"Amazing Race" Sees Water-Slide Meltdown

(CBS)  Even water wings and the promise of $1 million couldn't get Mika Combs down a dizzingly high water slide in Dubai.

Her twin fears of height and water bounced the aspiring Nashville singer and her songwriting partner, Canaan Smith, out of "The Amazing Race" on Sunday.

The pair, along with the other six teams, had already successfully navigated a series of challenges that included rowing a rubber dinghy out to a yacht, using a watch to find the combination for a locked briefcase, assembling a hookah and measuring out precisely $500,000 in various-sized gold pieces.

Photos: "Amazing Race 15"

The final challenge required both team members to go down a six-story-high Leap of Faith water slide, which traversed a shark tank and ended in a waist-high pool of water at the Atlantis resort in Dubai. It was only a short distance away from the pit stop, a beach at the same resort.

They arrived at the slide ahead of the last team - Flight Time and Big Easy, who had a difficult time opening the briefcase. But Mika, who was wearing plastic floaties just below her shoulders, could not conquer her fears and a meltdown ensued.

Canaan tried calming her, prompting her with thoughts of the $1 million "Amazing Race" prize, offering to go down with her and finally threatening her. Nothing worked, even when at one point he grabbed her wrists and tried to give her a shove down the slide.

Mika, meanwhile, kept bewailing her fate, saying she hated her life and wished she were back in Nashville. When the two Globetrotters drew up behind them, she refused to yield, prompting them to taunt her in an effort to make her give up the challenge.

According to "Race" rules, she had two minutes to either go down the slide or let the other team proceed. Canaan took the slide alone; Mika waited until the last second, ceded her spot at the top of the slide to the Globetrotters and walked down to meet Canaan in the pool. The dating couple arrived at the pit stop behind all the others and were eliminated by host Phil Keoghan.

Six couples remain in the race. They landed at the pit stop in this order: dating couple Cheyne and Meghan; friends and poker players Maria and Tiffany; brothers and students Sam and Dan; married couple Brian and Ericka, who was the 2004 Miss America; father and son Matt and Gary; and friends and Harlem Globetrotter teammates Flight Time and Big Easy.

Six other teams had been eliminated in previous episodes of the 15th season of the Emmy-winning reality TV show.