Fasten your seat belt and stow your tray table in an upright position – The Gap Year is ready for take off! The ultimate round-the-world adventure reality series will launch on Wednesday, 21 May, premiering exclusively on social media network Bebo.

Beginning with an interactive online audition process, more than 400 hopefuls the world over uploaded video applications and producers then scoured the globe to select the lucky six travellers who will now set off on The Gap Year journey of a lifetime. The finalists have been unveiled week by week on The Gap Year site on Bebo and the full line up is now confirmed as, 24-year-old Canadian Andre Tardiff; 22-year-old New Zealander Lewis Whaitiri; American Cara Cioni (24); Irish Roxanne Hughes-Monteiro (18); 19-year-old Dave Brett from the UK and 23-year-old Amy O’Connor from Australia.

With passports packed and tickets issued, we’re about to find out how far the Beboers will go for fame! The Gap Year, masterminded by leading production company Endemol UK, will follow the ups and downs of each travellers’ unforgettable globetrotting journey, all documented for the 40-million strong Bebo community to enjoy vicariously! The ground-breaking series is an innovation in reality programme production as it follows the travellers’ trials and tribulations day in, day out in real time across six different – and constantly changing – locations around the world.

Departing on 21 May from their home country, each traveller will set off on an individual six month journey of discovery to traverse the globe on their dream Gap Year – from Mexico to Melbourne, Lapland to Laos and all points in between. With a producer in tow to capture every moment, each traveller will post at least one weekly video blog back to the show site at www.bebo.com/thegapyear, where viewers will experience everything along with them, from picture postcard moments to panic stations.

Along their trip, the voyagers will be sent to amazing locations and events such as Machu Picchu, Peru; Euro 2008, Vienna; the Himalayas, Nepal; the Grand Canyon, Arizona; and the Full Moon Party Season, Thailand amongst many others. Over the course of their journey, each traveller will face an array of challenges and surprises as they experience new cultures, meet new people, try strange foods, get involved with off-the-wall outdoor activities and entertainment and even meet local celebrities. There is no winner of The Gap Year, all six explorers are in it for the long haul – it’s all about the journey.

Back home, Bebo users will keep up with the globetrotters by tuning into the series online daily at www.bebo.com/thegapyear as the travellers post back their trip-of-a-lifetime highlights, chronicling their travel reports, video blogs, photos, diaries and much more along their journey. In addition, Beboers will also view exclusive footage with out-takes in a weekly catch-up show.

The intrepid travellers will stay in touch with friends back home through the power of Bebo as well as collecting foreign friends along the way as the worldwide online community comes together to follow The Gap Year. Excitingly, The Gap Year will also allow Beboers to engage with the lucky six directly to share travel tips, create their own travel encyclopaedia, comment on The Gap Year blogs, and vote in weekly polls which will have a direct influence on how their journeys unravel.

Each traveller’s itinerary will be shaped in part by Gap Year HQ in London and partly through their own choices as they follow their hearts to see the world. With the odd challenge and plenty of excitement along the way to keep them occupied, ultimately it’s about the overall experience that each day on the road will add to, and what they’ll learn about themselves – and the world – along the way.

Bebo and Endemol UK joined forces in October last year to reach out to the Bebo community to audition for the innovative and ambitious The Gap Year. Following the online audition, producers then short-listed the outstanding applicants and set off on a whistle-stop tour of the globe to meet the candidates face to face and really get to know them.

Beboers who may have missed out on a place still have the chance to get involved too – as a Gap Year Guide. Beboers are encouraged to nominate fun, interesting and unique places to send the globetrotting guys and gals by sending in a video starring themselves at their favourite destination. If they make the cut, they will get to meet the travellers and act as a Gap Year Guide, and, of course, have the experience broadcast to the world!