The amazing run of ‘The Amazing Race’
The reality-competition and the variety-music-comedy series Emmy categories have since 2003 annually grown to resemble scenes from the movie “Groundhog Day.”
Odds are, on the night the trophies are handed out, the envelope will be opened and a presenter will utter the words “The Amazing Race” for reality-competition and “The Daily Show” for variety. It’s been this way for seven consecutive years, the two shows currently sharing the Emmy record for successive wins in a single category.
That CBS’ global chase extravaganza “The Amazing Race” has so consistently taken home the Emmy since the inception of the reality-competition grouping has proved vexing to fellow category travelers like the Fox mega-hit “American Idol” (seven nominations, seven losses) and ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” (nominated the last four years without a win).
There have been suggestions that it’s hardly an apples-to-apples match-up to have “The Amazing Race” compete with more artistically driven fare like “Idol” and “Dancing,” that perhaps “Race” should be relegated to a newly formed category like, say, “international team competition series.” Others maintain it’s ludicrous and drives down Emmy interest to continually pay homage to the same show rather than spread the wealth.
But to “Amazing Race” executive producer Bertram Van Munster, it’s silly, if not a little insulting, to debate the merits of a program that wins the Emmy each year fair and square.
“I’m always honestly surprised and extremely honored to win every time, but by the same token I feel we earn the accolades with our extraordinary casting and storytelling,” Van Munster says. “Compared with a lot of other reality shows, we’re non-formulaic and truly unpredictable.”
Van Munster cites a “Race” installment last season that found racers enduring a grueling reenactment of a World War I battle in Massiges, France, and the producers uncovering the remains of a fallen 19-year-old French soldier who had apparently been buried alive during fighting nearly 100 years ago.
“It’s all about avoiding being stagnant,” he maintains, “and no one works harder at staying fresh and imaginative than we do on this show.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, this sentiment isn’t echoed by the ever-colorful Donald Trump, who, while extolling the virtues of his own NBC series, “Celebrity Apprentice,” took a shot at “The Amazing Race” in April in the Hollywood Reporter.
“It’s a shame that ‘Amazing Race’ keeps winning,” Trump said. “It wins every year because they know how to politic the Emmys.... Instead of shows that deserve to win, [the Emmys] pick ‘Amazing Race.’”
Responding to Trump’s smack, Van Munster admits he’s grateful for the free publicity but questions the billionaire hotel magnate’s qualifications for assessing television quality. “[Trump is] completely entitled to his opinion, but he’s a real estate man. It’s tough to take seriously a guy who isn’t even in my profession.”
Trump has something of an ally, however, in reality producer Lamar A. Damon, whose credits include VH1’s “The Surreal Life.” Damon insists that the perennial “Race” success at the Emmys can be attributed to the fact that it has “the longest list of credits of any show — scripted or reality — on TV. And all of those people are members of the TV academy because they work on that show.”
It’s a charge that John Leverence, senior vice president of awards for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, summarily dismisses. He cites the “rigorous” vetting process that protects the integrity of the reality-competition voting panels.
“Last year, we had 152 people sign up to vote in that category,” Leverence stresses. “They come from a broad peer group cross-section of the academy, from film editors to production executives to art directors. No one with any affiliation to a nominated show is permitted to serve on a panel.
“Ultimately, then, we have to conclude that the reason ‘The Amazing Race’ keeps winning every year is that it’s Emmy-worthy and generates the votes.”
Another argument that’s raised by “Dancing With the Stars” executive producer Conrad Green concerns how it’s still “the same group of voters” casting ballots in the category each year and that “it’s hard to break people’s habits in that respect.”
Leverence acknowledges the questions about the “same voters” issue, which is why he says the procedure in reality-competition is being amended this year to mandate that voting panelists who have served for two consecutive years not be permitted to participate in the third year.
But to Jeff Collins, president of the production company Collins Avenue and creator and executive producer of the CW reality show “Fly Girls,” as well as a producer on the WE network’s “Bridezillas,” any haggling over the procedural details shouldn’t serve to denigrate “Amazing Race’s” creative virtues.
“It’s probably the best reality show on television,” Collins says. “You can also argue that it’s the most difficult show to produce because it travels all over the world. And it’s got the broadest appeal. So if ‘Amazing Race’ always wins the Emmy, well, maybe it’s because it should.”