'The Amazing Race 35's Joe Moskowitz and Ian Todd Break Down Their Rickshaw Photo Finish
Joe Moskowitz (L) and Ian Todd (R)
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.
Joe Moskowitz and Ian Todd would be the first to tell you they're polar opposites in every way. And their time on The Amazing Race 35 was a reflection of those oppositional experiences. At points, they would find themselves surging to the front of the pack, only to then have something send them tumbling down. They were the first to arrive at the first task of the season, but then got lost getting to the airport that put them out of the lead group. Flight issues put them in first place landing in Vietnam. But things soon fell apart on the floating market, as a crucial mistake once again put them behind.
Going into the fifth leg of the race, Joe and Ian were feeling an upward trajectory. They had recovered from their market error and rose all the way up to fourth place. But, as is the case with Joe and Ian, what goes up must come down. In India, Ian's Roadblock performance put them in the back, but solidly ahead of a few teams. Unfortunately, it all went tumbling down like pottery balanced on a funny-shaped head in the Detour. Though the couple thought they could see the big picture when recreating a painting, the devil was in the details. Consistent mistakes made them the last team heading to the pit stop. They got a momentary spark of hope when they passed Morgan and Lena Franklin in their rickshaw on the way. But the sisters prevailed with a sudden shortcut, cutting short Joe and Ian's time on the race.
Now out of the race, Joe and Ian talk with Parade.com about how close the finish actually was, their constant up and downs, and who they told the other teams to U-Turn next leg.
Related: Everything to Know About The Amazing Race 35
To start, I heard you guys had a viewing party for your elimination last night. Did that help dull the pain of watching yourselves get eliminated in such a close finish?
Joe Moskowitz: It was bittersweet. It was so fun, though. We're coming off of a really, really fun night. So we're feeling really good about that. We had some fellow cast members there with us. We had some previous season racers with us.
Ian Todd: Yeah, I think we had three or four prior season team racers with us. So that was a lot of fun. Some winners, some not. So we were able to have some kind of camaraderie around other people that maybe didn't win. So yeah, it was a really good time. We had a lot of fun with that.
Look, many more teams have not won The Amazing Race than won it. So you're among good company. You bring up past seasons. I know last night we had heard that you were both fans of the show and wanted to race before even having met each other. When did you both decide that you wanted to race together?
Ian: I always loved it. I think I envisioned myself always doing it with my sister. My sister and I have a lot in common when it comes to adventure, traveling, and experiencing new places. And so that was always my thought prior to meeting Joe. Even having other partners, being in long-term relationships, I never really saw myself doing it with those people. But I always saw myself maybe doing it with my sister. And it wasn't until COVID. We were already dating. But during COVID, we were like, "Let's go back and watch all The Amazing Race seasons. Let's go back to day one and start watching OG Amazing Race." And then after that, I think we thought, "This is something that we should do together. We love to travel."
Joe: We started organically strategizing. Just by being on the couch, like, "Oh, you would be really good at that challenge. Who do you think would do this one? Which one we choose?" And then we started to actually memorialize them on my phone's notepad, like the true nerds that we are. And then from there, it got a little bit more serious about actually applying to go on.
Ian: We went on our engagement trip. He didn't know it was our engagement trip; it was supposed to be just my birthday trip. But on that trip, we had a couple of friends of ours capture some pretty interesting moments. And we're gonna post our audition tape so that everybody can kind of see, but it's fun. We captured some moments that are like very Amazing Race-y. And so when we got back from that trip and started looking at all the videos and photos, we were like, "Oh, now is the time to apply." We had just gotten engaged. We had pretty cool Amazing Race content that would be perfect for an audition video. We applied on a Sunday night, and by Tuesday morning, we had a call from casting. And this was just like a video submission. So it was a very quick turn of events. It sounds so cheesy, but it was a little meant to be. It was our time. And yeah, it was a whirlwind ever since then.
Well let's get into it being "your time" to go. Phil said that it was a matter of seconds between you two and Morgan and Lena. But do you know how far you were actually after the sisters when you checked in? Because if it had been a foot race, we saw you already win one with Todd and Ashlie last leg.
Joe: If only we had lost that foot race to Todd and Ashlie! That would have been a different story. [Laughs.]
Ian: We wouldn't be we wouldn't be talking to you right now!
Joe: That's the race that we won. I can't answer that without getting into the rickshaw race. We were the only team left of the mural challenge.
Ian: Liam and Yeremi, by the way, Mike, had left 90 seconds prior to us. We were already waiting to be judged when they were leaving. So we left very very soon after Liam and Yeremi.
Joe: Yeah, but Morgan and Lena before them. And we had just assumed that they got it and left and they were on their way to the mat. We didn't know they switched Detours. So when we left in last place, we genuinely thought, "Okay, we are in last place."
Ian: And we were still running by the way! Liam and Yeremi could have gotten lost on the way. We were still sprinting.
Joe: Of course, always hope. But we saw Morgan and Lena in their rickshaw driving off, so we were like, "Oh let's do this thing!" There's actually a shot from last night's episode where it's of Lena and Morgan, but us in the background. The race was on on on in that moment. But there was probably a two-mile winding road, very narrow to get down to the bottom of, where the house was.
Ian: And we could see them the whole time. They're right in front of us.
Joe: If the road was straightened out, we got a glimpse of their rickshaw. But there was nothing we could do about it. The road wasn't even wide enough to pass them. So the whole time, we were just like, "Once this road gets wide enough." And we were trying to juice up our rickshaw driver any way that we could to get him ready for the craziness that was about to ensue. And it did. The second that we got to the bottom, the race was on, and we pass them.
Ian: And when we pass them, we were like, "Oh, my God, this is amazing." Because we knew that we could beat them at a foot race, we just knew that we were within them. And so we were like, "Oh, this is amazing." And then we look back. As soon as we pass them, their rickshaw driver turns off into oncoming traffic and takes a shortcut. Which sounds crazy to us in America, but in Indian, that's par for the course. And then like we get stuck at this red light. And it's one of those lights with a countdown timer like in Europe. It was at 120 seconds, we had to watch it count down from 120. That was probably more painful than getting to the mat and hearing Phil say that you're eliminated. So that was bad. It was probably less than 30 seconds after Lena and Morgan had gotten to the mat before we got there. And Yeremi and Liam are like a minute and a half ahead of them. This wasn't Amazing Race edit. Within two minutes, all of us had reached the mat.
We saw you guys undergo a number of ups and down through five legs. It seemed like, every time you would surge ahead, you'd then immediately fall back. In the opening leg, you were the first to the Roadblock, but then got lost on the way to LAX. In Vietnam, you were on the first flight, but forgot a piece of the clue during the market task. How tough was it for you to handle all of that volatility while racing?
Ian: I think I probably handle that better than Joe. Joe beats himself up when he makes a mistake, a lot. And I probably don't do as good of a job of building him back up after that. But when I made that mistake, I was like, "Okay, I forgot that clue." I looked at him at that moment. I'm like, "That's on me. And I apologize. I'll try to do better." Whereas he'll get in his head a little bit more and angle it a little bit further. So I think all of those are learning moments for us. Not just in the race. Sure, we would love to like race again. And we would do things differently. But, even in life, don't knock it down on yourself too much. Take it on the chin and keep it pushing.
Joe: You've got to be really careful with your mindset and your thinking. You mentioned that we forgot the clue. And that kind of knocked this back when we were in first in Vietnam. Getting lost to LAX, we were in really good position, and it knocked us back. There were 100 other little things that occurred about our race that could have materially changed our entire outcome. So you can't get caught up on all of those little things. It will just drive you absolutely insane. You've just got to stick to your stick to your mantra, stick to your strategy, and keep pushing forward right. So long as long as we have each other. [Laughs.]
[Laughs.] You've got the world spinning right in your hand! So we heard Phil tell the teams that next week there will be a blind U-Turn vote. I'm curious, if you had survived this leg, who would you vote for?
Joe: I love this question.
Ian: We were gonna U-Turn Steve and Anna Leigh.
Joe: At our elimination mat, Ian made it known. Phil said something that wasn't aired, something like, "Joe and Ian, what sort of parting wisdom do you have?" Because Lena and Morgan and Lena and Liam and Yeremi were there with us.
Ian: I was like, "I have something to say!"
Joe: [Laughs.] Right away he's like, "Yeah, I've got something. U-Turn Steve and Anna Leigh."
Ian: No shade! I truly think that they were the biggest sleeper team and the one to watch out for on this race. I think they're super competitive. I think they're super able they complement each other incredibly well. Anna Leigh is this very cute Southern Belle, and it's easy to like see that and not see what she also is, which is this very ambitious, super fierce competitor, incredibly smart, and also very pretty and charming. To me, that's a deadly combination. And I'm like, "That's the one you gotta watch out for."
You walked away saying you learned so much about your relationship. But what's the biggest thing you learned about your partner racing around the world together?
Joe: I think that I learned that no matter what the situation is, we have our home life here. We're in our bubble, we're in our Manhattan apartment, whatever. And he acts a certain way. We joke, we play pranks on each other and all that. No matter the situation, it can be the most stressful situation in the world, and he'll still hold on to that core. Everything is just Joe and Ian. And at the end of the day, if we're going to be jovial and play pranks on each other and have fun at home, then even in that crazy situation on the other side of the world, we're going to do it there too, whether there are cameras on us or not. And so that was something that I just loved walking away from the race with.
Ian: I think Joe's biggest fear's that he's gonna let me down. And I saw that a little bit when we got lost going to LAX, he was pretty down on himself, and that bled into, honestly, the next two days. And I didn't realize how hard he was beating himself up, and that's on me to not know that. So I learned that from him. And I know that next time, I need to pull him out of that a lot sooner, so that he doesn't have a chance to let those thoughts stew.
That's so interesting. Because I feel like, at the travel agency a couple of episodes ago, it was portrayed that Joe was the more outwardly positive person. But it seems like Ian played that role in times of duress.
Joe: Yeah, I think my negativity is very aimed inwards, and you're just kind of--
Ian: Oh wow. [Laughs.]
Joe: I want to keep it contained.
Finally, I know you guys are currently planning your upcoming wedding. Are you planning to have an Amazing Race 35 reunion there?
Ian: No.
Joe: [Laughs.]
Ian: Not because we're not close with them! Honestly, Mike, I would love to elope. Joe has a very tight-knit close family. And so like, honestly, the conversation is, is our family going to be there or not? If they're listening, I'm just kidding. But I've always thought that we would have a really small intimate wedding.
Joe: I mean, we have to be honest. We haven't planned it. In true Joe and Ian fashion, it will probably be somewhere kind of crazy and remote and hard to get to. So you know, there's that factor.
Ian: The Amazon's on the table.
Joe: Should we do a more big celebratory party in New York City, of course,we'd love to have them.
