{"id":505977,"date":"2026-03-05T21:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/505977\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T21:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:58:07","slug":"contestants-sue-paramount-producers-for-defamation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/505977\/","title":{"rendered":"Contestants Sue Paramount & Producers For Defamation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe rough ride contestants Jonathan Towns and Ana Towns had on the CBS<\/a> competition series The Amazing Race<\/a> last year has now turned into a legal brawl between the couple and the show\u2019s producers.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccusing Paramount<\/a>, CBS and producers ABC Signature<\/a> (now 20th Television, part of Disney Television Studios) and Jerry Bruckheimer<\/a> Films of rigging the series and unleashing a \u201csmear strategy so audacious and immoral that would shock the conscience of even the most cynical propagandist,\u201d the Season 37 participants are looking for $8 million and more in damages as part of a defamation suit.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe gravamen of this action is not a dispute over legitimate editorial judgment or discretion,\u201d reads the jury-seeking complaint<\/a> filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court <\/a>by the Townses, who are representing themselves.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe claims asserted 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 \u2013\u00a0one 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,\u201d the complaint adds.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe resulting broadcast, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs anyone knows who watched Season 37\u2019s episodes, which ran March 5-May 15 of last year, the clearly stressed out Towns duo ended up coming third in the competition. Since appearing on TAR, where he was reprimanded more than once for his name-calling and demeaning attitude towards Ana Towns, Jonathan has been diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder, their 25-page complaint asserts.<\/p>\n

\n\tCiting a \u201cmeltdown\u201d and \u201cclear emotional anguish\u201d by Jonathan Towns during the May-June 2024 shooting of the Phil Keoghan<\/a>-hosted series, the filing alleges that producers, including EP Keoghan, did little to nothing to help the contestant. What TAR producers did do, according to the suit, is convince the couple there was nothing underhanded going on and to not quit the show. What they also did, the filing claims, was paint a portrait of Jonathan Towns as someone engaging in \u201cintentional emotional abuse toward his spouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe foregoing portrayal is not susceptible of characterization as the product of subjective editorial interpretation or the legitimate exercise of creative discretion,\u201d the March 4-filed complaint states. \u201cDefendants possessed the evidentiary materials necessary to tell an accurate and complete story. Their determination not to do so, and to substitute in place of accuracy a false and damaging characterization, constitutes the publication of a false statement of fact within the meaning of applicable California law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNot only do the Townses want $8 million from Paramount and pals, the couple is seeking a court injunction compelling producers to re-edit the show with \u201cappropriate disclaimers\u201d of Jonathan Towns\u2019 condition. In what may be a first for the dirty business and messy sausage-making of unscripted TV, the pair also want a public apology for how they were depicted.<\/p>\n

\n\tNeither Paramount\u2019s CBS nor 20th Television, which absorbed ABC Signature in fall 2024, have responded to Deadline\u2019s request for comment on the complaint or claims. It seems they are trying to track down the suit, I hear.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for The Amazing Race, the globetrotting challenges continue, with the show renewed for Season 39<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rough ride contestants Jonathan Towns and Ana Towns had on the CBS competition series The Amazing Race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[230160,991,88,66267,4208,230161,57833],"class_list":["post-505977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-abc-signature","tag-cbs","tag-entertainment","tag-jerry-bruckheimer","tag-paramount","tag-phil-keoghan","tag-the-amazing-race"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}