'Amazing Race': Phil Keoghan's 10 Top Moments of Season 21
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The Racers blast off! (Pasadena, Calif.)
''That would be the 21st time that I have dropped my hand on the start of The Amazing Race. I always equate that moment — actually it's kind of symbolic, with the bars around the side there — with letting the wild animals out of the cage. It's like going to the zoo where all these animals are confined and all they want to do is get out, and I pull the latch and all the animals are about to escape. That is a really powerful moment, when I hit the 'all clear' and I'm allowed to let the children out to play.''
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Diving right in (Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, Calif.)
''It's always exciting, I think, to have something right off the starting line, something to just get the adrenaline going. Literally 100 yards down the bridge from the starting line, we're all of a sudden leaping off a bridge and it's sort of like, 'Okay, I guess The Amazing Race just started right now!' I don't know about wearing jeans to the start of a race around the world...they don't look like they're dressed for the occasion, do they? Maybe some sports shorts would have come in handy.''
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Dining on frog fallopian tubes (China)
''We don't just have teams eat for the sake of eating. It's not like Fear Factor eating where we just try to get them to eat something gross for the sake of, 'Oh, let's eat something gross.' So everything that we have the teams eat is something that is a delicacy or something that is an indigenous food that is savored by local people. So although we look at these frog fallopian tubes and we don't exactly think 'hamburger,' to [locals] this is something that they want to eat, something they go out of their way to eat. This really epitomizes what TAR is all about. It ain't Kansas. This is not like going to Mickey D's. Although I can see a little golden arch there, can't you? I guess it's gotta be good protein.''
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''Amy and Daniel, you have been eliminated'' (Indonesia)
''This was probably the worst elimination of the season. It's just such a shame because they just had so much more to give. She's a phenomenal athlete, and I just felt bad because I worried that people would latch to the stereotypes about the fact that she was an amputee or just think, 'Oh, that's why she was out early is because she was a double amputee.' The reality is that she really physically could have kicked the butts of most of the people on the teams. She's phenomenal. So it was devastating to have to drop that news after the second leg.''
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Will and Gary the eggheads (Indonesia)
''We shot 12 shows in 21 days. And, if you think about that starting shot where they're standing on the Colorado Street Bridge, and hours later they're eating fallopian tubes, and hours later they've got a coconut on fire on their head with some guys with scorpions in their mouths who are cooking eggs on their heads — it's a little bit like The Twilight Zone. How do you even begin to describe to somebody that there you were with your head on fire? Look at the size of that New Balance Shoe in the middle there! It's bigger than Gary is.''
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Natalie and Nadiya haul bamboo (Bangladesh)
''Bamboo is unbelievably strong and used in construction but also extremely awkward to carry from place to place, so of course this show being what it is, [we said,] 'Let's give the teams something extremely awkward to carry from one place to another, that'll be fun to watch. In crazy heat.' The Twinnies actually felt very much at home in this part of the world. But they also were very honest about the fact that they're not used to necessarily getting blisters on their hands from doing the hard work. I think they've lived quite a privileged life. It was probably a good idea for them to get in there and have to do a little bit of work.''
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Abbie and Ryan's bathhouse beatdown (Turkey)
''It does show you that along the way they really did have a good time. This shot really does capture that. It's such a great moment. Looking through all these images you realize the extent of the experiences. If you stay on TAR, you get experiences that not even a million dollars could buy. Some of these things you could go back and pay for, but others, you couldn't even buy them.''
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Jaymes and James learn synchronized swimming (Russia)
''I think this is almost a precursor for what you're going to see in Vegas maybe in about a year on the Chippendales stage. I think what we're gonna see is Chippendales in flowery caps and there's gonna be a swimming pool — it'll be a little bit like what they did with Cirque du Soleil, where they brought the water in. You know in Vegas, they have wet t-shirts? Now they're gonna gonna have wet speedos, and Chippendales boys will be dipping into pools and doing synchonized Chippendale-ing.''
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James and Abba's disappearing backpacks (Russia)
''There's kind of one essential thing you need on TAR and that's your passport. I don't want to jinx anything, I haven't lost my passport — but it never ceases to amaze me that somebody could actually lose their passport. If you're in the Race, it's your ticket to get anywhere. You strap that thing to your body. [This is] just that moment, I guess, where two very smart guys find themselves wandering aimlessly around in a helpless situation, and they're really coming to terms with the fact that their Race is over.''
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Abbie and Ryan are U-Turned (Amsterdam)
''Abbie and Ryan were such a force on the race and one of the strongest teams we've ever had: equally strong, very compatible, worked really well together. I guess the other teams, when they realized they had an opportunity to slow them down, they took it. [Abbie and Ryan] certainly made it known that they were fit, they were fast — even if you go back to that first shot out of the gate and you see Ryan. I mean they're both physical specimens.''