Phil Keoghan Places Quotations

With the reaction that we got from the family version, people clearly made a statement that they wanted that international element in the show. I think it showed that the places are as much stars in the show as the people themselves. People were missing that exotic element ? that fish-out-of-water element where people were completely and utterly dumbfounded as to what to do because of culture shock and language barriers. They missed that. And I think that is a huge hook for us.

We tried something. I'm really proud that we tried something, because I think if we hadn't tried to change the race, people might have criticized us for not being adventurous and doing something different. I'm proud of what we managed to pull together, but there is no denying that the race is most successful when it has less faces, more places and teams of two racing around the world.

For me, personally, I love to see the teams going to places we never get to see in mainstream media. . . . It's always a big eye-opener for these teams to go to someplace that is just very different from their local community. There's one location that we get to in the Middle East where the teams are immersed in a daily task that a lot of the local people have to go through. And it's great to see teams that are used to going down to the 7-Eleven suddenly having to cope with living life in a completely different way.

It's the most number of miles we've done in that short an amount of time. People clearly wanted the international element. They missed it. The places are as much the stars of the show as the people themselves. That was illustrated when you look at season eight. People were missing that exotic element, the fish-out-of-water element. That is a huge hook.