Race Around the World


Race Around the World is an Australian travel documentary and competition series produced by the ABC Television first broadcast in 1997 to 1998. The series was brought to the ABC by filmmaker Michael Rubbo, and was based on the Canadian television series La Course destination monde. The first two seasons were hosted by Richard Fidler, a former member of the Doug Anthony All Stars comedy group.
In late 2025, the ABC announced that a new season would be broadcast in 2026, with Endemol Shine Australia producing the series and potential contestants being invited to apply for the series.

Premise

For each series, eight "racers" were selected from video auditions from the Australian general public. The only stipulation for the video auditions was a lead-in of ten seconds of black. John Safran submitted his audition with ten seconds of yellow. The successful applicants undertook a brief course in documentary film-making, before deciding on an itinerary for their journey around the world. They were then given a digital video camera, and sent to their first destination.
Over the next 100 days, the racers were required to devise, arrange and film a series of ten four-minute documentary films, as well as a stand-by documentary and five "postcards". This gave them ten days to travel to their next destination, film the video, and send it back to the ABC in Sydney with detailed editing instructions.

Production and broadcast

The series was brought to the ABC by filmmaker Michael Rubbo, and was based on the Canadian television series La Course destination monde.
It was broadcast as a weekly half-hour program, with four films shown per episode. Each film was then judged by a panel of three media and film experts, including David Caesar, Sarah Macdonald, Tony Squires and Sigrid Thornton, as well as being put to a popular viewer vote. Points were deducted for late submissions.
Two seasons were broadcast, both hosted by Richard Fidler, a former member of the Doug Anthony All Stars comedy group. The series was directed by John Lander.
In late 2025, it was announced that a new season of Race Around the World would be broadcast in 2026.

Racers

First series (1997)

Olivia Rousset was the winner of the first series, while John Safran won the viewer's vote.

Second series (1998)

Tony Wilson was the winner of the second series.

Legacy

Although receiving fairly high ratings for its timeslot, Race Around the World was a considerable logistical and financial drain on the publicly funded ABC. In 2000, the series, now entitled Race Around Oz, was restricted to the Australian continent because it was the Olympic year and the producers wished to focus on Australia.
A youth-oriented program titled Race Around the Corner was produced by ABC Children's Unit with students making low-budget local productions in the same style as Race Around the World.
Host Richard Fidler later became a radio presenter and host of the popular Conversations radio show and podcast.
Most of the racers from the series went on to pursue careers in media and film-making:
In March 2025, a reunion and retrospective special was produced on Australian Story, titled The Shoot Out.