Controversial Amazing Race couple Jonathan and Ana Towns have filed a defamation lawsuit against the show’s producers.
Jonathan, 43, and Ana, 36, accused Paramount, CBS and production companies ABC Signature and Jerry Bruckheimer Films of rigging the competition and creating a “smear strategy so audacious and immoral that would shock the conscience of even the most cynical propagandist,” according to the jury-seeking complaint obtained by Deadline on Thursday, March 5.
The couple, who are representing themselves, are seeking $8 million in damages.
“The gravamen of this action is not a dispute over legitimate editorial judgment or discretion,” read the court docs, which were filed on Wednesday, March 4, in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The complaint continues, “The 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 – 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.”
Jonathan and Ana argued that the show “falsely portrayed Jonathan Towns, a private individual with no antecedent public profile, as a morally depraved, brutal and abusive spouse.”
Software developer Jonathan and stay-at-home mom Ana finished in third place during season 37 of The Amazing Race, which aired on CBS from March to May 2025. Throughout the competition, Jonathan received a wave of criticism for the way he treated Ana on camera, including calling her a “terrible partner,” telling her to “stop whining” when they lost their lead in the race and snapping at her for seemingly cutting in front of him in line at a train station.
Amid the backlash, Jonathan revealed that he had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) after the race.
“Looking back at what I was seeing, and knowing what I know about myself now, it’s so hard for me to be supportive and helpful to somebody when my brain is in this overheated state,” he said during an April 2025 video on his and Ana’s YouTube channel.
Later, Jonathan admitted that he “treated Ana very poorly,” but he insisted they have “come a long way” since then.
In their lawsuit, Jonathan and Ana claimed that producers did very little to help Jonathan while he was experiencing “clear emotional anguish” on the show.
“The foregoing portrayal is not susceptible of characterization as the product of subjective editorial interpretation or the legitimate exercise of creative discretion,” the complaint noted. “Defendants 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.”
In addition to seeking damages, Jonathan and Ana requested a court injunction asking producers to re-edit the show with “appropriate disclaimers” of Jonathan’s autism. They also requested a public apology for how they were depicted on The Amazing Race.
Us Weekly reached out to CBS Entertainment for comment.
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