Phil Keoghan Reflects on Standout ‘Amazing Race’ Moments Ahead of Season 32
Preview
One million miles. “That’s like going to the moon and back twice!” notes The Amazing Race‘s gregarious host, Phil Keoghan. When the odometer on this race around the world clicked over to seven figures during Season 32, he says, “to be honest, the moment was drowned out by the sound of jet engines speeding us to the city of Bogotá in Colombia.”
Shot pre-COVID-19, this round also visits Trinidad and Tobago, Germany, Kazakhstan and more countries. It’s a welcome travelogue for an audience that’s been stuck at home. “Finally we are opening the door again to see the world!” says Bertram van Munster, a cocreator–executive producer with Elise Doganieri.
He and Keoghan detail some standout memories en route to the milestone.
Most Surprising Destination
“Wherever I go, the best surprises come from meeting people — people are what define where you are,” says Keoghan. While shooting Season 6 in Ethiopia, a group of kids trailed him all the way to a village, where he was invited in for tea.
Worst Behind-the-Scenes Red Tape
Keoghan remembers being held overnight in Ukraine immigration (he slept on a plastic seat) due to a documentation snafu. Allowed in just before the first Season 10 team arrived on the mat, he says, “I was told someone at the U.S. embassy was a fan of the show and worked all night.”
(Credit: Timothy Kuratek/CBS)
Most Nightmarish Task
“The portions were not quite right,” Keoghan says of a Season 5 Roadblock requiring one team member to eat 1 kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of caviar in Russia. “It’s like swallowing a giant loogie,” lamented one victim. Van Munster worried about the pair doing Season 13’s Fast Forward climb via swaying ladder to the top of a 1,076-foot telecommunications tower in New Zealand: “Will they freeze? Will they freak out? How will we get them down? But they did it.”
Most Memorable Leg
The very first, from 2001, is “tough to beat,” acknowledges Keoghan, who vividly recalls introducing the 11 teams from snowy New York City before packing them off to South Africa. For van Munster, “It was the start of something grand that had never been done before.”
The Amazing Race, Season 32 Premiere, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 9/8c CBS
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