‘The Amazing Race's' Phil Keoghan on the merits of the Fork in the Road, that ‘difficult' double elimination, and his preseason predictions

Yahoo

06-03-2025

WARNING: The following story contains spoilers about the Season 37 premiere of The Amazing Race.
The Amazing Race has hit a Fork in the Road. Or rather, the racers did. Wednesday's Season 37 premiere introduced the Fork in the Road, a new twist as part of the "Season of Surprises," which will see a different twist — new and old — every episode.
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The Fork in the Road forced the 14 teams, racing in Hong Kong, to pick one of two tasks, Dance or Sing. It's kind of like a Detour except for one big difference: It's a forced even split — max seven teams per path — to create two parallel races to the Pit Stop, where the last team from each route was eliminated.
And it was a tale of two routes. Dance, which filled up first, featured a three-team race to the Pit Stop, and BFFs Mark Crawford and Larry Graham were eliminated. Meanwhile, sisters Jackye Clayton and Lauren McKinney were axed from the Sing route, but their elimination was written on the wall after falling well behind early in the leg.
Gold Derby caught up with host Phil Keoghan to discuss the new twist, the new teams, and what to expect the rest of the "Season of Surprises."
SEE How Phil Keoghan's weeklong deep dive led to 'The Amazing Race 37's' episodic twists
Gold Derby: I love the Fork in the Road. How did you guys decide when and where to include a new or old twist every episode? Phil Keoghan: We wanted a good mix. We brought back some we have not seen in a long time, like the Intersection. There are some new elements in every episode, all the way up to the end. It seems like the Scramble has sort of become part of the vernacular now. And that's been fun. It sort of changed things up a wee bit, particularly towards the end, especially when there's less variables with less teams towards the end because you've got less people going off in different directions. So that sort of helps with that element. And we have some lots of really good ideas going forward that we would love to implement, and I think the network is definitely open to us trying some new things, which is great.
I like that the Fork in the Road is not anonymous. It forces the teams to make strategic decisions, knowing who's doing what. Did you guys discuss whether to make it anonymous or not? Keoghan: I think we always want strategy involved. I think one of the things that really worked was when you saw Jonathan and Ana. They get there and realize, I think, six teams had gone to the line dance. And then they decided, 'OK, we're going to do the opera because we have more of a chance because nobody else has gone there.' So that moment was great because suddenly they were going to do something that wasn't necessarily their strength. The line dance would have been more their strength than the opera, but they chose to do the opera because the opera was going to give them more of an opportunity to stay ahead because they knew there were two completely separate paths. So why put yourself at the back of the pack on one side when you can put yourself towards the front of the pack on the other side? So I think we ended up with that great moment. And then the other thing is you never know — they really struggled obviously with the opera, even though they got second on that side. I found it so interesting that Jonathan was beating up so hard on himself after coming in second.
He wanted first place so badly. Keoghan: Yeah, I'm sort of like, 'Wait, you survived, you're fine, and you're beating yourself up.' You're not gonna win all these legs, like if you stay near the front of the pack, you're in great shape.
Right. I also like that the Fork in the Road is an even 7-7 split. A lot of times with the Detours, I feel bad when the other Detour is not chosen. This way, you're forcing both options to be chosen equally. Keoghan: Yeah, I agree with you. I've always been a fan of limiting. The argument you could have is, 'Look, it's a Detour, you should have a choice, so why are you not giving a choice to everybody?' But I think you get more drama out of forcing them, like if you come early, you have a choice, but if you don't, you get punished. You might not have that choice. But I do understand, so I guess that's a benefit if you're gonna stick to the hard fast rules of the Detour, which is where really it's meant to be a choice no matter what — no matter whether you're first or the last, you have a choice to go left or right. I also like the idea of restricting the numbers on either side with the Fork in the Road. Like you said, just because of the fact that you do get to see that and sometimes we've missed out on some really incredible things happening on the other side of the Detour because it just wasn't chosen.
Yeah, and you guys set up the challenges and everything, and no one chooses it. Keoghan: Yeah, exactly. With this, they both get played.
Kit Karzen/CBS
You guys had a double elimination. It was very dramatic on one end and not so much on the other. What was it like doing a double elimination with the Fork in the Road and saying goodbye to Mark and Larry, and then Jackye and Lauren? Keoghan: Well, I don't like having to get rid of the teams. It's always the worst thing. And their race is so short [going out on the first leg]. Not much more than 24 hours earlier, we're standing in L.A. and then we're on the other side of the world, and then you're eliminating, in this particular case with the 14 teams, two teams back to back like that. It's difficult to do that. They go through months and months of casting and shortlists, and this interview and that interview, and filling out forms, and passing tests, and getting medical approval, and all of these things. And then boom! All of a sudden, it's over. I watched the [premiere] in Atlanta at SCAD with some of the contestants … and being able to watch it live with an audience was really — I haven't done that for a while -- it was really, really good. You got to see where we trust certain moments are going to play for funny or where they're gonna play for heartfelt moments or where the audience is gonna be rooting for a particular team, watching it with a live audience with a few 100 people. … And just with Jackye and her sister, you saw how much the audience got behind them. That was great to see, just how much the audience was willing them to get up [and] tackle something that they may never have done before in their life. The audience is really rooting for them because they wanna see them succeed.
I also feel like in like Jackye and Lauren's case, because their elimination was inevitable since they were so far behind, now that you guys do 90 minutes, you have more space to tell their story as well. So it creates more of a connection with the audience. Keoghan: Yes, and that is something particularly with the 14 teams that we had, we really wouldn't have wanted to try to jam 14 teams into a one-hour episode. The other part of it that I am hearing more and more [is] just how much people are watching the show for context and information about the world, learning something about the world. Why are we in Bulgaria doing a particular challenge? How does it relate to Bulgaria? What's the significance of beekeeping in Slovenia? It's the beekeeping capital of the world. In previous seasons before we got expanded to 90, we were always having to try to tighten those contextual scripting elements up. They got sacrificed sometimes for some of the stories up. But I can assure you that from the research the audience loved that.
SEE The Amazing Race 37: Meet the 14 new teams — and find out the new twists
How did your preseason predictions pan out? Keoghan: I actually did pretty good this season. I did not have Mark and Larry going out in the first episode. I had them going a little deeper. I really like those guys and I love how heartfelt Larry is in particular about Mark. I was very pleasantly surprised with Han and Holden. A lot of times when we have younger teams, there's not a lot for them to share because they're just young and they don't have a lot of life experience. Like, you know, out of a Mark and Larry, they've just lived a lot more, right? They've been through a lot more. They've had a lot more hardships and happiness and struggles, and they've been there for each other longer. Han and Holden ended up becoming a favorite team for me just because I loved that relationship. I loved how deferential Holden is to Han. She's a real leader. I really enjoyed Pops and Jeff.
They're hilarious. Keoghan: I love the love between Jeff and his dad. Nick and Mike, of course, just so happy that they finally got their shot after [applying for] seven years. They are the nicest guys. You've got Scott and Lori with their eight boys, and they've managed to get out of the house and escape without the responsibility of the boys. And Courtney and Jasmin. Ernest and Bridget — that great relationship. I mean, everybody — Brett and Mark, Alyssa and Josiah, Carson and Jack. And then a really interesting dynamic with Jonathan and Ana just because they've had times apart, they've been trying to figure things out with their relationship, and a lot of that gets addressed on the race.
We saw a bit of it at the Roadblock. Keoghan: Yes, there's a lot with them on the show that is exposed as far as their relationship goes and what they're struggling with and what they're trying to reconcile, so very interesting, I love teams like that. And then with Melinda and Erika, they're the ones that came in sort of self-defeated in a way, particularly Melinda, like, 'Hey, I'm too old for this, and I just want to get a few legs out of this.' And I think they surprised themselves and they surprised a lot of other people. I love when that happens — when it's unpredictable and people exceed expectations.
Can you give us one final tease for the rest of the season? Keoghan: I would say look out for a showdown with the teams about halfway through based on one of the surprises. It's a bit of a showdown, like people really open up and there's no filter. They're not shy in coming forward with their feelings. I bring them together for a surprise, but it's at a point in the race, sort of like a pivotal moment in the race, where tensions are getting a little high and a few things have happened along the way that have created some tension. And then the teams really don't hold back from sharing their thoughts. It's a little surprising.
It sounds spicy. Keoghan: Yeah, it's definitely got some spice.
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