US television's Emmys get 'real'

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By Peter Bowes BBC News, Los Angeles

American television's annual awards extravaganza is bowing to the inevitable and preparing to put on a show that honours the growing phenomenon of reality TV.

Twenty million viewers routinely tune in for American Idol

In the past decade it is a genre of entertainment that has exploded onto TV screens and captivated audiences. But it has been given relatively little attention by The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which puts on the Emmys.

Increasingly the show has been dominated by little-seen, but critically acclaimed comedies and dramas. This year is no exception.

"There isn't a clunker anywhere," says Mary McNamara, television critic for the Los Angeles Times.

"We had great television last year. You have a lot of really great shows but a lot of the shows don't have huge numbers," she says.

The drama, Mad Men, which is set in the advertising industry in the 1960s, has 16 nominations.

It has been widely lauded by critics, but relatively few Americans have seen it.

Less than 2 million people tuned in for the latest episode compared with the 20 million that routinely tuned in for American Idol, earlier this year.

Backlash

"Critics are saying, why aren't we seeing the shows that are huge getting the nominations, and the shows that are huge are obviously the reality shows," says Ms McNamara.

"I think there was stodginess, a prejudice against it."

There has also been an industry backlash against reality TV because it relies so much on unscripted content and does not involve professional actors.

Television has changed… it's not just about small movies on TV any more. Heidi Klum, host, Project Runway

The long-running writers' dispute was, in part, over union control of so-called unscripted programmes. The strike ended but the matter was not resolved.

So with a backdrop of unease and some resentment that reality TV has flourished, while more traditional forms of television have struggled, the TV Academy has decided to give it a central role in this weekend's show.

A new category has been created and the Academy will anoint its first outstanding host for a reality or reality-competition programme.

Unusually, the nominees in the category have also been chosen to host the entire Emmys show.

American Idol's Ryan Seacrest will join forces with Tom Bergeron (Dancing With the Stars), Howie Mandel (Deal or No Deal), Jeff Probst (Survivor) and the German model Heidi Klum, who presents the fashion-based reality show, Project Runway.

'Evolution'

"Television has changed…it's not just about small movies on TV any more or the things that we are used to watch on television," say Klum.

"Over the last ten years, reality television has become part of our culture. So I think to add that to the Emmys is just right."

American Idol host Ryan Seacrest will co-host this year's Emmys

A reality show is loosely defined as one which is unscripted and involves ordinary people. The genre includes programmes that, once upon a time, were simply called game shows or talent contests.

"Throughout the last few years we've seen the evolution of unscripted shows and their popularity with audiences," says Seacrest.

The organisers will be hoping that the reality hosts' collective audience of about 70 million, in the US, will somehow rub off on the Emmys.

Last year's telecast was watched by just 13 million, the second-smallest Emmy audience on record.

"It's going to be interesting to see how it works," says Ms McNamara.

"Heidi Klum - God bless her, and I love her show - is not the most vibrant personality on live television."

The TV critic expects Mandel, a stand up comic, and Probst, to "do fine." But she is not convinced that splitting the presenting duties five ways will work.

"I think the risk that they run is that it is going to be very uneven - you're going to have dead air and good air."