll bust out the Midwestern charm.
Why They Won’t: The stress of knowing they have to come out to their small town, religious family before the show airs may weigh on their mind. Also, “I’m so afraid of cats and Sam is afraid of guns and heights,” Dan says. “As long as there isn’t a challenge where we are shooting cats out of guns on a tightrope, we should be able to stay out of the fetal position.”

Justin Kanew (29) and Zev Glassenberg (26)
Hometown: Los Angeles and Sherman Oaks, Calif.
Relationship: Best friends who met six years ago when working as camp counselors
Why They’ll Win: The unemployed Glassenberg has financial motivation on his side and is a fanatical follower of The Race. “If you’re good to people around the world and other teams, you’ll get the good taxis and people will show you how to get places,” he says, explaining his theory of karma.
Why They Won’t: Glassenberg suffers from Asperger’s and is anti-social in a very social game. Big groups, loud noises, being touched near the ears set him off and he doesn’t filter his reactions.

Gary (47) and Matt Tomljenovich (22)
Hometown: Laurel and Bozeman, Mont.
Relationship: A conservative mortgage broker and his metal-loving son
Why They’ll Win: The outdoorsy do-it-yourselfers are convinced they’re filling the “hicks from the sticks” quota since they live on 22 acres with horses and barn. “If it comes down to driving a tractor, target shooting, chopping wood or mending a fence, we’re golden,” Matt said.
Why They Won’t: They admit they have almost nothing in common and haven’t spent any quality time together since the college student was a tot. “We spent more time just the two of us filling out the application than we ever had before,” Gary said.

Ericka Dunlap (27) and Brian Kleinschmidt (27)
Hometown: Nashville
Relationship: Miss America 2004 and her husband, a sports marketer who sees The Race as the honeymoon they never had, are the show’s first interracial couple
Why They’ll Win: When their team bandanas arrived via FedEx and they were yellow, the couple believed it was a good omen. “I was the only Miss America crowned in yellow,” Dunlap explained. “It’s sort of my trademark.” Since they were chosen, they’ve also been practicing driving stick, swimming and training more frequently (she lost 25 pounds).
Why They Won’t: They aren’t seasoned travelers and are concerned other groups might assume they don’t need the money and gang up on them. “She won scholarship money and went to school. We have to work like everyone else, “said Kleinschmidt.

Phil Keoghan to Take His Own Amazing Race

He's no stranger to observing overwhelming challenges, but by his own estimation, "This is the most daunting physical thing I have ever attempted," Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan told People about his own amazing race – a 40-day, 39-city cycling tour from Los Angeles to New York.

Starting this Saturday, Keoghan, 41, plans to average 100 miles a day in pedal power. "Riding a bicycle is about getting back to basics," he says. "It's good for the waistline and it's good for the wallet, is what I'm saying."

But Keoghan isn't undertaking the road trip strictly for fitness. His adventure, sponsored by the health-store chain GNC, will take him to GNC outlets, to casting calls for The Amazing Race, to signings of his book No Opportunity Wasted, and to promotions of his favorite portable food NOW One Square Meals. The journey will also help him raise money and awareness for Bike MS.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society "is sponsoring nine of the major rides I am doing," he says. "I have been involved with the MS chapter here in California, and I have participated in their rides over the last four years."

Keoghan hopes he is not alone on the road. He is encouraging fans and well-wishers to check out his Twitter updates – or, better yet, turn out in person to see him, or even sign up to ride with him.

Also on view will be former Amazing Race contestants and even Keoghan's dad, John. "It's an absolute, monumental effort," says Keoghan, "but I think a tremendous amount of good is going to come out of it."

Here's a first look at Keoghan's itinerary:

Saturday, March 28 – Los Angeles
Sunday, March 29 – Victorville, Calif.
Monday, March 30 – Baker, Calif.
Tuesday, March 31 – Las Vegas
Wednesday, April 1 – Caliente, Nev.
Thursday, April 2 – Cedar City, Utah
Friday, April 3 – Kanab, Utah
Saturday, April 4 – Page, Ariz.
Sunday, April 5 – Kayenta, Ariz.
Monday, April 6 – Cortez, Colo.
Tuesday, April 7 – Pagosa Springs, Colo.
Wednesday, April 8 – Saguache, Colo.
Thursday, April 9 – Fairplay, Colo.
Friday, April 10 – Denver, Rest Day
Saturday, April 11 – Denver
Sunday, April 12 – Fort Morgan, Colo.
Monday, April 13 – Wray, Colo.
Tuesday, April 14 – McCook, Neb.
Wednesday, April 15 – Holdrege, Neb.
Thursday, April 16 – Sutton, Neb.
Friday, April 17 – Lincoln, Neb.
Saturday, April 18 – Omaha, Neb.
Sunday, April 19 – Atlantic, Iowa
Monday, April 20 – Des Moines, Iowa
Tuesday, April 21 – Iowa City, Iowa
Wednesday, April 22 – Davenport, Iowa
Thursday, April 23 – Rochelle, Ill.
Friday, April 24 – Chicago.
Saturday, April 25 – Chicago
Sunday, April 26 – Plymouth, Ind.
Monday, April 27 – Fort Wayne, Ind.
Tuesday, April 28 – Lima, Ohio
Wednesday, April 29 – Columbus, Ohio
Thursday, April 30 – Dennison, Ohio
Friday, May 1 – Pittsburgh, Rest Day
Saturday, May 2 – Pittsburgh
Sunday, May 3 – Frostburg, Md.
Monday. May 4 – Hagerstown, Md.
Tuesday, May 5 – Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, May 6 – Baltimore
Thursday, May 7 – Philadelphia
Friday, May 8 – New York, End City