An Interview with John Vito & Jill
“We Gave it Our All”: An Interview with The Amazing Race's John Vito & Jill by Teeuwynn Woodruff -- 02/21/2007 Friends – and one-time couple – John Vito & Jill were the first All Stars eliminated from The Amazing Race. How surprised were they to be eliminated, and just what compliment did Phil give them at the Pit Stop? Read on to find out in this RealityNewsOnline interview! Reality News Online: Hi there! I can't say I was expecting to talk to you guys this early in the race! Jill: I can't say I was hoping to talk to you this early in the race! RNO: How did you react when you found out you were going to be on All-Stars? Jill: We were so excited. We always hoped they would do , but we never thought it would happen. Then, it did happen, and we never knew if we would have the opportunity. We were overjoyed and I don't think this is something anyone would have turned down. John Vito: When we first got the call for Amazing Race 3, we were out there training and getting ready for the show. This time when we knew we were one of the final twenty teams, I still didn't believe it was happening. It would have been a huge letdown to get to the final twenty and didn't make it. When we knew we were there, it was training 24/7 mentally, physically to win. RNO: So, how surprising was it when you found out you were the first team eliminated? Jill: Oh, we were shocked, extremely disappointed. We were very upset. We never expected it to go that way. Even with this outcome, I think we would both do it again – even if it meant we would come in last place. But it was so disappointing. I've never felt more let down or disappointed with myself in my life. John Vito: It might sound crazy for me to say this, but even though we got eliminated first, I really feel like the first half of the first leg we ran much better than we ran any other leg on Race 3. We really brought our A game to All-Stars. We knew it would come down to someone giving us bad directions, or unlucky with a taxi, that would do us in. And that's exactly what happened. We never thought it would happen in the first leg of the race, though. RNO: You were right up in the top three until the issue with the directions. John Vito: Right. That's what made it so much more difficult when we found out we were eliminated. RNO: How far behind Kevin & Drew were you? Jill: We checked in about 15 minutes after them. Enough time that we couldn't beat them in a footrace, but not enough time that if they had stopped to change that tire we could have passed them. John Vito: We would have had to have gotten to the Detour at the same time as , because there wasn't any opportunity to get ahead of another team at the Detour. RNO: Before the race, you said that you wanted to give 110%. Do you think you did that on the race? Jill: I think we gave 150% the whole way through, even when we thought we might be in last place. Unfortunately, we didn't have a longer amount of time to show how hard we were pushing ourselves. We gave it our all. John Vito: Phil even spoke to us after we lost. He told us how he never thought that we could play the game with more intensity than we did in Race 3 – and we did in the first leg. And he was really shocked that we lost. For me, it helps the fact that we lost that we really gave it our all. We just got unlucky. It happens. That's the way the game works. RNO: So what happened exactly with the man who was “helping” you? Did he have any idea where he was going? John Vito: It seemed like he knew exactly where he was going. That's the reason why we put so much confidence in him. He said, “I'm going that way also. Follow me.” Then he gave us directions and told us . It was working. We saw the signs and we knew we were following the directions. He told us it would be about an hour. After 30 or 40 minutes we pulled over to find out if we were going the right way – and found out we weren't. We asked at least ten other people how to get to that park and everyone was sending us in a different direction. It was really a breakdown on all different points. RNO: So did the map that you got with your clue help at all? John Vito: The map we got with our clue was only a map to get you out of the main city. It was a 65-mile drive from the city to the task and that map was only of the main city. RNO: When you went on All-Stars, you weren't dating. You talked about how the race could change your relationship. Has it? Jill: I think what we meant by that was that we were hoping to take where we were – which was pals – to being close friends who care about each other. We didn't mean anything by it romantically. RNO: So, do you feel that you have gotten closer? Jill: Yes. RNO: On both your races, you seemed very supportive of each other as a team. Did this help you deal with the disappointment of being eliminated each time? John Vito: It was definitely a tough blow, being eliminated this time. Race 3 we came pretty close to the end. It was tough. But this one, we were really blindsided by this elimination. It was difficult. Last time we lost, it was a few days before the end of the race. This time we had to go to sequester and sit there for almost a month and just wallow in the fact that we went out first. It got easier when the other teams came. We wound up getting to know the other teams better and having fun. It wasn't that bad but, of course, we would rather have been on the race. RNO: Elimination Station looked lovely. Was it a nicer place to stay than you did for Season 3? Jill: We didn't actually go to sequester in season 3. There was only two or three days left in the race, so we went straight to the finish line. But I think, in past seasons, they've normally stayed in hotels. But this season, because everybody's recognizable, they had us put in a private villa. So, that was different and really beautiful. We didn't want to be there, but if we had to be somewhere, that was a great place to be. John Vito: I think it was our third choice. Racing would have been one. Home would have been two. And there would have been three. RNO: Who did you want to see back on the race besides yourselves, of course? John Vito: I know I was very happy to see Kevin & Drew and Oswald & Danny because we knew them and get along with them very well. RNO: Were there any teams that you were particularly excited to meet on the race? John Vito: I'd say, pretty much everybody. No one really surprised me. Jill: And we had met a lot of people prior, except for Kentucky and the Beauty Queens, we had probably met everyone else already. We were excited to see them all again. John Vito: For us, seeing Terry & Ian walk into the room was a surprise. They were on our season. We fought tooth and nail against them in Race 3, and we were looking forward to a showdown again with them. Terry & Ian were the team that crossed the finish line right before us when we were eliminated, so that's probably why the producers put the two of us together. RNO: You knew most of the teams going into it. Did you have any friendships or pre-show alliances with any of them? Jill: Well, no pre-show alliances because, to be honest, we didn't talk with any other teams once they asked us to come back. We did have friendships with Kevin & Drew and Oswald & Danny. We watched some of Charla & Mirna's season with them. We had friends, but we definitely didn't make any alliances. We weren't planning on relying on alliances. John Vito: I don't really think having an alliance comes into play in The Amazing Race. You can help each other once in a while, but I think having an ongoing alliance really doesn't work. RNO: Have you kept in touch with any of the other racers from your season? John Vito: We're lucky because a lot of the other teams from Race 3 are from the New York area. So we get to see them a lot. Aaron, from Aaron & Arianne, lives right in my area so I run into him at the store all the time. Zach actually contacted me the night of the premiere. RNO: It looked like, from the way they were editing the show, that some of the other teams were obsessing about Rob & Amber. Was that really true? Jill: Well, I know we weren't obsessing about them. In pre-race interviews we kept getting asked about them, but it wasn't a factor for us. I'm sure other teams were thinking of them because they've kind of made a living out of doing these type of shows, so they should be pretty good at it at this point. John Vito: I think the media and the producers kept asking teams about Rob & Amber. I think that's the reason why some teams kept talking about them. But Jill and I went into the race thinking there are only two ways you can lose this race: you can beat yourselves or you can have bad luck. We definitely don't feel like we beat ourselves. It was the bad luck. RNO: Do you have a favorite moment from All-Stars, from the leg you raced? (Both John Vito and Jill laugh.) John Vito: I think day one was fantastic. We ran a great race. Jill: Yeah, booking that first flight, first. John Vito: Getting out of the gate first. Jill: We don't have that many memories! (Both laugh again.) John Vito: Running from the starting line was fun. Jill: Yeah, that was fun! John Vito: We were one of the first teams to the car. We were the first team to the gate and chose the right flight. We got to the restaurant with Rob & Amber, one and two. We were really flying high, confident and happy. You know, an advantage that Rob & Amber had was when we were in the Miami airport, a lot of the teams went to the same bookstore to look for maps. Books are expensive and we only had 48 dollars for that leg. Nobody could buy them, but Rob & Amber had someone who recognized them buy them a book. That's one of the advantages they had. RNO: So, is there anything else you'd like to tell us about your time on the race? John Vito: It was just a great opportunity to have, even though we went out first. I wouldn't change a thing – well, of course, I wouldn't want to go out first! But I'm very glad we went on the show. Jill: We're still thankful for the opportunity, even though it turned out the way it did. RNO: You guys came across as very classy, intelligent racers. Jill: Thank you! John Vito: That means a lot to us.