Nat Geo’s ‘Race To The Center Of The Earth’ To Land On Disney+ In May

EXCLUSIVE: Nat Geo’s adventure competition format Race to the Center of the Earth is set to make it to Disney+ in May.

The seven-part series will land on sister streamer Disney+ on Friday May 14 in the U.S. All episodes of the show will air at once following their linear transmission.

Bertram Van Munster and Elise Doganieri, who exec produce the show, told Deadline that they were excited with the digital opportunities. “It just gives us more places to see content. You can see it in the car, you can bring it on the plane, you can take it with you, wherever you are. It’s your schedule, not someone else’s schedule,” said Doganieri.

Race to the Center of the Earth pits four teams of three against one another in a sprint across the globe for a $1M prize. Each group will start from a different corner of the Earth – South America, Russia, Canada and Southeast Asia – racing to win the bounty. They face untamed jungles, frozen arctic, arid deserts, bustling cities, treacherous mountains and vast oceans to reach the location where all four routes intersect and the first team to arrive at the buoy claims it all.

“It’s probably the biggest challenge we have undertaken, it was not an easy code to crack,” Doganieri added of the series.

The cast is made up of teams named Team North America – featuring work colleagues Dave Bacon, Paul Montague Jr. and Mindy Murphy, Team Russia – featuring police officers Jeremy Conkling, Angelina Fraize and Christopher Nelson, Team South America – featuring rock climbing friends Autumn Fryer, Jon Irwin and Sierra Knott and Team Southeast Asia – featuring teachers James Batey, Marilina Kim and Jay Wyatt.

Van Munster said that their production team did the race, which features close to 100 locations, three times to make sure it was safe before setting the teams off and shooting them simultaneously.

Check out an exclusive clip from this week’s episode below.