Nothing succeeds like success

In politics, there are elections; in sports, playoffs; in business, there’s the annual Fortune 500. Every vocation, it seems, has some way of measuring success. As for the entertainment industry, movie grosses and Nielsen ratings are fine, but what the industry really likes to do is pat itself on the back, preferably in front of as big an audience as possible.

This self-congratulatory system has long been ripening for a takedown but is only now getting it, thanks to Trio -- a relatively new, relatively obscure cable channel that is tackling the subject with “Awards Mania.” The monthlong series about America’s obsession with competition and celebrity kicked off Monday and features vintage television programs, documentaries, films and actual awards programs throughout December.

“Everyone talks about award season, but nobody really talks about the culture of reward that goes along with awards shows,” said Lauren Zalaznick, Trio president. “You’re rewarded for your dress now. You’re rewarded with a rating, with your name in Us magazine. You’re rewarded in so many countless ways other than receiving an award.”

Even sacred cows like the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes are skewered in the series’ flagship, “The Award Show Awards Show,” one of two original documentaries created for the series. The awards show doc, which debuts Sunday, explores the politics of the red carpet and of nomination campaigning. It even creates its own awards -- for most annoying acceptance speech (Ally Sheedy’s nine-minute monologue at the 1999 Independent Spirit Awards) and most meaningless awards show (the Electronic Retailing Assn. -- or Infomercial -- Awards, a ceremony that wasn’t televised).

It’s this sort of playful, cheeky style that is helping to separate Trio from an increasingly predictable cable network pack. While other channels are continuing to dive to the bottom of the reality TV barrel, Trio is choosing to investigate seemingly obvious pop cultural happenings from unorthodox points of view.

The channel, which was redesigned into its current “pop, culture, TV” format two years ago, has won kudos. This summer, Entertainment Weekly magazine named Trio the “It cable channel,” complimenting its “high-sheen” documentaries and referencing the periodic series “Brilliant But Cancelled,” showing episodes from shows that never aired or that had only brief runs.

“People who watch it, especially pop culture geeks like us, just adore it because it basically does what we try to do, which is make its topics mean something,” said Jennifer Armstrong, an Entertainment Weekly TV critic. “It’s sort of like those really addictive E! and MTV and VH1 specials you turn on and can’t get enough of, like ‘The ‘80s.’ Those are great, but Trio takes it to the next level and makes you feel almost intellectual about it.”

Most of the credit goes to the channel’s lengthy explorations of its topics. Many of them are monthlong programs -- an idea that was expanded from the traditional day- and weeklong themes popular on other networks. Zalaznick, a former VH1 programming exec who pioneered that channel’s “100 greatest” format, expanded the theme concept to a month because, she said, “It’s a lot to ask of people in this crowded television age to remember next Tuesday at 8:30 is your only chance.”

During this month’s “Awards Mania,” audiences have the opportunity to see “Queen for a Day,” the classic ‘50s show that crowned women for their sob stories; all three versions of the film “A Star is Born”; and even some episodes of the ‘70s series “Battle of the Network Stars,” which Trio showed during the summer as part of a different themed programming bloc. Several documentaries will also be shown: “Painted Babies,” a 1996 BBC show about a children’s beauty pageant that’s been given a narrative makeover by RuPaul; “Last One Standing,” a 2000 doc about a contest that awarded an SUV to the person who could keep his hand on it the longest; and “The Golden Globes: Hollywood’s Dirty Little Secret,” a Trio original that explores the awards’ process.

The channel will conclude Awards Mania month with a week of actual awards programs: a rebroadcast of this year’s Westminster Dog Show and an AFI tribute to Robert DeNiro.

“It’s not like we don’t love them,” Zalaznick said. “But if you’ve watched anything else all month, you’ll watch those shows in a totally new way.”