Will ‘Big Brother’ Lovebirds Claire & Derek Win ‘The Amazing Race’?
Big Brother‘s not on tonight, but The Amazing Race Season 34 debuts with dynamic duo Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss. Can these two BB23 houseguests and love birds win it all?
Big Brother 23’s Claire Rehfuss & Derek Xiao on The Amazing Race
CBS reality fans first met Derek Xiao (AKA “DX”) and Claire Rehfuss on the historic 23rd season of BB. This was the season where The Cookout alliance dominated, leading to the first-ever regular-season win for an African American houseguest — Xavier Prather.
In the Big Brother 23 house, Derek was attracted to Claire but never pursued a romance. They were game-focused. But as The Cookout eliminated all the non-black players, they wound up together in the jury house for the last couple of weeks of the season.
That was when love blossomed — without the intrusive CBS reality cameras tracking their every move. And it was just a fluke that they met. Claire was actually an alternate in BB23 but was hustled into the roster when someone else had a positive COVID test.
Derek bonded with Claire in jury and then confirmed their romance post-Big Brother. Last month, the pair revealed they were relocating to LA together. And Claire Rehfuss and Derek Xiao’s reality TV journey continues too on The Amazing Race.
But this will be his third shot on reality TV, having just wrapped a run on MTV’s The Challenge: USA. Also, note that this is the first season of Race where they don’t start in the US – TAR 23 begins in Munich, Germany.
The Challenge: USA – Revenge Chance for BB23 Houseguests
The Challenge: USA just wrapped its run, and there were five BB23 competitors in the mix. That was Derek Xiao, Alyssa Lopez, Kyland Young, Tiffany Mitchell and BB23 winner Xavier. Both fell prey to The Cookout’s strategy of using them as shields to get to the end.
Derek and Alyssa worked together to target Big Brother winner Xavier. It worked. Xavier was ousted from The Challenge in episode 4. following Tiffany, who went out in E2. Derek went out on Episode 6, and Kyland in E7, but Alyssa lasted til Episode 11.
Although Derek didn’t win the cash prize, he got some experience from the MTV/CBS show that could help them on The Amazing Race. And if they win TAR 34, they won’t be the first BB lovebirds to do so. The clip below shows them dominating a challenge.
You may recall that Cody Nickson and Jessica Graf dominated the race show after struggling on Big Brother. But the now-married parents of four consider the big win them meeting each other. And that’s how Claire Rehfuss and her boyfriend see it too.
Derek & Claire Ready for The Amazing Race 34
Claire Rehfuss and her family are huge reality TV fans, and as soon as the couple exited the BB23 house, she got Derek Xiao to watch the next Survivor season with her. Plus, he says that her fam put them through an Amazing Race boot camp.
What did that include? Learning to drive a stick shift for one. With the race starting in Germany, where that’s the most common car-type, it makes sense. You can see their preparation in the chat below.
The Big Brother lovebirds also boned up on map reading, Spanish language — and even set up some mock challenges while visiting Claire’s family in Virginia Beach to pre them. They tried dance challenges and other past events from TAR to prepare.
They’ve also decided that despite Claire Rehfuss’ “extreme” fear of heights, she’ll do the height challenges to save Derek Xiao for other physical comps. Watch The Amazing Race Season 34, Episode 1 tonight at 10 PM EST after the season premiere of Survivor.
These season premieres replace Big Brother, which usually airs on Wednesday nights all Summer.
Get more news on The Amazing Race and other CBS reality shows here at Soap Dirt.