Race Across the World, the BBC’s epic, hugely successful and much-loved BAFTA-award winning series returns to BBC One and BBC iPlayer for its hotly anticipated new season from Wednesday 10 April.
Eastern Asia is this year’s route, and the five intrepid duos will battle it out in a breath-taking 15,000 kilometres race across several countries. From northernmost Japan, they will cross six seas and eight borders, skirting the path of the volcanic ring of fire - the most geologically unstable region on the planet to reach the finish line in Lombok, an idyllic Indonesian island paradise.
The teams include: two mother and daughter duos, Brydie and Sharon and Eugenie and Isabel; best friends, Alfie and Owen; married couple, Stephen and Viv and brother and sister, Betty and James.
Leaving behind their smartphones, internet access and bank cards, the race will test the five teams like never before, pushing them to both their physical and emotional limits. But with their feet on the ground, and their eyes wide open the rewards will be great, and the memories will be everlasting. Only one team can emerge victorious as they all vie to be first and claim the cash prize of £20,000.
Great that it’s coming back. The casting looks good too.
I watched the Celebrity version a couple of months ago and really enjoyed it. The locations I really liked and it didn’t feel like a typical celeb show either as 3/4 teams were doing it with a parent, so it still had a similar feeling to the normal version.
I only haven’t see the Canada season which one day I’ll get too - when it came to bingeing a series over summer I just picked the Celeb one as it was shorter.
Oh absolutely - I’ll happily retract my post on episode 1 because it really did pick up from there as the route got more difficult and we learnt more about the participants. It was genius pairing up a celeb with a non-famous close relative - so often these sort of shows just pair up random celebs.
Looking forward to this and the route through Japan and East Asia should be very enjoyable. Shame they didn’t go one step further to cross into Australia, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the celeb version continues the journey.
Four celebrities and their loved ones race across the world, from the Amazon to the Andes. No phones or flights allowed. And definitely no VIP treatment! from 14th August.
That’s really sad. His mum doted on him but one of the best parts of this series was seeing how much he grew as a person during his time on the show. RIP
It is disappointing that this show doesn’t air here anymore (at least I don’t think it has been here since 9 dropped it after the second season). I’ve found ways to watch it and it still stands as one of my absolute favourite reality shows. It’s a great show to binge and just really get immersed in.
I’m about halfway through the new season and I’ve been absolutely fascinated seeing China this way. There just aren’t any other shows that show you so many parts of the world that people just don’t really see or get too. Amazing off the road places, people and cultures. The casting is always great too and you really get to know the contestants in a way you just don’t see on other reality shows.
I’d still love Australia to do a version of this. I think it could work well with more episodes and a multi night format.
I do feel the BBC could get two episodes out of each leg which would push it to 16 episodes though always the risk the show loses something if it drops the tighter edit.
The trouble is if they did that for an Aussie version you’ve got episodes being pushed out to 90-100 minutes, ads and they’d probably feel the need for additional format points. Also we haven’t had The Amazing Race in the UK so the show hasn’t had to deal with that comparison - although RATW is far better - a genuine travel show rather than a gameshow format with minimal production interference. The only cheats to make it work for TV are everytime they buy 2 tickets they actually have to buy 1 or 2 more for production and that the possible “homestays” are arranged pre-series by production and presumably confirmed by them during the race too as we never see the duos ring up in advance to confirm them.
I do think it could work really well for Nine especially given their success with Travel Guides.
I’m certain in some earlier seasons we’ve seen the contestants with some sort of booklet that lists various job opportunities in different locations that they could choose from (which some obviously include homestays for work) . It would be too hard for teams to earn money if they didn’t have this so I don’t have a problem with it.
Wow I knew it did well but didn’t know it was that popular. That is why I’m surprised there haven’t been attempts at other versions or that it doesn’t even air here.
Bags packed, trainers on – these celebs are ready to race! Celebrity Race Across The World is coming to iPlayer and BBC One from Thursday 6 November at 8pm.
Swapping luxury for backpacks and comfort for the unknown, the four celebrity duos embarking on the ultimate adventure are: Broadcaster and writer Anita Rani and her dad, Bal; actor Dylan Llewellyn and his mum, Jackie; partners, presenter and DJ Tyler West and actor and singer, Molly Rainford and broadcaster Roman Kemp and his sister, singer-songwriter, Harleymoon.
This series takes the race through one of the most diverse and visually stunning routes yet, spanning the undiscovered Caribbean and Pacific coast of Central America. The journey begins on the idyllic Caribbean island of Isla Mujeres, just off the easternmost point of Mexico and challenges teams to race 5,900km to reach the finish line in the remote and breathtaking Península de La Guajira in Colombia – the gateway to South America.
I have watched most seasons of this, including the celebrity ones and it is still one of my absolute favourite shows. The revent celeb season through Central America was great, although quite a few limitations with protests and having to skip sections on flights.
I am just thinking they are going to start getting limitations on routes soon without repeating some. Africa is pretty impissible to do, otherwise there is only really Aus/NZ and maybe USA that they havnt touched that seem doable but feel like routes that would only work on shorter Celeb seasons.
Race Across the World returns to iPlayer and BBC One for its sixth series on 2 April 2026, as five intrepid teams embark on the journey of a lifetime, racing more than 12,000km across Europe and Asia, the largest continental area on earth.
