Who Is ‘Destination X' Star Josh Martinez? Meet the ‘Big Brother' Alum Competing on NBC's Reality Show
NBC's newest reality show, Destination X, sends 12 contestants around the world — but they never know where they're going. The players must use clues in order to figure out where exactly the 'X' is each week, and the person with the guess farthest away from their location is eliminated from the game. While most of the contestants on Destination X are everyday people, a few players, including Josh Martinez, are familiar with the reality TV world already. In Touch breaks down why viewers might recognize Josh.
Contestants on Destination X must live together in a blacked-out bus as they travel the world. Fortunately for Josh, he's no stranger to being sequestered with castmates, although he's used to a much bigger living space. The Miami, Florida, native made his reality TV debut on Big Brother season 19 in 2017. He became known for his 'boisterous and abrasive personality,' according to NBC, and his bold strategies included banging pots and pans together to cause stress for his castmates.
However, Josh also formed alliances and managed to get other cast members to turn on each other, which helped him make it all the way to the finale and become the season's winner.
After Big Brother, Josh went on to compete on his first season of The Challenge in 2019. He has since competed in seven total seasons of the show, including War of the Worlds, War of the Worlds 2, Total Madness, Double Agents Spies, Lies & Allies, The Challenge: USA 2 and Battle of the Eras. Additionally, Josh competed in the holiday spinoff, Big Brother: Reindeer Games, in 2023. He has yet to win a season of the show.
Finally, Josh appeared on Telemundo's Los 50 in 2024, where he and 49 other celebs lived in a house together and competed for the grand prize.
"No matter what the game is, I am a people person, I am a social butterfly. I'm extremely extroverted," Josh told NBC. "My personality, either you love me or you hate me, but I'm gonna be genuine and I'm gonna be real and I'm gonna be Josh."
Outside of reality TV, Josh guest starred in a 2017 episode of The Bold and the Beautiful. He is also a content creator and shares posts about fitness, travel and more on Instagram.
Josh opened up about his experience on Destination X in an interview with Entertainment Weekly ahead of the show. He revealed that he expected more reality stars to be playing alongside him when the game first began. (The Bachelor's Peter Weber and Love Island's JaNa Craig are also part of the cast, but they will enter the game later in the season.)
'Going into it, especially in the beginning, I was expecting for there to be more TV vets, and I was very shocked when I took off my goggles and I was like, 'I don't recognize anyone!' So I was like, 'Damn, I guess it's me right off the start,'' he said.
Josh ultimately decided to downplay his reality TV repertoire but not hide it completely.
'I didn't want to go into a game where there's already so much unknown with a huge lie of my past and my experience,' he continued. 'So I thought even if they did or didn't recognize me, I thought just being honest was best. I wasn't going to say that I've done multiple shows, but I was like, 'I have experience in this.''
Josh concluded, 'But I just thought with my friendly demeanor and my goofy ways, it would be chill. I think some people instantly gravitated towards me and kind of liked my energy and my vibe, and some people saw me as a threat, but I think for me personally, it was the best approach to just be honest because it's such a big part of my life that I don't know how I can hide that.'
Josh was the first person to be eliminated from Destination X in the premiere on May 27, 2025. He was one of five players selected by Mack Fitzgerald and Ally Bross to enter the Map Room. There, he and his fellow contestants who were at risk of elimination had to place an X on the map marking what they believed to be their location.
Though Josh initially felt confident that he and his castmates were in Rome, Italy, Rick Szabo stopped him on the way to the Map Room and told Josh that he thought they were in Milan, Italy. Josh decided to go with Rick's answer, which placed his X the farthest away from their actual location — Rome.
'I just wanna say, you played that really well. I listened to what you said,' Josh told Rick after he was eliminated from the game. He warned the rest of the players on the bus, "Be careful, trust your gut, whatever you do, do not trust a single word that Rick is saying. Rick is a snake. Watch your back with him."
New episodes of Destination X air every Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on NBC and stream the following day on Peacock.
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