Poll Results - What Show Do You Think Should Win The Emmy For Outstanding Reality Competition Series?

This category showed a big drop-off form the Outstanding Actor in a Drama category in terms of number of votes cast. I suppose I should probably blame that on my singular lack of posting during the polling period. There are reasons for that – I wasn't feeling that great and I have been dealing with a serious bit of Writer's Block – but it's also the case that this category rarely draws a lot of voters.

So let's get down to the nitty gritty. There were four votes cast. With no votes we have Dancing With The Stars and Project Runway. Tied for second place, with one vote each (25%) are The Amazing Race, and Top Chef. And the winner with two votes (50%) is American Idol.

Now let's state for the record that this is not how it's going to go down in reality. The most likely winner in this category – as it has been since the category started is The Amazing Race although I will grant you that it may face a bit of a challenge this year from Dancing With The Stars. It was always my contention that The Amazing Race is the one reality-competition series that members of ATAS could vote for without feeling guilty because it was the one that was least insular. It seems classy, showing Americans the world. If Dancing With The Stars stands any sort of chance it is because it is a show that a lot of the actor members of the Academy would really like to participate in if only they had the time to do it. The show is sometimes criticized for getting "Z-List" celebrities, but the fact is that what they get are the people who are able to take weeks off their schedule to train to dance. That's more likely to be Marie Osmond than it is Marg Helgenberger. As for the rest of the shows, I find it odd that the same show was nominated twice. Because that's what Top Chef and Project Runway (and the other Bravo reality competition shows) are. They follow exactly the same format – a quick challenge to give someone immunity or some other advantage – followed by a major creative competition judges by a panel of judges including one guest judge, after which one participant is judged "the winner" and three others are selected for possible elimination. Strip away the details – replace food with fashion or hair or whatever – and they're all the same show. And what's more that show is Survivor except without the day to day struggle for food and fire. In truth I'd rather the Chinese edition of Survivor had been nominated than one of these shows. Finally we're left with American Idol, a show which still dominates the competition on the nights that it's on in terms of ratings. The problem for the show at least is that those ratings are declining to the point where they're doing some revamping for the coming season by adding a fourth judge. And if past performance at the Emmys is any indication it doesn't do well with Emmy voters. It certainly doesn't do well with me as a viewer.

Now if someone could explain to me why Phil Keoghan wasn't nominated for Outstanding Reality Host I'd be most grateful. I mean Tome Bergeron doesn't dance, and as for Jeff Probst, he kicks back at the crew camp drinking beer and watching satellite TV while those people on the show are getting bitten by malarial mosquitoes and gashing open parts of their bodies I don't even want to think about. Meanwhile Keoghan is racing around the world with the competitors on the show and he has to finish first every damned time.

New poll up shortly.