Transcript

In The Amazing Race there exists the tale of Jonathan and Victoria: A couple so awful and so hated by everyone that they were personally banned by the show’s host: Phil Keoghan, from ever returning to the show, and Phil Keoghan is a pretty chill dude, so just what the hell do you have to do to run his patience out? What was the deal behind them, and where are they now? Well, let us take a look at the most infamous couple to ever run The Amazing Race, the toxic awfulness of Jonathan and Victoria.

TOXIC COUPLES in TAR

Toxic couples in the Amazing race are not unheard of, or uncommon for that matter. They’ve been here since the very first season with examples like Lenny & Karyn or Paul & Amie.

In some ways, toxic couples are important for the entertainment of The Amazing Race. It’s not a strategic show like Survivor or Big Brother, so there’s not much you can speculate or discuss, the drama has to come between the people struggling to finish tasks and fighting with one anothe. And the relationships most likely to bring out the spectacle are not not siblings, not cousins, not the NFL wives, but young to mid-life couples.

The second season would feature the couple that would become the catalyst for the popularity of this team archetype: Tara & Wil, the poster child of a relationship falling apart on the race. All the drama in Season 2 revolved around their constant bickering and failing marriage, they were hated by many, but their trainwreck of a relationship gave both of them depth in a way, and a compelling story that no racer had to that point. Wil was an asshole but you can see how insecure he is when his wife starts flirting with another man, Tara was irritating but you could see why being with Wil made her that way. Like a car crash, you couldn’t take your eyes away from the wreckage, it was fascinating television. So from here on out, the fighting couple became THE staple of the race. People tuned in every season now to see who the unhappy couple would be, and without fail, every season delivered at least a little. Flo & Zach weren’t a couple, but they were happy to continue the trend in season 3, then came Kelly & Jon in season 4, and the short-lived Allison & Donny in Season 5.

But Season 5….. had brought another iconic team to the table:

COLIN AND CHRISTIE

Colin & Christie weren’t exactly a toxic couple, as they understood each other better than most. Christie was mostly calm and out of the focus, but Colin was a really INTENSE competitor. Up to that point, he was the most competitive person to be on the show, and I think he still is! He had a high spirit, a short temper, a laser focus, and he wanted to prove he was THE best person ever to run the race. He was a game changer, and he revolutionized the show by pulling new little tricks that - albeit dirty - weren’t against the rules. He showed that there WAS some strategy to the race and it didn’t depend on just physicality, and if you really wanted it, you could maximize your chances of not getting last. Colin was a breath of fresh air to a show that was getting a bit stale, all of his blowups, fights with the law, strategic thinking and tricks made him the most memorable racer of all time. So now, intense, short-tempered racers were added to the type of people that the race was looking for.

Then the question is, what happens when you mix the need of toxic couples plus the desire for short-tempered competitors? You get The Amazing Race Season Six.

THE AMAZING RACE 6

TAR6 is THE season of toxicity. You don’t get 1, nor 2, nor 3, nor 4, nor 5, but SIX pairs of young to middle-age lovers racing in one season, out of eleven teams! And barring the sweethearts that were Kris & Jon (kiss), every single one of them spent their time nagging the hell out of one another. There was Lori & Bolo, Adam & Rebecca, Freddie & Kendra, Aaron & Hayden, all of them somewhat part of the toxic-fest of 2004. But not only were the relationships dysfunctional, the people were pretty awful themselves. With the need to have a new “hotheaded mess” like Colin, a lot of these people had short fuses and almost NO filter, giving us arguments on top of fights on top of ignorant comments, the season was a mess of negativity, and I’m sure someone like Adam, Lori, Freddy or Kendra would be more hated now if they didn’t pale in comparison to the ultimate source of toxicity and rage that were….

JONATHAN & VICTORIA

Jonathan Baker and Victoria Fuller were set up on a blind date somewhere around 1997, they dated for four years and were married for three by the year of 2004. Jonathan had been an entrepreneur, and Victoria a Playboy Model and a Pop Artist. They both owned a Spa in California and loved traveling around the world to experience “the culture”, so they were kind of perfect for The Amazing Race. But what put them over the top was that Jonathan, like Colin before him, was a big fan of Reality Television, and especially a big fan of the race. And like Colin before him, he was very passionate and driven to win, and like Colin before him, he acknowledged he had a very short fuse.

Yeah, it can’t escape my mind that Jonathan was probably meant to be the successor of Colin. An experienced traveler with an intense personality and a fire to be the ultimate winner of this epic adventure, while Victoria could be the shoulder to keep him in check every now and then. In fact, it’s kinda sad to read their interviews before the race started, it’s like seeing a timebomb counter go down and not running away from it because you’re curious about the magnitude of the explosion.

“Victoria is a goddess and can do no wrong unless she is put under too much stress. She will either be my roc or my atomic bomb.”

“Jon is very focused and direct. He can often scare people or rub them the wrong way because he comes off too strong, and they see in his eyes he’s not to be messed with. He will scream and shout, and that will get on people’s nerves.”

“Weaknesses: I yell too much. I am a very passionate person, and this can show my love of life and at the same time push me to my limits. Yelling is a form of communication that only east coast people can really understand.”

“One of the challenges for them is going to be trusting each other’s instincts and putting their bickering aside” I am hoping we can come together from all the stress the Race will put us on and win THE AMAZING RACE”

But the most damning sentence that I found on their bio was this one

“They decided to go on the race in hopes of getting their relationship back on track after many grueling discussions that have taken a toll on their marriage.”

Fellas, if you think your relationship is failing…. Don’t go on The Amazing Race to try and salvage it. Putting your love life under the stress of the race is like the worst thing you can do. Not only will it fail to mend the relationship , chances are you’ll never be on speaking terms with your partner again. Despite the wide sea of red flags, casting took the gamble on having Jonathan in the race. He could either be a memorable trainwreck or the main character of the season, but one thing was certain: He was NOT going to be boring. Good or bad, people would be talking about him…… but I don’t think they were quite ready for this.

THE WRATH OF JONATHAN

To call Jonathan and Victoria the most hated team ever in the race is kind of, not precisely accurate. A hated team for me would be like Eric & Jeremy where both guys behave like asses. But the major problem here is this guy, this guy right here -> Jonathan. Jonathan Baker is the single most reviled individual racer that the show’s ever had, no one has come close to the rage that he induced unto viewers and racers alike, and the first episode tells you all you have to know about him.

“I’m a dictator,” Okay wow, it took 0.1 seconds for me to know that I will absolutely hate him, that’s a new record. See, Jonathan is someone who has a lot of energy, you can always see him bouncing around and overreacting to everything with a particularly screeching yell.

“WOOOOOOOOOO!”, all because he’s very PASSIONATE. Yes, passion, he has a lot of passion, he can’t help it, that’s just the type of guy he is! At least, that’s what he calls it, (Passion) to everyone else, it’s just him being an annoying tryhard, (Jonathan is a pain in the ass) always gloating about how smart he is and his philosophical views of the game that nobody really understands. (This game changes you!)

Jesus dude, it’s not that serious! But Jonathan takes it as if it’s the greatest thing in the world. And if he’s close to losing, or if another team beats him to the punch in something, he gets really confrontational! (Jonathan is a pain in the ass) It’s like he thinks everyone needs to be shouted at, he NEVER shuts up! At one point, he shouts so much at a Hungarian taxi driver, that he just flat-out expels him from the cab, the guy is just insufferable at ALL TIMES.

BUT….. that was also true of Colin you know….He also fought with taxi drivers and was a pain in the ass for other teams… yet he became an icon of the Race, so what’s the difference between him and Jonathan? Well….

ABUSE

For all the blowups that Colin has, at least it’s very rarely directed as his wi…. Partner. Life partner. Well. When he blows up, it’s usually at other teams that are trying to stop him from getting any advantage, or with foreign people who he believes are trying to scam him. The most he shouts at Christie is in the legendary OX Roadblock, but even then he doesn’t insult her or blame her, he just vents out his frustration of a really bad leg on the goddamn ox.

Jonathan, on the other hand, oh. My. God. Every leg, every goddamn leg, he never stops yelling: at the teams, at the locals, but especially, at Victoria. See, Jonathan operates under a specific set of rules:

1. Jonathan is always right. He knows all the answers. Never doubt Jonathan. If you think he’s wrong, he’s not and if Victoria tries to suggest something, it’s never going to work.

2. If anything goes wrong, it’s always Victoria’s fault. If they’re not in the front of the pack it’s because either she is too slow or she’s doing nothing for the team.

Jonathan is constantly guilt tripping, belittling Victoria for every little thing that goes wrong. There’s a scene very early on in which Victoria worries that they won’t find the place they’re looking for as it’s very dark outside, and that’s a valid worry, you know, but they find it and Jonathan is immediate like,

There’s just no reason to call her out like that other than him wanting to humiliate her in front of others like a douche. Even the other teams are sympathetic towards Victoria. Yeah! All the other teams start getting put off by Jonathan’s aggressiveness, not by him being an intense racer, but just for how much she YELLS at someone he supposedly loves. They take every opportunity to dunk on Jonathan for it. And that yell, is so screeching, it’s what you have to hear for most of the season in a season that’s already an annoying shoutfest! It’s like Victoria can’t even get out of a car without Jonathan telling her she has to do it faster! Make it stop, make it stop!!! Make it stooooooooop!

Wait… what’s this? It actually stopped? This… feels….strange I’m not used to this in The Amazing Race 6. , it’s a weird moment of…. quiet ….and …. peace….

JONATHAN IN SENEGAL

There is only one leg, one leg in which Jonathan comes off as likeable, and that is when they visit Senegal. Granted, it may have to do with the fact that Jonathan blew his voice out from screaming too much, But I think Jonathan just enjoys Africa in general. He makes friends with a couple of people there that help him throughout the leg, he gets a funny moment of him telling one of his friends to tell the other team that they can’t get into the ferry they’re on, at one point he even gives candy to children, what the heck who is this Jonathan? Where was he before? It’s no coincidence that this is one of their best legs overall, they’re first the whole way through and Victoria barely gets yelled at this time. However other teams reach their ferry and they come in second overall, but they’re stillpretty happy about being on the top.

So enjoy this sunshine while you can, because then… they would go… to Germany.

THE SHOVE OF BERLIN

I want to show you a 3-second clip that has shocked many of the fans that watched this season. It happens early on, and it comes out of nowhere, but it’s…. Telling . Okay, you ready? Here it goes.

You saw that? As Jonathan lifts up his hand, Victoria immediately flinches. See it again. Of course, this looks really bad, and many took it as a look into how Jonathan treated Victoria back home. Jonathan has said in interviews that this was taken out of context and he was just reaching for something behind Victoria, and, well, to be fair, as far as I’m aware there’s no evidence that Victoria suffered physical abuse. I mean, sure, she is constantly screamed at and belittled by her husband, but things haven’t gotten physical….. Until they reached Berlin.

See, Jonathan was horrible as a personality, but he was actually a really competent racer. He’s great at navigating directions, he never struggled with tasks, and he can pull off some little tricks to give him an advantage., yet, despite his skills, he has never been THE best in any leg. He comes second to Kris and Jon in Episode 2, comes second again in that great Senegal leg to them again due to the ferry,he comes so close, but just for one leg, Jonathan wants to be number 1. And Germany looked like it would finally be his time

They tore through the leg and through the detour, Jonathan knows that they are in first and that this is the best chance he’ll get to win a leg. But one step behind them are Freddy and Kendra, another team that haven’t won a leg yet, and Jonathan feels this pressure. They leave the detour first, but they get a little bit lost looking for the roadblock and Jonathan starts panicking on this.

They still have a little bit of a lead when they do the soapbox task, but since it’s a very easy one, Freddie and Kendra also have no problem, so it’s a taxi race to the pitstop. Things are tense, Jonathan is winning, but Freddie is not very far behind. They reach the pitstop for the leg, but it’s far away so they have to run for it… and this is where it happens.

The notorious Amazing Race moment referred to only as “The Shove”.

Both teams arrive almost at the same time, they run for a while before Jonathan decides to drop his backpack to run faster, but Victoria is afraid that some stranger may grab the backpack and steal it. That makes sense, it’s not out of possibility, strangers stealing stuff from the racers HAS happened in the Amazing Race. So she grabs Jonathan’s backpack and tries to run as fast as she can to the finish mat.

Victoria is carrying two heavy backpacks, all by her tiny self, trying to keep up with Jonathan who’s already way in front, screaming at the top of her lungs for Jonathan to wait for her, but he doesn’t hear, and ultimately, she gets passed by Freddie and Kendra and loses first place.

This whole sequence of events still hurts to watch for me, it’s just painful to listen to Victoria so exasperated and hopeless, trying so hard to protect Jonathan’s backpack while running to the finish, and seeing her so tired and slowly losing hope until she gets passed. At the end, Freddie and Kendra reach first place, and Jonathan is NOT happy about this, so he does this:

This moment lives in Amazing Race infamy. If you make a survey and ask the fans what the worst moment from the amazing race is, chances are the majority will answer this. I still struggle to watch the scene without pausing, it’s just so heartbreaking, the way Victoria loses hope slowly, how Jonathan doesn’t get why leaving your backpack behind is a good idea. It’s not even a race for last, IT’S FOR SECOND FREAKING PLACE! Even if it was a race for last, it’s not okay to shove your partner that way. In my knowledge I think this is the only time that someone’s ever gotten physically violent towards their teammate in the race, no other person, other than Jonathan, has achieved this amount of toxicness for something that wasn’t even that important. It’s so bad that it even makes Phil outright spell to Jonathan that he has to be better to his wife., and if you make Phil say that, boy. I like to think that Phil himself was really angry inside and that he just couldn’t show it. Well, after Phil kind of scolded him, do you think Jonathan apologized? Nope, he just scolds her some more because that’s exactly what she needs right now. It’s so stupid.. right after Phil tells Jonathan to check on his wife, he immediately goes and guilt trips her.

When people talk about this team, THIS is the moment they think of. It’s a character defining moment in the worst way possible, and any little bit of good grace that Jonathan may have had was completely lost here. It’s inexcusable, unforgivable, it’s one thing to be intense, but this goes beyond that, this is downright abusive. At least, that’s the worst it gets.

Of course the yelling never gets any better either, in the following legs Jonathan is still an insulting, screaming dickhead to the point that Victoria actually foresees killing herself in her future if it keeps going like this. I am not kidding. Wow. Other teams make fun of Jonathan for making Victoria do all the hard tasks and then yelling at her. He tells some background musicians to shut up while Victoria tries to finish a large spicy bowl of soup, and Jonathan screams at her to do it like the other teams are doing. Mate, it’s just eating soup, and you didn’t do it, shut up for a second! Like, compare this to how Colin treated his partner last season where she also had to do a hard eating roadblock, you can feel the care he has for Christie, whereas Jonathan….

But,... at one point, Victoria decides that she’s had enough, she’s not going to tolerate it any longer. What, is she going to quit? No, it means it’s now HER turn to be theyeller.

VICTORIA’S FRENCH REVENGE

Alright, it’s time to talk about Victoria. Which is kinda challenging, because for all accounts, Victoria is mostly the victim in all of this. Yes, she could be whiny, yes, she could have annoying moments, but no one should endure what she endured on National Television. What do you want me to say, that she’s asking for it for not standing up for herself? That she deserves it for getting with such an abusive person? Get outta here, that’s stupid. But things aren’t as black and white either, as Victoria is also capable of showing toxic traits as well. There are a couple of spots in which Jonathan wants to enjoy the race a little and Victoria doesn’t let him. And yes, when she is whiny, she IS very whiny. Remember that part where Jonathan screamed at Victoria for not believing that he was gonna make it? Well, according to Jonathan, this came AFTER Victoria had beenn complaining and whining to him for the WHOLE time they were searching for the place, and Jonathan was just letting his frustration out of Victoria not believing in him.

But there’s one leg in which Victoria completely overpowers Jonathan and becomes the alpha dog in the relationship, and it’s, ironically, in the most romantic country in the world. France!

Oh god Victoria is unbearable in this leg! I’m not kidding, like, she spends the whole episode SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS. And it’s JUST as screeching as when Jonathan does it. In a shocking turn of events, Jonathan NOW becomes the useless one, especially at the roadblock! The task is that they have to stomp grapes until they fill 5 wine bottles, and Jonathan gets stuck at the 4th one because he clogs the system, and THIS is where Victoria gathers every belittling action that Jonathan did to her and turns it back on him…… ah yes, karma…. You know it should be funny that Jonathan is getting a taste of his own medicine right, so why am I not enjoying this?

Well, it doesn’t make me laugh, it’s just as annoying as when Jonathan does it. I don’t find toxicity funny, especially if it’s a marriage. Sure It’s fascinating in some cases, but here, it just enrages and makes me sad…. Is it what it is like back home? Non-stop shouting and name calling and low self esteem? How can someone be happy like that? Alright now I’m moving into speculation territory, so I’ll just skip to the last part.

AN ETHIOPIAN ELIMINATION

The race visits Africa for the second time, and again this is one of Jonathan’s least annoying episodes. Man, Africa just does something to him. Well it doesn’t mean he’s completely hate-free, in one of the tasks Victoria injures her finger and Jonathan just keeps going with the challenge while the other teams shout at him to go check on his wife.

They are one of the last to finish so they feel the pressure of elimination coming and hurry their next task, which includes bringing donkeys to a church pastor, So they do that and… OOPS. They bring 1 donkey instead of the required two, so they have to go ALL the way back to correct this mistake, and since no other team made that error, well, it’s a done deal. Even when other team gets yielded, we are finally free from Jonathan & Victoria, as they reach the finish mat hoping it’s a non-elimination leg… but:

Sigh of relief. Finally, no more torment. I have to note that their last words are all about how they always argued but at the end came to an understanding and upon hearing this, I’m like: really? Spare me the thought, Goodbye, Jonathan & Victoria. b

WHAT HAPPENED?

Alright, so lets address the big elephant man in the room…. Why was Jonathan like this? Well, a couple of things happened.

Before the race, Jonathan had been taking medication to treat a condition of some sort that he had, and taking that medication messed up his emotions. The other reason is, well, he played it up. I told you before, he was a huge fan of Reality Television, especially, the Amazing Race. I mentioned Wil and Colin as two big characters that influenced the casting choices before, and those are the two exact people that he brings up in an interview as people he wanted to emulate.

He liked Wil and Colin’s passion for the game, and he wanted to play up a character that was like them, and for that, he’d have to turn up his personality to a thousand. He’s already an energetic person? Well, he’s going to bounce everywhere. He yells a lot? Well, this time, he’s going to yell EVERY GODDAMN SECOND. He wanted to be memorable, he wanted to be seen as a new entertaining figure that dominated the race, just as the previous two. But all of this…. Backfired. Horribly. And as much as he likes to blame the editors for it, I think he also misconstrued why Wil and Colin were so popular.

Nobody liked Wil, he was obnoxious and annoying, and while he fought with Tara a lot, Tara had him on a leash. Wil was one of those obnoxious characters that you kinda feel pity for when you think about him, he’s a dickhead, but he’s also really miserable and ni many points, you can see him falling in a downward spiral, specially when Tara talks to Alex. Wil was fascinating, but not exactly a fan favorite.

Colin yelled and fought a lot, but he treated his partner well. Colin only fought with teams he had a rivalry with and sometimes lost his patience with foreigners, but it was clear that he loved his partner. And he was also unintentionally hilarious instead of infuriating.

Jonathan somehow saw these two and thought, huh, so yelling and fighting with your partner is what’s entertaining. If that’s so, I’m going to yell at Victoria every chance I get. And he missed the memo that… watching couples fight is super uncomfortable. Nobody likes it. It can be fascinating and kinda entertaining when both sides dish it out, but when all the verbal abuse is coming msotly from an annoying dickhead, towards a mostly submissive wife…. it’s not funny, it’s not pleasant, it’s not good televisiion. It’s just… it’s just sad. It’s anger-inducing. It’s horrible. And people hate it. Watching a toxic marriage is not fun and I don’t get why Jonathan thought this would make him entertaining. I mean, it’s memorable, but for all the wrong reasons.

THEIR REP

To this day, this team remains the most hated pair ever in the Amazing Race. They were the worst case scenario of what an “intense competitor” and a “toxic couple” could become, giving us the worst of both worlds. The show has never given up on casting dysfunctional couples and they certainly slowed down in casting “intense competitors”, but no team has ever reached the disgust that Jonathan and Victoria provoked, To the audience AND to Phil.

When the show was looking for returning teams to do an “All Star” season for it’s 11th installment, Phil very famously singled out Jonathan as the one racer that he didn’t want back. That’s an achievement, like maybe if it were Jeff Probst he’d get another shot, but Phil is a wholesome dude and he can’t stand these tryhards. So yes thankfully we never saw them again in the Amazing Race.

It doesn’t mean they completely gave up on Reality Television though. They participated in the Battle of the Network Reality Stars in 2005 *clip*, they went to Dr. Phil in the same year to fix their relationship problem I assume but more infamous was their participation in Fear Factor, where Victoria threw a punch at Jonny Fairplay and Jonathan almost came to blows with Joe Rogan, sigh, the negativity just never ends with these people. I definitely feel like they tried to exploit their bad relationship problems to become famous Reality TV villains like Jonny Fairplay, almost like their toxic behavior was the wrestling persona they’d be famous for, but the problem is nobody liked them or wanted them, not even to hate them. It was awful all around, and they stopped making appearances on television after.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

In various interviews after the race Jonathan has said that he definitely regrets shoving Victoria in Germany, and Victoria said that this was probably the lowest moment in all of their relationship, that it had never gotten like this. Jonathan was really disappointed with how his character came across on TV, he called out the editors because they decided to showcase the worst of their moments lamenting how “they never showed Kris & Jon arguing”. And the producers for constantly gaslighting him into having these big, over-the top freakouts

And fair, I get that Reality TV is manipulated in some way, but dude, you literally call yourself a dictator, you acknowledge that you are very aggressive and short-tempered, and there’s countless footage of you screaming at your wife, the clips didn’t come out of nowhere. Ultimately the show utilizes the material that you decide to give them, and when almost all of your clips involve you berating and screaming a your wife in such a horrible way, that’s what they’re going to use! I believe that, while it may be exaggerated, the edits show what someone’s personality is generally like, and an exaggerated screaming jerk is still a screaming jerk after all.

Despite all the trouble they went through Jonathan and Victoria did eventually have a kid in 2006, and their marriage lasted 4 more years until they divorced for good in 2010.

I imagine he’s still a very wealthy entrepreneur and a film director apparently, working with NICHOLAS CAGE? and he has since remarried. And hey, for what its worth, he seems to really love his kids.

As for Victoria, well, she’s still an artist with a pretty nice portafolio, and she shells BUNNY NFTs? WHAT? Oh my god that’s hilarious, but well, she’s still in her passion, and I do hope she lives a happier life now.

CONCLUSION

Despite everything, I don’t think Jonathan is this heartless evil dude in real life like everyone remembers him as in the race. He has appeared remoreseful and regretful of his actions, and he seems to understand why he is considered to be one of Reality TV’s most hated personalities. While he doesn’t like the label, he tries to leave it all behind him and, hey, he got help for his attitude as well. I’m at least glad that’s he’s been able to see how awful he was and tried to change for the better.

If it worked on his new marriage, I’ll never know, but I do believe there’s good on him. But his reputation as the most hated racer ever in the show is totally justified, and his actions are as inexcusable now as they wer eback then. I still wouldn’t want him back on the show today. Speaking of which.

Colin & Christie would eventually come back 15 years later to do the Amazing Race 31, with much calmer attitude and stronger than ever as a couple, and hey, they eventually WON the season, finally closing an incredible fairytale story for the partners that now have 2 kids and a million more dollars.

Jonathan & Victoria’s journey, on the other side, was filled with negativity, toxicity and bad press. They weren’t wanted in the race and only spread their rudeness in other shows,, and their marriage inevitably reached the breaking point, ending in separation.

Fellas, treat your partners well. This is the TVNanigan saying you don’t know how lovely you are. Bye!