The 2007 Peabody Award winners have been announced, and while they get less attention from most people than the Daytime Emmys or those ridiculous Teen Choice surfboards, for people in the industry they’re kind of a big deal. The Peabodys have honored excellence in the electronic media since 1941 (online media became eligible about ten years ago, although so far the ‘Net hasn’t produced many winners), and those who work in radio and television take them very seriously indeed. So it was big news when Project Runway became the first reality TV show to pick up one of the prestigious awards. Commenters on the forum for the last link had mixed reactions, mostly negative:

PaulHan:
Reality television sucks. All of it. There are no exceptions. It is a plague, a cancer that is slowly putting scripted TV down for the count. Over 70% of the four networks’ Tuesday and Wednesday night lineups last week, for example, was reality programming. It sickens me, because we’re at fault for lapping up every last ounce of it. The Peabodys got some ’splainin’ to do with this one. This is their ‘Pia Zadora winning a Golden Globe in 1981′ moment, It’s that bad.

Others, however, were more sanguine about the Peabodys’ reality shout-out:

dannyboy:
Project Runway is fa and away the best reality show on television. I fully support its winning a Peabody. It puts all the other crappy reality shows to shame.

Well put, dannyboy. Project Runway is probably the best crappy reality show out there. So here’s to you, Project Runway, for winning in the coveted category of best of the worst and blazing a trail for other, similar award winners in the years to come.