Jo Diop and Kush Burman have reached the final leg of Race Across the World, but they would not say who wins when the contest ends in northern Mongolia. The youngest duo in the series said viewers should expect a high-stress, very tense finale as the 12,000km race closes with the £20,000 prize on the line.
Kush, 20, and Jo, 19, have spent the series travelling across Europe and Asia with no phones and limited cash, a format that strips the journey down to pace, instinct and nerve. Asked what to expect from the last episode, Kush said fans should expect nothing and have no expectations, while also warning that Mongolia is a wild place. Jo was blunter still, saying there are no roads and that the maps might as well not exist.
For the pair, the finale is the latest stop in a run that has already pushed them well beyond the show’s basic test of endurance. Race Across the World asks pairs of travellers to cover 7,450 miles without the devices most people rely on for navigation, updates or even reassurance. The prize for getting to the end first is £20,000, but the cost of each mistake is measured in time, money and, by the final leg, exhaustion.
The season has also carried a more personal weight for Kush. A trip to a judo gym in Kazakhstan brought back memories of his stepdad, Matt, and viewers saw him in tears as he explained that he was 14 when Matt took his own life during lockdown. Speaking about that moment, Kush said he wished he could show him who he is now, adding that he and his family usually talk about his dad in lighter terms, but that revisiting the feelings behind the loss can be difficult. He later told Newsbeat that watching the scene back beside his family was tough.
That emotional thread is part of why this final episode has drawn so much attention. Jo and Kush are not just the series’ youngest contestants; they have also become one of its most talked-about pairings, in part because the race has forced them to confront practical pressure and personal history at the same time. A show built on movement across two continents has ended up asking its youngest duo to carry far more than backpacks.
The tension in the finale comes from the same place as the appeal of the format. The race depends on the kind of conditions most travellers try to avoid: no phones, limited cash and the need to keep moving through unfamiliar terrain. In northern Mongolia, where Jo said there are no roads, that challenge becomes even starker. The result is a final leg that tests not only where the pair are going, but how they cope when the usual tools of travel no longer help.
Kush also said the reaction from home has been surprising. All his mates’ mums, he said, are loving it more than his mates are, while half of them are still catching up but say they are enjoying it so far. That kind of response matters because the finale is not just the end of a competition. It is the point at which the audience learns whether the pair who have become the face of the run through Kazakhstan and into Mongolia have actually done enough to win it.
What time is Race Across the World on? The finale airs tonight, and it is the episode that will crown the winner. For viewers, the answer to where the race ends is also the answer to who walks away with the prize, and Jo and Kush have already made one thing clear: they are not giving that away before the final leg is run.
