Nominate Uber-Travelers for Amazing Race Dream Team

The conclusion of season 16 for CBS reality show The Amazing Race airs Sunday evening, May 9. The show, a consecutive seven-time Outstanding Reality-Competition Program winner at the Primetime Emmy Awards, has earned a cult following and is at the very least, a guilty pleasure for most travel enthusiasts.

What pairing makes the best Amazing Race Dream Team?

What two-person Dream Team would make the other contestants eat their dust in a race around the world? Are travel writers, road warriors, travel industry executives, travel agents or tour guides worthy of consideration?

While most viewers, from the familiar surroundings of their living rooms, frequently feel that they could, if paired with the right person, make a good showing and be competitive. This year, the three teams making the final race for the million dollar prize at the finish line include dating models, two cowboys, and gay brothers, not exactly the most likely candidates…

The question is: Who would be the ultimate two-person team to beat in a race around the world for a $1 million dollar prize?

Over the next two weeks, I will leave that decision up to the collective wisdom of the Twitterverse.

The competition will be broken into two parts – Nominations and Voting. The nomination process is simple – select the two individuals (with Twitter accounts) that you feel make the best team, and give that team an appropriate name.

Once nominations close, the top 30 teams nominated will face off in a poll to win the distinction of being called “The Amazing Race Dream Team.”

Phase 1: Nominations (Closes Noon GMT Friday, May 14)
Tweet your nominees using the following format:

I nominate: @nameA @nameB “Team Name Here” for #TARDreamTeam #amazingrace

If you would like to state your case for a particular nominated team in more than 140 characters, please add a comment.

Phase 2: Voting (Closes Midnight US Central Time Monday, May 31)
A Polldaddy poll will be created and linked to this page: Improving The Amazing Race with Experienced Travelers

One easy way to determine the best contestants would be to select the top two people you would like to race around the world with – then pick the two strongest competitors from that list of three. This is also an easy method to assess if you are realistically worthy of self-nomination 🙂

If you are not familiar with the show, here is a rundown on everything you need to know from Wikipedia. Well, perhaps not everything – one secret to winning the $1 million dollar first place prize that is more important than intelligence, physical strength or strategic cunning, is the dumb luck associated with consistently picking competent cab drivers.

Only seasoned world travelers truly understand the power wielded by those individuals who are both literally and figuratively in the drivers seat.

Let’s take a moment to cover a few Ground Rules:

  • All nominees must have valid Twitter accounts
  • Nominees must be human, non-fictional, currently living and not a list or company (Do I really need to explain this?)
  • There are no age / gender / sexual orientation / celebrity / political / hotness restrictions whatsoever for nominees
  • Most important – Keep it Clean. Pretend your Mom is reading your nomination – make her proud.
  • The decisions of the judges are final and not subject to appeal.

Plus a couple suggestions:

  • Try to selecting two teammates who might potentially be compatible – the voting is not to determine the team most likely to kill each other before the end of the race.
  • If you see a nomination you like, retweet it – There will be a vetting process to determine the finalists and highly retweeted nominations will be considered in the selection process.
  • No, I don’t think pairing an American Idol winner with a Dancing with the Stars winner is a sound strategy…

Please remember to use the suggested format to Tweet your nominees and retweet your favorites so I won’t miss any:

@RobertKCole I nominate: @nameA @nameB “Team Name in Quotes” for #TARDreamTeam

Finally, no, this poll is not associated with the production of the CBS television series, The Amazing Race… No, the winning Dream Team will not automatically win a role to appear in The Amazing Race. No, the winners of this poll will not win $1 million US dollars…

About Robert Cole

Robert Cole is the founder of RockCheetah, a hotel marketing strategy and travel technology consulting practice. He also authors the Views from a Corner Suite Blog and publishes the Travel Quote of the Day. Robert speaks regularly at major travel industry conferences, authors articles for leading travel industry publications, advises travel-related startups and the equity investment community. He is an evangelist for the global travel industry.