Phil Keoghan Reveals a Secret Celebrity Director on 'The Amazing Race 36'

Phil Keoghan

When The Amazing Race returns for season 36 this Wednesday, it will be doing some unprecedented travel: Through time. The Emmy-winning reality series put a season in the can in the fall of 2022, including several markers of the "COVID era" of the show, including a charter plane to transport all the teams and a truncated route. Then, when producers were informed they'd be airing 90-minute episodes in the fall of 2023, they filmed an entire other season with that extended runtime in mind.

What aired as season 35 (but filmed as 36) saw a return to the status quo. Gone were the pandemic restrictions, and we even saw the reemergence of some game elements from seasons past. So when CBS announced the spring season of The Amazing Race would also be 90 minutes, fans wondered: What would an edition planned for 60 minutes look like under 90? Luckily, according to host Phil Keoghan, the difference lies not in how they shoot the show but in how they cut it.

"Back in the day, for time, a lot of stuff would get tightened," Keoghan exclusively tells Parade. "I think we'd lose some of the context. And you couldn't open the show up as much as you wanted to because you're trying to cut for time. So we couldn't hold on the shots a little longer. We couldn't hear more from the contestants about what they loved about being there. So now doing a time shift, and going back to a season that was not shot with 90 [minutes] in mind, it's been quite refreshing to go back and then open up the show a little bit in places that we knew we had to tighten before. It's been hugely rewarding to just have more time to share more of the world with the viewers."

Check out our interview with Keoghan below, where he talks about what to expect from season 36 and previews a chance celebrity encounter while filming that led to a star working behind the camera. The Amazing Race 36 premieres with a 90-minute episode on Wednesday, March 13, at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

Related: Everything We Know About The Amazing Race Season 36

While this upcoming season of The Amazing Race is the 36th to air, it's actually the 35th to film. What's it been like for you to step back in time to when you filmed?
Well, just between you and I, I've had a little bit of "what season are we in right now?" Because, like you said, we did a bit of a time shift. And I love that Amy, the president of CBS, wanted to try these 90-minute episodes. Who knew that they were going to work as well as they did? You never really know until you try it. And it worked really well. Everybody loved it. I love it from the point of view of being able to give more context to the show. The length of my scripts has literally doubled because I'm writing more in my stand-ups, where we are, what we're doing, and why we're doing it. And I know how much viewers love context. They love knowing why we are in a place, what we're doing in that place, and the significance of that. 

Back in the day, for time, a lot of stuff would get tightened, and we'd lose some of that. I think we'd lose some of the context. And you couldn't open the show up as much as you wanted to, because you're trying to cut for time. So we couldn't hold on the shots a little longer. We couldn't hear more from the contestants about what they loved about being there. So now doing a time shift, and going back to a season that was not shot with 90 [minutes] in mind, it's been quite refreshing to go back and then open up the show a little bit in places that we knew we had to tighten before. It's been hugely rewarding to just have more time to share more of the world with the viewers.

As you said, this season was not filmed with 90 minutes in mind. So I would imagine that, structurally, things are closer to how the show has been before (and how the race was structured in the first half of last season), where each leg isn't really going to stray away from the typical Detour and Roadblock towards extra tasks.
Well, interestingly, when we shot for 90, it's not like we added more to the show. If anything, we had less in the show. It's still a show with a Roadblock, Detours, Route Markers, and a Pit Stop. The difference is in the amount of time that we've taken to shoot the show is exactly the same. So there really is no difference. When I said we didn't shoot it for 90, I'm meaning we weren't thinking that the show was going to be cut to 90, whereas we were thinking about it being cut to 90 for this last season. So it really doesn't affect how we shoot the show. It's more how we post the show, how we cut the show.

When you take that fat cut, and you're trying to get down to time for an hour, you don't have to be as ruthless and get that scalpel in there and pull out frames and seconds here, there, and everywhere. You can let it breathe a little bit. So it's been quite refreshing to go back and know, "Oh, remember that piece we had to cut out because we didn't have time? Well, now we have time. Let's put that piece back in. That was great with that comment from the team in the car." The pacing feels better on the show.

And the people that stop me to talk about Amazing Race, they're always talking to me about the destinations. And season after season after season, the questions tend to be, "Phil, tell me what's new and different about this season." And what is new and different is that we are a show about surprises. These teams literally rip an envelope, and they're surprised every time they rip the envelope. It's like, "What could be inside this envelope?" Rip, you must now travel to the Taj Mahal. It's a show of surprises. That's what's different.

And we have this element in our show that other shows don't have. As time goes on, and more and more people talk to me about destinations, I realize, a stage show, a dance show, a singing show, a show on an island, we are not a show set in a particular destination. We change where we are, what we're doing, and who we're doing it with. In other shows, they change who's on the show. They don't really change what they're doing. And they certainly don't change where they are. So, in a singing competition show, they go to the stage and sing. It's a format; they're in the same place. Whereas we have new people in new places doing new things. They might even be singing or dancing!

Very true! The Amazing Race 36 is going to start in Mexico but primarily race around South America and the Caribbean. I know that travel-wise, we're still using more of a truncated route from the COVID-era seasons. Does that mean we'll be seeing the "Amazing Plane" again?
Yes. We were still at that stage. We were still on the "Amazing Plane." Just because of that was sort of the end of us still having to adhere to certain restrictions on how we had to work when we had that dreaded virus traveling around the world. But, look, I'm so proud of the fact that we got out and made shows and made Amazing Race at a time when a lot of shows weren't. Because we found a way; we rallied together as a team. So yes, this was the last time of us having to adhere to certain challenges in production. And that included our beautiful charter plane.

What's it like to reengage with that? Again, considering how season 35 really felt like "back to normal," it almost feels like a time capsule of the past few years.
It is. And the reason I've gotten sort of "what season are we on" in my head going on right now is because I'm doing voiceover, and I'm working on changes to what was 35 but is airing on 36. We just recently aired what was 36 but aired as 35. And we're also working on 37. It's a lot of numbers, Mike. But at the end of the day, we know, looking at this show, that the things that people turn up for, to tune into on Amazing Race, are in this season.

It is different from what we did last season. Last season, we really did go back to old school and got a lot of great feedback from fans, like, "Oh my god. I just love that we're back doing these things that we did before. Thank you." And we will be going back to that. But in the meantime, we've got this other show with this really dynamic cast of characters that I think fans are going to fall in love with. So it won't disappoint. I promise you that we have a great start in Puerto Vallarta. We've got 13 teams, no non-elimination legs. By the way, that doesn't mean that non-elimination legs won't be coming back. We just mixed it up for a little bit. We have lots of really cool adventures up in the mountains and paragliding. We get to Colombia, we get to Argentina. We got to new countries with the Dominican Republican and Rihanna's childhood home in Barbados.

Related: Meet the Full Cast of The Amazing Race 36

I'd love to hear more about those trips to the new countries. It's always great to keep visiting new places, especially 36 seasons in. And I feel it's rare that we go to the Caribbean on The Amazing Race. What was that experience like?
I spent eight years of my childhood in Antigua, and I got to Barbados a lot. I went to Barbados and Trinidad and a lot of the islands. So, I personally am a big island fan. Not everybody in production loves the islands as much as I do. Some people like the bigger continents. I love an island. I come from New Zealand, which has got two islands. And I love the Caribbean. And I love Barbados, and I love the culture there.

And I'm hoping that this might get Rihanna's attention. I was so hoping I might bump into Rihanna. We could do a little duet together somewhere with the sun setting and a couple of pina coladas on the beach there somewhere, and we could sing an old Calypso song or something together. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, Mike. So, if Rihanna is [reading], because I know she's probably a big fan of yours. Rihanna, this is a call out to you. We're going to be featuring your beautiful island, Barbados, on Amazing Race. And I hope you watch it, enjoy it, and tell all your Bajan friends, wherever they are around the world, to tune in and see how we celebrate your beautiful country.

Well, we know she's a Big Brother fan, so she won't have to go far to find another member of the CBS reality family.
I'll tell you a crazy story. This is a true story. I'm shooting on a cliff in Barbados. We had a challenge down on the beach. And I'm on this cliff, and the sun is setting, and I'm setting up the challenge. And we had a portable jib that we traveled with. And I have a very small crew. It's me, a cameraman, and an assistant camera, sound, and then we use local facilitators. Anyway, we're a very small crew shooting. It's beautiful. The sun setting, it's just amazing.

Anyway, this very distinguished-looking gentleman starts walking over to where we are. It looks like he came out of one of the houses just down the road. And he's coming towards me. I'm looking at his face, and we're just about to wrap up; the sun's just about to kiss the horizon. We're gonna wait and watch that little green flash that you get in the tropics, where the sun dips below the horizon. So we're waiting for that moment. It's special. Here we are, how lucky are we to do what we're doing. And this gentleman walks over. And I look at him, and I'm like, "I know that face. I know him from somewhere. I've seen this face before. Where is it?"

We're packing up. We're done. And as he comes towards us. I'm piecing it together. And then he says, "You recognize me, don't you?" And I said, "I think I do." He said, "You recognize me from a movie, don't you?" And I said, "Yeah, I think I do." He goes, "You're wondering what that movie is." And I'm staring at him, staring at him, and all of a sudden hits me. He is the guy in The Deep who pulls out an outboard motor and tries to chop the head off of one of the baddies in the boat house. It's Earl Maynard. And it suddenly comes to me, and I go, "Oh my God. You're the guy with the outboard motor". He goes, "Yes, Earl Maynard. Nice to meet you."

I know Earl Maynard. He was Mr. Universe. He was a bodybuilder. He became an actor. He's a famous Bajan. I just happened to know him from when I was a kid. And I hadn't seen him since that movie, which I think came out in 1977 or something. He's a director. And I say to these young kids that were there assisting us, "Do you know who this man is? And these young 25-year-old guys are like, "No, sir. I don't know who that is." I go, "This is Earl Maynard." Anyway, they didn't really show him a lot of respect. And I was a bit annoyed by that because they're young kids are coming up in the business. I'm not a big fan of that. So I said, "Alright, guys, before we pack up, Mr. Maynard is going to direct the next take. He's a director. Here's my script. This is how we shot it over here. What would you like us to do?" He said, "Well, I would like you to start here; we're gonna come into the thing." And he directs the whole thing.

That is absolutely wild!
And then I go, "On your call, Mr. Maynard." And he goes, "Okay, roll, camera, and action." So I do my stand-up, and I come to the end. And I go, "Could you please give the monitor to Mr. Maynard?" And Mr. Maynard looks at it, and I go, "What do you think?" He goes, "Do one more. But this time, don't have the camera so low at the end. Keep it a little higher." So we see the sun. So we did three takes. And then finally Mr. Maynard signs off on the take, which is the take we end up using in the show.

And then we finish. And then he says, "Wait right here. I want to get you something." So he runs away back to his house. I get these young kids over, and I said to them, "Listen, that man, he's in his 80s. When I introduced you to him, you didn't look him in the eye, didn't shake his hand. He's done more in his career than you would hope to do in yours. When he comes back, I need you to look him in the eye and give him some respect. He deserves it. He's worked his whole career. He's a famous Bajan. He's one of your locals that you should be really, really proud of. Make him feel special when he comes back." So they're like, "Oh, yeah," and I think they got it. Anyway, he comes back and gives me a book. The book is signed and everything. And we start talking. It turns out that Eddy Grant is his best friend and lives in the house with him there and trains with him every day. Eddy Grant from "Electric Avenue"! That's my story.

Next, Check Out Our Interview With The Amazing Race 35 Winners Greg and John Franklin