Emmy Winners Announced For Outstanding Reality Program, Reality Host
Tonight, the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards were broadcast on ABC. Two awards were presented that have ties to what we do here on BuzzerBlog: Since the Outstanding Reality Competition award was established in 2003, CBS’s The Amazing Race has won every year except for 2010 when Top Chef took the honor. This year was nothing different. For the ninth time in ten years, the Phil Keoghan-led program took the top crown at the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards. This year, the reality game beat out Dancing With The Stars, Project Runway, So You Think You Can Dance, Top Chef, and The Voice.
The guaranteed surprise came in the form of the award for Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality Competition Program. The Reality Host award was established in 2008 and, every year since then, Jeff Probst has won for Survivor. Interestingly enough, he was not even in the nomination field for 2012. This year’s first time winner was Tom Bergeron, taking the crown for his work on Dancing With The Stars. He hosted Hollywood Squares for six years previously, winning a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host in 2000 for it, becoming the first person to win both awards. His competition this year was Betty White for Betty White’s Off Their Rockers, Cat Deeley for So You Think You Can Dance, Phil Keoghan for The Amazing Race, and Ryan Seacrest for American Idol.
Congratulations to both. The Amazing Race is a fantastically produced program given all the obstacles it faces each season and Tom Bergeron has been a textbook example of a great television host for many, many years.






Very happy for Tom! I have been a fan of his since he hosted Hollywood Squares
I… I find it impossible to be excited about TAR’s win. The show was no question the one to beat when the category was established, but since then it’s felt very lazy in a majority of aspects. I’d certainly rather have seen The Voice or SYTYCD win in the Reality-Competition category.
Also, it’s complete BS that Undercover Boss beat Shark Tank in Reality Program. Complete and total BS.
Uhh…no it’s not. Undercover Boss is a great show. It’s touching without being maudlin. It shines a light on the great workers either behind the scenes or with long tenure that normally fade into the background. And most amazingly, it humanizes entrepreneurs and business leaders, a group of people that have been so maligned the past few years. They aren’t the horrible caricatures that some make them out to be. They are strong. They take risks. They come from varied families. It’s a very heartening show that I enjoy very much. I think it deserved it immensely.
Amazing Race, well, I have to agree with you on that. It’s just boring that the same series wins year after year. Nobody’s going to remember this Emmy for TAR. Everyone’s going to remember Damian Lewis and Claire Danes BOTH getting Emmys for “Homeland”.
On a side-note, I don’t like Undercover Boss, because it shows that the executives who run a company somehow got to that position without even knowing how to do the basics. It only proves that the people at the bottom of the food chain are doing all the work, while the manager and execs sit comfy up top.
Yes, they do help 3-4 of their employees each episode, but just imagine how many more employees are in their company that are also in the same situation — working hours upon hours doing physical labor at minimum wage. Unbelievable.
Someone finally got it. The two best hosts on TV are the ones who won Emmys this year: Todd Newton won Best Game Show Host, and Tom Bergeron won Best Reality Show Host. There’s NO ONE better than these two guys right now. Seacrest is in the ballpark, but Newton and Bergeron are the BEST.
Way to go Tom!
And they both share the same pedigree: the long-lost FX program Breakfast Time, where Tom was an in-studio host, and Phil was one of the “roving reporters” that took to the field (the password is, maybe, “Foreshadowing”), along with Suzanne Whang, John Burke, and Gwen McGhee (the one everyone but me seems to forget). Nicely done!
A belated hats-off to Tom Bergeron for his Emmy win last night.
Congratulations on nabbing your second Emmy, Tom.
(His first being a Daytime one for Hollywood Squares 12 years ago.)