Geography-Challenged Beauty Queen Caitlin Upton To Compete On 'Amazing Race'

Former Miss South Carolina Teen USA Caitlin Upton, who gained notoriety after her awkward response to a question in 2007's Miss Teen USA pageant, is hoping to redeem herself with a trek around the globe. Caitlin and her boyfriend Brent Horne will compete for $1 million dollars on the 16th edition of CBS's "The Amazing Race."

During the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant Caitlin became infamous after she was asked about America's lack of geography skills during the Q&A portion of the show. Her gaff garnered over 39 millions views on YouTube.

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and I believe that they should," she said during the 2007 pageant when asked why she thought 20 percent of Americans could not locate the United States on a world map. "Our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children."

But Caitlin is hoping her racing skills will help change the public's opinion of her.

"People always picture me as the typical pageant girl, and I'm not at all," she told the Associated Press. "I've only been in five pageants. I'm actually a very athletic person. I'm just tired of being represented from that standpoint. I want to show people who I really am as a person, that I am capable of accomplishing anything and doing anything I put my mind to."

And viewers shouldn't expect the former beauty queen to play nice with her fellow competitors.

"I have a very short fuse, so if somebody gets in my way, there's going to be some trouble," Caitlin said in an interview with CBS in an electronic press kit. "And I'm definitely going need [my boyfriend] there to calm me down."

Host Phil Keoghan said this year's crop of contestants - which include couples, parents, siblings, friends, models, lawyers, detectives and even cowboys - paint a good picture of the country.

"They're chosen because they're a real cross section and real mixture of America," he said.

The 16th season of "The Amazing Race" premieres on February 14 at 8 PM EST on CBS.

Apprentice Talker wrote:

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The South Carolina question during MTUSA 2007 was so awkward and poor grammar sentence. The best in YouTube over 39.1 million views.