Race Across the World producers test the routes before the show
The show sends production crew to check whether the journey is possible before filming Race Across the World.
The highly-anticipated third season of Race Across the World begins tonight (Wednesday 22nd March) as the new cast start their trek through Canada – and if you're wondering how the show know whether the brand new route is even possible, we have some news for you.
The show's producers have revealed that they send a "brave" production crew to test the journey ahead of filming and feed information back.
When asked how the show know if the route can be done, BBC Commissioner Michael Jochnowitz told RadioTimes.com and other press: "You don't, you just hope for the best."
Line producer Maria Kennedy added: "You get some really brave people out on the road for a couple of months [from the production team]. [They tell us], 'Here are going to be the sticking points. This is quite tricky. This bit is amazing.'"
Jochnowitz continued by saying that working on the show is "one of the best jobs in television".
"We send a couple of assistant producers to do it basically and as an AP, you're thinking, 'Oh God, this is incredible.' They really have to kind of stress test that route so they can come back and provide us all with the knowledge, the choices and challenges that they face."
Meanwhile, Kennedy added:"They do it all on a budget as well so they're not like going out and spending loads of money and having a great jolly. They're literally looking at the budget and seeing if it's possible to get by on less than 50 quid a day."
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The new season sees five new pairs of adventurers set off on a trek from Vancouver to Newfoundland in the hopes of winning £20,000, although some of them were "genuinely scared" by nearby bears on the journey, producers said.
"[The bears] are not that scared of cameras. They would have taken them out so yeah, the cast are genuinely scared and they should be. But they did have bear spray and obviously we would have intervened."
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If you can't get enough of this new season, the good news is that a celebrity spin-off will be landing on the BBC later this year as famous pairings head on a more "traditional race" through several countries.
Race Across the World season 3 will start on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Wednesday 22nd March at 9pm.
Previous season are available to stream now on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
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