Friday, August 8, 2025

'RuPaul's Drag Race' leads nominations for Outstanding Reality Competition Program, but 'The Traitors' will likely win again


I closed 'Shark Tank' vs. 'Queer Eye' for Outstanding Structured Reality Program at the Emmy Awards by telling my readers, "Stay tuned as I take one more bite at the reality TV apple when I examine the competition shows." Here are the nominees at the Primetime Emmy Awards.
Outstanding Reality Competition Program
  • The Amazing Race (CBS)
  • RuPaul's Drag Race (MTV)
  • Survivor (CBS)
  • Top Chef (Bravo)
  • The Traitors (Peacock)
The main RuPaul's Drag Race leads with eight nominations. Add in RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked and the franchise has ten total. The Amazing Race sits in second with six. Defending winner The Traitors follows with five ahead of Survivor with four. Top Chef trails the field with three.

Gold Derby's odds scramble this order with 90% of experts, 83.3% of editors, and 83.6% of users expecting last year's winner The Traitors to repeat, 10% of experts and 10.1% of users think long-time winner RuPaul's Drag Race will return to the podium, 16.7% of editors and 2.1% chose Survivor, which replaced The Voice, to come from not being nominated last year to win in an upset, 2.8% of users picked Top Chef, and 1.4% of users have The Amazing Race in the back of the pack. If I were a Gold Derby user, I'd vote for The Traitors.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the nominations earned by the nominees for Outstanding Reality Competition Program.


I'm continuing with the nominations for the above nominees at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards I haven't covered yet.
Outstanding Lighting Design / Lighting Direction for a Series
  • American Idol: "Songs of Faith" – Tom Sutherland, James Coldicott, Hunter Selby, Andrew Law, Nathan Files, Chris Roseli, Matt McAdam, Luke Chantrell, and Ed Moore (ABC)
  • Dancing with the Stars: "Semi-Finals" – Noah Mitz, Madigan Stehly, Patrick Brazil, Joe Holdman, Matt Benson, Matt McAdam, Ed Moore, and Kevin Faust (ABC)
  • RuPaul's Drag Race: "The Wicked Wiz Of Oz: The Rusical!" – Gus Dominguez and Steve Moreno (MTV)
  • Saturday Night Live: "Host: Lady Gaga" – Geoffrey Amoral, Rick McGuinness, William McGuinness, Trevor Brown, Tim Stasse, Frank Grisanti, and Reginald Campbell (NBC)
  • The Voice: "Live Finale (Part 1)" – Oscar Dominguez, Ronald Wirsgalla, Erin Anderson, Vanessa Arciga, Andrew Munie, Jeff Shood, and Terrance Ho (NBC)
Both Dancing with the Stars and The Voice have won this decade, but Saturday Night Live has won more times than both combined and is the defending winner, so it's my pick to win.

Outstanding Makeup for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program
  • The Boulet Brothers' Dragula: "Welcome to Hell" – The Boulet Brothers (Shudder)
  • Dancing with the Stars: "Halloween Nightmares" – Zena S. Green, Julie Socash, Donna Bard, Lois Harriman, Brian Sipe, James MacKinnon, Tyson Fountaine, and Angela Moos (ABC)
  • The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl – Bruce Grayson, Jill Cady, Brielle McKenna, James MacKinnon, Rochelle Uribe, Tyson Fountaine, and Angela Wells (Disney)
  • A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter – Diana Oh, Vanessa Dionne, Alicia Carbajal, Ashley Joy Beck, and Carolina Gonzalez (Netflix)
  • RuPaul's Drag Race: "Bitch, I'm a Drag Queen!" – Natasha Marcelina, David Petruschin, Jen Fregozo, and Nicole Faulkner (MTV)
  • SNL50: The Anniversary Special – Louie Zakarian, Jason Milani, Amy Tagliamonti, Rachel Pagani, Young Bek, Stephen Kelley, and Joanna Pisani (NBC)
SNL is the last year's winner, but SNL50: The Anniversary Special earned the nomination instead, so it's my pick to win. RuPaul's Drag Race, also a previous winner, will have a hard time overcoming a celebration of television. Electorates matter.

Next, the categories I covered in 'Shark Tank' vs. 'Queer Eye' for Outstanding Structured Reality Program at the Emmy Awards.

Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program
  • RuPaul Charles – RuPaul's Drag Race (MTV)
  • Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Kevin O'Leary, Barbara Corcoran, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Daniel Lubetzky – Shark Tank (ABC)
  • Alan Cumming – The Traitors (Peacock)
  • Kristen Kish – Top Chef (Bravo)
  • Jeff Probst – Survivor (CBS)
The only award the sharks are likely to win is a game of "one of these things is not like the others," as they are the only hosts of a structured reality program nominated; all the rest are hosts of competition shows. Gold Derby has them in last place with only 0.2% of users placing long-shot bets on them. Alan Cumming of The Traitors is the choice of every editor and expert along with 87.2% of users. RuPaul Charles of RuPaul's Drag Race has the support of 8.2% of users, followed by Jeff Probst of Survivor with 2.3%, Kristen Kish of Top Chef with 2.1%, and the poor sharks in last.
More users have jumped on the Alan Cumming bandwagon, as 88.0% now pick him to win. That support has come at the expense of RuPaul and Jeff Probst, who now have only 7.6% and 2.1%, respectively, of users's votes.

Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Program
  • The Amazing Race – Kellen Cruden, Eric Beetner, Kevin Blum, Christina Fontana, Jay Gammill, Eric Goldfarb, Katherine Griffin, Jason Groothuis, Darrick Lazo, Ryan Leamy, Josh Lowry, Steve Mellon, Michelle Ivan Messina, Paul Nielsen, and Steven Urrutia (CBS)
  • Queer Eye: "She Was a Showgirl" – Jennifer Roth, Mickala Andres, and Carlos J. Gamarra (Netflix)
  • RuPaul's Drag Race: "Squirrel Games" – Jamie Martin, Paul Cross, Ryan Mallick, and Michael Roha (MTV)
  • The Traitors: "Let Battle Commence" – Patrick Owen and James Seddon-Brown (Peacock)
  • The Voice – Sean Basaman, John M. Larson, Robert M. Malachowski JR., Matt Antell, John Baldino, Matthew Blair, Melissa Silva Borden, William Fabian Castro, Norwood Cheek, Andrew Ciancia, Nicholas Don Vito, Glen Ebesu, Rick Enrique, Greg Fitzsimmons, Brian Freundlich, Noel A. Guerra, John Homesley, Omega Hsu, Niki Hunter, Ryan P. James, Lise Kearney, Alyssa Dressman Lehner, Terri Maloney, James J. Munoz, Jonathan Provost, Rich Remis, Robby Thompson, Matt Wafaie, and Eric Wise (NBC)
The Voice is the returning winner, RuPaul's Drag Race won three of the four years between 2020 and 2023 plus 2017, and Queer Eye won in 2018 and 2019. I think it's among those three in that order unless The Traitors pulls a major upset.
No change in my opinion, so on to the categories I covered in 'Welcome to Wrexham' vs. 'Love on the Spectrum' for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program at the Emmy Awards for a pre-production category.

Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program
  • The Amazing Race – Jesse Tannenbaum, Alex Stiner, Kayla Kellerbauer, and Pollyanna Jacobs (CBS)
  • Love on the Spectrum – Cian O'Clery, Sean Bowman, and Emma Choate (Netflix)
  • Queer Eye – Danielle Gervais, Jessica Jorgenson, Natalie Pino, and Brian Puentes (Netflix)
  • RuPaul's Drag Race – Goloka Bolte, Adam Cook, and Michelle Redwine (MTV)
  • Survivor – Jesse Tannenbaum, Caitlin Moore, Penni Lane Clifton, and Daniel Gradias (CBS)
Love on the Spectrum is the defending winner, so it's my pick to repeat.
Queer Eye won this award twice in 2018 and 2019 and RuPaul's Drag Race won it in 2020 and 2021, so neither are out of the running.
The Amazing Race and Survivor are the OG reality competition programs I was following 20 years ago, so I appreciate their longevity and continued quality.

Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Program
  • The Amazing Race – Joshua Gitersonke, Bryan T. Adams, Kathryn Barrows, Kurt Carpenter, Petr Cikhart, Stephen A. Coleman, David D'Angelo, Matthew Di Girolamo, Adam Haisinger, Jamie Holland, Kevin R. Johnson, Jay Kaufman, Ian Kerr, Tim Laks, Regan Letourneau, Danny Long, Lucas Kenna Mertes, Ryan Shaw, Will Shipp, Holly Thompson, and Alan Weeks (CBS)
  • Life Below Zero – Michael Cheeseman, Danny Day, Jason Hubbell, Ben Mullin, Charlie Beck, Dwayne Fowler, Jensen Walker, Brian Bitterfeld, Jeffrey Alexander, Tyler Colgan, Ashton Hurlburt, Jayce Kolinski and Wayne Shockey (National Geographic)
  • Love on the Spectrum: "Episode 7" – Dave May and Cian O'Clery (Netflix)
  • Survivor – Peter Wery, Scott Duncan, Russ Fill, Cullum Andrews, Tim Barker, Marc Bennett, James Boon, Paulo Castillo, Rodney Chauvin, Chris Ellison, Ben Gamble, Nixon George, Marcus Hebbelmann, Derek Hoffmann, Matthias Hoffmann, Toby Hogan, Derek Holt, Efrain "Mofi" Laguna, Kyle McAuley, Ian Miller, Nico Nyoni, Paul Peddinghaus, Louis Powell, Thomas Pretorius, Erick Sarmiento, Dirk Steyn, John Tattersall, Holly Thompson, Paulo Velozo, Christopher Barker, Granger Scholtz, Nic Van Der Westhuizen, Dwight Winston, and Kenny Hoffmann (CBS)
  • The Traitors – Siggi Rosen-Rawlings, Matt Wright, Jack Booth, Alex Bruno, Ned Ellis-Jones, Ollie Green, Quin Jessop, Guy Linton, Joshua Montague, Paul Rudge, James Spencer, Matt Thomson, Alex Took, and Melvin Wright (Peacock)
Love on the Spectrum may have more nominations that Life Below Zero, which has two, but the latter is the defending multi-year winner, losing only to Welcome to Wrexham, which is not nominated in this category this year. Because of that, it's my pick to return to the podium in September.
I doubt The Amazing Race or Survivor will win, but they always show beautiful scenery.

Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program
  • The Amazing Race: "It Smells Like the Desert" – Bertram van Munster (CBS)
  • Love on the Spectrum: "Episode 7" – Cian O'Clery (Netflix)
  • RuPaul's Drag Race: "Squirrel Games" – Nick Murray (MTV)
  • Top Chef: "Foraged in Fire" – Ariel Boles (Bravo)
  • The Traitors – Ben Archard (Peacock)
Love on the Spectrum is the defending winner, so it's my pick to return to the podium. Only RuPaul's Drag Race among the nominees has won this award recently, so it's my second choice.
I doubt Top Chef will win, either, but at least it's mounting a campaign on Twitter/X.

Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Reality Program
  • The Amazing Race – Jim Ursulak, Allie Boettger, Paul Bruno, John Buchanan, Dean Gaveau, Ryan P. Kelly, Marcus Lominy, Richard Chardy Lopez, Mickey McMullen, Sean Milburn, Paul Orozco, Simon Paine, John Pitron, Jeff Zipp, Troy Smith, and Ryan Gerle (CBS)
  • American Idol: "Grand Finale" – Patrick Smith, Randy Faustino, Michael Parker, Manny Barrajas, Christian Schrader, Jesse Dunham, Barry Weir Jr., and Adrian Ordonez (ABC)
  • Deadliest Catch: "My Brother's Keeper" – Jared Robbins (Discovery Channel)
  • The Voice: "Live Finale, Part 2" – Michael Abbott, Randy Faustino, Tim Hatayama, Christian Schrader, Carlos Torres, Andrew Fletcher, Shaun Sebastian, Kenyata Westbrook, Colin Bonney, Servio Escobedo, John Koster, Robert P. Matthews Jr., Marlon Moore, and Ryan Young (NBC)
  • Welcome to Wrexham: "Down to the Wire" – Mark Jensen (FX)
I may be featuring the Twitter/X promotional image for Deadliest Catch, but Welcome to Wrexham is the two-time defending winner here, too. The only nominees that might prevent it from three-peating this category are American Idol and The Voice, and only if the voters settle on which is the better singing competition show.
No change in my opinion, so I close with a nomination I examined in John Oliver examines 'Gang Databases' plus 'Last Week Tonight's six Emmy nominations.

Outstanding Production Design for a Variety or Reality Series
  • The Daily Show: "Jon Stewart & The News Team Live at The Chicago DNC" – Dave Edwards, Lauren Browning (Comedy Central)
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live!: "December 11, 2024", "December 12, 2024", "February 13, 2025" – David Ellis, Hillarie Brigode, and Heidi Miller (ABC)
  • Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: "Mass Deportations" – Eric Morrell, Hugh Zeigler, and Amanda Carzoli (HBO)
  • RuPaul's Drag Race: "RDR Live!" – Jen Chu, Gavin Smith (MTV)
  • Saturday Night Live: "Host: Lady Gaga" – Akira Yoshimura, Keith Ian Raywood, Joe DeTullio, Andrea Purcigliotti, Patrick Lynch, and Sara Parks (NBC)
SNL has won this award four of the past five years, including last year, while RuPaul's Drag Race won this the year before last, so I am again handicapping this category in that order.
RuPaul's Drag Race would definitely win a game of "one of these things is not like the others," but that might not be enough this year.

That's a wrap for this installment. I might examine the remaining nominations for the singing and dancing talent shows next, but that won't be until after Veep Day tomorrow, the winners of the Super Awards for the Sunday entertainment feature, and something scientific, environmental, or historical on Monday. Stay tuned.

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