In his initial appearance on “The Amazing Race” four years ago, Cord McCoy created a catch phrase that took the reality TV show’s audience by storm.
His “Oh, my gravy” commentary may have been trumped during Sunday night’s fourth episode of Season 24, when the youngest of the two brothers on the show uttered a new tag line: “We’re like butter; we’re on a roll.”
Jet and Cord McCoy are hot, highlighted by their victory in the fourth leg of the race around the world for $1 million. The tandem used a considerable amount of energy and a handy dose of mixology while traipsing across Malaysia. For finishing first, The Cowboys scored a trip for two to London.
“We could not be more excited to be on our way to a Pit Stop,” Jet McCoy said as the two shared a cab ride from the final challenge to the Leg 4 finish in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “We’re thinking this could mean first place for us.”
But Cord stopped his older brother, saying, “We’ve been wrong before.”
“We were wrong for a million dollars once, as a matter of fact,” Jet said, referring to the brothers’ second-place finish during Season 16, the first of three times the Oklahoma cowboys have been on the CBS-TV reality series.
The McCoys began Sunday in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, two minutes behind the leaders, the father-son tandem of Dave and Connor O’Leary. Their first challenge, the Road Block, took place in Knota Kinabalu’s Prince Phillip Park, where one member of each team had to jump on a bamboo trampoline high enough to grab a flag hanging above them.
Cord tackled the task for The Cowboys, but he struggled. The brothers were the first to arrive at the park, but they were quickly passed by the O’Learys and the cousin team of Leo Temory and Jamal Zadran. In fact, it took Cord 47 attempts before he reached the flag; no team could obtain the next clue until finishing that job.
“The problem was that task required a lot of Cord-nation,” Jet said, joking about his brother’s struggle on the tramp.
Said Cord, “You just have to gather up all your energy and put it out on the line … again and again and again.”
The teams then made their way to the Kota Kinabalu airport, where the first three teams were to board the first plane to Kuala Lumpur. The McCoys joined the O’Learys and The Afghanamals on the first of three flights. The other teams, because of a flight delay, arrived about an hour and 15 minutes behind the leaders.
“I would say I’m jumping for joy,” Cord said about making the first flight, “but I’m out of hops.”
Once in Kuala Lumpor, all the teams made their way to a night club for the Detour: Either learning an elaborate disc jockey mix involving a scratching code or mixing an elaborate drink. The first three teams tried the drink, which proved to be more difficult given the balancing and pouring from a stack of glasses into martini glasses. What made it tougher was making sure none of the colors mixed from the stack to the specific martini glasses that were placed in the form of a seven-cup pyramid.
“We wouldn’t make good bartenders,” Jet said. “Between what we broke and spilled, we would owe them.”
The McCoys fared better than the others who tried. In fact, the cousins, Temory and Zadran, switched midway through the Detour to try their hand at scratching. Jet secured the right mix on the brothers’ 10th try. Once they received their next clue, The Cowboys made their way to a Hindu temple at the Batu Caves, where they met up with host Phil Keoghn and learned of their winning fate.
Sunday’s episode marked the second time in four legs that the McCoys won. They were followed by the O’Learys, who finished just ahead of The Afghanamals. The husband-wife tandem of Brendon Villegas and Rachel Reilly finished last in the non-elimination leg of the race, but they will have to endure a Speed Bump at some point in the show’s future.
The brothers still own their Express Pass, which gives them the chance to skip a challenge at any point in the race; it was their prize for winning the opening leg. That could come in handy at any point in the race should the McCoys find themselves behind the field.
That didn’t happen in the fourth episode. The Cowboys stayed in or near the lead throughout the show. It’s where they like to be.