'The Amazing Race 35's Alexandra and Sheridan Lichtor Break Down Their Dance Detour Decision

Pack your bags, because The Amazing Race is back! Every week, Parade's Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the team most recently eliminated from the race.

Going into The Amazing Race, Alexandra and Sheridan Licthor seemed like one of the most in-sync teams. The siblings live together, work together, and even share the same favorite breakfast food. When they were chosen to go on a show they've loved since childhood, they were excited to help feed into each other's strengths. But we also saw that reflect on their weaknesses, such as their indecision in picking someone for the Roadblock. Arriving at their first destination in Thailand, Alexandra and Sheridan found themselves in the back of the pack. But while indecision cost them in the Roadblock, a crucial decision cost them in the Detour. Opting to learn a sword dance over a painful massage, they soon uncharacteristically found themselves out of step. The cut from the blade-based task was lethal, ending their time in the race.

Now out of the race, Alexandra and Sheridan talk with Parade.com about their yearslong dream of being on the show, how indecisive they were in reality compared to the edit, and how much they contemplated switching Detours.

Related: Everything to Know About The Amazing Race 35

I'm inclined to start from the beginning, even before the race started. The two of you are obviously big fans of the show. You have a very tight-knit relationship, so I would imagine if you were to run The Amazing Race, there would be no question that you would run together. But what prompted you to make that choice to go from fan to actual contestant?
Alexandra Lichtor: So we'd always been talking about doing it. And just one day, I remember I was just sitting on the couch, and Sheridan's like, "Let's submit an application video." And I was like, "Okay." And he said, "No, right now." And we just got up, and we did it in one or two takes, and we sent it. Had it been me, I'd still be drafting bullet points on what we should talk about in our video. So that's actually, truly, that's how it happened.
Sheridan Lichtor: We have talked about it for years. Whenever we would take a siblings trip together or a family trip, or if we were ever anywhere interesting, we would do the pose that we thought we would do for the intro. Whenever we were out and about and we were lost for directions or running late or something--which apparently is more often than not--we would be like, "Where's Phil?"
Alexandra: It had been in our minds. But then it was just pulling the trigger on, "You got to just do it. Just send the video."
Sheridan: I like to eat a lot of frozen dinners. And whenever I would open up the box on the dinner, I would think, "Oh, it's an Amazing Race clue!" [Mimes ripping open a box.] And so when we were actually touching real clues, that was so cool. It was very surreal.

Well, it's so interesting that you talk about this sort of impulsiveness of one day saying, "Okay, we're going to do this." Because I will say, watching your race back, I do feel like I saw a bit of indecisiveness happening, between seemingly waiting for a tad too long getting directions to the hotel, to that back and forth we saw you do at the Roadblock. Was that something that truly manifested for you?
Alexandra: So on the directions, it's so critical. And people pulled over after us just to get every detail. We're not familiar with L.A. And I figured investing two or three extra minutes to get those directions I just figured it was worth the investment. And I felt like that it was our first Roadblock. We were nervous. It felt like a big decision. And I think we were overthinking. I'm like, "What is it? What exactly is going to go on? Do you need upper body strength, should it be Sheridan?" We just weren't quite sure. Ultimately, I don't think those couple of seconds cost us the time. It was funny to watch.
Sheridan: I think it was entertaining! The thing that kind of was our undoing was picking the sword dancing, and I guess not picking the massage. We didn't know, though. At the time, in that moment, we made the choice that was the right decision for us. We thought it was the right decision. We didn't know how long the massage would be.
Alexandra: And I know this wasn't your question, but, obviously, on the additional information, there was mention of the massage, "There's five stalls. If you don't make it through, you've got to give up your stall." And I just had this vision of potentially needing to start over and then I gotta give up my spot. The sword dance could be quick. And I think from my read and from how we are and what we're good a--which is certainly not dancing, especially me [Laughs.]--I truly thought it was the right choice and the right time.
Sheridan: There could have been other teams from the first flight still at the massage. We just didn't know.

So I'm intrigued about that. Because you're at the Detour, and you see Joe and Ian just whiz by and pass you guys. We saw Elizabeth and Iliana debate switching because of the wait time on the massage. Were you debating on switching at all, especially when you kept failing the dance?
Sheridan: We did think about it somewhat. But because we were not on the first flight. Andrea and Malaiana, we saw them switch. They were on the first flight, though. So they had a buffer. We didn't know if we'd have that buffer. We didn't know how far the massage place was.
Alexandra: We know we're on the second flight. We can't be last of the other seven teams on there. Everyone's pretty flustered. We're running around. When I saw the dance, it was harder than I was hoping. But I was like, "Let's just try it." And then we see that sunk cost to switch. We kept praying we'd see someone come down. We didn't know where the massage would be or how far. My adrenaline was a million percent. We thought about switching. But then like, after a while I knew we had to finish it.
Sheridan: We were trying to get through it as fast as we could.
Alexandra: I mean, obviously. [Laughs.] I didn't come onto the race to be like, "Let's blow it in Thailand!" That wasn't our goal.
Sheridan: And I thought in Thailand, up to the Detour, we were making it through. We were with the pack. I was like excited about this. Candidly, I was excited about that sword dancing. We love when they do those cultural activities on The Amazing Race. And I was like excited when I saw they had those nice outfits for us. It was a hot day and we were in a park, and I was like, "Oh, it's kind of nice." And they had the music playing. It was very classic.
Alexandra: I have to say as I was doing that dance, and I couldn't. It was really hot, and there were all the cameras. And I was like, "Oh my god, we're gonna be the first eliminated on The Amazing Race." My mind was just racing. I did have this thought of, "You know what, though? While obviously it's not what we wanted, at least we're doing like a truly classic Amazing Race activity. We've got costumes, we've got music, we've got a dance."
Sheridan: They did not show how sweaty we were.
Alexandra: Which I'm grateful for.
Sheridan: Oh my god. Alexandra was dripping in sweat. It was so hot there. She told me she thought she was gonna pass out. I guess it wasn't super clear. It was so hot.
Alexandra: I was rushing, and I put my uniform on over my clothes because I was like, "I'll save time." I even needed a mic change out. I got that all sweated up.

Well, you were sweating in more ways than one because obviously the idea of being the first eliminated, as you said, Alexandra, was large in your mind. When you ended up finishing the Detour, how much hope were you holding out of not being eliminated?
Sheridan: So we thought it was possible
Alexandra: Sheridan more so than me.
Sheridan: We really didn't know. I didn't think we had made a catastrophic error. Sometimes teams go to the wrong place, or they just can't get something. We didn't think we had done something catastrophically wrong. And the other teams were good too.
Alexandra: And we had to go farther than you thought. Going from the sword dancer the massage to the pitstop, it wasn't close. That was a reasonable taxi ride away. So  when we saw how far it was, I think Sheridan was more hopeful than me. I think I cried in the taxi. They didn't show that. But Sheridan was a little more hopeful. And I know you never know in The Amazing Race. But my gut was "wrong Detour choice, spent too much time." There really wasn't much margin for error. And again, I will stand by, in the moment. I thought it was the right choice. [Laughs.] I wasn't trying to make the wrong choice. It's just what I thought in the moment. 

You were on that plane to Thailand with six other teams. Was there anyone specific you were able to connect with? And was the idea of the U-Turn returning impacting any dynamic you had with them?
Alexandra: The U-Turn made me nervous. We're just trying to be nice to everyone. I don't know.
Sheridan: We liked all the teams, to be candid. It's two seconds of airtime, but that was a really long layover. We liked all the teams.

Let's turn from other teams into your own team. Because you are in each other's lives so significantly every day. When you had these dreams played out during family road trips become a reality, is there anything you learned about the other person on The Amazing Race together during your time in Thailand?
Alexandra: So I kind of knew this. But Sheridan was just so calm, and so positive. I was kind of more nervous and more frantic throughout. Like when we were doing the swords dance, when we were asking for directions, when our cab driver turned off the GPS and switched to a TikTok video.

Wait, what?!
Alexandra: He knew something was up.
Sheridan: I was laser-focused on getting the GPS, just navigating to the right places. And he was very intrigued, entertained. And he pulled out his phone and started to make a TikTok video. And we're like, "No, no, no, no, no! Stay focused." [Laughs.]
Alexandra: That was a funny thing. But just in general, every little frazzling thing. And that swords dance, Sheridan is just so calm and so positive. And I don't remember if they showed it. I was like, "I think we should switch." And he's like, "We can do this. And I don't know at what point when we would have switched if it would have ever paid off. I'm not sure. But he was just so positive and calm. I don't know that I've seen that, in such a high-stress situation, the way he acted. He was definitely a great partner. I wish I were better.
Sheridan: I just echo everything she said. I think she had just a lot of grit. She is a really fantastic sister. And I don't think we've seen each other in a team setting like that before. And I thought we both did our best. I don't think I could have asked for a better partner.
Alexandra: If I were to assign blame, though--
Sheridan: No, don't! We raced as a team.

Lastly, as such big fans of the show, how do you look back on actually getting to race in it, albeit in limited fashion?
Sheridan: We love The Amazing Rac. When I think about it, it's more than just entertainment competition. It's opening up people's eyes to the richness of cultures and people of the world. It certainly was that for us. We're just a couple of schomes watching on the couch! [Laughs.] For us, I think it really like was something that we wanted to do because we saw all of the beautiful places that they go to. And outside of the race, we've done travel inspired by some of the things we've seen on the show. 
Alexandra: The experience can't be taken away. It was quite devastatingly short, but it was an experience nonetheless. No one can take that part away from us.

Next, read our interview with The Amazing Race 34 winners Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss.