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CTV 'The Amazing Race Canada' Season 8: Racers in double elimination expose lies, weaknesses and tears

Cassie Day and Jahmeek Murray, and Cedric Newman and Tychon Carter-Newman on CTV's "The Amazing Race Canada" Season 8.

The competitiveness of racers definitely came out in the latest episode of The Amazing Race Canada (Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app), with a contentious battle between Beverley Cheng and Veronica Skye, and Franca Brodett and Nella Brodett aka “Franella,” but as emotions were high, there was also a double elimination where Canadians said goodbye to father-son pair Cedric Newman and Tychon Carter-Newman, and couple Cassie Day and Jahmeek Murray.

“You could tell I wasn’t thrilled, I was very frustrated,” Tychon told Yahoo Canada. “I was extremely upset because it was becoming a numbers game.”

“Two teams are leaving, there's like five teams in an alliance, there's two express passes in play. So just looking at the numbers, these odds are just very against us,...and that's kind of how I was feeling. So I knew that there was no room for error.”

“The chips were stacked against us and I'm proud that we almost pulled it off, and I [left] there with my head held high,” Cedric added. “We kept our chins up, we were emotional right at the end but we gave it all we could to get out of that situation, and it just didn't work out.”

For Cassie and Jahmeek, they not only shed a lot of tears when they were out of the race, but those emotions came back up as they were reliving the experience on TV with the rest of Canada.

“In the last couple of days, there's been a lot of heated emotions in our home and [Tuesday], we sat down to chat about it and we realized it was the sad news coming up of being eliminated,” Cassie told Yahoo Canada. “Definitely experiencing lots of emotions and lots of tears, both of joy and sadness.”

“The best time of our lives and we were struggling with it ending back in May, but then reliving it and seeing all your emotions come back, I was shedding a couple of tears [Tuesday] night,” Jahmeek added.

'Learn how to use a map'

While The Amazing Race Canada often requires racers to expect the unexpected, both of the eliminated teams identified that really looking for and understanding maps would have helped their chances of staying in the race longer.

“We would have believed in ourselves more [and] we would have looked for more maps, that’s what we would have changed, it was a combination of a few things that led us out of the race,” Cedric said. “Not getting on the first early train, us not leaving the birdhouse, and the other three teams pulling ahead of us in the birdhouse because they collaborated.”

“It was a bunch of elements that had to go in that order for us to get off the show, and they all went in that order.”

“Before the process starts, number one, we had maps, we looked at them, but we didn't understand them and getting lost on the race is the worst thing, but it happens,” Jahmeek said. “Learn how to use a map as a team, properly, and how to navigate.”

Another big question mark, in terms of longevity in the race, is how beneficial being in an alliance actually is.

“In the first leg of the race we came in the top three and alliances were all formed in the first leg with the teams who didn’t come in the first three,” Cassie explained. “It would have been interesting to see if it would have been a very different game, had we formed alliances in the first episode with those other teams, definitely a smart strategy for some of the other teams to join together because we saw those alliances unfold in multiple scenarios.”

“Alliances were a big part of the season, I questioned whether or not, maybe we should have started our own, maybe that would have helped, who knows,” Tychon said.

Beverley Cheng and Veronica Skye on Season 8 of CTV's
Beverley Cheng and Veronica Skye on Season 8 of CTV's "The Amazing Race Canada" (Mark O'Neill)

'We tried to form a relationship with them and they…kept secrets'

As we continue to take steps towards the finale, the recently eliminated contestants also revealed who they thought their biggest competition was in the race.

“Beverley and Veronica, and 'Franella', I think were two teams that really stood out to me, as in they just really got through things,” Tychon said. “Especially, 'Franella,' they always found a way to get things done and come first, and they were very ruthless, but very nice at the same time, and I just thought they had all the factors that it would take to win the race.”

Cassie and Jahmeek were actually familiar with Beverley before they joined The Amazing Race Canada, but Cassie, in particular, saw it as a “disadvantage” for the game.

“She is a machine, she runs multiple businesses, she is an athlete,...I didn't love that I knew someone going into the race, because it kind of put a little bit of fear [in me] going into it,” Cassie said. “It's a disadvantage, I think, knowing another team for sure, and then I was unsure, would she want to work together with us in an alliance? Or not?... There was that weirdness."

Franca Brodett and Nella Brodett aka “Franella” on Season 8 of CTV's
Franca Brodett and Nella Brodett aka “Franella” on Season 8 of CTV's "The Amazing Race Canada" (Mark O'Neill)

She added, similarly to Tychon and Cedric, that “Franella” was major competition, particularly with their strategy to not reveal too much information about themselves to the rest of the racers.

“It's so funny because we tried to form a relationship with them and they…kept secrets,” Cassie explained. “We were like, how are they so athletic but they told us they don't do anything athletic, while [Nella] has played hockey her entire life at a very high level, they both golfed 300 games last summer, or something silly.”

“When we got to Toronto, those two knew exactly where they were going,...but they claimed to be from Edmonton. They didn't tell us they lived in Toronto for 10 years. So definitely a huge part of strategy is not letting other players know a lot of information about you. Our strategy was not telling everyone that Jahmeek was a firefighter and not telling everyone that I played hockey, thinking they would never expect those two things. Of course hockey didn't come up and the only firefighting thing that would have worked in our favour was the knots and unfortunately, I got stuck with the knot.”