How to Play (and Win) Destination X, NBC's Adventurous New Reality Competition Series
Destination X will put players' geography knowledge to the test. Find out just how to win the high-stakes adventure competition series.
Destination X, NBC’s new reality competition series, will send 12 complete strangers on the adventure of a lifetime as they use their brains — and innate sense of direction — to outmatch their opponents in a quest across Europe.
With a whopping $250,000 in prize money at stake, contestants will put their sleuthing skills to the test as they try to decipher where in the world they are with nothing but a few well-placed clues and their own cunning gameplay skills to guide them.
The Rules of Destination X
In the above video, Destination X’s mischief-making host, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, gave fans new insight into how the game will play out and what it will take to win the high-stakes competition.
“The game starts with players traveling together on a blacked-out bus. When the players get off the bus, they have no idea where they’ve gone or where they’ve stopped,” Jeffrey explained in the new clip that lays out the competition rules. “Where the X are they? Well, that is up to them to figure out.”
As our host explained, the contestants won’t be left completely in the dark. They’ll have clues to guide them on their way as they compete in mental and physical challenges designed to give the winners an edge. But the competition is also filled with red herrings aimed at leading some unfortunate players astray.
“You have to compete in challenges that are going to help you get a little bit closer to the answer,” Jeffrey continued.
The fast-paced game will have contestants racing through busy city streets, digging in the snow, and even getting lost in a giant topiary maze as they try to learn everything they can about their mystery destinations.
“You want to talk about stress, I mean, you could feel it from your throat down to your ass,” Biggy Bailey, a contestant from Chattanooga, Tennessee, admitted in the clip of the high-pressure environment.
For the full list of Destination X contestants, check out our explainer here.
At the end of each episode, the contestants in danger of losing their spot on the bus will be sent to the Map Room, where they’ll have to guess their location by placing an X somewhere on a map of Europe.
“If you’re very close to the location you get to stay,” Morgan explained. “If you’re not close, I’m kicking you out of my game.”
Each week as the locales change from waterfront vistas to remote snowy mountaintops, contestants will have to use their own knowledge of geography and history — while also relying on any alliances they may have formed along the way — to decipher the clues to their location.
“There’s stuff you’ll recognize and stuff you won’t recognize, stuff the players have probably studied…and stuff that they don’t know anything about,” Morgan teased.
Some of the challenges may even stretch players to their limits.
“I don’t do haunted castles,” contestant JaNa Craig, who some fans may recognize from Love Island, quipped. “The only ghost I believe in is the Holy Ghost.”
Each week, the pool of contestants will get smaller as the player who places their X the furthest from the group’s actual location will be forced to pack their bags and say their goodbyes.
The player left standing at the end of the competition will walk away with the $250,000 prize.
“It’s as simple as that,” Morgan concluded. “Now, where the X are we?”
The gameplay begins May 27 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Episodes will also be available to stream on Peacock the next day.
