Race Across The World fans slam ‘cheating’ but I like the rule break

I do find people’s reactions to controversy a bit overblown at times (Picture: BBC/Studio Lambert)

To paraphrase Gavin & Stacey’s Pam Shipman, we all love the drama, don’t we? 

I’m talking about TV ‘scandals’ like Bake Off’s bingate or Kieran Tompsett leaving the Traitors with a poisonous ‘parting gift’.

Each moment left such an indelible mark on our collective pop culture psyche because they were genuinely shocking while still sticking to the spirit of the game being played. 

Yet as gleeful as I find these moments, I must admit I do find people’s reactions to controversy a bit overblown at times.

Which brings me to the latest bit of televisual wrongdoing that’s got the internet in a tizzy. 

On the latest episode of Race Across The World, a show where people… well, they race across the world, all of the teams were flown from Shangri-La, Yunnan to Kathmandu, Nepal, where the next leg of their race began.

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This has sparked a degree of consternation online from fans, some of whom have gone so far as to claim the teams cheated by flying. 

‘Flying?! ‘Tis production prescribed cheating!’ wrote Matthew Rimmer on X, while Elle101 added: ‘But… that’s cheating!!’

@CallenLON asked: ‘Soz, why have they flown on Race Across the World? Isn’t the whole point not to fly?’

On Instagram, meanwhile, fans were keen to point out the ‘rule-breaking’ with Sue Ryder commenting on a post from the official account, ‘I thought they couldn’t fly??’

Who cares if flying is ‘cheating’? (Picture: BBC/Studio Lambert)

And yes, the rules of Race Across the World are pretty clear when it comes to planes, you’re not allowed to take them.

Here’s the thing, though, and I hate to sound weary, but who cares?

Now we’ll ignore the fact that there are legitimate reasons why they couldn’t travel over the Himalayan mountains, but needless to say, navigating a mountain chain that’s about half as wide as the UK would have been a bit tough on the competitors. 

Absolutely no one gained any tactical advantage from the flight, so it doesn’t make one jot of difference to the competition. 

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In fact, this isn’t the first time Race Across the World producers have let people take a sneaky flight.

Just last year, contestants were flown from Sokcho in South Korea to the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. Oh, and who can forget in season two when teams were flown from Panama City, Panama to the Tatacoa Desert in Colombia.

Forget planes, though, let’s talk about trains. In season three, those taking part weren’t allowed to take bullet trains to get around Japan, as it would have been less of a race across the world and more of a 20-minute commute while they listened to an audiobook.

This year, however, players have been allowed to take as many bullet trains as they want, as long as they cover the cost. 

I don’t want to see the mind-numbing tedium of endless snowy peaks and icy crevasses (Picture: BBC)

What I’m saying really is that people shouldn’t be bothered about how the players get around, they should be focused on what they do between the travelling. 

Having the contestants trek the sparsely populated Himalayan mountains would have been exciting at first, but it would have quickly got boring.

True, you’d have the undeniable spectacle of seeing these ancient mountains, but that would soon give way to the mind-numbing tedium of endless snowy peaks and icy crevasses.

Even worse, you’d lose the parts I’ve liked best about this season: The side quests the contestants keep going on. I’m thinking about Brian and Melvyn mucking out pigs, Elizabeth and Letitia marvelling at the rice paddies, or Fin and Sioned struggling to find something to eat at a Chinese market.

Sioned and Fin struggled on this leg (Picture: BBC/Studio Lambert)

It’s these moments that inject colour into the show and give us some insight into who the contestants are. What would I learn from seeing them shivering in the mountains? That they don’t like the cold? Who does?

The sights they see, the people they meet, the places they visit. These are the moments that made the show a favourite with audiences, not arbitrary travel rules decided by a producer in a London office. 

So next time you think the contestants are ‘cheating’, maybe consider the fact you’re just plane wrong. 

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