Summary

Nick and Mike’s dream of being on The Amazing Race came true after 7 years of preparation and studying the show.

Despite facing challenges, they learned valuable lessons about collaboration and respect from their race experience.

The Brooklyn brothers had a bittersweet elimination but are proud of their journey and are open to a redemption season.

For many reality TV fans, it’s a dream come true to finally get the call and participate on their favorite show. For Nick and Mike Fiorito, it was a seven-year-long dream to race around the world on The Amazing Race. After studying the show’s ins and outs, they hoped their superfan status would help them crack the code and excel. Unfortunately, they learned the hard way that what you see on television isn’t always as easy in action.
Having some difficulties throughout the race, they were saved multiple times by some near-miss eliminations. But when an unfortunate U-Turn was put in their lap, their fate was ultimately sealed. But, to make matters worse, they spent six long hours at the haystacks searching for a small yarn bracelet that host Phil Keoghan had to meet them there, eliminating them on the spot. It was a tough break, but in the end, the Brooklyn brothers were able to live out a dream together and grow from it. As Mike said, ” So one thing that we’ve definitely taken away, in a very practical sense, is we still have to, after the race, work together in our business. So we have to learn how to collaborate better.”
Nick and Mike Talk About Their Journey To Get on ‘The Amazing Race’

It was a long time coming for the brothers

COLLIDER: They finally fulfilled their dreams of being on The Amazing Race. It’s Mike and Nick. How are you feeling?
MIKE FIORITO: Feeling bittersweet.
NICK FIORITO: Bittersweet.
MIKE: Definitely bittersweet. Very grateful to have had the experience, but also sad to relive the haystack. The dreaded haystack.
COLLIDER: Fair enough. All right, if you could describe your experience on The Amazing Race in one single word each, what would it be?
NICK: That’s a great question. You got one. Mike?
MIKE: Stressful.
COLLIDER: Fair enough, fair enough.
NICK: Exhilarating.
COLLIDER: I love that. What was it like watching yourselves on TV?
NiCK: It was fun. It was fun because we got to, not only watch ourselves on TV, but watch our family watch us on TV, and that was a really fun experience because Mike and I have been sitting on this experience for a while. It filmed, you know, last year, and now to be able to see it all play out and share those experiences with our family was a really cool experience.
MIKE: I think it was also an emotional roller coaster because there are times where you’re looking at the screen, and you’re feeling like, super proud of yourself. And then there are other times where you’re looking at the screen and you’re like, really cringing at the things that you’ve done. So it was definitely a roller coaster of emotions, but overall, super, super fun.
COLLIDER: Seven years to get on the show. Why was it a goal to be on The Amazing Race?
NICK: I mean, it is the coolest show on TV, right? It’s the coolest experience, I think, the best part about it is that you’re not doing it alone, too, right? You get to do it with someone that you really love and love spending time with, which is Mike. And we’re, you know, we’re brothers, we’re business partners. We spend so much time together, and a lot of our time is in this office, but to be able to get out and go see the world together, and to have these incredible experiences and see all these different cultures, those are the memories we’re going to have for the rest of our lives. And that was a pretty big selling point. And on top of it, we are super, super-freaking competitive. So throw in the competition to this mix, and you got a perfect storm.
COLLIDER: Going in, what were your expectations? How did you prepare for the race?
MIKE: We had very high expectations for ourselves. We trained really hard. We navigated with maps across states. We did escape the rooms.
NICK: We learned stick shift in Brooklyn, which is an insane task.
COLLIDER: Yes, it is.
NICK: We watched every single episode of every single season all over again.
MIKE: Memorized flags.
NICK: Yeah, we did. We memorized how to say main phrases in every major language. We did it all. So going into the race, we felt very confident. But I think one thing that happened to us right from the get was the Fork in the Road really threw a wrench in our confidence because even though we finished that leg in sixth overall, which is pretty great for a first leg out of 14 teams. Like you don’t want to be necessarily the very top of the pack, because then you get a target on your back, you also don’t want to be in the back. So we finished six, which, if you zoom out, is awesome. But unfortunately, with this Fork in the Road, we were still seconds away from being eliminated in that first leg. So I think right off the bat, it gave us this jolt of fear, and shook up our confidence a little bit, and I don’t think we were fully able to shake off that jolt of fear that it gave us literally for the rest of each leg. So it definitely threw a wrench in that confidence that we came in with.
COLLIDER: You got to see some extraordinary places. Did one stand out as a favorite?
NICK: Yeah, Dubai, by far was the experience of a lifetime. I mean, we slept in the middle of a desert. We rode camels. We jumped out of planes. We surfed on electric surfboards. And we did that all before midday. And that’s like more than people will do in an entire lifetime. We did it in half a day. So that, by far, stands out to me.
MIKE: Yeah, I agree, Dubai was just something that was unforgettable.
NICK: It’s also pretty incredible when you think about it. This city was built on a desert, and it wasn’t that long ago where this city wasn’t around. And what they have been able to build there is truly remarkable.
Mike and Nick Breakdown the Controversial U-Turn

One major mistake cost them the game

COLLIDER: I want to talk about the U-Turn Vote for a second. Lori Thompson was quite hurt that you voted for them. What was the decision behind casting a vote for Scott and Lori?
NICK: Yeah, that was a really tough vote to make, and it was all strategy because it was a Double U-Turn Vote. We knew right away that Ana and Jonathan [Townes] were going to get the most amount of votes, and we knew that we needed to use our vote strategically to place it on a second team because we knew there was a possibility that we would get one, and it ended up happening that we did get one from Jonathan and Ana. So, because of that last experience on the prior leg, where we were all on the mat together in Bali, there was a lot of communication about Lori and Scott being a really strong team. So we figured, because of that conversation that happened, that a lot of the other teams might be gunning for Lori and Scott. So we said, “Okay, we need to try to save ourselves here and add a vote towards them.”
COLLIDER: We had our first self-drive of the season. How did that go for y’all?
MIKE: It went okay. I think it looked worse than it really was. The map that we were given was way too big. To the point where, if I would have stopped and tried to find where we actually were on that map, that alone would have taken me close to half an hour. So I immediately just crumpled it up and threw it in the corner, and just pulled over and followed the instructions on the clue and from people we asked. And we ended up doing decently well at navigating. We did get a little lost, but nothing too terrible.
NICK: But how we got lost actually was kind of a blessing, because we went past where we were supposed to originally turn, and we actually ended up landing where we had to go next, where the hay challenge was. So, because we got lost in a pretty positive way, it actually ended up helping us, because when we did make our way back, we knew exactly where we had to go afterwards.
COLLIDER: Alright, so the Double U-Turn. Melinda and Erika Papadeas made a self-preservation move and selected you. You, in turn, selected Han and Holden Nguyen. Obviously, this became the death sentence. Do you agree with Melinda and Erica’s decision?
NICK: I mean, do we agree? So it’s all relative, right? So, based on what we saw last night, yes, we agree with what they did because they operated from the mentality that we were the only team behind them. So from that mentality, 100% it was self-preservation. They wanted to give themselves a cushion so that they weren’t the last team. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the truth of the matter. You know, there was us, there was Han and Holden, and there was Jack [Dodge] and Carson [McCalley] all the way behind them. So, with all the information, completely disagree with the U-Turn, but because they didn’t have all the information, completely agree with what they did, and we then ended up having to do exactly what they did.
COLLIDER: Because Carson and Jack had been at the top of the pack, did you all believe that they were still at the top?
MIKE: Yeah, we all did. No one. It never crossed any of our minds that they would be that far behind. If they were anywhere, they were that far ahead of every team. That’s what we all expected. So when we were in that haystack for hours, and we saw them show up, we were absolutely floored. Like we could not believe we saw them, and it gave us a spark of hope.
NICK: We were a little too far gone at that point with the hay.
COLLIDER: It became a battle of the siblings between the two of you and Han and Holden. Did you have them on your radar, or were you focused on your task?
NICK: I would say them definitely being there with us definitely affected me. It caused me to rush because, like we said, we had no idea that there was another team behind the two of us. So it just felt like it was just us two going up against each other for last place. So I think, because I felt that pressure, I was rushing in a challenge where you really can’t rush, because, if you do rush, you’re really setting yourself back so much, because you are now going to have to go through all that stuff because of the needle in the haystack. So I definitely think it affected me and how I operated there. And that was definitely my mistake.
COLLIDER: How hard was it watching the show last night and seeing them clue into exactly feet away where the bracelet was?
NICK: Yeah, it was hard to watch, overall, man, just reliving that experience. Six hours in the blistering heat, looking for this little bracelet, and then seeing that it was, you know, feet away from us, was definitely a hard pill to swallow. But we live by a phrase “amor fati”, which is you gotta accept your fate, and this was our fate, and we feel like it’s a part of a bigger plan for us. And we’ll see how that all unfolds.
MIKE: It does kind of look, when you watch it back, like we gave up on searching, because you see us at certain points, just like kicking the hay. But what really wasn’t displayed as much, in my opinion, was how hot, because it’s impossible to show heat in a television screen.
NICK: They got a shot of the sun.
MIKE: But it was scorching hot, and we were non-stop for three hours straight. We were searching, and it got to the point where we actually had to stop and hydrate and get electrolytes, and the medical team had to come over and make sure we weren’t about to pass out. So at that point where we’re kicking the hay, that’s literally all the physical energy we had left in our bodies to do. And then when we saw Jack and Carson, we got this fake jolt of energy to start searching a little more intensely, but really that was all we had left in us. We were dead.

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COLLIDER: Who would have ultimately done the sheep roadblock?
NICK: Probably me, because we like to save Mike for the more challenging task. I do the straight forward ones, so to get one under my belt, and that would have probably been the right option there.
COLLIDER: How has your relationship changed since the race?
NICK: That’s a great question. You know, I think we realize that we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to this concept of collaboration. We do spend a lot of time together. We do love each other unconditionally, but there is still so much room for improvement when it comes to us working together better. And I think the race really showed us that. And I think we’ve taken a lot of lessons from the race of how we can do that. And after every leg of this season, we’ve made videos with our three top lessons. So we are taking something from this, and it’s not a failure if you’re learning. And we feel like we’ve learned a ton about how to work better together.
MIKE: Yeah, I think one thing that happened, it’s kind of just a law of life, is you tend to treat the people closest to you, the people you love most, with the most disrespect, and you tend to treat people that you’re not as close to, like complete strangers, with the most kindness. And the more comfortable we get with people, the more we feel we can basically say or do anything without any repercussions or consequences, and that was really getting in the way of the way we collaborated on the race. So one thing that we’ve definitely taken away, in a very practical sense, is we still have to, after the race, work together in our business. So we have to learn how to collaborate better. And one ritual that we’ve put in place is before we start collaborating on anything, any work together, we actually shake each other’s hands and pretend we just met each other.
COLLIDER: I love that!
MIKE: Because if we get ourselves in that headspace, we treat each other with so much more kindness and not like we’re these brothers who could say whatever the hell we want to each other. We treat ourselves like professionals in a work setting. And I think if we would have done that on the race, we would have probably performed a lot better.
COLLIDER: Would you do it again?
NICK: In a heartbeat.
MIKE: No question.
NICK: Without a question. We’re manifesting a redemption season for ourselves.
COLLIDER: I’m here for it. Congratulations on an amazing run—you made it! You have to do The Amazing Race!
NICK: We did. It was a dream accomplished, and we’re so grateful that we got to do it together. It was truly special.
MIKE: Yeah, even though we got eliminated, we’re still holding our heads high and consider ourselves winners for just getting on. You know, it was seven years in the making, and we made it happen and made our family proud, and it’s all we can ask for.

The Amazing Race

Release Date

September 5, 2001

Network

CBS

Showrunner

Elise Doganieri, Bertram van Munster, Jonathan Littman