Updated draft so far:

JuryDuty - Elliot & Andrew
JasonF - Dave & Rachel
lwhy? - Joey "Fitness" & Danny
Damfino - Brendon & Rachel "Brenchel"
Groucho - Nary & Jamie
davidh777 - Vanessa & Ralph
Chowderhead - Art & J.J.
Wolf359 - Kerri & Stacy

Still waiting for BadlyDrawnBoy and AJW

Teams available: Dave & Cherie, Mark & Bopper and Misa & Maiya

There is an opening for anyone that wants one of the remaining teams.

OK, I'll go ahead and take Mark & Bopper so you won't have to field three teams

Updated draft so far:

JuryDuty - Elliot & Andrew
JasonF - Dave & Rachel
lwhy? - Joey "Fitness" & Danny
Damfino - Brendon & Rachel "Brenchel"
Groucho - Nary & Jamie
davidh777 - Vanessa & Ralph
Chowderhead - Art & J.J.
Wolf359 - Kerri & Stacy
davidh777 - Mark & Bopper

Still waiting for BadlyDrawnBoy and AJW

Teams available: Dave & Cherie and Misa & Maiya

OK, thanks, just send me another $2 and they're yours!

Refresh to see the latest:

Guess I'll go with Misa & Maiya.

The draft is now complete:

JuryDuty - Elliot & Andrew
JasonF - Dave & Rachel
lwhy? - Joey "Fitness" & Danny
Damfino - Brendon & Rachel "Brenchel"
Groucho - Nary & Jamie
davidh777 - Vanessa & Ralph
Chowderhead - Art & J.J.
Wolf359 - Kerri & Stacy
davidh777 - Mark & Bopper
AJW - Misa & Maiya
BadlyDrawnBoy - Dave & Cherie

Good luck everybody!

Yaay, Damfino is my tag-team partner!

*fistbumps Groucho*

Iwhy? and myself got Team Jersey Shore!

Got a good feeling about these guys, hopefully they aren't complete douche bags that I want to root against.

This is a really strong group. Is this the first time there hasn't been a token old folk/cannon fodder type couple?

The old fodder did very well last season. Maybe they wanted to give the young teams a chance.

Who do you think will be the first elimated?

I'm thinking Art and JJ or Dave and Cherie

Woo Hoo. I'm the Official DVDTalk Biggest Loser having picked both the 1st Survivor contestant and 1st Amazing Race team eliminated and in the same week!

Woo hoo! My first DVD Talk pool, and I'm in first place! Express pass FTW!

Fist bump. Our team is Army Strong!

Sorry Dude, but that is seriously sad and funny at the same time!

Thanks for playing, and 1why?, at least you've still got the Jersey shore guys. oh wait...

LOL wow that's actually pretty impressive, especially considering that both picks were promising players. Consider yourself having made history.

(Refresh to see the latest.)

And that's a tough way to go out, with a wrong turn at the last moment.

I guess I need to do actual research instead of just drafting by JuryDuty's picture. Bopper doesn't seem long for this game.

Oh wow. I picked the two teams who can't drive. Argh!!! Well the two that I tried to pick did pretty well. If only I was a second faster argggg!

the Amazing race producers must go out of their way to cast people who say they cannot drive stick or are afraid of heights. I mean every year there is a team or two that cannot drive stick or are afraid of heights. Only once that I can remember (the woman who wouldn't go down the water slide) did the cut to commercial bit actually show the team not being able to complete the task.

To be fair, it's not hard to find an American who can't drive stick.

I seem to remember a team once saying that they had a few months lead time to prepare for TAR. If it were me, I'd go skydiving, rocky mountain climbing, etc, just to work out as many fears as possible.

And if I were going on Survivor, I'd learn to make fire with two sticks.

I think they have a pool of contestants wait around for each season so depending on what the casting wants for each season, the teams may be cast or wait until the next season, etc.
Last season's winner Cindy and Ernie definitely said they trained i.e. rock climbing, running, learning language, etc. Cindy definitely seems like a task master. The Twins that won the unfinished business edition said they went back and learned how to swim after failing miserably in their original season.

I was using this episode as proof that my teen should learn to drive stick

And definitely swimming on Survivor. I of course would never make gross generalizations on what kind of contestants should be sure to brush up on their swimming skills.