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Its a category that has, since its inception in 2003,only seen five different winners.
Yet heresThe Traitors, nominated in this category for the first time and even favored by some to win.
How did Peacock find a crack in the wall, and whats the secret toThe Traitors Emmy success?
For starters, Peacock campaigned the heck out of it.
Press events featuredthe shows loquacious host Alan Cummingandlong-awaited reunionsfor rival cast membersPhaedra ParksandDan Gheesling.
Were any of those people potential Emmy voters?
But it seems like in FYC season every little bit of publicity counts.
But the bigger clue toThe Traitors Emmys glow-up this year might lie in the shows smaller-scale success last year.
Season one got a lonesome nomination in 2023, for Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program.
That casting win feels like the ultimate precursor forThe Traitorsleveling up in nominations this year.
Everything starts with casting, saysTraitorsproducer Sam Rees-Jones.
Ifyouare a Traitor, well, confirm your castmates dont come to that conclusion.
And thats because reality TV isnt so much a genre but an umbrella under whichmanygenres of TV shows exist.
I could tell you everything about being a home cook.
Currently there are four casting awards, for comedy, drama, limited series, and reality TV.
What I would like to eventually see is unstructured, structured, and competition categories.
This way, she says, you wouldnt getLove on the Spectrumcompeting againstAmazing Race.
Are the contestants engaging, interesting?
The reality TV categories at the Emmys are still relatively new in the grand scheme of things.
Outstanding Reality Program was introduced in 2001 for shows like the documentary-styleAmerican Highand the late-night HBO stapleTaxicab Confessions.
Outstanding Reality Competition arrived in 2003 to accommodate theSurvivor/Amazing Racewave of shows.
It wasnt until 2014 that Outstanding Reality Program was split into Structured and Unstructured categories.
times, though that shows structure is a bit looser.
So BravosThe Real HousewivesandBelow Deckfranchises and shows like NetflixsSelling Sunset, HBOsWere Here, and FXsWelcome to Wrexham.
Meanwhile, craft categories have been routinely split to reflect the different genre requirements that go into them.
Choreography was split into reality and scripted categories in 2019.
Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Program was spun off from Cinematography for a Non-Fiction Program in 2006.
The editing categories were split between structured and unstructured reality shows in 2016.
An effort to similarly diversify the casting category seems both sensible and likely to succeed, sooner or later.
The idea isnt without precedent.
But it would also rocket to the top of the list of most interesting Emmy categories.
