Top Chef has ended The Amazing Race's seven-year Emmy victory streak.
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The Bravo culinary competition claimed the Outstanding Reality-Competition Program award at Sunday's 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony. Prior to Sunday, The Amazing Race -- which had been nominated in the category again this year -- had won the award every year since its creation in 2003.
"Oh, wow. Alright, well thank you very much. Thank you to the Academy, this is something that we never expected," Top Chef executive producer Dan Cutforth said after he accepted the award.
"I'll say!" Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi interjected.
"I think that a lot of people come up here and say this [but] I really mean it, I have nothing prepared at all to say," Cutforth continued. "Except I want to say thank you to the Academy again, I'd like to thank our friends at Bravo for putting this show on and supporting it, I want to thank our amazing team at [our] Magical Elves [production company], including my partner Jane Lipsitz."
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"And this is really hilarious -- she's not here tonight, and this is the first time in six years she hasn't been, she's watching in New York."
"On behalf of all of us standing here, I want to thank the amazing chefs we work with, because this show is all about their incredible talent and without them the show would be nothing. I also want to thank all [the] husbands, wives, girlfriends -- the people that support us, the people that put up with the long hours we put into making the show."
In addition to The Amazing Race, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars and Project Runway had also been nominated for the best reality-competition program award. This year's nominations had marked the fourth-straight year that the same five shows were nominated in the category.
While Survivor hasn't been nominated in the Emmy category since the 2005-2006 season (where it competed against The Amazing Race, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, and Project Runway -- Top Chef's four 2009-2010 season competitors), it now holds the longest major reality award streak, as Survivor host Jeff Probst won his third-straight outstanding host award during last weekend's Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony.
Similar to The Amazing Race's former streak, Probst is the only person who has ever won the category, which the Academy of Television Arts & Science created in 2008.
About The Author: Steven Rogers