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Race Across The World viewers believe they have deduced the first couple to be eliminated from the BBC travel competition.
This year, five couples are travelling 14,000km on a shoestring budget with no access to modern luxuries from China to India to win £20,000.
They’ll be hoping to follow in the footsteps of season four winners Alfie and Owen, who were the first to reach the finish line in Lombok.
Contestants are formerly married couple Gaz and Yin, sisters Elizabeth and Letitia, young couple Fin and Sioned, mother-son duo Caroline and Tom, and brothers Brian and Melvyn.
However, next week, one of the couples will have to reluctantly retire from the backpacking lifestyle to land with a thud back to reality as Race Across The World unveils its first elimination.
The slowest pairing to reach the checkpoint in the mysterious Shangri-La, a city sitting on the edge of the Tibetan plateau towards the foothills of the Himalaya, will be sent on a one-way flight to the UK.
And eagle-eyed viewers are convinced they’ve worked out the couple in question.
On Reddit, user Otsootsla said they re-watched the end of episode one, which contained preview clips for the rest of the series.
They claimed Caroline and Tom, Brian and Melvyn, Fin and Sioned and Elizabeth and Letitia all appeared to have been filmed in the final country, India, but Gaz and Yin did not.
While clips aired of Brian and Melvyn playing cricket, and Caroline having a bindi applied, Gaz and Yin were shown running across a ‘modern bridge in daylight’ that did not seem to be a location in India.
They added: ‘Seems pretty certain that we’ll lose Gaz and Yin – given that they were last, with at least a twelve-hour delay on the ferry, and they are shown near the checkpoint in daylight.
‘It’s quite possible that they’re nearly 36 hours behind. Seems such a waste to include an elimination when the casting is so strong.’
Other Reddit users weighed in and called on the BBC to scrap eliminations in Race Across The World.
Tappers1975 said: ‘The whole elimination thing is pretty pointless, especially so early in the race. Not sure it adds much to what’s a great show. If you have to do it, maybe leave it to when there’s two legs left.’
Echoing their sentiment, SomeMaterial shared: ‘The eliminations in this show are so unnecessary, unless they have no money or are so far behind they would never be able to catch up.’
Past_Wallaby_9435 commented: ‘I’m going to be heartbroken to lose any of these teams, they’re all likable.’
While all signs point to Gaz and Yin’s departure, they have at least not made a ‘huge mistake’ like another couple, which could hamper their chances in the race.
Viewers shared their dismay after noticing that Melyvn had opted to travel with a suitcase with wheels rather than a more practical backpack.
‘Is one of the brothers gonna drag a suitcase from China to India?’ Louise King rightly questioned on X.
‘Guaranteed that suitcase will be the first victim on Race Across The World,’ Jillywill predicted.
In agreement, notsocaroline shared: ‘That wheelie suitcase is going to cause a lot of problems.
Race Across The World airs Wednesdays at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
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