By freshening the show, you mean new twists? Because honestly, besides improving on the locations and tasks wise, the teams and twists are usually hit or miss and there's nothing much the production team can do except to ensure that they have chosen the most interesting/dynamic cast and created the most amazing route/tasks.
They have been trying to do this for many years and there's no reason that they could have gotten snub with TAR 22 last season. Though it's probably not as memorable as TAR 21, there were really many good teams, fun locations, exciting tasks, some of the teams with the best story line etc.
If you ask me, I'll rather they not change anything (unlike Survivor which just keep bringing back returning players), and just focus on the quality of the route and task and that's all it matters.
They probably lost this year, because it's probably a huge Emmy Pie to chew but so many shows want to have a bite. TAR hit or miss in some years for sure... but it will be back to us.
...because the producers have done it right for many years and it will continue to go that way. There's a reason why Survivor fell from the usual 28-30million viewers to the 10-11million viewers now, and even beaten by TAR at times.. and why TAR viewers always stayed at the 8-12million range... because as old viewers went, new one gets hooked up so easily by the whole theme of the 'race around the world'. It never gets old.