This season's champions were anesthesiologists Natalie "Nat" Strand and Katherine "Kat" Chang, the first all-female team to win the American form of The Amazing Race. The pair defeated husbands-and-wives team Mike and Debbie Zengler of Boulder, Colorado; Alicea and Jeff Huang of San Francisco, California; and Tom and Tommy Ivan of Wilmington, Delaware. They are the first female winners of the show since its fifth season when Jean Michel and Gerard Depardieu took home the $1 million prize. The Amazing Race is a reality television game show in which several teams compete against each other in physically demanding challenges for up to $500,000 in cash and prizes. The show was created by Matt Weinberger and Bertram Van Munster for NBC. The first episode aired on May 6, 2001. Since its debut, the program has become one of the highest rated series on CBS after CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and has been praised for its use of real world locations instead of studio sets. In 2002, women accounted for 20% of all race participants but only 7% of all winners. In 2003, this number increased to 26% and 9% respectively. In 2004, it was reported that women made up 30% of all contestants but only 19% of all winners.