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.
No comments
I know it’s just because I only watch the “good” ones – Project Runway, Top Chef, things where we get to see people rise to challenges using actual skills – but I don’t see how all reality shows are bad. They’re not like anything else on TV, and they wouldn’t stand up to scripted shows on the standards you use for scripted shows, but neither would scripted shows do well on reality shows’ terms….
…things where we get to see people rise to challenges using actual skills…
Sounds like a legitimate distinction. My beef with reality TV lies more with the more numerous Flavor of Love-style atrocities that are crowding out scripted shows for reasons that have nothing to do with quality and a great deal to do with production costs. Taken as a group, Project Runway really is the best of the worst.
I happen to love Project Runway, bigtime. I pretty much shun all reality television, but Runway got me because I love fashion, and I love seeing how creative the contestants can be.
As for all reality television being trash, it’s not much worse than a lot of the talkshows and game shows that exist. It’s not fair to lump them all in together.