Phil Keoghan says Big Brother tactics weren't enough to win The Amazing Race 38

As The Amazing Race 38 reached its finale, host Phil Keoghan told Parade that the strategic playbooks many teams carried over from Big Brother were insufficient for success on the road.

Season 38 started off giving a slight advantage to those familiar with social strategies - each duo included someone who had played Big Brother before, teamed up with a close friend or family member.

Yet Keoghan pointed out that when players stepped out of the tight Big Brother setup into the wild chaos of The Amazing Race 38, those moves by themselves didn't seal the deal.

Navigational skill, teammate cohesion, and the practical challenges of rapid travel ultimately shaped outcomes more than the alliance strategies familiar to Big Brother viewers.

Why The Amazing Race 38 favored navigation over house strategy

In Season 38 of The Amazing Race, teams composed of former Big Brother competitors alongside partners encountered a format starkly different from the social, slow-burn gameplay of the BB house.

Contestants had expected to turn their reality-TV negotiation and alliance skills into an advantage, but the structure of the race proved otherwise. About the season’s dynamics, Keoghan said,

“There were a number of legs when teams were so spread out that they wouldn’t see each other at all. Over the years, leading teams don’t tend to lean on others to stay in the game, and in many cases, they might just follow others instead. Alliances tend to form when teams start to doubt themselves and want some kind of insurance. Those alliances are very different from those you might see in the BB house, where everyone is together. On TAR, literally sticking together can sometimes be impossible.”

This separation underscored a core reality of The Amazing Race 38: the competition was less about outmaneuvering others through calculated social play and far more about mastering the logistical puzzle of moving quickly and efficiently from point to point.

Keoghan highlighted that The Amazing Race 38 spread teams across large distances for long stretches, intensifying the need for independent decision-making and map-reading skills not cultivated inside Big Brother’s isolated setting.

Keoghan explained that players entering the race were expected to “tap into some of the honed strategies they used in the BB house, particularly former winners. But the race is so spread out compared to the house.”

He added that while Big Brother contestants “have experience” with strategic thinking, it was the fundamentals of The Amazing Race 38 — navigation, transportation, route selection — that proved decisive.

Those fundamentals included simple but high-stakes tasks: hailing a cab in an unfamiliar city, deciphering train routes, or avoiding blocked streets.

Mistakes, such as “minutes wasted looking for a cab, aimlessly,” or “figuring out how to use a map and then heading in the wrong direction,” can cost teams dearly in time, and in a race where hours can pass without seeing another team, time itself becomes the greatest competitor.

Season 38 also featured twists that tested more than just brute pace. The “Driver’s Seat” advantage in the third leg pressed teams to be strategic about their travel, while the “Scramble” task forced dynamic navigation under pressure.

Fans responded positively to these elements, which showcased the blend of road skills and rapid decision-making that defines The Amazing Race 38.

Despite these structural demands, some teams did experiment with alliances once the race loosened into longer intervals.

Early in the season, Natalie and Stephanie, Jag and Jas, and Joseph and Adam formed what became known as the “Trainwreck Alliance,” sharing directions and support.

But even that arrangement, born from convenience and mutual benefit, did not replicate the social politics of Big Brother.

In The Amazing Race 38, cooperation was often situational, not sustained; competitors could be decades apart at different legs of the race.

Keoghan’s reflections on The Amazing Race 38 reveal a season where traditional reality-TV tactics from Big Brother provided interesting subplots but were not primary predictors of success.

Instead, The Amazing Race 38 showed what it really takes: nonstop travel, quick choices when stress hits, yet also dealing with surprises, both on roads and inside people’s minds.

The Amazing Race 38 concluded its run on CBS with high-stakes tasks across New York City and a million-dollar prize on the line — a testament to the endurance, adaptability, and raw racing instincts that ultimately defined the season’s competitive arc.

Stay tuned for more updates.