Friday, September 11, 2020

'Queer Eye' leads structured reality program nominees at the Emmy Awards while 'preaching love, acceptance, pride, and compassion'

Just like I opened 'Cheer' leads unstructured reality program nominees in a field that recognizes diversity with a quote from a previous post, I closed it with one, too.
I conclude the body of this entry by recycling the following from 'Dark Waters' and 'Chernobyl' among 2020 Environmental Media Association Award winners.
I think "Shark Tank" is a worthy winner of the first pure reality show category, not because of the sharks themselves, but because of the entrepreneurs competing on the show. They often have good environmental products and services to pitch and they deserve to be recognized. "Shark Tank" has two Emmy nominations, so I'll be blogging about it soon.
"Shark Tank" and "Queer Eye" are up next. Stay tuned.
Without any further ado, here are the nominations for "Queer Eye," "Shark Tank," and the other structured reality programs.

Outstanding Structured Reality Program

Antiques Roadshow (PBS)
Love Is Blind (Netflix)
Queer Eye (Netflix)
Shark Tank (ABC)
A Very Brady Renovation (HGTV)
As the blurb on the the billboard says, "Queer Eye" preaches "love, acceptance, pride, and compassion" and, as I wrote last year, "'Queer Eye' [is] not only...a fun show that helps people be more fashionable, but [is] also...an example of diversity, inclusion, and acceptance. Keep up the good work!" It did, as it earned seven Emmy nominations including this one. The other returning nominees are "Shark Tank," which in addition to what I wrote in the quote in the introduction, features diverse guests and hosts, and "Antiques Roadshow," which I praised last year for its educational content. "Love Is Blind" is a newcomer to both the small screen and the Emmy Awards. It features a diverse cast, which helped earn the show's second Emmy nomination. "A Very Brady Renovation" is also a newcomer to television and the awards. It's probably the least diverse of the shows with the most inclusive part of the cast being the high number of women involved in the renovation.

"Queer Eye" won this category last year and I expect it will win again. Its main competition is "Shark Tank," the winner of this category in 2014–2017 and Outstanding Reality Program in 2012 and 2013.

Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program

Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman for Making It (NBC)
Nicole Byer for Nailed It! (Netflix)
Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Bobby Berk and Jonathan Van Ness for Queer Eye (Netflix)
RuPaul for RuPaul's Drag Race (VH1)
Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Kevin O'Leary and Robert Herjavec for Shark Tank (ABC)
Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio for Top Chef (Bravo)
I'm repeating what I wrote last year: "The nominees showcase diversity in terms of race, sex, and orientation, so chalk one up for representation." This is true both despite and because only RuPaul, Amy Poehler, and Nick Offerman have returned, while the hosts of "Queer Eye," "Shark Tank," and "Nailed It!" have joined them. Even with the changes, I don't think it will change who will win. RuPaul won this category last year and the year before and I expect he'll win again.
Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Program

LEGO Masters – Editing Team (Episode: "Mega City Block") (Fox)
Queer Eye – Ryan Taylor and Tony Zajkowski (Episode: "Disabled but Not Really") (Netflix)
RuPaul's Drag Race – Jamie Martin, Michael Roha, Paul Cross, Michael Lynn Deis and Ryan Mallick (Episode: "I'm That Bitch") (VH1)
Survivor – Michael Greer, Chad Bertalotto, Evan Mediuch, James Ciccarello and Jacob Teixeira (Episode: "It's Like a Survivor Economy") (CBS)
Top Chef – Editing Team (Episode: "The Jonathan Gold Standard") (Bravo)
"Queer Eye" won this last year as well and I expect it will win again.

Follow over the jump for the nominations for "Queer Eye" and other structured reality shows that I've covered before.

Now for the nominations for "Queer Eye" and "Love Is Blind" that I covered in 'Cheer' leads unstructured reality program nominees in a field that recognizes diversity.

Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program

Born This Way (A&E)
Love Is Blind (Netflix)
Queer Eye (Netflix)
RuPaul's Drag Race (VH1)
The Voice (NBC)
This may be the only nomination for "Born This Way," but I doubt it will win, even though the show about young people with Down's Syndrome won this category two years ago. 'Queer Eye' won this award as one of its four Emmy Awards last year, so I'm sure it's favored. "Born This Way" might upset it, but I think either "RuPaul's Drag Race" or "the Voice" would be more likely.
As a consolation for not mentioning "Love Is Blind," I've used its promotional image from Twitter to illustrate this category this time. However, "Queer Eye" is such a favorite that Vox interviewed its casting director for How reality TV shows cast the right people.

How do you find the perfect person for a reality show? We spoke to the casting director for Queer Eye (and a ton of other shows) to find out.

Danielle Gervais is the Emmy-winning casting director for Netflix’s Queer Eye (and she and her team are nominated this year as well). In addition to the hit series, she’s cast everything from Pawn Stars to Wife Swap.

Vox’s Phil Edwards spoke to her about what it takes to find the right people at the center of each episode: the “heroes” that the show’s core cast give a makeover (or, in Danielle’s words, a “make better”).

It’s not just her and her team sitting in an audition room. After hashing out story themes and location for the new season, they’ll hit the ground in their new setting (in normal circumstances) and try to find the perfect people to feature on the show. Extensive interviews and background checks help finish the project — and the result of all that hard work is an hour of seamless entertainment, with a perfect star at the center.
As a former reality TV superfan, I found this both entertaining and informative, along with confirming my long-held suspicions about the casting process.* It was also presented in an innovative and engaging manner. That reminds me that Vox has a nomination for Outstanding New Approaches: Arts, Lifestyle and Culture at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards for "We Measured Pop Music's Falsetto Obsession." Based on the comments to this video, I wouldn't be surprised if this video earns a nomination in that category next year.
Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Program

Cheer (Episode: "Hit Zero") (Netflix)
Life Below Zero (Episode: "The New World") (Nat Geo)
Queer Eye (Episode: "We're in Japan!: Japanese Holiday") (Netflix)
RuPaul's Drag Race (VH1)
Survivor (CBS)
On the other hand, "Life Below Zero" has a decent shot at repeating here, as it won this award last year. I think its strongest competition consists of "Cheer" based on the trailer and "Survivor" based on my experience of watching the show.
I would be very surprised if "Queer Eye" wins this category.
Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program

Greg Whiteley for Cheer (Episode: "Daytona") (Netflix)
Rich Kim for LEGO Masters (Episode: "Mega City Block") (Fox)
Hisham Abed for Queer Eye (Episode: "Disabled but Not Really") (Netflix)
Nick Murray for RuPaul's Drag Race (Episode: "I'm That Bitch") (VH1)
Ariel Boles for Top Chef (Episode: "The Jonathan Gold Standard") (Bravo)
"Queer Eye" won this category this year, but I think "Cheer" is likely to give it a run for its money.
I still think so.

I wrote about the final category in It's Saturday night, so here are the 15 Emmy nominations for 'Saturday Night Live', so I'm being a good environmentalist and recycling it.
Outstanding Production Design for a Variety, Reality or Competition Series

At Home with Amy Sedaris (Episodes: "Outdoor Entertaining", "Travel") (truTV)
Drunk History (Episode: "Bad Blood") (Comedy Central)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Episode: "Episode 629") (HBO)
Queer Eye (Episode: "We're in Japan!: The Ideal Woman") (Netflix)
Saturday Night Live (Episodes: "Host: Eddie Murphy", "Host: John Mulaney") (NBC)
SNL won this award both times in its current form and also in its previous incarnation as Outstanding Production Design for a Variety, Nonfiction, Reality or Reality-Competition Series. It's the favorite and it helps that the last show to beat it, "Portlandia," is no longer airing new episodes.
In a game of one of these things is not like the others, "Queer Eye" stands out as the one reality show nominee. That's one of the reasons I don't think it will win this category. Even so, I expect the makeover show will repeat in at least three of the four categories it won last year.

That's it for reality programs for now, as "RuPaul's Drag Race" is competing at the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Competition Program. That can wait, so I'm skipping to television movies for the next installment of this series. Stay tuned.

*I was such a fan that I became one of the moderators for a reality TV fan discussion board in the early years of the 2000s. I was in charge of the Inside Info and Outlandish Speculation forums for "Survivor." It seems like another life now.

Previous posts about the 2020 Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards

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