The Amazing Race was the first television program to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program.
The award was introduced by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2003 to recognize competition-based reality programmes. The Amazing Race won the inaugural award at the 55th Primetime Emmy Awards, held in September 2003. It later became one of the category's most successful programmes.
The Amazing Race had premiered on CBS in 2001 and had already established its format of pairs travelling through multiple countries, completing tasks and racing to Pit Stops. Its international scope and carefully structured competition helped distinguish it from studio-based talent contests and house-based reality programmes.
Survivor, another major CBS reality series, was also nominated in the inaugural category and won many later awards. That history can create confusion about which show received the first trophy. The key distinction is that Survivor became the first winner of several other reality-related honors, while The Amazing Race took the inaugural competition-programme award.
The category was later renamed Outstanding Reality-Competition Program.