The Race For Gold To Rival Survivor And The Amazing Race

Dec. 14, 2010 - PRLog -- “There’s nothing like this on television”, states David Shackleton, Creator and President of the company. “Every society on the planet can relate to gold. It’s embedded deeply into every aspect of our lives and is an integral part of world history and human civilization."

The Virginia-based company The Race For Gold LLC has spent the last three years planning, executing, and refining what could be a very exciting competition designed to be an international television series. The Company has plans to execute an annual competition in which teams race to discover and recover gold in its most natural form. The winning team splits a sizeable pot of cash for their efforts, and every competitor goes home with their share of the precious mineral recovered during the competition.

Each 10-member team has 28 days to figure out where gold deposits are naturally hidden on four different properties. Experienced Team Leaders are selected from the growing recreational gold prospecting hobby and lead their team through the gauntlet of challenges. Their job is to teach their team to work together while locating and recovering ancient natural gold deposits. The art of finding real gold in raw form is physically and mentally demanding. “The Team Leaders know how to find the gold”, says Shackleton. “Their biggest challenge is to keep their team on the richest spots, keep them motivated, and keep the rotating rival teams guessing about where they were working and what was recovered.”

Each team works a specific property for one week before uprooting and relocating to another property. This one-week property rotation occurs four times during the course of the competition. Cunning Team Leaders know that deception and trickery will be important as they attempt hide any discovery their team made. “They’ll have to cover their tracks before they leave each property and ensure they're not leaving easy pickings behind for the next team."

There’s also a “boot camp” that’s being conducted during the first two weeks of the competition. During boot camp training, eight hopeful competitors attempt to learn the skillful art of finding gold. The Boot Camp Instructor is a humorous character, and keeping true to boot camp form, ensures the "boots" experience all the joys that gold prospecting has to offer. After two weeks of crash-course training, they’re ready to graduate and join the competition teams. Most, but not all, will achieve that opportunity. Shackleton, a 20-year United States Marine Corps veteran, attests that “Gold prospecting is not easy work. Gold is rare and hard to find. It’s $1,400 an ounce for a reason. We’ll quickly see who is up to the physical and mental demands that accompany a challenge like this.”

Drama, tension, and personality conflicts are sure to surface in natural and unscripted form as rookie prospectors try to outperform their own teammates to make it past the “Day-14” cut. Halfway through the competition, each Team Leader is required to fire two team members. Team Leaders know that the decision they make on Day 14 may affect the outcome of the competition and their own cut of the prize money. The two fired team members are replaced with two newly graduated “boots”. The teams are now back to full strength and spend last two weeks racing to recover as much gold as possible. The team that ends up with the most gold after 28 days wins the competition. Team members split a hefty 1st place purse which yields an incredible $25,000 per team member. Not bad for 28 days. Every competitor keeps an even split of the gold their team recovered. They’ve earned that.

The Company is building an interactive website (www.theraceforgold.com) that enables viewers to evaluate each competitor during the airing of the competition. In between each televised episode (9 are planned for each annual competition), viewers can complete an interactive poll which assigns points to each competitor based on their performance, attitude, teamwork, and skill. They can take a guess at who will survive the “Day 14” cut, and estimate which team will win the event. Each competitor has an online "report card" which is adjusted with the results of each poll. "During each competition, our Facebook site and website will become a dynamic and diverse social lounge where fans from all over the world can share their opinions of the competitors and Team Leaders."

A world history event related directly to gold is embedded into each episode. "Most people don't realize how gold has been responsible for shaping civilizations as they exist today. Major gold-related events are responsible for the rise and fall of entire nations." Also planned for each episode is a quick tale of lost treasure strewn about the planet. These major hoards are just waiting to be discovered (again).

“We immerse people back into an epic race for the most powerful substance known to man. The competition allows us to link past historic events to current-day culture and society. Secondly, we feel a broad audience will relate to the competitors because the teams will be comprised of a diverse selection of humanity representing all walks of life. Besides that, an intense team competition like this inherently contains natural drama, humor, tension, excitement, and pressure." It should prove to be some very interesting entertainment.

The Race For Gold is planning on executing the first competition in the Eastern United States. Annual competitions are scheduled in eight locations on five different continents.  The Company is actively searching for a production company and a source of funding. “We’re ready to build our execution team. We’re ready to give millions of international television viewers a series that’s worth watching, one that utilizes everyday people to relive in a historic 7,000 year old quest, The Race For Gold.“

www.theraceforgold.com

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The Race For Gold is a team competition in which diverse teams of men and women spend 28 days racing to discover the most precious mineral known to man. Follow the drama and excitement as we relive mankind's most epic challenge... The Race For Gold.