Who Are These Newbies? - The Challenge USA Season 2: The Amazing Race

Due to the heavy presence of graphics and video, "Who Are These Newbies?" is best experienced on desktops and fast-performing mobile devices.

BY DC CUEVA 

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For as long as we've been posting on here over the course of the past decade, DCBLOG has maintained a longstanding tradition of introducing those unfamiliar faces you're getting to see for the first time with what we call, "Who Are These Newbies?" -- our primer on first-time entrants to MTV Reality shows. We have focused on around 200 personalities since this site began in 2013... and it's a result of our vision that viewers watching these shows like yourselves shouldn't get to meet newcomers to these shows without us giving them their deserved treatment and introduction.

DCBLOG has had an unblemished record of doing these posts for every Challenge season until last spring -- and it's with things going on outside of this site that caused me to miss doing introductory bits on the international players who competed on the World Championship spinoff or some of the notable castmates from the return Are You The One? season. Need not worry, we plan to take care of doing those posts at a later date for the sake of those who haven't seen those just yet on Paramount+ during this TV offseason... but now, we go into doing this first installment for this second USA Challenge.

All Photos Courtesy Paramount & CBS

When the field of this year's second Challenge season on network television gathered in Croatia to kick matters off back on Thursday night -- and just as it was a year earlier down in Argentina, the cast makeup was the same both when the CBS alumni came onto the port, and after the MTV veterans invaded their party. That is in the fact that one show was far & away the least-represented of the entire group of competitors who have come to this European paradise to chase the $500,000 that goes to whoever comes away victorious come mid-autumn: that would be The Amazing Race.

As noted in our introductory post on that lonely trio of three who came to Season 1 of The Challenge USA last year, TAR is the one CBS reality show that feels like the lonely little brother who can't get the huge notoriety that Survivor and Big Brother get as far as garnering social media buzz, viewership and a consistent timeslot. It does, though, have so many more Emmy Awards to its credit, including ten statues for Outstanding Reality Competition Series and the Critics Choice Award for Best Reality Show for its most recent season. And those who have stayed loyal through all of this to watching FX Breakfast Time road warrior Phil Keoghan guide the teams on their journeys around the world are lucky to still be here as Road Rules' spiritual and well-traveled successor.

After the break, Part 1 of "Who Are These Newbies?" of The Challenge USA 2 introduces you to the duo who traveled the world during the midst of a pandemic, and who lived through that challenging experience to make it onto this new Challenge -- Dusty and Luis of the past couple seasons. Then: a follow-up on one of the players who competed on last year's CBS Challenge, and flew straight from Argentina to joining the ladder in last year's race around the world. But first, their introduction...

DUSTY HARRIS    

● Season 33 - 2021

When Season 33 of The Amazing Race began filming three years ago, it was just after the cast ventured around the British Isles that the pandemic began to shut the world down... and it wasn't until global travel borders reopened a year later that the teams returned to Europe to settle their unfinished business. The cast included Love Island sweethearts Caro Vie and Ray Gantt, whose cracks in their seemingly perfect relationship began to show in Europe and was sealed with a breakup on Ex On The Beach. Also there was Cayla Platt, who was a flight attendant when she came onto that two-part season and then competed on that CBS Challenge last year with James and Leo.

   When Dusty Harris came onto that prolonged Race, he was a owner of a local bed & breakfast house and a sales coordinator from Columbia, Missouri. What brought him to this rather extraordinary season was that he was friends with another fellow Columbian with a bigger public profile than him in podcast host Ryan Ferguson, dating all the way back to when they were in middle school. But like everything in the world that winter of 2020, their friendship was put on pause through the early years of their adulthood when Ryan was wrongfully convicted for a crime he didn't commit. It was a story that garnered much national attention, it was just before he reached the ten-year mark behind bars that an appellate court reversed that decision and finally set him free, and afterwards his startling story was making the likes of Nightline and The Tamron Hall Show.

   The duo had more than a good reason to try and make up for that decade's worth of lost time going on that race around the world that took much longer than they hoped because of the global lockdown... and for the season's first half it looked that they were going to be frontrunners for the top prize thanks to winning three legs. But on their sixth leg from Switzerland to France, the stress the journey had on Dusty -- as well as also dealing with the death of his dad while the season was in limbo -- started to show when he & Ryan committed more errors after their allies dropped out upon its post-pandemic resumption. However, the duo's physical prowess and ability to get through those tough tasks and the Ying & Yang of intense Dusty with calm & collected Ryan led them to the final leg alongside Cayla & partner Rachel. But difficulty trying to figure out the first clue on that journey from Portugal back to America ultimately did them in, finishing 3rd.

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LUIS COLON         

● Season 34 - 2022

The most recent season Amazing Race last fall saw the show return for a truly normal season: going around the world in a short timeframe and it airing afterwards, unlike Dusty's season or James' 32nd season that came before that. In a series first, the starting line was overseas at the Numphenburg Palace in Munich, and visited sixteen cities in eight nations with a positive test claiming a team along the way, and reached its finish at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium. And to those who don't watch reality TV that much, the headliner was fiery former NFL head coach Rex Ryan.

   In a cast that also featured Rams cheerleaders, family members, twins and other occupations too many to mention, Miami's Luis Colon & partner Michelle Burgos sported both wedding rings on their fingers and a passport that also has the autograph of "Mr. Worldwide" -- the bride served as a backup dancer to Pitbull. She and the firefighter husband first met each other during the height of Mr. 305's popularity, and who love having a good time dancing and traveling together... and when they tied the knot in 2017 Luis surprised the newlywed by impersonating Pitbull at their wedding reception.

   The couple were superfans of the show who couldn't wait to experience this wild ride for themselves, but out of the starting gate they had to earn their way back in the game from barely getting out of facing early elimination to relying on their optimistic and upbeat persona to ultimately win both legs in Jordan. That propelled to becoming contenders for the rest of their trip all the way to the final leg that brought them and the final two teams to the Mid-South... but them not being able to figure out a key checkpoint saw Luis & Michelle finish in the bronze medal position.

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   FOLLOW-UP   

Derek & Claire

As for the one who also made that final that ended in the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, it was a journey that had its start not on last year's CBS Challenge, but a year before: Derek Xiao was one of those two other roomies of the Big Brother 23 house that came to Challenge USA who weren't part of The Cookout. And while he was on the way out in Week 6, it turned out to be a dress rehearsal for what came next... and unlike what was the case in his first two shows he would eventually become the star.

   When DX came to the Race last year, the third jewel of his CBS triple crown saw him bring along one who he competed against with in the BB house of AI manager Claire Rehfuss from Chagrin Falls, OH just outside Cleveland. When the two were evicted within two weeks of each other that summer of 2021, sparks flew among them in the Jury House during that downtime leading up to finale night. All the way, in fact, to the point that they were together by the time that they joined Luis, Coach Ryan and the rest of the teams for that start in the Olympic city.

   Their journey in Germany began where it would eventually wind up: first place in the first leg, but struggles in Italy and much of their trek through Europe soon followed as they had to face their fears of DX on a bike and Claire with heights, but managed to get through all those tasks without finishing in the drop zone. Once they arrived in France, a couple who met in America's most scrutinized summer house began to solidify themselves as the team to beat... and when they arrived in Music City they overcame both Luis & Michelle and twin sisters Emily & Molly to take home the $1 million.

   DX wrote after the finale on Instagram, "So… WE JUST WON THE AMAZING RACE!?!? 🤯🤯 A little over a year ago Claire and I were complete strangers. And now we couldn’t imagine our lives without each other. We’ve been each others’ biggest support through all the highs and lows of the past year…but now I’m excited to say we’re finishing on a high again 🎉🎉 The Amazing Race has been an experience that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives."

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A program note: while tonight is Episode #2 and the season premiere is a two-part affair to kick things off, by rule DCBLOG will actually hold over our inaugural edition of The Challenge WRAP to before Episode 3 airs... if you're curious what that's about, we're transitioning our weekly episode posts to a traditional one with a review of the top moments, analysis and still including the best from social media too. Be on the lookout for that, and part 2 of our Newbies primer as turn the camera to the four Survivor castaways. Join me on DCNOW @DC408DxNow on Twitter for the live watch, and see you then.

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