Reality TV
‘The Amazing Race’ 37 Winners Carson and Jack Joke That Their $1 Million ‘Check Hasn’t Cleared’ Yet
The Amazing Race season 37 winners Carson McCalley and Jack Dodge are still living humbly while they wait for their $1 million prize money to hit their bank accounts.
The Brooklyn, New York, natives took to their “Dweeb Wars” podcast’s TikTok page on Thursday, May 29, with a video poking fun at how they’ve been living their lives in a normal fashion despite winning such a huge prize.
“When you just won a million dollars on The Amazing Race but the check hasn’t cleared yet,” text read over clips of Jack, 27, eating ramen noodles, and Carson, 28, drinking a Narragansett Lager and riding a New York subway.
The caption added, “Let’s be honest, imma still be eating ramen noodles when it does …”
Reality TV competition winners typically do not receive their prize money until some time after the season finale airs. The Amazing Race season 37 concluded filming in June 2024, and it aired on CBS from March 5 to May 15.
While the first-place prize for The Amazing Race is advertised as $1 million, this amount is split between the two teammates. Additionally, the money is considered income and is therefore subject to federal and state taxes, so the winners will not receive the full amount. The amount taken out in taxes varies by state of residence and other factors.
Roby Sawyers, undergraduate director of NC State University’s Department of Accounting, broke down the amount that Amazing Race winners might pay in taxes in a 2022 interview with The News & Observer.
“They most certainly will not keep the whole million dollars,” Sawyers said. “If you look at the $1 million earnings like it’s the only income they have, my calculation has $300,000 taken out in federal taxes — 30 percent. But this number looks different with other income and children in your home.”
New York, where Carson and Jack reside, has a range of state income tax rates. They are likely to fall under the 6.85 percent rate for the $215,401 to $1,077,550 income bracket, according to NerdWallet.
However, according to Sawyers, Amazing Race winners may also be subject to state taxes in California, where the show is based.
“It’s more confusing than it needs to be, but that’s probably how it’s going to work,” he said.
Whatever amount of money they end up with in the end, Carson said on the May 21 episode of “Dweeb Wars” that they hope to use it to “connect with a community.”
“Do we want to open a fantasy tavern? Do we want to make a board game together? Do we want to make our own reality show? Do we want to do something crazy for the podcast?” he teased.
Carson and Jack, a pair of gamer best friends, crossed the finish line in first place in Miami during the finale on May 15 after dominating the competition for much of the season. Their communication and problem-solving skills helped them come in first place in four legs prior to the finale.
In a post-race interview with Parade, the pair said that attending therapy together before going on the show helped them work well as a team.
“We went to therapy together before the race, which was maybe the best advice we could give any racer ever,” Carson said. “It’s not normal that you go to therapy with your friend. But it was so crucial to our race because we were talking about, ‘How do we relate to each other? How do we communicate? How do we not expect certain things? What do I have? What do I give to this race?’ But it was actually, for us, about breaking down things, removing expectation.”
