RuPaul‘s highly lauded reality competition series Drag Race is in the running for an impressive eight Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Reality Competition and Reality Competition Host for RuPaul, which the pop culture icon won last year.
The announcement by the Television Academy Thursday (July 13) marks the first time Drag Race — which just capped its ninth season in June — has been nominated for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program, a 14-year-old category long dominated by The Amazing Race, a 10-time winner.
“I want to thank the academy for honoring the entire cast and crew of RuPaul’s Drag Race, my family at World of Wonder, and our champions at VH1,” RuPaul said. “It takes a village, people! Their creativity and dedication to telling the stories of our brave and talented queens never ceases to amaze, amuse and inspire.”
Last year was the first time the Academy gave a shout-out to RuPaul’s boundary-pushing series, awarding the singer, actor and fashion trend-setter Outstanding Reality Host for his work on season 8.
The series celebrated its highest-ever ratings after moving from Logo to VH1 this past season, and has been racking up praise since. Drag Race won Best Reality Competition at the 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards, and RuPaul was recently named one of Time‘s most influential people of 2017, an honor bestowed on those “shaping the future.”
Come through 8 nominations including “Outstanding Reality Competition” & “Best Host for Reality Competition!” #DragRace #Emmys2017 pic.twitter.com/pxf9Lk3DK6
— RuPaul’s Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) July 13, 2017
Awards voting kicks off on August 14. Winners will be announced when the 69th Annual Emmy Awards air September 17 on CBS, hosted by Stephen Colbert.