S35: Greg and John Franklin

[Whimsy]

From Entertainment Weekly: 

 

Greg, 25, and John Franklin, 27, are brothers from New York City and Mountain View, Calif. Greg is a software developer, and John is a product manager. The Franklins have always loved to travel together: "We've been to Montreal together, we've been to Thailand together, Singapore, China — just all over the world together, so this is just a concentrated way to do it," Greg said. The brothers also still sometimes share a bunk bed when they're visiting home.

[aghst]

They’ve won two legs now?

They should be one of the favorites, fit young guys and also brainy.  Good attitude and temperaments.

One of them blanked on the ancient coin exchange calculation but they should do well with memory task that usually comes up in the final leg.

They really enjoyed the indoor parade, though so did most other teams.

One or both of them are software engineers at Google?  That means in about 5-10 years they’d be millionaires, at least on paper.  That was the case with another racer from a couple of seasons ago who worked at Microsoft.

 

[aradia22]

Watching their recaps is a little dull but they provide extra background.

More travel and navigation drama that's maybe too boring to include in the episode. They use phones and google maps a lot but were also disappointed the few times they were able to try to break away from the pack and it didn't work out with getting on an earlier flight, etc. since they thought that would be a strength going into the race.

They do have a lot of special skills. Greg mentioned he has tried knitting and crocheting. Greg drove a stick shift car in college. John is proficient with musical instruments. So it's not just skiing, snowboarding, and kayaking. I like that they found racers who were so well rounded and competitive. 

They are still very likable but they are even more thoughtful and strategic in their recaps. They really planned for the race. Also, they did find some of the tasks easy as well and admitted the struggle was just navigation or the length of the leg or the struggles of traveling without sleep. 

Also, they gave away the bratwursts after the mustard task to people who helped them with directions.

John apparently has very bad eyesight.

They did get a little annoyed with Robbin and Chelsea following them and not even attempting to get directions themselves.

Edited December 9, 2023 by aradia22

[aradia22]

This is their audition video. Surprisingly informal. They're just super charismatic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsmJOfDAXbM&ab_channel=GregandJohn

Edited December 9, 2023 by aradia22

[aradia22]

From the Parade interview

Quote

Well, let's go from the end of the race to the beginning. How long had you been watching the race before you applied? And what made you decide to make that leap from fans to racers?

John: I got into the show through my girlfriend who loves everything and anything reality TV. And after watching the past four or five seasons, I got Gregory on board. And we had some downtime last year and just put in our first application for the show. It was just a three-minute video, not high production quality. We just put it in [and] forgot about it until we got that call from L.A.
Greg: I feel like a lot of TV shows, you look and you're like, "Oh I can do that." When you're sitting on your couch, it looks easy. And so we really wanted to test it out. This seemed like one of those shows more than Survivor, more than Big Brother, that we were like, 'Okay, I actually think that we can do this. That actually looks like something we can actually do pretty well at."

Did you always want to race together? Or did you consider other partners?
Greg and John: [Simultaneously.] Touchy subject.

[Laughs.] It worked out well for you!
John: Yeah, it worked out for the best. But my girlfriend is the one who I intended to apply with for years, for four or five years. And it wasn't until, again, Gregory and I had literally 30 minutes of downtime, that we actually made the effort to put the application in. And it just happened to work out, honestly. So my girlfriend, props to her for getting me on and supporting me along the way. But if I could do it again, she's right there with me.
 

Quote

Let's talk representation. You are the first all-male Black team to win The Amazing Race. You are the first Black men to win since Uchenna back in season 7. And you're the first all-Black team to win since Kisha and Jen in season 18. What's your reaction to that?
Greg: I think that was a big reason why we were chosen to be on the race as well. I mean, there's not too many people in our situation, Black, educated, in tech. There are not that many Black people in tech; that is a unicorn of a find. So I mean, having that representation, and even afterwards, we were talking with some of the producers, and they were talking about like how we're good inspiration to their kids. Just kind of seeing someone like them on TV, especially something like reality TV, like The Amazing Race, where a lot of them are straight white couples, or straight white males. So, yeah, it's good to have representation.

Quote

Finally, if you get a call to go onto an all-winners season of The Amazing Race, are you doing it? Or are you going out on top?
Greg: Not only would we come back, I genuinely think we have a very good chance of winning. A very, very good chance. 
John: Yeah, I think we'd both take it up in a heartbeat. And we're patient. We'll wait! If it's season 40, season 45. We'll stay in shape. We're ready.