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Pcakes2
Member
08-29-2001
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 11:23 am
NEW YORK - Married entrepreneurs Jonathan Baker and Victoria Fuller bickered their way across the globe on CBS' "The Amazing Race" but were eliminated during Tuesday's episode. "I knew that he was going to be over the top. I know Jon very well," Fuller told The Associated Press Wednesday. "I know he can be very enthusiastic. I was a little taken aback by his intensity. It was so off the charts." Baker went into the competition with hopes of being the show's villain, but he had no idea "it would look like that." Most of "that" were arguments and a shoving incident with his wife. "I turned off my compassion," said Baker. "I pushed the envelope too far. I learned a lot about myself. I'm deeply sorry if I offended people out there. I look at what I saw up there, and I didn't like the person that I saw." Viewers (and host Phil Keoghan) were shocked when Baker, 42, shoved the 32-year-old Fuller after a footrace spat in Berlin during the fifth leg of the race. After the incident, Baker declared that he was done with the competition, something that wasn't seen on the show. "I did quit the race," Baker told the AP. "I said, `It's done.' I was mad at how it was handled. I was mad at Phil. He kept asking me these questions. I was mad at myself. I was mad at the whole situation." Seven hours later, Baker changed his mind. "It was a flip of a switch," he said. "Well into the morning, (the producers) said it was up to me if I showed up or not. I have to say the love of `The Amazing Race' put me back on it." "It was definitely a learning experience," said Fuller. "You have to see yourself at your worst to be yourself at your best. I hope America gives us a chance. Jon and I been together a long time. Eight years is like a lifetime if you live in Los Angeles."
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Karen
Member
09-07-2004
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 11:42 am
Whatever, Jonathan. Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night. (can we say... DAMAGE CONTROL? yuk.)
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Gina8642
Member
06-01-2001
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 11:58 am
I think Lynette Rice who wrote the article above is completely nieve if she thinks TAR isn't looking to cast another Jonathan or Colin. Colin, Flo, and others like them come by their annoyiness naturally. TAR casters are desperately seeking contestants exactly like Colin and Flo. Jonathan is a whole different ballgame to me. Not only is he naturally annoying. He was also deliberately attempting to put on a show. I just wish reality TV would not cast these types. The ones who deliberately go out to create some sort of false persona to generate media about themselves. Jonny Fair Play from Survivor is another one of these. I just don't like them. BTW - I'm not even touching the most talked about aspect of TAR's Jonanthan's performance - the way he treated his wife and whether or not it constituted emotional and/or physical abuse. While I think TAR's interview process can easily spot a poser like both Jon's intended to be, I think it is a bit more difficult to know if he is a wife pusher. Emotional abuse is also in the eyes of the beholder - and pretty hard to detect or determine what is too much for TV.
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Pcakes2
Member
08-29-2001
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 12:23 pm
My favorite line from the whole article.... "Jon and I been together a long time. Eight years is like a lifetime if you live in Los Angeles."
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Awareinva
Member
08-13-2001
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 12:50 pm
I agree that there was a big difference in Johnathon and say Flo or even Colin - that is the difference that the casting people need to learn. Although I disliked both Colin and Flo, I never got the idea that they weren't just being who they were. Johnathon was somewhat putting on an act (although I feel like the good guy stuff we saw- giving candy to the kids, the whole end at the last pit stop- was the acting, NOT the abuse of his wife and rudeness to the locals and other racers). I really really hope that they don't get fooled again (or if they did it on purpose, that they learned from this mistake). The reason we watch reality shows is to see REAL people!!
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Maris
Member
03-28-2002
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 1:01 pm
I aree PCakes, that is a gem of a statement. Very Kendra though.
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Justalittlebean
Member
08-15-2003
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 4:14 pm
Jonathan and Victoria .....February 15th, Dr. Phil holds a special featuring these two.

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Maris
Member
03-28-2002
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 4:27 pm
Now I cant stand Dr. Phil, but I got to admit that would be a real hoot to watch
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Lumbele
Member
07-12-2002
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 4:35 pm
Ditto, Maris. For once I just might tune in, just to see Dr. Phil give them the what-for.
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Maris
Member
03-28-2002
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 4:47 pm
fifty bucks says Victoria bawls her eyes out.
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Justalittlebean
Member
08-15-2003
| Friday, January 21, 2005 - 6:15 am
From Jonathan and Victoria's website: January 21, 2005 And then it was over just like that......... It was the most expensive piece of a#s we ever had. We want to thank the people that liked us and even the people that hated us. The lines were drawn with such conviction. Jonathan is feeling better and with more treatment his Sarcoidosis will get better. We knew going in we would not be Ozzy and Harriet but had no idea we would be we would come out Ozzy and Sharon. We loved running the Amazing Race as much as watching it. Until next time.

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Roxip
Member
01-29-2004
| Friday, January 21, 2005 - 7:55 am
It must have taken them months to craft that little bit of PR.
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Gina8642
Member
06-01-2001
| Friday, January 21, 2005 - 8:51 am
TV Guide Online Interview with Jonathan and Victoria: Link (From 1/21/05)
quote:Abusive Racer Apologizes by Ethan Alter With a 15 percent popularity rating at CBS.com, it's safe to say that Jonathan and Victoria are the least-liked duo to ever run The Amazing Race (Tuesdays, 9 pm/ET). As a result, few fans shed tears when the married entrepreneurs from California were Philiminated on this week's episode. Here, these two try to explain their combative behavior on the race, and insist there's more to their relationship than meets the eye. TV Guide Online: Jonathan, you've said that you planned to be this season's villain. Think you accomplished that a bit too effectively? Jonathan: Absolutely. I didn't know what it was going to look like, and I didn't know how much work it was going to be. I have to say that I apologize if I ever offended anybody, because it wasn't what I intended to do. CBS turned the story line toward Victoria and I when, in actuality, I went in there to terrorize everybody else. I didn't know what it was going to look like when I decided to give that raw emotion, and when I saw it up there, I was horrified myself. I didn't like what I saw, and I had to take a step backward and evaluate what that energy was and why people were running from it. I'm a big fan of the show; you will not find another person with a better understanding of the show than me. Most people have to rev up before doing the show; I never had to rev up because I knew what was going on from the beginning. I'm just a very confident person and it was a competitive race. Everyone makes mistakes, and I certainly made my share of mistakes out there. TVGO: Your energy manifested itself in uncomfortable ways. It was difficult to watch the way you treated Victoria. Specifically, there's the time you hit her head with the car trunk. Later on, you shoved her in Berlin. Victoria: Well, when he hit me on the head with the trunk, he did apologize — they just didn't show it. And I said, "Come on, let's just go. Forget about it." Obviously, he didn't do that on purpose. Jonathan: Look at [last season's] Colin and Christie. They said the same thing I'm saying about [the editing]. I'm not making light of this, but CBS helped the story line a long way. There were a lot of good things that happened on the race that were never shown. We went into this knowing we were going to be the villains, so I almost gave myself permission to be bad. It went too far and that's what I'm sorry for. Victoria and I have reconciled in private, and we've talked about what was supposed to be and what wasn't supposed to be. The shove in Berlin was wrong. It was wrong and I should not have done it. I can't apologize any more because I really felt that it hurt. I quit the race at that point because it was such a dramatic moment. It took me seven hours to calm down. I didn't quit because I'm a quitter, I quit because I was very upset. I was very upset with Phil for the way he said, "Do you want to go and talk to your wife?" He had five minutes with me on the mat and he said that! I was very upset because I worked very hard — I should say we worked very hard — and if you notice, we came in second on almost every leg. We took the game very seriously, almost too seriously. But it was a lot of fun to do, and Victoria and I have been together for eight years, so we do have a core friendship that people didn't see. TVGO: Victoria, you seemed to shrug off a lot of your husband's behavior. Were you more assertive off camera? Victoria: I shrugged it off a lot, and I also gave it back to him a lot. They didn't always show me telling him "Get away from me" or "Back off" or just defending myself. A lot of times, they show me sitting there, which wasn't always the case. I did stick up for myself, and we did banter back and forth. TVGO: Do you personally feel that he crossed the line? Victoria: Obviously, that moment in Berlin was a heavy moment for us, and probably one of the most dramatic moments in our relationship. We don't fight like that; we're not physical with each other. So having the worst moment of your relationship aired on national television was pretty tough. That was the biggest one for me. With everything else, we knew what happened before, during and after those moments, so it was different for us. It wasn't just the six minutes of intense negativity that the audience saw. Jonathan: I loved every moment of every second of the race. Yes, the stress came up from behind us and made us not great with each other, but independently, we ran the race very well. We just didn't run it well with each other. The lines blur between "Is it a race or is it a show about relationships?" When you are on television, it's a race about relationships. But when you're there, it's a race and it's a race for $1 million. And everybody is pushing you very hard, so you don't want to ever forget you are in a race, or else it will end very quickly. TVGO: How have you reevaluated yourselves and your relationship since the race? Victoria: Well, we've talked a lot about what was going on, and when you see the worst of the worst you know what you don't want to see again. When people have been together for a long time like we've been, you get very comfortable with each other. When you're in the first week of dating someone and you tell them to shut up, it has a lot more power than when you have been together eight years. Everything negative we said to each other — not that it was OK and not that our relationship is horrible like that — but you're so used to each other that you don't take that into consideration. We've definitely decided that whether we're comfortable or not, we don't want to be that vocally negative with each other. We've learned to draw the line and be more respectful of each other — whether we mean it or not, there's some things you can't take so lightly. TVGO: If you were to do it all over, do you think you could keep this from happening again? Victoria: I definitely do. I think we've learned a big lesson, and the next time around I don't think we'd fight or bicker. I don't think we'd bring it to that ugly of a place ever again. Jonathan: I don't think we'll ever bring anything to that ugly of a place. Then again, if you have an explosive personality, you're going to be creative. I do know they could have softened it. This is a family show, they could have softened the blow. They knew going in that they were going to get this. If we gave them 200 percent, why did they have to use 200 percent? They could have used 180 percent. That was my feeling when I called them after the first week and said, "What are you doing? This is a family show." What was chosen for us, we did not choose. We gave them the good, the bad and the ugly. In the same breath, I'm very remorseful for the nerve that I hit. Victoria and I have a very strong relationship. We've been married for eight years — some people can't even stay together two or three years. We're very vocal with each other and I think there's a healthiness to that. We crossed that line past that healthiness.
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Karen
Member
09-07-2004
| Friday, January 21, 2005 - 11:25 am
Again... whatever they need to tell themselves to help them sleep at night...
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Friday, January 21, 2005 - 12:48 pm
LOL I agree Karen!
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Friday, January 21, 2005 - 3:58 pm
I am so confused. Jonathan says in the article that "You will not find another person with a better understanding of the show than me" and yet out he goes. Maybe he was so upset by Phil's cruel remark "Do you want to go and talk to your wife"that he could no longer function well. It is all Phil's fault. I bet on J/V road block directions they did not mention 2 donkeys.No wonder they did it wrong. Oh well, ta ta.
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Karen
Member
09-07-2004
| Friday, January 21, 2005 - 4:06 pm
I was confused by that comment, too, Dogdoc... I remember back before the race started, I was looking through the bios/pre-race interviews, and I remember one team claiming to have never seen the race. I thought for sure it was J/V, but I could be wrong, and I can't find the clips I'm remembering now...
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Friday, January 21, 2005 - 4:11 pm
Victoria did follow directions, it said bring 2 asses to the next stop, she DID have 2 asses when she arrived there
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Karen
Member
09-07-2004
| Friday, January 21, 2005 - 4:13 pm
LOL Pamy. I'm sure Phil would have agreed, too, except that would count as them completing the roadblock, thus not giving him the satisfaction of finally uttering those famous words. Wonder how "sorry to tell you" Phil really was!
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Scorpiomoon
Member
06-06-2002
| Friday, January 21, 2005 - 5:11 pm
LOL Pamy! I keep wondering if Hef called up Jonathon and gave him a stern talking to after watching the show. With Victoria being a visible Playmate and using the Playboy logo in all her art, I'm suspecting someone within the Playboy organization wanted to make sure this insanity didn't reflect badly on the company. Maybe that's part of the reason why they're doing so much press. When will these two finally go away?
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Kappy
Member
06-29-2002
| Saturday, January 22, 2005 - 5:48 pm
LOL, Pamy! I still don't think they get it that CBS and Phil did not make them look ugly. They made themselves look ugly and because it's on film, they're shocked at how everyone's reacting. And Scorpio ~ I think you hit it on the nail. I don't think Playboy wants people to think 'well, she's a Playboy bunny so what more could you expect?'.
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Prisonerno6
Member
08-31-2002
| Sunday, January 23, 2005 - 10:09 am
So, can anyone explain to me when people come off looking good on these shows, they never say, "It's all in the editing, we're jackasses in real life"?
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Sunday, January 23, 2005 - 10:46 am
I don't think anybody besides Jonathan has ever had anything bad to say about Phil. Jonathan throws the blame onto anybody but himself. Yipee Yipee they're outta there.
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Sunday, January 23, 2005 - 1:30 pm
ROTF Prisoner!!!!!!!!
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Wilsonatmd
Member
01-23-2001
| Monday, January 31, 2005 - 12:59 pm
Well Jonothan/Victoria are actually getting some help.....in TAR's timeslot! Apparently, they are going to be part of Dr. Phil's next primetime special 2/15 on CBS....
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