Welcome back to my 7th edition of the Emmy B-Team. The idea is pretty simple. People like to complain about the Emmy nominations. They point out one or two "snubs", never consider what's actually on the nominating ballots*, and say that the Emmy voters did a bad job. The skeptic that I am, I wanted to find out if the Emmy picks were really that bad. So, years ago I looked through the official Emmy nominating ballots. I created an alternate group of non-nominated performers/episodes/shows and compared those groups to the actual nominees to see which was stronger. I'll spare you the suspense: The Nominees always win handily, although it's close in the Drama and Comedy categories. Now, this serves as a fun way for me to point out the biggest snubs, audit the Emmy picks more fairly, and point out some quirks in the nominating ballots**.
*Remember, a show, person, or episode can only be nominated if it is submitted. Even if you want every episode of Watchmen to be nominated for writing, that won't happen, since they only submitted some of the episodes.
**You'd be surprised how often that actor you thought was snubbed wasn't even on the official ballot or had listed himself as a lead instead of a supporting actor.
I don't do every category. I don't pretend that I've seen everything or that I fully understand all the categories. I'm a one-man operation talking about hundreds of shows. I'm doing the best I can.
Next up are the Reality categories, which I fully guess about.
* Indicates a show that I haven't watched this season.
# Indicates a show I've seen before, not this season.
Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Competition Program
Nominees
*Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman (Making It)
*Nicole Byer (Nailed It!) (Netflix)
*Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness (Queer Eye)
*RuPaul (RuPaul's Drag Race)
*Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec, Kevin O'Leary (Shark Tank)
*Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio (Top Chef)
B-Team
Will Arnett (LEGO Masters)
*Julie Chen-Mooves (Big Brother)
*Cat Deeley (So You Think You Can Dance)
Matt Iseman & Akbar Gbajabiamila (American Ninja Warrior)
*Jeff Probst (Survivor)
*Ryan Seacrest (American Idol)
It still pleases me so much to see Nick Offerman with Emmy nominations. That plus the always worthy RuPaul and the metric tonage of Queer Eye guys make the Nominees pretty formidable. Meanwhilwe, the B-Team has folks like Will Arnett or the American Ninja Warrior hosts: shows I really don't watch for the hosts.
Winner: Nominees (Dominant)
Outstanding Structured Reality Program
Nominees
*Antiques Roadshow
*Love Is Blind
*Queer Eye
*Shark Tank
*A Very Brady Renovation
B-Team
*Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings
*ENCORE!
*Impractical Jokers
*It's Personal With Amy Hoggart
*Savage Builds
10 shows. I watch none of them. I had to work pretty hard to put together a B-Team, so that fact that the Nominees have institutions like Antiques Roadshow and Queer Eye give them the edge.
Winner: Nominees (Comfortably)
Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program
Nominees
*Amy Schumer Learns To Cook: Lunch Break And Pasta Night
Cheer
*Kevin Hart : Don’t F**k This Up
*RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked
*We're Here
B-Team
*Born This Way
*Deadliest Catch
*Intervention
*Naked And Afraid
*Wahlburgers
I love Naked and Afraid and Wahlburgers as show titles. Born This Way, Deadliest Catch, and Intervention are all past winners, making the B-Team the more tenured of the two groups. Cheer was one of my favorite shows of the year though. Mix in the Drag Race brand, and it's a pretty easy decision.
Winner: Nominees (Comfortably)
Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series Or Special
Nominees
#Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee
*Leah Remini: Scientology And The Aftermath
*Ugly Delicious
*VICE
*The World According To Jeff Goldblum
B-Team
*Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives
#Inside the Actors Studio
*Jay Leno's Garage
*Oprah Talks COVID-19
*Somebody Feed Phil
They just keeps finding ways to split up the reality categories, which makes it harder for me to fill any B-Teams. I can't say I have any affection for the shows in the B-Team, although Oprah + COVID-19 sure is a powerful pair in 2020. I guess I'll stick with former winner, Scientology and the Aftermath, other former winner, Vice, and the show where Jeff Golblum talks about stuff.
Winner: Nominees (Comfortably)
Outstanding Competition Program
Nominees
*The Masked Singer
*Nailed It!
*RuPaul's Drag Race
*Top Chef
*The Voice
B-Team
*America's Got Talent
#American Idol
American Ninja Warrior
Battlebots
LEGO Masters
Drag Race is a power house. The Masked Singer is a bonafide hit still. Top Chef and The Voice are former winners. Personally, I do watch more of the shows in the B-Team. I was sad to see American Ninja Warrior fall out of the field, probably due to it not being on this summer during the nomination phase. I thoroughly enjoy Battlebots and LEGO Masters, but I understand how niche they are. I'll give this to the Nominees, but I'm not happy about it.
Winner: Nominees (Comfortably)
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5-0 Nominees
Maybe if I watched more reality TV, I'd have better opinions here. I suspect not. The cream rises reasonably well in these categories.
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