Amazing Race 6-official thread

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Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

From zap2it.com....

'Amazing Race' Producer Told Contestant to Cool It


Unpredictable behavior by contestants is the lifeblood of unscripted TV series, and producers are usually pretty happy to document it, edit it and show it to the viewing public, without intervening.
On the current edition of "The Amazing Race," however, executive producer Bertram van Munster says he felt compelled to talk to contestant Jonathan Baker after an incident that shocked fans of the show and sent message boards buzzing.

During last week's (Dec. 14) episode, Baker shoved his sobbing wife, Victoria Fuller, as they finished a leg of the race in second place, behind engaged couple Freddy and Kendra. He had dropped his backpack in an attempt to run faster, yelling at Victoria to do the same. Fearing the pack would be taken, she picked it up and carried them both to the finish line.

After host Phil Keoghan told them they had finished second, Fuller walked off camera, still crying. Keoghan told a still-fuming Baker to "go talk to your wife." Message boards devoted to "The Amazing Race" lit up, with a number of posters calling for Baker to be disqualified (the show was taped earlier this year).

Van Munster also talked with Baker about his behavior. "I told him you've got to tone it down, you have to stop this kind of stuff, it's not cool -- until then, I'd never given advice to a reality show player before to chill out," he tells the New York Post.

The producer says he told Baker, who owns a day spa in Los Angeles and is also credited as an executive producer of the popular "Dorf on Golf" video, "over and over again" that his actions -- he and Fuller have also engaged in several shouting matches during the show -- wouldn't put him in a very positive light.

"[B]ut if he doesn't want to listen, there's nothing I can do about it," van Munster says. "I told him the camera can be used in many ways -- it's a dangerous instrument, and there comes a point where you can't change [what it sees]. I've been very fair with him."

After the episode aired, Baker wrote an apology on his and Fuller's website.

"I do not abuse Victoria. What you see is a heighten[ed] version of stress and obsession mix[ed] with medication for a sickness called Sarcoidosis. What was started as a Publicity Stunt turn[ed] in to an obsession to race and be first at any cost. This is a GAME and I set out to be the Villain to others not to Victoria. ...

"I am deeply saddened by the storyline that CBS went with. I am sorry for my actions, I am sorry to Victoria. Most [of] all I am sorry to the fans."

"Don't worry, I am fine," Fuller, an artist and former Playboy playmate, wrote a few days later. "It's a TV show and not a true reflection of our relationship. We both over reacted."

Van Munster says there were no more physical confrontations between Baker and Fuller after the Berlin incident. "I had a very firm talk with him that night," he tells the Post. "But he keeps on being Jonathan."

Whoa!!!!
also "Dorf on Golf"
Whoa!!!
TFP (thanks for posting)