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Race Across the World ratings confirmed as finale breaks record

A big finish for season 5 of the BBC series...

The finalists of Season 5 of Race Across the World cheers champagne glasses on the beach.

BBC/Studio Lambert

Published: Thursday, 12 June 2025 at 4:20 pm

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The ratings for the finale of season 5 of Race Across the World have been confirmed – with the BBC show's eighth and final episode drawing record viewing numbers.

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Episode 8 was shown on BBC One at 9pm on Wednesday (11th June 2025) and, according to Broadcast, pulled in 4.2 million overnight viewers as the four remaining teams raced to the final checkpoint.

That is the highest overnight audience in the show's history, surpassing the finale of the celebrity edition back in September (3.7m) and the season 4 finale (3.8m) in May 2024, and also marks a growth of 1 million from the overnight audience of the season 5 opener (3.2m) in April.

It is also significantly larger than BBC One's slot average (2.9m) for the evening and the biggest BBC factual title of 2025 so far.

The figures are expected to grow further, given that the 28-day numbers show episode 1 has risen to 8.3m, nearly half of which is from BBC iPlayer.

Race Across the World blew away Wednesday evening's competition as the other terrestrial channels failed to hit seven figures.

Casualty 24/7: Every Second Counts on 5 came closest with overnight figures of 718,000, followed by ITV's Genius Game (661,000) and a repeat of Pangolins – The World’s Most Wanted Animal (660,000) on BBC Two.

In the slot on Channel 4, an episode of Britain’s Most Expensive Homes returned 597,000.

Two people sat down next to each other, discussing something.

Caroline and Tom. BBC/Studio Lambert

The season 5 finale of Race Across the World saw the remaining four teams charge towards the finish line in Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of India.

Mother-son duo Caroline and Tom started with a lead of six hours and 54 minutes over sisters Elizabeth and Letitia in second place, with young couple Fin and Sioned back in third, and brothers Brian and Melvyn bringing up the rear.

All episodes of Race Across the World are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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Authors

Black and white cut-out portrait headshot of Ned Holmes, smiling against a lime green background.

Ned Holmes

Ned is a sports writer at RadioTimes.com. He has covered a host of sports from EFL football, international cricket and golf all the way through to bike polo and triathlon.

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