“It’s often said that time heals all wounds. Apparently, that maxim doesn’t hold true for Alison and Donny, the bickering couple who went from first to last during the second leg of The Amazing Race (Tuesdays at 10 pm/ET on CBS). In this exclusive Q&A with TV Guide Online, the estranged pair of losers air their grievances and let loose with a few well-aimed barbs. This unpleasant exchange is about as real as reality TV gets, Race fans. Buckle your seatbelts!
TV Guide Online: Alison, why did you decide to do another reality show so soon after Big Brother 4?
Alison: I got an e-mail from CBS asking if Donny and I wanted to do The Amazing Race together. I asked him, and he said he wanted to do it. Of course, I wasn’t going to be the one to hold him back from winning $1 million and I was also all about trying to win $1 million. So we mutually decided to do it.
TVGO: Aside from the obvious, how did the two experiences differ?
Alison: Well, here you had to work with teams, and that sucked for me. It was a lot easier to do things on my own and do things the way I wanted to do them. During the race, you have to be impulsive and quick and if you make the wrong decision ‘ or if you let someone else make the wrong decision ‘ then you’re done.
TVGO: Donny, why did you agree to sign on?
Donny: Pretty much just for the opportunity to travel around the world on someone else’s dollar. That’s something you can never pass up. Neither of us had ever seen Amazing Race before, so we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. And most of the people on the show have been fans for life. I’m sure a couple of teams had diagrams in their basement of everything that’s happened on every single episode. We were almost going in there blindfolded.
TVGO: How did you prepare for the race?
Donny: We were on the computer until four in the morning some nights doing straight-up research. You could tell from the first episode that we knew what we were doing, because we were the only people who actually asked which flight got there first. We did everything we possibly could to be prepared. We just tried to be overcautious at a certain point, and it didn’t help much.
TVGO: Did you have a strategy going in?
Alison: We wanted me to be the brains and for him to be the physical aspect of the race. And in last night’s episode, we kind of switched that a little bit. Donny decided to be mental as well, and that’s kind of where we messed up.
Donny: The race was way easier to do than dealing with her.
TVGO: Was it difficult to watch yourselves argue like that?
Donny: Not at all. I knew exactly what to expect. There were no surprises.
Alison: It was difficult for me. I didn’t realize that all the name-calling would be coming from his end, and the things he said after the race. I didn’t realize any of that would happen. That was a big shock for my friends and family, too. [He] was somebody I had trusted and confided in and for him to say such hurtful things killed me.
Donny: Okay, well, don’t let your tears get in the way, because you’re no angel.
Alison: Oh, I didn’t cry, don’t worry.
TVGO: I guess this brings up the relationship question. Where do things stand now between the two of you?
Donny: There’s no relationship whatsoever. There’s no speaking terms or anything. It ended the day the race was over.
Alison: No, that’s not true. I moved in with him and his family for a couple of months after the race ‘ I don’t know why you’re deciding to lie. Things were actually fine after the race for a while. Then, I found out that Donny was not only verbally rude to me, he was cheating on me as well. So I decided to leave him.
Donny: That’s a good one, but no.
TVGO: Are you still living in the same city?
Donny: We’re not anywhere near each other.
Alison: I moved like five states away, actually. Surprised, Donny?
[Silence]
Alison: He doesn’t know.
Donny: He doesn’t care.
TVGO: Getting back to the race for a moment, what happened with the bus to the cattle ranch? That seemed to be the point where you really fell behind.
Donny: We had no clue that there would be stops along the way. We thought, first-class bus, first-class seats, it would be direct the entire way. We also thought it was the only bus that went there. The other teams that got to the bus station after us found another bus that got there faster. At the point we got on the bus, we thought we were either first or last.
Alison: I knew we were last.
TVGO: Knowing what you know now, what’s one thing you would do differently if you ran the race over again?
Alison: I definitely would not go on the show with Donny. It was sad because last night, all my ex-boyfriends were calling me, asking, “Why were you ever dating him?” and “Why did you go on the show with him instead of me?” That’s the one thing I’d definitely change. I wouldn’t have let him think. I wouldn’t let him use his brains, if that’s what you wanna call them.
Donny: Well, your good looks got us nowhere, so don’t worry about it.
Alison: Hey, neither did yours.
Donny: I would take the midget instead of her.
TVGO: Um, so… All in all, are you glad you did this?
Alison: Yeah, I’m definitely glad.
Donny: I’m glad I got to travel around the world with someone I hated.
Alison: Maturity shines through…”
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