Destination X was too perfect a show for Rick Szabo. As the bird watcher tells Parade, he counts travel and geography as two of his biggest non-aviary passions. He grew up flying around the world, a tenet he carried on to his own children in the many countries he’s visited over the years. In fact, almost a decade ago, Rick and his family went on a Eurotrip in an RV, a situation alarmingly similar to Destination X, minus the fancy VR blindfolds.
“I told the casting directors, ‘Don’t put me on the show!'” Rick tells Parade in an exclusive interview. “It’s not fair! I’m gonna be too good at this game.”
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Luckily, for all of our sakes, casting chose not to heed his warning. The bird watcher’s game stumbled out of the nest, as first boot Josh Martinez told everyone not to trust him on his way out. Luckily, as one reality star left, two more came in his place: Peter Weber and JaNa Craig. While the other players saw the vets as enemies, Rick saw them as opportunities. And so he spent the second half of the game in a secret alliance with them, surreptitiously feeding them information as the season went along. Things came to a head at the final three, as Rick stabbed Biggy Bailey in the back (while his back was to him), revealing his incognito partnership. Rick got the final two he wanted in Peter and, ultimately, the outcome he wanted. Indeed, Rick’s European knowledge paid off in a major way, as he took home the $250,000 prize.
The day after the season finale, Rick spoke with Parade about why his background made him perfect for the show, how he was able to keep his allegiance so under wraps, and an unseen conflict between Shayne and Peter over conspiracy theories.
Related: Jeffrey Dean Morgan Gives His Reaction to ‘Destination X’s Shocking Showmance (Exclusive)
What were you told about Destination X when you auditioned? And what made you decide to make your reality TV debut on this show in particular?
This game was built for me. Travel, geography trivia, those are what make me tick. My dad was a pilot, so I had those privileges growing up of being able to fly around the world. So it was instilled in me from a very young age that you just want to explore. You want to see other cultures; you want to travel. When my wife and I were newly married and we had three small kids, we moved our whole family to South Africa for almost five years because of that want of exploration and travel. And then I had a job where I was traveling the world and negotiating big contracts. And so I always took every opportunity when I was traveling for work to also see the sights.
We took our family on an RV trip throughout Europe, which happened to be almost the identical trip of Destination X. 2016, I’m in an RV driving all throughout Italy and Monaco and and France, not knowing that all these life experiences is kind of like Slumdog Millionaire all culminated in Destination X, where I’d been to all these places. I told the casting directors, “Don’t put me on the show! It’s not fair! I’m gonna be too good at this game.” And it worked! The trick for me was keeping quiet about how much I had traveled, keeping quiet that I’d been to all these places. And that was the game I played. And that was the strategic side that I wasn’t prepared for going in, was how hard it was socially to just keep my mouth shut.
Let’s get into some of that strategy. Of course, a major part of your game was your secret alliance with Peter. And that hits its climax in the finale, when you choose to gang up on Biggy to keep him out of the finals. How difficult was that to do?
I couldn’t turn around. I could not look him in the eyes, because I knew it was going to break his heart. I knew he was crushed. I knew it like it was all coming crumbling down with the cameras rolling, no time to process. “Why is Rick sending me back every single time?” I mean watching it last night for the first time, I was gutted. It felt hard. I think it started in Monaco on the yacht, when Jeffrey outed me with my fake pinecone clue. I thought I was free and clear. Nobody was the wiser. We can go to the finale; ao one knows that I lied to Biggy. And then I got caught with that. So there was some damage control that I had to do with Biggy.
So then, going into the finale, I was in the right spot. I had my secret alliance with Pete, and then I had my OGs with Biggy from the beginning. I was like, “I am perfectly placed here in the middle.” And then we find out what the game is. And then it’s like, “Oh, shoot. This is now going to get public real fast.” Up until this point, normally it’s all hidden. With the dagger challenge, you’ve got your blindfold on, you don’t know who’s putting the daggers in your back. But this was out loud. I had to tell Biggy, “I’m sending you back.” And he didn’t know why, and I kept doing it. So I finally said, “I have to tell him why, and that’s going to crush him.” But at the same point, all he has to do is keep getting the questions right, and Pete, he kept getting the questions wrong. So they’re not helping each other. So I’m like, “Look, I’m gonna stay in the front. I’m gonna keep answering the questions. They need to duke it out. I feel good to go against either one of them in the finale. But they just gotta save themselves at some point. That’s all I can do.”
Talk to me more about your alliance with Peter. What made you choose to seek out him and JaNa as allies?
Look, I had no choice but to take in Pete and JaNa. I was alone. Nobody wanted to trust me. Nobody wanted to work with me. You saw me asking for everybody after Josh threw me under the bus, “Who wants to work with Rick? I’m open to anybody.” Nobody chose me. Biggy chose Shane – to his detriment; you should have chosen me. And so I’m just grasping at anything to get an alliance. And so when Pete and JaNa come on and they’re like, “Rick, we want you,” I’m like, “I’m taking you, Pete, to the end. Because without you, I would have been out.” They would have all ganged up on me eventually, probably in Amsterdam or Germany. So I’m so happy. And I am loyal. If we have an agreement, a pinky promise, whatever it is, we’re going to the end. And you saw that with Pete. I could have taken him out many times. But no, I’m with him to the end. That was our agreement.
What do you credit to the success of keeping things so under wraps, especially during the scenes we’d see between challenges where you all would meet?
Yeah, so some of the exit interviews, Shayne and Ally, they say they clocked it from day one. Then how come there hasn’t been a single confessional where they’re saying, “Look, Rick’s in an alliance?” Hindsight’s 20/20. But it’s because I did so much work on the bus, not spending any time with Peter and JaNa. I was always with the original cast, with the OGs. It was only when production forced us to be together. After a challenge, if we were on a team, they put the team together on the bus, and that’s what you see as an audience at home. Those were times that we were forced to sit together.
So I never chose to sit with him. I never chose to ever talk to Pete, unless I had to. Because I was playing the game of, “I want him out too. Let’s just get it back to the original cast. Let’s get rid of JaNa; let’s get rid of Pete.” Knowing that I was trying to build rapport, that I was on their side. We had a common enemy with the new people, but I was feeding them everything. I mean, it was all done in whispers, or on the way to the bathroom or on the way to the bunks. My conversations with them were so minimal on feeding them the Destination X’s or sharing the clues. That’s why I think it was brilliant, because I was keeping those lives separate. Playing the middle game in reality is so hard to have two alliances and not have them know about each other. So hard, but it worked.
What’s one thing that didn’t make the edit that you hope fans got the chance to see?
It was the fight with Shayne and Peter. It was the big blow-up, right, you didn’t hear why. It’s because Shayne, love you to death, but he believes in every conspiracy theory known to man. You can’t tell “Pilot Pete” that the moon landing didn’t happen, or, in fact, there isn’t a moon, or that the Earth is flat. These are all things that Shayne, hook line and sinker, believes in. That’s why we’re all like, “What are you talking about, Shayne?” And then Pete’s finally like, “No, no, I’ve seen the curvature of the earth. How do you believe that the Earth is flat? How do you believe that there’s no moon landing?” So that was the blow-up, and we didn’t see any of that. I just wish there’s a blooper reel show some of the mic drops on that fight were epic. We talked about it on the bus for days, and none of it made the show. That was so much fun hearing those two sparred out.
You mentioned throughout Destination X about your family being in dire financial straits. You had a restaurant that was forced to close during COVID, which caused you to sell your house to make ends meet. Give me the update on what your life looks like now that you’re $250,000 richer.
So now I’m a content creator. How weird. In 2025, you can make a career out of talking about birds. But that’s what I do. I’m a bird watcher, and I love teaching other people about birds. So I’m building that business. My wife, she just graduated law school. A whole new evolution in her 40s as well. So we’re building up our practices. We did sell our home last year because of the debt we had from COVID and the restaurant. So that’s all behind us. So we do hope to buy a home again, so a quarter million dollars helps with all of that. And like I said, I’m a family man. I’m investing in our family.
Related: Peter Weber Reveals What Reality Show He Wants to Do After ‘Destination X’ (Exclusive)
