“The Amazing Race” Host Phil Keoghan Had to Fight for the Famous Catchphrase ‘The World Is Waiting for You’

Phil Keoghan has hosted The Amazing Race since season 1 in 2001

Keoghan, 59, looked back at the first season of the show in a 2024 interview on The Game Show Starring Bradley Clarke

The host explained how some of the show's signature features came to be

The Amazing Race has kept folks exploring the world for 25 years.

Since 2001, the reality competition series, which celebrates its 25th anniversary on Sept. 5, has sent countless contestants on adrenaline-filled adventures around the globe, with host Phil Keoghan as their guide.

In a 2024 interview on The Game Show Starring Bradley Clarke, Keoghan looked back at the first season and some of its standout moments, beginning with the origin of the "browsy," Keoghan's signature raised eyebrow.

"I got it from Lee Majors, who was The Six Million Dollar Man... Back in the day, The Six Million Dollar Man was like the television show, and Lee Majors was the big television star," Keoghan explained. "So he had a bionic eye, and he used to raise the eyebrow, and then they would put a sound effect on it."

Host Clarke also noted that season one concluded at the Unisphere in New York's Flushing Meadows Park. He asked Keoghan if he'd ever returned to the area, aside from when it was used again in season 25.

"I have been back. I went back when I went to the U.S. Open. I love the history of it. I love that they chose that. I believe it was built for the 1964 World's Fair, but I love that there's this structure with the whole world," he shared. "It was very fitting for that final moment where we had the finish line with — the mat was rolled out for the very first time. It's iconic. So, yes, I have been back, and I love it."

When the conversation turned to the hand drop, another Keoghan signature, he shared that while there wasn't a ton of wiggle room in what they could do on the show, he found ways to make it his own.

"There was an interesting thing that happened. I didn't get the scripts. They were very, very protective about the scripts. Now, I write the scripts with another producer, but that first season, [they were] very protective about the script, so they didn't give them to me until late the night before, and I had a lot of script to remember," he explained.

Keoghan noted that they "definitely overwrote" the show in the early days and recalled trying to make suggestions on early scripts, only to get shot down.

"Every time I was making a suggestion, it was like, 'No, no, we have to stick to the script because this is what the network has approved. You can't change anything,' and I was getting a little frustrated because I wanted to put it in my own words and wanted to make some adjustments. But everybody was very, very particular," he shared.

Keoghan continued, "So we got through to the end, and it was just, 'Is everybody ready to race? Good luck, travel safe, go,' that was it. And I said, 'Look, I really think we need something with more gravitas. We need a line. We need something that sets them off, that sort of sets the occasion, and this momentous thing that is about to happen.' "

He held firm in arguing his point and was eventually asked what he thought the end line should be.

"I said, 'The world is waiting for you,' and they agreed. Like, 'Okay, we'll do it, but you know, might get cut out,' and that line just sort of came to me," he remembered. "And I inserted it in the way that I do, and it's become a signature piece."

It was also at that time that the "browsy" came into play. "When I was doing the 'Good luck, travel safe,' after the word safe, I raised my eyebrow, and I didn't know that I did it. It's just something that I do sometimes to punctuate something that I say, and I wasn't conscious of doing it," he admitted. "I wasn't making a point of doing it, but the editor who cut that first show in that first season saw that I did it, and it was captured and they used it."

When it came time for the second season, the network executives told him to continue with the browsy — the rest is history.

The long-running reality competition show is returning with a special two-night premiere event on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 on CBS.

Competitors — including, most notably, soccer star Ali Krieger and her former teammate Joanna Lohman — will ultimately travel more than 25,000 miles and visit 13 cities across five continents.

The game will also begin with a twist: For the first time in the show's history, there are 13 express passes in play. Each team will receive one pass and must make use of it by the end of leg six.

Read the original article on People