The Amazing Race season 39’s grandfather-grandson duo, Doug and Dylan Matter, knew other teams wouldn’t see them as much of a threat — but that’s exactly what they wanted.
“We were hoping they would,” Doug, 73, exclusively told Us on Friday, November 6, when asked if other racers “underestimated” him and Dylan, 19, before their elimination in the Wednesday, November 4, episode.
“I think people kind of imagined we’d be at the bottom a lot, and we were, [but] probably longer than people thought we’d be,” Dylan added. “But you know, we were really proud of what we were able to do. We knew in ourselves that we could shock some teams, and I think we did just by staying in [the race] time and time again.”
Doug and Dylan have a 54-year age gap between them — the largest gap between team members in Amazing Race history. Though Doug, a retired fire chief, was in great physical shape for the race, he knew going into it that people would look at him and think, “My God, how old is that guy?” (He also made history as the oldest person to compete on the U.S. version of the show.)
“They’re not going to want to use us as allies,” he added of the other teams. “Everyone was super kind, loved them all, but there wasn’t anyone that was really looking to us to be an ally, and I understand that. If I was in their shoes, 20, 30, 40, I wouldn’t look for a guy my age either, and so that’s what happened. There weren’t people that were really looking to ally with us, and so as a consequence, we kind of ran our race pretty much on our own, with some help here and there.”
Their age gap also had its advantages, Doug pointed out.
“He’s a lot better with technology than I am, so he was going to handle all of that,” he quipped of Dylan. “I bring … a little life experience. I have a calm manner anyway, from my life experiences and what I did for a living, so I was able to, I think, bring that to him because he’s a little more excitable.”
Dylan added, “I was able to light a little fire under you … sometimes you’re a little too calm.”
“I always tell him, ‘Our average age is only 45,’” Doug joked.
After struggling with navigation issues and a few of the challenges, Doug and Dylan found themselves in the back of the pack for much of the race. Though the pair reached the mat in last place during Leg 6 in Albania last week, they were saved when host Phil Keoghan informed them that it was a non-elimination leg.
Doug and Dylan were then hit with a penalty in Leg 7: an automatic U-turn, meaning that they would have to complete both Detour challenges, along with two other teams who were voted into a U-turn by their fellow competitors. Doug and Dylan ended up going head-to-head against married couple Michelle and Matt Patterson and dating couple Daisha Wilks and Dalton Hamby — two frontrunner teams — and managed to keep up until the very end.
Doug and Dylan ultimately reached the Pit Stop in last place just moments after Daisha and Dalton.
“We probably finished, like, 30 seconds after Daisha and Dalton,” Dylan recalled.
Despite their troubles, Doug and Dylan were proud of what they accomplished on the show.
“No matter what we did, we already had so much from this experience,” Dylan said. “We were really proud.”
Doug added, “As I look at the history of this game, old people don’t last real long on these things. So, I had clear eyes going in like that, and did the very best I could. But I wanted [Dylan] to have every bit of this experience he could, and the joy for me was seeing it through his eyes.”
