Would you venture through dense untamed jungles, harsh deserts, and freezing temperatures in a race to a random buoy in the middle of the ocean with a group of your adventure-seeking buddies in the hopes of winning a cool $1 million? While the idea of a globe-spanning adventure (and a freaking million dollars) sounds endlessly appealing after a year in which the most exciting journey most of us have taken was to the kitchen for more snacks, NatGeo’s newest competition series, Race To The Center Of The Earth, reminds us that epic quests are rarely easy.
Race To The Center Of The Earth is a new seven-part series created by the same producing duo that brought us The Amazing Race and pits four teams of three friends each against one another in a nonstop race for the $1 million prize. What makes each episode of Race to the Center of The Earth unique is that the four teams are each starting from four different corners of the planet — South America, Russia, Canada, and Southeast Asia — which helps to ensure that every scene following each team offers something new, interesting, and totally unique.
There’s a lot to like about the series, but our favorite part of the show has to be watching how each team struggles to keep things civil as their friends become literal roadblocks on the path to winning. The moment featured above reveals one such moment from the series’ third episode (of seven), showing Team Russia as they struggle to board a train to Kuanda all because Chris (freaking Chris) oversold his ability to speak the language.
“I won’t say he inflated how well he speaks Russian when he talked to Angie and I about it, but certainly my expectations were higher,” says teammate Jeremy. This is all after the team is already running behind schedule after suffering a flat tire.
Chris, Jeremy, and Angie are all members of the Anchorage Alaska police force. The trio fishes and hunts together, fight crime together, and even attended each other’s weddings. But after this? Chris might be spending some lonely lunch hours when the crew gets back to Anchorage.
“I think we have tickets that are going where we want to go, we’ll see when the train stops on the other end.” Yeah, let’s hope, Chris!
Check out the exclusive clip for Race To The Center Of The Earth above. The full episode when it airs tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on NatGeo.