Rodeo fans who tuned into “The Amazing Race” Sunday night might’ve found themselves wondering where Cord and Jet McCoy were.
A fairly long segment of the show was missing its cowboy hats, and the cowboys that wear them, when the McCoy boys of Tupelo, Okla., suffered through a bad start to the reality show that debuted on CBS-TV Sunday night.
The McCoys are one of 11 teams to start the show. Starting in Las Angeles, the teams’ first task was to take public transportation to Los Angeles International Airport and fly to Santiago, Chile. Cord and Jet arrived at LAX, but weren’t among the leaders and were bumped to the second of two flights.
It seemed to be the theme of the day for the McCoys, who tried to get a leg up on the competition by exchanging money while at LAX. Unfortunately, they exchanged for Brazilian money instead of Chilean, which put a big bump into their racing schedule. Even Jet admitted during the interview that they might’ve had better luck using American money on the Chilean bus than Brazilian.
The McCoys spent a good portion of the first half of the hour-long show in last place, and that might’ve been reason enough for the brothers to disappear from the broadcast for several minutes. As the racers sped through the streets of Santiago, they had to go through several stages and complete several tasks, including a high-wire act.
As they blurred through the final stages, Cord and Jet passed teams through the stretch, including a couple that suffered penalties. In the end, the McCoys finished the first pit stop in third place. The high school sweethearts, Dana and Adrian, were the first eliminated when Adrian didn’t make the high-wire crossing.
That means “The Amazing Race” will have its cowboy hats, and the cowboys that wear them, for another week.
