The Primetime Emmy Awards were first televised in 1950.
The second Emmy ceremony took place on January 27, 1950, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. KFI-TV broadcast the event locally, making it the first Emmy Awards ceremony shown on television. The inaugural ceremony, held in 1949, was also a televised event in the Los Angeles area, so the wording is sometimes treated as referring to the first nationally televised broadcast instead.
That distinction explains why 1955 occasionally appears in historical accounts. The seventh Emmy ceremony, broadcast by NBC, was the first to be televised nationally across the United States. Earlier ceremonies were primarily local productions, reflecting the limited reach of television and the fact that the Television Academy was initially focused on Los Angeles programming.
The 1950 ceremony also marked the expansion of the awards beyond the first event’s narrow local scope. Categories included Best Live Show, Best Kinescope Show, sports coverage, and personality awards. Thus, 1950 is the best answer for the first televised Emmy ceremony, while 1955 is the answer to a more specific question about the first national telecast.