The spoiler is that The Amazing Race is over for the Kentucky coalminer and his wife, but we'd wager a guess that we haven't heard the last of the hillbillies who struggled half way around the world until they were finally, mercifully eliminated last night in a tear-jerking farewell that had us sniffling over our Madagascar sours (see B-Side's recap).

David and Mary Conley of Pike County, Kentucky are in New York City tonight, doing the traditional losers' publicity tour that began this morning on the CBS Early Show and Live with Kelly & Regis and continues tomorrow when the womenfolk on The View get their hands on the cute rubes (maybe Rosie and Mary can trade beauty tips). But this one is different. In what could a pilot for another reality show (probably on Fox), the wide-eyed coalmining couple are the toasts of Manhattan tonight. They say they can't walk a block in the Big City without being stopped by strangers-- and they don't mean muggers.

And it certainly is a crying shame that reality TV cameras aren't following the pair when they call it a night, because they're not staying in a fancy New York City hotel. The Conleys are bunking with former Race competitors Tom and Terry, the stereotypically sissified gay couple who'd seemed to come from the same Central Casting agency that found the Barbies, the Single Moms-- and the Conleys.

But the Conleys are real. And that's why New Yorkers--and viewers--have cottoned to them. And that's why they're bound to be back as TV representatives of that bizarre alien species known as the ordinary, average American. They didn't win the million dollars, but if they play their cards right, they can still cash in and David might yet avoid Black Lung (our idea: start churning out those matching "Daddy's Lil' Devils" and Mommy's Lil' Angels" t-shirt sets).

Meanwhile, as the jaded media types churn out their chortling interviews, the Conley's local Kentucky newspaper got a hold of the couple's New York City phone number today and snared a great interview for its website. You can read it here, but this is our favorite part:

Q: Do you stay in touch with other racers? Is there anybody you don't stay in touch with?

Mary: We talk to everybody from the race, even the ones that got eliminated quickly, except Rob and Kim. We don't talk to Rob and Kim. I don't like them.

--Tabloid Baby

Posted by Tabloid Baby on November 6, 2006 6:00 PM