‘Dear…’ Nominated For Critics Choice Real TV Award

By Matt Grobar
Deadline
June 2nd, 2021

When nominations for the third annual Critics Choice Real TV Awards were announced on Wednesday, RuPaul’s Drag Race led with five.

At the award show, recognizing “excellence in nonfiction, unscripted and reality programing across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms,” the long-running VH1 series is up for Best Competition Series, Best Ensemble Cast In An Unscripted Series, Best Show Host (RuPaul), Male Star of the Year (RuPaul) and Female Star of the Year (Michelle Visage).

Other series leading in noms this year, with three each, include Queer Eye (Netflix), Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (CNN), Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi (Hulu) and Top Chef (Bravo).

The leader this year among networks is Netflix, which scored 22 nominations. HBO / HBO Max (with 14) follows the streamer in nominations, along with Food Network / Food Network Kitchen (with six), VH1 (with six), National Geographic / Nat Geo WILD (with 5) and Discovery Channel / discovery+ (with 5).

At this year’s ceremony, the late Alex Trebek will be honored with the Impact Award, which recognizes an outstanding individual for career excellence, as well as the positive impact they’ve made on the world of nonfiction content. The beloved Jeopardy host, who passed away from pancreatic cancer in November of 2020, is specifically being recognized for “his longstanding commitment to the pursuit of excellence” and “his continual encouragement of curiosity.”

“As the number of platforms continues to grow, the quality of unscripted television programming has skyrocketed, and we are thrilled to be able to recognize so much great work, especially at the end of a year when this content was needed more than ever,” said Critics Choice Association CEO Joey Berlin in a statement. “We are looking forward to celebrating this year’s winners, and our most deserving Impact Award honoree Alex Trebek, later this month.”

Bob Bain and Joey Berlin are exec producing the Critics Choice Real TV Awards alongside NPACT’s Michelle Van Kempen.

Winners in two categories—Female Star of the Year and Male Star of the Year— will be chosen by fan voting, which is now open here. All winners will be announced on Monday, June 21.

BEST ONGOING DOCUMENTARY SERIES

• American Masters (PBS)

• Dear … (Apple TV+)

• Frontline (PBS)

• POV (PBS)

• The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth (Showtime)

• The Vow (HBO)

The full list of nominees can be found here.