SPOILER ALERT! The following interview contains spoilers from the finale of Destination X on NBC. Please do not scroll down further if you do not wish to know the events of the final episode, including the winner.
When it comes to the cast of Destination X, trying to locate themselves habitually through the various landscapes of Europe often felt like two steps forward, one step back. And for Biggy Bailey, it was a series of two steps forward and many steps back that ended his journey for the $250,000 prize.
The final episode of the NBC reality series had the final three competitors – Biggy, Peter Weber and Rick Szabo – get tested on all the destinations they visited over the course of the season. Get a question right, and you could choose to step forward, or send someone backward, putting them further away from surviving the round. And it was in this game that the secret alliance between Rick and Peter finally came to the surface. Having been forged since the Bachelor and Traitors star entered the bus as a late entry, the two men had been working under the radar for the entirety of the game. It was a realization, unfortunately, that came too late for Biggy.
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“I honestly felt so bad for Biggy,” host Jeffrey Dean Morgan tells Parade in an exclusive interview. “I mean, you could see it all happen at once. It all dawned on him in real time, as we were watching him. As he was having to take that step backwards and another step backwards, you could see his face, and he was crushed. Biggy is a bit of a force of nature, and a very honest guy who I think played a really straight up game and was kind of friends with everybody. And to have that happen, he didn’t see it coming at all. It was hard to watch. That being said, it made for a great moment of television.”
After Biggy’s blindside, Peter and Rick underwent their final test, a riddle-filled scavenger hunt to the biggest landmarks of London. After keeping apace the entire day, the two men diverged at the very last clue. And it was ultimately Rick who made the correct call, as his seasonlong attention to detail and European knowledge had earned the professional bird watcher a nice little nest egg.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan talks with Parade about hiw reactions to the finale, as well as what he would want to keep the same and change should Destination X get renewed for Season 2.
Related: Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Wife and Kids: Who is the ‘Destination X’ Host Married To?
The climax of the finale came during the final elimination, when Biggy slowly realized, Keyser Sozé style, that Rick had been working with Peter the entire time. What was your reaction to that in the moment?
I honestly felt so bad for Biggy. I mean, you could see it all happen at once. It all dawned on him in real time, as we were watching him. As he was having to take that step backwards and another step backwards, you could see his face, and he was crushed. You could feel it. And I mean, honestly, I felt bad. There were a couple of moments in the show when I felt bad. One was Mack’s elimination, and then another was Biggy’s, where you felt it. And Biggy is a bit of a force of nature, and a very honest guy who I think played a really straight up game and was kind of friends with everybody. And to have that happen, he didn’t see it coming at all. It was hard to watch. It was hard to watch that realization. That being said, it made for a great moment of television. [Laughs.]
The final task had Peter and Rick racing through London, solving clues to get to the final destination containing the winnings. Each guy selected a different place. But if they both chose Big Ben, who would have won? Would it just be whoever got there first?
Here’s the thing, because we only have an hour that we can show the game, there were two or three ties before we even got to Big Ben. They kept tying. So I remember it came down to them being in these taxi cabs and us filming. And it was like, “They tied again. They tied again.” And so thank God we were running out of things to ask them at that certain point. But at the end, when Rick got to Big Ben, it was a legit win. He was the only one that was close. If they had both picked Big Ben, they had picked the same place three times before we even got to Big Ben. And I don’t know what we would have done. I think if they got there at the same time, thank God they didn’t. I don’t know what we would have done. Split the money, pony up another 100 and kick 250 grand out of my pocket, probably!
Destination X brought in three reality TV alums to play against newbies. What did you think about how that played out, and would that be something you’re interested in doing for Season 2?
I think it makes for good TV if the audience knows some people. I know they were really excited to see JaNa and Peter when they came on. I don’t watch Love Island or The Bachelor; I’ve never seen these shows. My first conversation with JaNa, she announced to me that she was America’s sweetheart, and I had no idea what she was talking about. I knew going in that we were going to have some reality show ringers join the bus halfway through, and I was told that the winner of Big Brother would be on to start the show.
I never in a million years would have thought Josh would have been eliminated first. He was pretty smart, and I thought he kind of had a handle on where we were, especially being that he had been in Rome four weeks earlier with his family. But I think that set a tone immediately that maybe this wasn’t going to be an easy deal for anybody, much less a reality show TV veteran. And then as far as JaNa and Peter, the people that have done these shows before know how it works. They know not only about the competition, but they know how to go and sit in front of a camera and work it to their advantage. They’re very savvy, they’re very smart, and it’s just different. But you see how that changed with even the newbies, and how smart and how fast they become as the game goes on.
I give big props to the casting department. Now, going forward, say we do a Season 2. I kind of like the mix of having some newbies as well as some veterans. And maybe also it would behoove us to do kind of what Traitors does, and have an “all-star” sort of thing of reality show vets come on and do the show. But I like the newbies. I like the guys [who] have never done this before. And you know, someone like Rick, who gets to walk away with the big prize, who we’d never seen before, a bird watcher from Canada, I think that’s kind of cool. I wonder what the audience would think if Peter had come on Episode 3 and then won it, if people think that that’s fair.
Generally, if Destination X were to be renewed, what would be some of the biggest things you would want to change for Season 2?
Well, I think the great thing about this show is, as a crew – I mean, it’s such a great crew. First of all, I need to give a ton of credit to the writers and directors and just the crew itself that have worked together for many years. A lot of the same people [who] do this show do Traitors. It was really kind of an all-star group of guys and gals that did this show. And so I think the key is to bring them all back. And I think that I was able to kind of find my legs and what I was doing. It took me a minute; this is my first kind of go around. And also we found a lot of the show in post; we had so much footage. Then it’s about kind of finding a show that is going to be engaging to the viewers.
I think we can even bring it up as far as how hard the challenges are and the questions and make it even smarter. I don’t think anyone anticipated how smart all these players were. Not that anybody was dumb, but you wouldn’t think that anybody hadn’t left the United States would be so smart with where they were in Europe. I mean, you think you have a super hard challenge, and God, sometimes it was just ripped through them so fast. And it’d be like, “God damn it. Didn’t anticipate that!” We just didn’t anticipate the gameplay. And so I think it’s going to be bringing it up a notch and make it a little bit harder. Because the audience that you find out is playing along too. So we want to make it hard for those at home.
Related: Jeffrey Dean Morgan Gives His Reaction to ‘Destination X’s Shocking Showmance (Exclusive)
