It's very common for one person's favorite team to be the same team another can't stand. Thus, some teams have garnered extremely polarized opinions in the fanbase:
US
- "Alpha Male" teams in general. As fansite TARflies Times
put it: "A term of great confusion. Some folks define an "Alpha Male" team as one that is young-ish, fit, relatively intelligent, and aggressive in the way they run the Race. (Rob & Brennan from TAR1, for example, or Chris & Alex from TAR2.) Others use it to refer to any team of young, good-looking males, no matter what their Race attitude (Brian & Greg from TAR7 or BJ & Tyler from TAR9). For some it's simply a descriptor. For others, it's an insult. Some posters believe that a team of Alpha Males is a shoo-in to win, and would be happy if no more of them are ever cast. Others have no problem with them. Some TARflies regard them as eye-candy. Context is your best friend when you come across a reference to Alpha Males." The base breaking nature of these teams has been generally alleviated over time, as "Alpha Males" have only won three times since Season 4 (or twice if you don't count BJ & Tyler), meaning most modern viewers don't even realize why there is a bias against such teams. - Teams that are Stunt Casting, originating from Alison Irwin's appearance (5), which casting directors didn't stop doing, most of them being athletes or CBS imports. Some viewers dislike it due to them usually getting a substantial amount of airtime & taking a spot for another "normal team". Others don't mind it since they are just here also as normal people wanting to travel around the world, usually don't win and generate ratings that can sustain the longevity of the show.
- BJ & Tyler (9) are the biggest example of this. Either you think that they're a quirky, lovable team that's fun to watch or an annoying, self-pretentious team that needs to stop mugging for the camera ASAP. There is no in-between. The majority of viewers fell into the first camp, but the ones that fell into the second camp instead were...quite vocal about it. It didn't help that, when they weren't chosen for All-Stars, they started whining about it online, complained about the validity of the teams chosen, and called themselves the most popular team to ever run the race and the "most winningest winners ever to win." That temper tantrum alone might have cost them their title as the most popular team to ever run the race.
- Dustin & Kandice (10 & 11), especially early on. An intelligent, stereotype-defying team that knows how to play the game and deserves to win over teams that have an inflated opinion about their so-called moral superiority, or an obnoxious mean girl team that deserves to be taken down a peg by nicer teams? You decide! Although they got Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in the finale where most people would agree that they deserved the win over the even more hated Eric & Danielle.
- Eric Sanchez (9 and 11), not so much due to whether or not people liked him (most people don't), but more towards whether or not he's one of the strongest racers ever. On one hand, he was part of one of the most dominant teams ever in Season 9, he and Jeremy managed to net a below 2.00 finishing average and then came back and won All-Stars with Danielle, who's considered The Load. On the other hand, the Season 9 cast was extremely weak, and he performed poorly on All-Stars, to the point where he and Danielle had 5 bottom-2 finishes and only 3 top-2, were outshone by Dustin & Kandice, Rob & Amber, Danny & Oswald, and even Charla & Mirna, and won due to a mostly luck-based matching task.
- The entire Top 4 from Season 14 were all so polarizing, they had the fans split into four groups, not so much rooting for one team as they were rooting against the other three. This was not helped by the Luke/Jen fight in China being played up to encourage base breaking. Jaime & Cara even cited themselves as such in the pre-race interviews for Unfinished Business, saying that they were a team people loved or hated, there was no middle ground with them. Though really, it was more so Jaime.
- Charla & Mirna (5), were either more than just an Inspirationally Disadvantaged team by being quotable and entertaining, or were hypocritical with Mirna's attitude and their criticism towards Dustin & Kandice. Notably, they are considered a litmus paper of being an old school or new school fan just by seeing how people feel about them.
- Maria & Tiffany (15) were set up as the Designated Villain team from the get go, first when they decided to withhold that they were professional poker players who'd raked in millions in winnings, instead telling the other teams that they worked for a charity (which they did), then later when they were shown to get into an argument with fan favorites Zev & Justin. However, while the majority of the fanbase naturally disliked them, the This Is A Race fans immediately took to them for (1) being the only female team cast against four male teams (at a time when a female team still hadn't won the race), (2) having an open and honest, if not snarky, attitude that was not playing up to the cameras (something that was particularly rare that season), and (3) for being the most entertaining part of what was quickly becoming one of the Race's worst seasons.
- Flight Time & Big Easy (15 and 18) were a popular team with a small group of detractors, those who either thought they were trying, specifically and too hard, to be a fan favorite team, or else felt that "professional athletes" (as much as the Harlem Globetrotters can be considered professional athletes) had no place on the Race. Made even worse when they came back for Unfinished Business, as they proceeded to consistently follow and leech information off of all the other teams. Though this strategy did not bother their fans, their detractors took issue with them "not running the race for themselves". Then they U-Turned the Cowboys, which pushed them into full on Base Breakers.
- Midway through Season 19, Andy & Tommy started talking about their Christianity while at a Buddhist temple, and were, to say, a bit narrow-minded in their commentary (as opposed to fellow Christian Jennifer, who said the temple, while not her religion, deserved the same amount of respect). This incident, along with being another Stunt Casting team, and the most blatantly similar to BJ & Tyler yet, caused a bit of a rift. And that's not even touching on the explosion caused by their elimination by cabbie collusion, with their fans upset that they were beaten by two teams who never figured out how to get to the Pit Stop on their own, and their detractors calling it Karmic retribution for being so cocky when most of their wins had come more from other teams' mistakes and legs being specifically designed towards their strengths rather than their own racing skills.
- Brendon & Rachel, (20). While they had some fans migrate over from their stint(s) on Big Brother, their presence was immediately dreaded by Race fans, and for good reason, too, as Rachel immediately turned into a walking Wangst, and it would be the only thing ever shown about them, especially whenever they were down. That being said, seeing Rachel getting bullied by Art & JJ throughout the Race took a lot of the hatred off of her and put it squarely on the shoulders of Art & JJ. That, and Rachel's constant meltdowns eventually ended up becoming some of the most-entertaining parts of that season's hated final four Their All Stars 2014 version, despite supposedly being the villain, them being way more complex with the events happening around them to and Dave's sour attitude, viewers are confused whether they are going to be the heroes are the villains before the final episode.
- Natalie & Nadiya from Season 21, with them being seen as either a strong, stereotype-defying team that had great potential to follow in Nat & Kat and Kisha & Jen's footsteps, or a shrill, obnoxious team whose Brutal Honesty came across as mean-spirited. Episode 6 deepened this rift further with their decision to keep James & Abba's lost money, causing many fans to argue about whether what they did was tantamount to stealing, or it was more James & Abba's fault for being careless with their money. And yet another group of fans took issue with what they did for a different reason: they had no problem about them taking the dropped money from a race perspective (seeing as they didn't technically break any rules) - but were angry with the fact that the twins did so knowing that James & Abba would have to beg for money... on the streets of Bangladesh. This took a strange turn on Survivor: San Juan del Sur, when Natalie did a Heel–Face Turn, not only becoming the fan favorite for the season, but was credited as being the person who saved a bad season when she started making moves over the last five episodes.
- Joey from Joey & Meaghan. Though he had his fans, especially those who watched him on YouTube prior to the race, his tendency to act like a Manchild alienated a good portion of the fanbase. Normally, this would not be enough to make him a base breaker, but his fans so vehemently defended him that simply saying that you disliked Joey quickly became a heated argument.
- Leo & Jamal (23) some fans saw them as an entertaining team who were the only team who seemed to realize they were playing a game and having fun in the last four legs and provided a lot of entertainment in a relatively weak season, or as obnoxious screen hogs who were just plain annoying.
- Jim (25) is seen by many fans as an arrogant Jerkass in the vein of typical TAR alpha males due to his constant boasting about dominating the other teams. Many others believe he is simply very competitive. Some even consider him a Villainy-Free Villain who simply has a case of resting asshole face since he has not shown disrespect to his wife Misti or the other teams (in person at least regarding the latter).
- From Season 25, for the first time, four teams go to the finale with one team being eliminated mid-leg. Some felt that this move seemed to be somewhat contrived, and sucked all the drama out of the two legs leading up to the finale. Others felt it was quite an interesting twist, and were glad that it allowed the underdogs to win again (like Brent & Josh).
- Hayley from season 26. Either her nagging at Blair is horrible or entertaining.
- Justin & Diana from Season 27 were either the most entertaining part of the season and a strong team that got screwed over in the last episode, or obnoxious jerkasses who only won their legs by luck and the only likable part about them was that they lost.
- Season 28's teams being all popular Internet-related people. Some feel that they shouldn't be on the show because they're not "real people", especially those who have no idea who they are. There are some who are of the thought of "Hey, if they bring in more viewers, more power to 'em". And certainly, there are people who are going the Just Here for Godzilla route.
- Will and James from 32 are seen as either an entertaining team who are the only people willing to play offensively in an alliance heavy season or an annoying team who despite claiming to be super fans, don't actually seem to understand the game wellnote and only survived off the backs of the other teams in the alliance, notably Riley and Maddison. It also doesn't help that they won the whole season in the most obvious victory ever, making them unpopular winners among a certain camp, as well. Hung & Chee and Riley & Maddison, the 2nd and 3rd teams, were generally much more popular than them.
- Anna Leigh from 35 has no middle ground when it comes to people's opinion of her. She's either an unlikeable harpy who whines when one thing goes wrong and spends the back half of the race verbally abusing her dad or a spirited and competitive underdog who simply fell victim to the killer fatigue of the race and who was justifiably upset with her father's slow pace in footraces so close to the endgame.
Asia
- Marc & Rovilson (2) are possibly the biggest examples of this in any foreign version. They were similar to BJ & Tyler (US Season 9) in that they were either fun and lovable or annoying and needed to stop mugging for the camera. On top of that, with a total of eight first place finishes, some people also began to dislike them for making the season so predictable. Their 3rd place finish was either a depressing end to one of the best teams or a satisfying finale in which one of the most annoying teams got what they deserved.
- Natasha & Hussein are either lovable underdogs or an incompetent weak team who should have been eliminated a long time ago and didn't deserve their 3rd place finish. The fact that they quit 3 Roadblocks also didn't help their case with the viewers who disliked them.
Canada
- Dave & Irina managed to be one of the most polarizing teams in the Canadian version. One group loved their competitive spirits, and were happy to finally see a team in the Canadian version who would literally do anything in their power to win. The other group despised their arrogance, Irina's perpetual whining, and the fact they only would smack talk the other teams behind their back.
China Rush
- Ryan & Charlie (China Rush Season 3) are very big ones as well. They pulled off some moves that the fanbase saw as questionable, like stealing Xiao Bing and Xiao Bang's taxi or blocking a bus that carries other teams. Parts of the fanbase use this to justify their hatred of them and were glad they got smoked in the finale. Other parts absolutely love them for their competitive spirits and being one of the strongest teams of the season, and the fact that Zhang Yelin & Li Yang played as ruthless as them took some of the heat away from them.
