From Big Brother to The Amazing Race with Jordan Lloyd and Jeff Schroeder
by Reg Seeton
After winning the eleventh season of Big Brother, Jordan Lloyd and her former Big Brother house mate and new beau, Jeff Schroeder, hit the reality TV arena to run The Amazing Race. Although Jordan and Jeff were still feeling each other out in their new Big Brother relationship, Jeff and Jordan took their collective to new heights on The Amazing Race when to pair hit the mat early in first place in front of Amazing Race host, Phil Keoghan.
Despite getting the jump on the other Amazing Race teams, Jordan and Jeff found themselves struggling with directions and each other as they learned to deal with each other beyond the Big Brother house. In the end, after falling behind to last place in the France leg of The Amazing Race, Jeff and Jordan couldn't overcome directions and this week's Amazing Race detour in French wine country. After hitting the mat in last place, Jordan and Jeff saw their time on The Amazing Race come to an end.
Following their elimination, we caught up with Jordan Lloyd and Jeff Schroeder to find out where there relationship stands post Amazing race, what went wrong after their Amazing Race victory, and what the future holds for the former Big Brother turned Amazing Race couple.
THE DEADBOLT So, are you guys going to have French champagne for New Year's?
JEFF SCHROEDER: Definitely not!
THE DEADBOLT Did you guys feel you were in it the whole race, or was there a point when you felt it slipping away?
JORDAN LLOYD: I think in the beginning, the first leg that we won, we felt like, "Oh yeah, we came in first and the next leg we're probably going to come in first." Then all of a sudden it just got sour from there.
JEFF: What?
JORDAN: It did!
JEFF: The first leg, Jordan's like, "There's no way we're going to win." We won the first leg.
JORDAN: I know, but then after we were like, "Oh, we're going to do good. See, we just proved that we can come in first." It just went sour.
JEFF: I think it got sour in Germany a little bit. You know, with the cab ride and we started to fall really behind. It's hard to climb back when you're at the back of the pack and there's no trains or busses to even the people out. We snuck by with the U-Turn and we were hoping that the next leg, "We need a train or a bus to even people out." It just didn't happen because we were so far back. That last leg, we kind of had an idea but we never quit. We were like, "Listen, there's always a chance. There's always a chance." But we made so many mistakes this last show, it was impossible for us to come back.
THE DEADBOLT: We know you guys liked each other even more after Big Brother, but how do you like each other now after The Amazing Race?
JORDAN: I think we like each other even more now. I think it really helped. It definitely made us stronger and made me understand a lot more things about Jeff. Like certain things I thought he was yelling at me, I learned that he's not really yelling at me and that's just Jeff. That's his tone and that's how he is and he's louder about certain things. I don't know. I think it helped. I think it's been better since we got off the show.
JEFF: I think it's like any relationship. You know, how everything's perfect and nobody can do anything wrong and life goes on, different things happen, and you start to learn more about the other person. We got thrown into a situation where everything was great, and of course the race is stressful for anybody on it, but we got thrown into a stressful situation.
On top of that, we were still trying to learn about each other. So being on Big Brother was like going out for a year and the next show was like speeding up our relationship a ton. We went through everything so fast, ups and downs, and I think we really got to learn a lot about each other in just that short time we were together.
THE DEADBOLT: How would it have been for you guys if you hadn't decided to run The Amazing Race?
JEFF: I still think we would have went to our down times. Life, like everything else, has its ups and downs that we just didn't experience yet. So when we went through our downs on The Amazing Race, it just helped us learn more about each other. I think it would have been the same. We would have went through our downs but we would have been in different cities. So maybe it would have been even worse. Being on the show brought us together even more, I think.
THE DEADBOLT: Did you get a chance to take Jordan to Hawaii yet?
JEFF: [laughs] No, Hawaii is gone. We're going to take a trip to Antigua after this is all said and done. We're going to relax for a bit and then probably take a trip soon, real soon.
JORDAN: Maybe a year. No, not ...
JEFF: We'll see.
JORDAN: Yeah, we'll see. My mom turns 50 on Thursday, so my family, we all kind of want to go on a cruise for her 50th. So Jeff is going to come along with us.
THE DEADBOLT Was there anything that we didn't see that you wish got aired?
JEFF: I think they showed some of our best moments. You know, when you're racing like that, even watching the show I was like, "Oh my God, I can't believe I said that." Jordan was the same way, "I didn't know I said that." So there might have been some good moments they left out, but I just can't remember. When you're racing like that, you're in the moment and doing your thing. I think they captured the moments pretty well.
THE DEADBOLT Well, what was the best moment on the race for you guys?
JEFF: [laughs] I think coming in first.
JORDAN: [laughs] Yeah, the first leg of the race.
JEFF: [laughs] It was like we were at the top of the mountain and we just kind of rolled down after that. There were some nice views down the mountain, I'll tell you that. Argentina was beautiful, I really loved that. It was awesome. Then the second to last show, the World War I, that was amazing! The planes coming so low and the bombs going off, everything was so surreal, and that was really, really cool. Even though Jordan and I wanted to kill each other, that was still a really cool moment.
THE DEADBOLT So what's next for you guys, a wedding or Survivor? What does the future hold?
JEFF: [laughs] I think we're going to take a reality break and just try out real life reality.
JORDAN: I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to get the hair salon. That's really it for me. Still doing the long distance thing.
JEFF: Are you back in the Ad world, Jeff?
JEFF: Yes, I am. I have some other things I'm taking care of but I went back to work and I'm just trying to get my feet back on the ground. You get pumped up for a little bit, think your cool for a short time while you're on these reality shows, but it's your 15 minutes of fame and I think it's over for us. It's time to get back to reality. You can't live off this forever and you've got to get your feet back on the ground and start living the rest of your life.
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