‘The Amazing Race’s’ Yvonne and Melissa had a crew issue that you didn’t see

Joyce Eng
·4 min read
2

Leave no stone unturned? Melissa Main certainly didn’t on Leg 9 of “The Amazing Race.” She got stuck during the first Roadblock, in which racers had to traverse waterfalls in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, and arrange 10 petroglyph symbols in order. She only had one incorrect stone on her first check but didn’t get it correct until her eighth attempt after the four other teams were gone. Melissa and her girlfriend Yvonne Chavez did make up some of their 10-minute deficit but arrived to the Pit Stop last and were eliminated. And it was as close as it appeared on the show — they were just two minutes behind Amber and Vinny, who had gotten very lost, and they maybe would’ve made the final four were it not for a crew issue that didn’t make the episode cut.

“That was tough. There were so many things you didn’t see,” Yvonne tells Gold Derby (watch above). “We love production. It is so intense — what they do to get this all working. It’s a true production. Once we left the waterfall, one of the things that happened was one of the crew members injured himself. He had a leg injury. So we were held before we could get in our truck to get to the cacao.”

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The couple didn’t think to ask for a new crew member or alternative solutions, Melissa adds. And obviously, no one knew at that time how lost Amber and Vinny would get searching for the Pit Stop, but hindsight is 20/20. “There are so many things like that where we watch that and I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh! We had no idea,'” Melissa says. “Four of five teams took the way hugging around the water to get to the Pit Stop. And what we noticed was Vinny and Amber went straight down those steps in the amphitheater. Even that was two minutes right there. So there are so many moments watching it where we’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh!’ I think the toughest part for me watching it was seeing I only had one wrong the first time that I got the check. I didn’t know that because they don’t tell you what you got wrong, so just so many things last night that I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh.'”

Despite their elimination, it was still a happy ending for the pair, who had said they were using the show as a “relationship boot camp.” A first-ever postscript told fans that Yvonne and Melissa had moved in together after filming, which concluded in November 2022, and have welcomed a daughter, Vivian Rose. Their baby girl was born five days before Season 36 premiered.

“That was really cool to see for the first time in the history of ‘The Amazing Race’ that they showed an update. That was really cool. Thank you, production!” Melissa says. “They floated the idea by us to see if we would be OK with it. We were. The picture in the hospital was just our favorite picture. We’re both holding her and it was literally a second after she was born. We didn’t know if they were actually going to do it, but oh, my God.”

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