Alison Irwin from BigBrother to be on Amazing Race

[CantGetEnufTAR]

... Whatever Alison's attitude was last year ... I would expect her to do a complete 360 this year. ...

I would imagine that you meant a 180, not a 360. But, actually a 360 is probably more likely. Fisrt, she'll probably try to turn things around (ie the 180), but in reality she ends up back just like she was before (ie the "other" 180, which makes a full 360).

...If Alison and Donny won by their own merits and nobody thought that the show was "rigged" for them to win, I think that is totally awesome for Alison and Donny and it just proves to me more that she's good at these kind of things.

I agree that if he/she wins then, oh well, they deserve it because that's the nature of TAR. I'm certainly not hoping for that to happen, but am prepared and it will not spoil the greatness of TAR if it does. TAR is the best in spite of its flaws and some of the less-than-desired outcomes that occur sometimes. I suspect that a lot of people would not want to see someone (not just Alison, but anyone, popular or not) go from show to show winning, and the powers that be would simply try to avoid that possibility. That's all. There would be a lot of people that would not care. But, I'd suspect a far larger number that would have the opinion "So-and-so already won their $1M (or $500k), why are they going to this other show now".

[karalott]

I would imagine that you meant a 180, not a 360. But, actually a 360 is probably more likely. Fisrt, she'll probably try to turn things around (ie the 180), but in reality she ends up back just like she was before (ie the "other" 180, which makes a full 360).

I agree that if he/she wins then, oh well, they deserve it because that's the nature of TAR. I'm certainly not hoping for that to happen, but am prepared and it will not spoil the greatness of TAR if it does. TAR is the best in spite of its flaws and some of the less-than-desired outcomes that occur sometimes. I suspect that a lot of people would not want to see someone (not just Alison, but anyone, popular or not) go from show to show winning, and the powers that be would simply try to avoid that possibility. That's all. There would be a lot of people that would not care. But, I'd suspect a far larger number that would have the opinion "So-and-so already won their $1M (or $500k), why are they going to this other show now".

That's exactly the point I've been trying to make. I think Alison will try to come off as being all nice and innocent, but it wouldn't surprise me if she turns back into her old BB personality (that is what I meant by 360.)

I haven't liked any of the winners of TAR (except for Zach, and Rob/Brennan, even though there were other teams I wanted to see win) and if Alison wins it's not like I'll never watch the show again or get all huffy about it. I don't want her to win, but if she does, it's fair. One thing Alison has going for her in my book is that I liked her more than Jun, so I'm glad she was asked back between the two of them.

[karalott]

Alison had a chat tonight over at another site, and even though I didn't chat with her, I hopped over there to see if she had anything to say about TAR. All the questions asked about the show she said she couldn't answer, but she did say something interesting about Donny- he's now her ex. Whether she was making it up or not I don't know, but I don't think so. I guess they had a Lenny/Karyn moment. For some reason, I can almost see Alison making it up, so if anyone else can confirm it or prove it's a hoax, post it. On the one hand, I guess their relationship wasn't good after she left BB, so maybe they were hoping to reconcile (like Frank/Margarita) or decide that it's really over (Tara/Wil moment there.)

I'm surprised she was allowed to come out and say that they broke up.

[CantGetEnufTAR]

That radio chat with Alison is archived on the web site that is associated with the chats. You should be able to find it by Googling "Alison BB4 6/3". Leave off the quotes.

It is about 51 minutes long. I played it yesterday while I was working on some other stuff. The audio is poor to fair (I found anyway). Every 10-15 minutes they take a break, and play the BB and/or TAR promos for this summer. That was a nice touch.

It certainly sounds like they (she and Donnie) are not together, it did not sound made up, but who knows. I too, was surprised that she disclosed that this happened. Maybe they (TPTB) knew what kind of uproar/speculation/etc occurred last year over the Reichen/Chip relationship, so they just let her get it out in the open.

A few other things I gathered from her demeanor/statements during the chat...
* She only stays in contact with Justin and David from her season, and even them occasionally. She says that no real friendships emerged from the season.
* Her getting onto BB4 was interesting (and new to me anyway). One of her ex-es applied (not Justin), and due to the "ex factor" the show ended up contacting her to discuss the show. They liked her. Ended up not going with the original "ex" that applied. So, she became a "non-ex" and they rounded up Justin as her "ex". So, she said she kind of knew (due to how she got onto the show) that something may be going on with "ex-es". But, she figured it would just be a challenge or a visit, but never thought they'd be living together in the house fulltime.
* Although clearly identifying Donnie as her ex now, she did make a few, what seemed to be geniune, comments about feeling bad about how he must be reacting to the situation that was unfolding at The House, with Justin moving in, etc.
* She has not watched her season of BB. In fact, she had never watched it before being selected. (Remember, see previous bullet point above, she was not the one that applied, she was originally pursued as an "ex"). She did slip and say that she was required to watch BB3 as part of preparations, but that is all she had/has seen of the series.
* When asked what her favorite TV shows are, she said she doesn't watch much, but her favorite is now TAR, and BB, and (I am not making this up, unless I heard wrong) Golden Girls, and sometimes SouthPark.
* Although she did say a number of times when asked about TAR5 stuff that she couldn't answer, she did reveal a few things indirectly...
* When asked which she liked better, she hesitated a few seconds, then said she couldn't answer, then basically said something like "I'd do TAR a hundred times again before I'd do BB". And, something about the title of The Amazing Race is accurate because it really was amazing.
* Later to another question she again said that she would do it (TAR) over and over again if she could.

She didn't come across too bad on the chat, and I was glad that she was really talking "up" TAR. She seemed pretty neutral on BB, but positive about TAR.

[karalott]

Maybe they (TPTB) knew what kind of uproar/speculation/etc occurred last year over the Reichen/Chip relationship, so they just let her get it out in the open.

* She only stays in contact with Justin and David from her season, and even them occasionally. She says that no real friendships emerged from the season.
* Her getting onto BB4 was interesting (and new to me anyway). One of her ex-es applied (not Justin), and due to the "ex factor" the show ended up contacting her to discuss the show. They liked her. Ended up not going with the original "ex" that applied. So, she became a "non-ex" and they rounded up Justin as her "ex". So, she said she kind of knew (due to how she got onto the show) that something may be going on with "ex-es". But, she figured it would just be a challenge or a visit, but never thought they'd be living together in the house fulltime.
* Although clearly identifying Donnie as her ex now, she did make a few, what seemed to be geniune, comments about feeling bad about how he must be reacting to the situation that was unfolding at The House, with Justin moving in, etc.
* When asked what her favorite TV shows are, she said she doesn't watch much, but her favorite is now TAR, and BB, and (I am not making this up, unless I heard wrong) Golden Girls, and sometimes SouthPark.
* When asked which she liked better, she hesitated a few seconds, then said she couldn't answer, then basically said something like "I'd do TAR a hundred times again before I'd do BB". And, something about the title of The Amazing Race is accurate because it really was amazing.
* Later to another question she again said that she would do it (TAR) over and over again if she could.

I guess I was surprised that she was allowed to tell that she and Donny were now exes. Considering they went on the show as a dating couple, I would just think they would need to keep their break up a secret. But on the other hand, TPTB might want to put that out there (especially to BB fans who knew the whole drama that went on with Alison last year) so people will tune in thinking there will be fireworks between the two, and possibly Alison dumping Donny on the spot when they get eliminated (or cross the finish line ) like Karyn did to Lenny. Touching on some of your other points:

-I knew Alison was recruited for BB, but I thought it was more along the lines of how Team Who got picked for TAR than being picked because her ex applied (wonder how he felt.) And Arnold Shapiro calls it a twist despite that fact she knew something would be going on with the exes?
-I would think Donny would be a little more upset about Alison's behavior in the house vs. her living with her ex boyfriend. At she felt bad about it. I will say that Alison does seem to have a good heart (when she wants to, even though I didn't see it last year very much.)
-BB contestants must really go along with the saying "I'm not here to make friends." From what I've heard from BB contestants over the years, many of them don't stay in touch with each other. I think BB3 is the only cast that really stayed in touch with each other after the show.
-I love The Golden Girls It's the one show I can watch over and over and not get tired of it.
-I don't think I've ever heard a former BB contestant say they'd do BB again. But Nicole from the second season said she'd love to do TAR (and I think some other former BB contestants have said the same thing.)
-Every former TAR contestant that I've seen have said they'd do the show over and over again, without the million or the cameras. So that doesn't surprise me that she said that. I wonder if what she said about doing the show again and again and calling it amazing is a spoiler that she went far?

Even though I hate Alison, I'm willing to give her a second chance and keep an open mind, and try to pretend I've never seen her before. Contestants might act different on the show their on, and if you put a former TAR contestant on BB or Survivor chances are they wouldn't be the same person. Plus, I remember Alison's mother saying she was proud of everything she did in the house, so maybe it's not her fault she acted the way she did (hey, like mother, like daughter.)