No grass under his feet

IN the frantic global contest to win $1 million on CBS’ “The Amazing Race,” host Phil Keoghan provides a calm center as competitors travel each leg of the race to reach the week’s “pit stop” and avoid elimination. The savvy New Zealand native, 38, is also on hand to explain to viewers the often outrageous special tasks -- called “roadblocks” and “detours” -- the teams must accomplish each week.

Part guide, part referee, he’s more than willing to speak his mind when a team gets out of line. “I am not there to be a counselor or pass judgment, but I do try to ask the questions and say the things I know the audience might be thinking at home.”

The ninth season of the Emmy-winning reality series began Feb. 28 and returns to the original format with teams of two. The eighth edition of the series was considered a big misstep by many fans because it featured squabbling families who primarily raced in America.

In the world beyond “Amazing Race,” Keoghan co-created and co-produced the Travel Channel series “Phil Keoghan’s Adventure Crazy” and was the executive producer and host of the Discovery Channel series “No Opportunity Wasted.” He also wrote, with Warren Berger, a book by the same name that, like the series, aims to inspire people to “dream more freely and live more fully.”

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Was there any time during the production of “Amazing Race 8” when everyone realized that it wasn’t working to have families competing?

I was excited about trying it. I thought it would be fun to do something different and mix it up. I think that if we hadn’t done anything people would have said, “Why don’t you try something different?” So there is sort of that thing that you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

I get a lot of e-mails from people. The general consensus was, don’t give us more faces and less places, give us the places with the faces.

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You get to see all of these countries from a different perspective -- an up-close look at the people and their customs.

In mainstream media, we do not see these images. When you see international locations on mainstream media there are stories about war, civil unrest, a government coup, somebody burning an American flag. So if every day people are bombarded with these images and there is nothing to counter that, then their perception is that the world is an extremely dangerous place. You wouldn’t really want to get on a plane and go outside the United States because you are going to come in contact with a terrorist or somebody who is out there to harm you.

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How many weeks did it take to shoot the new season?

This series was shot in 28 days. We started in Denver in December. It was the most amount of miles in the shortest amount of time. It was extremely challenging to stay ahead of the pace.

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Have you ever lost your way to a pit stop, roadblock or detour?

Because I go to all the places that they go to and though I have directions, that doesn’t mean I don’t get lost. We have a small team. I travel with a producer and myself and camera and sound. If we have a pit stop in the jungles of Africa, I have to drive there just like the contestants. In Season 7, we had no cellphone services in a lot of places. If we get lost in the middle of the desert, it’s not like you can pick up the cellphone and say, “Listen, we are at the corner of Pico and Rose. Where do we go?”

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Have you always been a travel buff?

Prior to “The Amazing Race,” I had worked in about 60 countries. I have been on the road now for 20 years.

My very first job was working as a television assistant in New Zealand. In those days, there was no degree that you could do in broadcasting and communications, so out of the whole country they would take two people from all the high schools to work for the national network, and I was lucky enough to get one of the spaces.

They would normally train you for three years as a TV assistant and then you would get picked for a section like camera or sound. After six months, I had a strong background in photography and I was put in the camera section.

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How long did you do that?

I did that for half of ’86 and ’87. Then I was at a Christmas party and a producer there said, “Would you like to try out for this show?” It was called “Spot On!” It had been on the air in New Zealand for 20 years. It was a weekly half-hour show and they had three hosts. People would write in and get the hosts to do things. I had been watching it since I was a kid.

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You nearly died during one of your stunts on “Spot On!” when you got lost underwater while exploring a shipwreck. How did that change you?

For the first time in my life I realized I could die. I said I wasn’t going to live my life the same way, so I wrote a list of things to do before I died. Then I decided that I would do everything humanly possible to turn the list that I wrote into my living.

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Have you done everything on your list?

I pretty much finished that list except for climbing Mt. Everest and going into outer space. And the list has continued to grow.

-- Susan King