Last year’s Emmys too real for ‘Amazing Race’s’ Keoghan, but he’s glad to be there this time

Phil Keoghan keeps it real during Emmy nominations

LOS ANGELES — Talk about keeping things real.

When Phil Keoghan got the call Thursday telling him he’d been nominated for an Emmy, the host of “The Amazing Race” says he was standing in his garage in his underwear, scraping the walls in preparation for a home renovation.

Perhaps it was his way of not appearing overconfident as he waited for word on whether he’d scored a nomination for best reality show host. After all, the genial New Zealander had been passed over last year when the category was added to the Emmys.

That, despite the fact that his show, “The Amazing Race,” has won the award for best reality show every year since 2003.

“I missed out and I felt like the orphan in the production,” he recalled with a laugh.

The way last year’s Emmy Awards show played out, however, it was probably in his best interests to have been snubbed.

In a coming-out-party of sorts, hosting duties for last year’s Emmys was divided among the five nominated reality show hosts. Critics agreed: They all flopped at it, big-time.

“There have been boring, listless and otherwise ham-handed Emmy broadcasts among the past 59. Sunday’s Emmycast was all of those things,” Associated Press television critic Frazier Moore wrote in a review typical of reaction.

Keoghan couldn’t explain why the hosts’ attempts at banter fell flat. But he acknowledged he was glad not to have been up on stage with them.

“I was relieved that I wasn’t up there, to be honest with you, because I don’t think it worked out as well as anybody wanted,” he said.

The show returns to a traditional single host format this year in Neil Patrick Harris.

Keoghan, meanwhile, has respect for all of his fellow nominees and says he’s excited about joining them at the party.

“I’m in good company and I feel honored to be part of the group,” he said. “Obviously it’s a lot better to be part of it than not, you know. I could be home still scraping my wall, right? In my underpants.”