Paulina & Creighton Know You're Watching for the Divorce Drama on Race to Survive

Paulina Peña and Creighton Baird know what you've been looking for when they're onscreen on Race to Survive: New Zealand. After all, it's their team's reality series hook: a divorced couple who signed up for the competition when they were still together, only to be tapped to compete after their romantic relationship had ended.

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"Getting to a place where Paulina and I could do this race together, it took a lot of personal work. It took a lot of joint work. It took joint couples' therapy," Creighton explained to USA Insider at the top of our Zoom interview with the pair. "Like after we were divorced but before the show, it just took us getting in as good a place as we could be with each other. So we could do this competition together."

And while the camera has picked up plenty of sniping between the two — as is common among teammates on Race to Survive — Paulina and Creighton are top contenders, proving their ingenuity and fortitude time and again. Those traits have landed them a spot in the final three as the dwindling teams embark on one final trek through New Zealand's unforgiving climate.

Paulina and Creighton appear in Race to Survive: New Zealand Season 2 Episode 1. Photo: Daniel Allen/USA Network

However, before the duo made their way to New Zealand with the eight other starting teams, "there was a lot of immediate doubt" from their friends and family that their competing together was a good idea, Paulina explained. 

"I mean our families and friends know us incredibly well. [But] once they understood what we were gonna be doing on the show, they recognized that that was exactly up our alley," she continued. "That they were like, 'Yeah that makes sense for Paulina and Creighton.' I think they were just scared for what it could do to our relationship, being a divorced couple. But I think Creighton and I both felt that it was gonna be something that would be more beneficial than harmful in the end for the two of us." 

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Creighton agreed, adding that "it's scary having your relationship and your failed marriage put out for the world to see. Like it's a very vulnerable feeling going into it."

With the aforementioned therapy, though, and a new running regimen to beef up their stamina, they threw themselves into preparing for the adventure of a lifetime together.

Paulina explained that Creighton — who she referred fondly to as "Creight-O" throughout our interview — had suffered a "pretty bad injury" before they met, "so running was never his forte. But he absolutely crushed it with running. I started doing the same thing. He and I would get together and practice making fires and setting up our tarp." 

"Any new gear that we got, Paulina and I spent time using it in the field, together, before we actually tried to survive and race in a foreign environment," Creighton added. "But we didn't find out that we were going to New Zealand 'til a couple days before we left. So trying to figure out how you're gonna survive in this specific environment is challenging if you don't know the location."

Paulina Thanks Creighton on Race to Survive: "He Kept Us Alive"

All these weeks later, and the pair are still going strong into the finale. And despite the "drama" surrounding their relationship status, Paulina was insistent that, in the end, she wouldn't have wanted to go through this journey with anyone else, no matter the end result.

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"I would like to add [that] I know we are the divorced couple in this race. And that there is definitely extra drama there," Paulina said. "But I couldn't imagine doing this race with anybody else other than Creighton. And having him as a teammate was the greatest gift I could have asked for ... he was the ultimate teammate. He kept the energy alive. He kept us alive. He provided so much of the food for us and the morale, and he took over [with] navigation when I couldn't handle the navigation. If I was struggling mentally, he would always step in. I don't feel that that's been shown as well, and, for me I think that's super important for viewers to know: That Creighton and I, we're an amazing team on this race. 

"I'm just thankful for him," she concluded. 

How will Paulina and Creighton fare in the Race to Survive: New Zealand finale against the dynamic duos of Ethan and Tyrie and Kennedy and Nik? Find out when the Race to Survive: New Zealand finale premieres on Monday, July 22 at 11 p.m. on USA Network.