'Amazing Race' Contestants Sue CBS, Paramount for $8M, Allege Defamation

"The Amazing Race" contestants Jonathan and Ana Towns claim CBS and the show's producers besmirched their names on the reality TV competition show ... and they want them to cough up more than $8 million in damages over it ... TMZ has learned.

In a lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, the couple says the show deliberately smeared them by using "decontextualized" footage that made Jonathan look like "a morally depraved, brutal and abusive spouse," while at the same time omitting material that put Jonathan in a more "humanizing" light.

During last year's season, Jonathan seemed to demean Ana multiple times on the show with name-calling and a seemingly derisive attitude, which upset many 'TAR' fans.

According to the papers, the couple says the "inflammatory content" was irrelevant to the show's storylines and they think they were singled out during the editing of the show, as they say no other contestants came off that way in the final cut.

The couple claims Jonathan has been diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder and, although they say the condition was unknown to all parties at the time of shooting, they say producers did little to help him when they observed him suffering "clear emotional anguish" during the shoot.

The couple alleges that show producers "possessed the evidentiary materials necessary to tell an accurate and complete story" ... but instead painted a "false and damaging characterization" of the couple, which they insist constitutes defamation under California law.