“The Amazing Race” Season 37 finalists Jonathan and Ana Towns are suing the reality competition series’ producers, accusing the people behind the CBS show of rigging the competition and conducting a “smear strategy so audacious and immoral” that it would “shock the conscience of even the most cynical propagandist.”
“The gravaman of this action is not a dispute over legitimate editorial judgement or discretion,” reads the 25-page document, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday against Paramount, ABC Signature and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
The couple, who is claiming defamation (libel) and false light invasion of privacy, is requesting a jury trial and $8 million in damages.
“The claims herein arise from a calculated and sustained course of conduct in which defendants, possessing the evidentiary materials necessary to depict plaintiff Jonathan Towns accurately and completely, made the deliberate determination to suppress those materials and to substitute in their place a constructed, false and highly damaging portrayal — one manufactured through the systematic juxtaposition of decontextualized footage, the willful omission of material exculpatory and humanizing content, the disproportionate inclusion of narratively irrelevant but inflammatory content and the sustained and asymmetric application of editorial standards that were applied to no other participant in the production,” the lawsuit continues.
CBS nor ABC Signature immediately responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.
The suit goes on to say that the producers’ alleged actions “disseminated to tens of millions of viewers on a nationally distributed television network, falsely portrayed Jonathan Towns, a private individual with no antecedent public profile, as a morally depraved, brutal and abusive spouse.”
The couple came in third place in 2024, during which Towns — who has since been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder — was documented multiple times speaking inappropriately to his wife. The suit notes that production was not aware of Towns’ condition during filming.
The lawsuit also explains that the couple participated in the competition with good faith and trusted that producers would conduct a “fair and impartial” game during its production. They go on to state that at one point during the competition, Towns underwent an “acute episode of emotional distress” during the first leg of the game, which stemmed from “nervous system overload more commonly known as a ‘meltdown’” and was the result of production’s “repeated sabotage.” The pair claims they even voiced their desire to leave the competition early at one point.
Despite several production staff members allegedly witnessing Towns’ emotional breakdown, the couple claims production didn’t help him in any way and instead convinced them to continue on with the race, eventually painting Towns as being emotionally abusive to his spouse.
In addition to the $8 million in damages, the couple also requests a court injunction, a re-edit of the show with “appropriate disclaimers” of Towns’ disorder as well as a public apology from producers.
