A Picton man has marked his ‘X’ on $250,000.
Rick Szabo, a content creator known for his online birdwatching series ‘Birding with Rick,’ was announced as the winner of NBC reality competition show Destination X on its first season finale that aired last Wednesday.
Destination X, hosted by Jeffrey Dean Morgan of The Walking Dead fame, combines geography and directional knowledge, a strong memory and keen observational skills with an ‘Amazing Race’ component of traveling by bus through European countries with no technology while wearing ‘blackout goggles’ and playing games to gain clues to find out what location they are in.
10 people were eliminated over 10 episodes to get the competition down to the final two.
As the lone Canadian representative, Szabo said he took extra pride in representing the country, his town and the Bay of Quinte region.
“(The show’s producers) wanted me to say I was from Seattle, Washington, which was true growing up. But I wanted to represent Canada, and I made sure everyone on the bus knew that I was a proud Canadian.”
Competing against a mix of applicants, fellow content creators and prior reality TV contestants, Szabo said he had to adapt to the cameras and constantly being followed while using life and work skills he learned through birdwatching and travelling and not presenting himself as too threatening.
“The first couple days of filming, I was a little starstruck,” he admitted.
“There’s 100 cameras in your face, and all these microphones and you’re worried about if you look dumb on camera. But quickly you realize you can’t focus on the camera. You have to ignore all of that, because we got a game to play, and the game is worth a lot of money.”
Adding more pressure, Szabo noted, was the fact that he was keeping his travel experience a secret from the other contestants, which was almost seen through by one fellow competitor.
“Josh (Martinez, Big Brother winner and The Challenge participant) got off the bus first, and on his way out, he called me a snake and said ‘nobody should trust Rick,” Szabo explained.
“From then on out, everyone was wary of me, because there went the character I was playing of the friendly dad and the fun uncle that would be someone that you’d want to share your clues with, and cry on my shoulder because you’re homesick. All that went out the window when he said that. He was the pro, so everyone, everyone believed what he said. I was ostracized for a couple episodes on the bus.”
Martinez’s elimination in the first episode and the arrival of former Bachelor and The Traitors competitor ‘Pilot Pete’ Weber and Love Island’s JaNa Craig in Episode 3 turned his fortunes around for the better.
They, along with Chattanooga, Tennessee sports bettor Biggy Bailey, formed an alliance that resulted in them all making the final six.
Eventually, Szabo made what he said was ‘the hardest move’ he had to make in the competition, cutting Bailey in order to take Weber to the finale, preserving their secret association.
He then went on to find the suitcase containing the US $250,000 at the final destination point after solving his clues in the last ‘guess the location’ challenge.
With about 100 loved ones and community members looking on in anticipation and excitement at Picton’s Regent theatre last Wednesday, including fellow competitors Mack Fitzgerald and Ally Bross, Szabo got the chance to watch his triumphant victory on the big screen.
“That was the hardest thing, was keeping it quiet,” he said.
“First, I couldn’t tell anybody I was on the show until NBC announced it. But bigger than that, I couldn’t tell anybody I won. I’ve been holding onto that information for 10 months.”
Szabo’s full story on the show was one of inspiration and validation.
At points in the show, he told confessional cameras and fellow competitors that he and his family had to sell their home during the COVID-19 pandemic to pay off debt.
This win, he said, will allow him to continue building his birdwatching business and save up for another home.
“A lot of times these reality shows are run by the young, athletic, model-type people, but this old man with gray hair, I showed the world that I still got it,” Szabo said proudly.
“My kids were proud, my wife was proud and I was proud of my performance. I think it’s great for the community to rally behind me. It’s hard for me to walk to the post office without getting a couple congratulatory remarks from my friends and community.”
He added he would love to play another similar game to Destination X in the future.
You can catch Szabo and Birding with Rick on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Szabo’s winning moment can be seen in the video below (credit to NBC Universal)
