During its first four seasons , even with extensive critical praise , the show garnered low Nielsen ratings , facing cancellation a number of times . The premiere of the show aired six days before the September 11 attacks , leaving the fate of the show in doubt . Producer van Munster stated that " Once we saw our billboards covered in dust from the 9/11 tragedy , we knew we had a problem " . Low viewership of the show was also attributed to it being lost among all other reality television shows at the time and unable to garner similar numbers as '' Survivor '' . '' The Amazing Race '' premiered against a similarly themed reality show , '' Lost '' on NBC ( unrelated to the ABC series of the same name ) , '' Lost '' featured teams of two stranded in a remote area of the world and forced to find their way back to the United States . A vice president of programming at CBS considered '' The Amazing Race '' to be " a show that was always on the bubble " of being canceled
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
The Amazing Race (American TV series)