"The world is waiting for you. Good luck. Travel safe. Go!"
With those words, show host Phil Keoghan kicked off the first edition of CBS' The Amazing Race back in September of 2001, sending contestants sprinting away from Central Park en route to Zambia and the splendor of Victoria Falls.
It was the line "the world is waiting for you" that got me. The breathtaking images of misty waterfalls that followed didn't hurt either.
Had Phil talked to a focus group of global citizens before he made his declaration? I doubt it. He said it with so much conviction though that it didn't matter whether or not it was true for it to sink into my brain as fact: there was a planet full of people extending an invitation to visit, and we should take them up on the offer.
The Amazing Race might just be just a "reality competition" show, but it has certainly inspired countless viewers to travel the world for 20 years now; because while race watchers may root for a favorite team and follow the ups and downs of the actual competition, travel is truly the star of the show.
And I think that's something worth celebrating.
Personally, The Amazing Race showed me countries that up until that point had only been a name on a map from geography class. Places like Botswana, Iceland, Senegal, Sweden, Vietnam, Ethiopia, India, and Turkey, just to name a few.
If other shows at the time were showcasing places like this, I had never stumbled across them, so this technicolor vision of what traveling abroad looked like was an exhilarating eye-opener. Remember that 2001 was a time before social media, YouTube or Google Street View and an era prior to the broadcast of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown and numerous other shows that would soon let viewers ride shotgun on trips around the world.
And what a world it showed off. Ancient temples. Futuristic skylines. Islands. Mountains. Ruins. Remote villages. World-renowned sights and cities next to attractions and places that weren't widely known outside of their home country.
I had always thought I wanted to travel, but now I knew what I wanted to see when I got there. And apparently, you didn't have to be a hardcore explorer either, because these "normal people" were out there doing it.
But it wasn't just the pretty side of travel. For every heavenly stretch of sand you would see on the show, you would witness a cab ride that had contestants reaching for the roof handles. For every marquee landmark, you'd see a rough and ready street market. For every city that inspired awe, you'd see a place associated with a regrettable chapter of history.
This is what made The Amazing Race so special: it offered a view of what the world truly looks like, and at the time, this was a revelation for me and I'm certain for thousands of other Americans, too.
I'm not naive enough to think that the action I saw on television wasn't heavily edited and occasionally orchestrated for the cameras, but they were definitely doing something right because once I got a passport a few years later I was constantly running into situations that seemed like they were taken straight from the show.
To this day, not a trip goes by where either my wife or I don't say "this feels like something from The Amazing Race".
Sprinting across Vienna to catch a train with seconds to spare; searching a Tokyo neighborhood for an hour for a restaurant and then finding it just as you were about to give up; losing your money, but being let into the castle with a wink and a nod.
Interesting and remarkable things just seem to happen to you when you put yourself out there in the world and The Amazing Race consistently puts this magic on display. In prime time.
While filming of the show has been on pause since February 2020 due to the pandemic, CBS has recently announced that they hope to resume production soon and intend to air a new race during the current television season. It would mark the 33rd edition of the multi Emmy award-winning show.
So here's to 20 more years of amazing inspiration.
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