‘I would never hit Victoria’

‘I was not going to hit Victoria’
One example occurred in a cab outside of Ikea in Stockholm, where viewers saw what appeared to be Jonathan about to backhand Victoria, who flinched. In that instance, he says, “I was not going to hit Victoria, I never intended to hit Victoria, I’ve never hit Victoria in my life. I was grabbing the map out of her hand, and they cut the scene. That was all I was doing.”

Couples on “The Amazing Race” sit together in the back of cabs next to a sound engineer, and while they were already “squished” together, Victoria says, Jonathan “was flailing his arms around” and she “was afraid ... not that he was going to purposely hit me but maybe that he was going to” accidentally strike her.

“So I winced, and of course it looked like he was going to backhand me,” she says.

When he watched that scene, Jonathan says, “I looked at it and was like, ‘Oh my God, are you kidding me?’ ... If they would have not shown that scene and showed everything else, don’t you think that they would’ve gotten the same reaction? I do. If they would have put in ... some of the nicer stuff, or some of the more interesting stuff ... That’s what I told to [executive producer Bertram van Munster], and I said this straight up to him two weeks ago. ... You didn’t show anything [negative] with [fellow contestants] Jon and Kris. You could have gone that way with us, but you chose not to.”

Ultimately, Jonathan admits that “everything I did, did happen.”

But he doesn’t think that justifies CBS’ relentless focus on the bad moments, saying “That doesn’t mean everything that I did had to go up on the screen.” Thus, Jonathan says he understands viewers’ extremely negative reactions. “I can’t blame [viewers], because I feel the same way.”

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
He feels this way as a longtime fan of the show. Jonathan’s favorite seasons are 2 and 4, and his least favorite were 5 and 6 — 6 being his season — because the show became “a different game. It’s all about editing and storyline and interaction as opposed to the game,” he says. While he’s reached the conclusion that he “played it wrong” by failing to ally with another team, he is happy with his game play in the sense that they came in near the top of the pack at many pit stops.

The couple’s game play that Jonathan is most proud of includes the formation of an alliance designed to yield teams that were a threat; deals forged with hotel and restaurant managers who’d give them a place to stay and eat; and interaction with people from all over the world, from cab drivers to locals they asked for guidance. Victoria says Jonathan “really took an interest in who they were and their culture and everything else,” talking with and gathering e-mail addresses for the people they met. “I was upset that they didn’t really show that side of us, because I felt that a lot of the other racers ... could be very rude at times,” she says.

Despite the lack of focus on those moments, and the negative public reaction to his behavior, Jonathan says that he’d do the race again, as “taking chances is always worth it. You become stronger, you learn about yourself, and hopefully you become a better person.”

Part of that, he says, is using the ensuing exposure to both change people’s perception of him, and to “create something positive out of it. ... It’s a gift, to be able to be in the public eye, and to be able to do something with it. I’m not sure what’s going to come out of it right now, but I’m hoping something does.” Victoria, too, wants “to do something good for humanity, for people, for charity, for whatever it is, just something positive.”

Plus, Jonathan says, “I believe that maybe, just maybe, people will get to see the real me, and actually like the real me. ... Hopefully, in the same situation, you know, in the future ... the real Jonathan Baker will surface, and people will judge that person and not the edited version.”

Andy Dehnart is a writer and teacher who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV. He has put an unedited transcript of his interview with Jonathan and Victoria online.

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