CBSWatch out, there's a new kid on the Race. Literally.
The Amazing Race's 26th season kicks off tonight with a familiar face: Jonathan Knight! The New Kids on the Block member will compete with his boyfriend Harley Rodriguez in the CBS reality hit's couples edition, which pits six established couples against five pairings meeting for the first time in the most extreme blind date ever.
So how did the rest of the band react when they learned Knight, 46, and Rodriguez, 41, would be competing in the primetime race around the world?
"They were shocked!" Knight tells E! News.
"I was kind of shocked at myself too, for doing it. It was definitely something outside of the box for me," Knight continues. "I'm the one who sometimes doesn't like being on stage and being the center of attention. And now all of a sudden I'm being thrown into a race and all these crazy challenges…they were shocked. It's weird for me, but even at 46, it felt to me like a growing experience."
A longtime fan of the show, Knight reveals he'd actually been trying to get on the show for "four seasons," but his touring schedule always conflicted with filming. "This year I got a phone call and they said they were doing a couples edition and that they would love to have us on the show."
But Knight thought Rodriguez, a personal trainer, might not want to join the show.
"Jon asked me like, ‘What do you think about The Amazing Race?'" Rodriguez says. "He thought I wouldn't be into it, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?!'"
However, Rodriguez wasn't initially the first person Knight had in mind to be his TAR partner before he knew this season would be a couples edition. "I had somebody else in mind to do it ‘cause I was a little nervous about doing it with Harley. But then the whole couple thing came up and I was like, ‘OK, here's my chance to do it," Knight explains. "Actually it was a friend of mine, it was a girl, and she's a huge fan so when the season's on we're always talking about it. She was a big die-hard fan."
As for Rodriguez, he also envisioned himself taking on the race with, telling us, "One of my best friends Joey, I definitely would've done that with him."
Of course, we had to know which NKOTB bandmember they would choose to be their partner. Knight's pick? Danny Wood, while Rodriguez went with Donnie Wahlberg. (Sorry, Jordan Knight and Joey McIntyre!)
As for their dynamic as a couple vs. a team, Knight says they were initially "worried," but learned "it's exactly the same," with Rodriguez adding, "We're very indecisive!"
"A typical night for us is like, ‘Where do you want to go to dinner, babe?' And then we'll spend an hour back and forth about where to go and then by the time we make a decision….we call up and they're like we closed 10 minutes ago!" Knight says.
Here's hoping picking a restaurant for dinner isn't the duo's first TAR challenge!
The Amazing Race kicks off tonight at 9:30 p.m. on CBS.