Andy DehnartCaitlin Upton, the Miss Teen USA 2007 pageant contestant who’s most famous for a rambling, incoherent response during the pageant, is likely a contestant on The Amazing Race 16. She appeared earlier this fall on TLC’s King of the Crown.
The race started taping Saturday, and she’s been identified as one of the contestants, racing with her boyfriend, Brent Horne. (The identification comes from Reality Fan Forum, but the original thread appears to have been deleted; Vevmo has photos.) If it is her, she won’t be 21 until the end of March, and previously, contestants have been 21 or older. Of course, CBS has broken its age requirement rule before.
During the pageant in 2007, Caitlin was asked why a fifth of Americans couldn’t find the United States on a world map and responded famously, “people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as,” and so on. She’s now mocking herself in a pistachio ad.
CBS’ casting choices usually seem better once we see the show, so I’ll reserve judgment even though this seems like pretty extreme stunt casting, a way to bring attention–and humor–to the show. Then again, maybe Caitlin is just there to make her fellow well-known racers, Jordan and Jeff from Big Brother, look less comically stupid, thereby giving Jeff and Jordan’s sycophantic fans someone else to call dumb even though their beloved can’t tell time and was mocked all summer long by the reality show she won.