Phil Keoghan’s motto in life is NOW, which is an acronym for No Opportunity Wasted, which is also the title of his book. The NOW philosophy is about making the most out of each moment and living each day as if it were your last. The television personality is best known for hosting the The Amazing Race since its 2001 debut, a show that has consecutively won the Outstanding Reality-Competition Program seven times at the Emmy Awards. He interacts with us over email on another show of his, Tough as Nails, currently airing weeknights at 9pm on Zee Cafe. The competition series celebrates everyday Americans who roll up their sleeves and don’t think twice about working long hard hours and getting their hands dirty, in order to keep their country running. The competitors are tested for their strength, endurance, life skills and, most importantly, mental toughness in challenges that take place at real-world job sites.
What is Tough as Nails about?
Tough as Nails is about hard-working people who go to work every single day to keep the country they live in running, the best of the best in their chosen trades.
Can you talk about some of the challenges for the contestants on the show?
The challenges that contestants do on Tough As Nails are things that real people in real life do that are real tough. I’m talking about making sure that there is food on the table, making sure that the power is on, the light switches work and our toilets flush. Making sure that things work. These are the things that literally keep the country running.
You got the green light for season 2 in August. When do you start shooting? Would the pandemic affect the format of the show or the nature of the challenges you set?
Super exciting that we got a pick up for season 2 of Tough As Nails. We will be filming season 2 during Covid. It will change things a little bit. We have a few protocols that we have to follow but it is not going to affect the format of the show. We still will have 12 hard-working individuals from all over the country competing at real world job sites.
What kind of profile do you look for when choosing the contestants?
We are looking for people that everyone else at the job site talks about. That if you went to a job site and said who is the toughest person here, they would say, “Oh, you wanna talk to Sarah! Sarah is the toughest”. Those are the people we are looking for. On any job site it does not take long to find out who is the baddest badass!
Have you ever come to India?
India — I love you! I do love India and I’ll tell you what I love about India is the professional cricket league. You have the best cricket in the world and I hope to come and watch it as soon as possible.
