Watch first 5 minutes of “The Amazing Race” season 36 premiere

Enjoy Gritty smashing a cake into an Eagles fan's face, and then read what host Phil Keoghan told us about the upcoming season.

We are now a week away from the season 36 premiere of The Amazing Race, which kicks off another all 90-minute season March 13 at 9:30pm ET/PT on CBS. But you don’t have to wait until then, because we have the exclusive first five minutes of the season premiere for you right here and right now.

And what an action-packed five minutes it is. Not only do you get to meet the 13 teams that will be doing battle for a million dollars, and not only do you get to see host Phil Keoghan bust out what just may be his best eyebrow arch ever — and that is saying something — but you also get a sneak peek at the action to come all season long. That includes paragliding, motocross, Mexican wrestling, rock wall climbing, and, for some odd reason, Gritty slamming a cake into the face of a very enthusiastic Philadelphia Eagles fan.

Why would Gritty — who is the world famous (or is it infamous?) mascot of the Philadelphia Flyers — be attacking a fellow Philly sports fan? WE HAVE NO IDEA! But that’s just the type of unpredictable behavior you find on The Amazing Race. We spoke to Keoghan to get his take on the upcoming season, so you can watch the first five minutes of the season above and read his thoughts below… but probably not at the same time.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How much do you even remember about this season considering you filmed it so long ago, way back in 2022?

PHIL KEOGHAN: Well, I have to say it is a little confusing with the change in order [since CBS switched seasons 35 and 36 due to the writers and actors strikes]. And look, CBS tried the 90-minute episodes and nobody knows until you try things, but the 90s really worked, and so we're going with 90s again on this. It seems to give more time for context, more time to be able to see where we are and what we're doing. And we've always known that the destinations were a big draw factor on the show, but I think it really got proven last season when we opened the show up to 90 and we let things breathe a little bit more. People always want to see more of where we are, and so the extra time has allowed us to do that.

What can you tell me about the teams this season? Were there alliances forming or were teams going at each other?

I think one of the big factors that distinguishes Amazing Race from other shows is that there tend to be less teams going at each other. It's not the tune-in factor for Amazing Race you would find on other shows. And I think over the years there's a tendency to be like, “Oh yeah, you want teams going at each other.” But it's never really been at the core of what Amazing Race is all about.

I mean, we definitely want competition. We want people to be highly competitive, but I think that is one of the big factors that separates the show from others. Generally speaking, teams on Amazing Race don't go out of their way to go after another team or manipulate another team. If anything, they try to do everything to avoid that.

I think it is a distinguishing factor of the show. There's a spirit about the show that is quite different. Ours is much more of a feel-good show in that sense. People genuinely want to see people do well. And so you're going to see some real support, almost the antithesis of what you see on other shows, because they actually fall in love with their competitors. Of course, at the end of the day, they're going to do whatever they can to stay in the competition, but the tendency is to do more to help people stay in the race than the tendency to do things to get people out of the race.

What are you most looking forward to people seeing this season?

We get to go to Barbados and the Dominican Republic and Argentina, and we get to go into the remote areas of different countries to see that contrast between city and remoteness. That’s where our show is so unique. Other shows can do the teams we can do, they can do the great challenges we do, but we have a unique factor that other shows just don't have. They just don't inherently have the “where.” They're in a studio or they're in a set location. That's it. They can't change their wheres. They can light it differently, they can dress it differently, but they're still in the same place.

We are never in the same place. To me, that's the big thing that really gives the show some longevity because you just don't know where these people are going to be and you don't know what they're going to do, but it's going to be interesting and it's going to be dynamic.

The Amazing Race premieres March 13 on CBS.

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.