The Amazing Race finally returned to the 2025 TV schedule this week, and Season 37 is already bigger than normal. There will be some changes outside of more teams this season, as well, as longtime host Phil Keoghan already shared the new Fork in the Road twist and we’ve seen it in action during the show’s season premiere. If that’s not enough new-ness, there is only more to come, as the host with the most also admitted the new season is going to be far more contentious than usual.
What’s Going On With The Teams In Season 37?
According to Phil, with 14 teams when the show kicked off, there were just a lot more people than normal with that competitive kick. In fact, while TAR is not exactly known for "screaming," "yelling" or "crazy" it seems like we'll be getting a bit more of that in this explosive new round of episodes.
Our show has never been the screaming, yelling, crazy, “I hate you” kind of content that some people rely on where people get really triggered with each other and then they get into a screaming match. We're not that show. But there is some tension this season, particularly halfway through — competitive gameplay tension that was really interesting that happened in a way that we sort of thought might happen, but we didn't know. And then it was sort of like, ‘Wait, whoa, these teams are incredibly competitive!’
Honestly, I like this new wave of competitive teams. One of the biggest criticisms of the last few seasons has been how kumbaya teams were throughout the competition. There have been multiple legs in past seasons in which teams fully worked together --and I'm not talking like a "hey I'll scratch your back if you scratch my back" hint or a point in the right direction, I'm talking literally doing entire challenges together.
The show's producer had said they would address the "too much help" problem, but for a few seasons it seemed like that didn't really happen. Now, though, perhaps both the Fork in the Road twist and signing on more bullish teams will be enough to keep the teams from offering too much in the way of help Whatever happens, Phil does have feelings about what they filmed for Season 37, also saying in his interview with EW that he is "super competitive" himself and that he wants "passion" from the people he is interacting with on the show.
He also said that they aren't looking for toxic TV. They just want engaged teams that want to put in their best.
You want it to stay healthy. You don't want people to get so competitive that it becomes a negative. For me, I like people that compete, and then if they realize they just got beaten fair and square and somebody else is better, just to accept that because most of the time you don't win. It's just the reality of life. And so it's the acceptance of, 'OK, I gave it everything I could.' Some teams find it easier to let go and accept that and some don't. So because we've got competitive teams, we see some of that this season, so it makes for some interesting TV.
It makes me wonder if this was a conscious casting choice by the producers or just the way the cookie crumbled this season, but all the drama feels a little more like old school reality competition, and I can’t wait.
We’ve Already Gotten An Inkling About What To Expect From The Rest Of Season 37
Speaking to CinemaBlend at SCAD newcomer competitors Nick and Mike Fiorito, who are brothers in real life, spoke to us about the drama we’ll see from them as they are running their own race this season. Nick mentioned how they would “curse” and “freak out” on each other in an exclusive interview with CB.
And then the other part of it is as brothers, you can freak out at each other, curse each other out, and then two minutes later, just be like, 'Alright, let's get back to running the race together.' So I think that was an advantage of being brothers.
He also called disagreeing an “art,” which I think means he and his brother are OK with a little drama as long as it yields positive results. The two brothers made it through this tumultuous first round of the race, even with the Fork in the Road twist, landing in fifth place on one side of the race.
That’s not tops. However, as I’ve always said, the name of the game early on is to avoid being last. As long as they can keep a temper on that “short fuse” it could serve them well. But as Phil was saying, it sounds like a lot of fuses will actually ignite this season. Jury's out on who will eventually get that Amazing Race payday, but I'm excited to see what happens.
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