‘Amazing Race’ Alums Derek and Claire Return for Season 35 Premiere

The Amazing Race season 34 champions Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss will make a particular look through the season 35 premiere of the fact competitors collection, Us Weekly can completely reveal.

In an unique first take a look at the premiere episode, which airs on CBS Wednesday, September 27, Derek, 26, and Claire, 27, put together to present clues to Amazing Race contestants who efficiently traverse a tightrope between two buildings and unscramble a phrase puzzle.

Derek and Claire, who started courting within the fall of 2021 after assembly as contestants on season 23 of Big Brother that summer time, advised Us they had been completely happy to be clue givers reasonably than opponents this time round.

“It was very fun to not be stressed,” Claire stated. Derek revealed that the duo determined to check out the premiere episode’s problem themselves simply for enjoyable — and discovered it tougher than they’d anticipated.

“Me and Claire [were] like, ‘Yeah, let me just go ahead and break this record for you guys.’ And then we go up to do the challenge. I thought we were going to be there all day,” Derek admitted. “You had to figure out a phrase by unscrambling words, and I’m looking at these [letters] and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I don’t think that makes a word.’”

Amazing Race Alums Derek and Claire Return for Season 35 Premiere — Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss. Sonja Flemming/CBS

Claire didn’t partake within the tightrope facet of the problem as she was already compelled to beat her concern of heights throughout a November 2022 episode of The Amazing Race.

(*35*) she defined. “I was like, ‘I’ll stay on the ground. I’m fine.’”

In addition to dealing with phobias, Derek and Claire’s communication abilities as a pair had been put to the check throughout their time on the present. Claire defined that trusting the opposite particular person to take management throughout irritating conditions was troublesome for the pair as they’re “both confident people.”

She continued: “We both want to do all of it ourselves, but learning how to rely on the other person was what was key.”

Derek echoed his girlfriend’s sentiments. “That is the thing that we had to overcome and that brought us closer together: ‘How do we both feel our opinions, and then during the times when there may be separate opinions, how do we reconcile that to keep pushing forward and understand where the other person is coming from?’” he defined. “So, I think the [Amazing] Race was incredible. 20 years of relationship therapy.”

The duo have realized rather a lot from one another exterior of their shared actuality TV ventures. Derek advised Us that Claire has proven him the right way to be extra understanding of different individuals’s emotions.

“She’s a very empathetic person. She not just feels [but] internalizes other people’s emotions and how they’re seeing a situation and she empathizes with that,” he shared. “And I feel like that’s something that has hopefully transferred over to me. I’ve been picking up one percent of it, which is already one percent more than I had.”

Claire, in the meantime, stated Derek has helped her see the brilliant aspect of each state of affairs.

“Derek enters every situation or environment that we’re going into with an optimistic lens. I think Derek’s way more optimistic than I am,” she confessed. “I am a pretty fear-based person and an anxiety person. … He’s made me more open-minded and more open to going to [new] environments or hanging out with people or doing new things that normally I would be like, ‘No, that’s too much. I would rather just stay home.’”

After proving themselves to be a robust couple throughout season 34 of The Amazing Race — and taking residence the $1 million prize – Derek and Claire couldn’t assist however discover just a few season 35 duos who gave the impression to be forward of the pack throughout their visitor look. Although she didn’t title names, Claire stated that “there were two teams that really stood out that are going to be powerhouses this season.”

She continued: “It seems like there’s a lot of Amazing Race superfans [this season]. This is a really amazing cast that they have. Everyone was really bringing the energy. I’m sure they were nervous for their first day out there, but they were really tackling it.”