The 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards takes place this Monday night, September 17th. It will be broadcast live on NBC and hosted by Saturday Night Live cuties Michael Che and Colin Jost.
It’s an evening where the biggest stars from television and more will be present for an evening filled with hilarity, emotion and a bunch of jabs towards our current administration (par for the course). There will also be a ton of LGBTQ representation during the ceremony, in particular with the show RuPaul’s Drag Race which is up for Outstanding Reality Competition Program for a second year in a row.
RPDR already took home a bunch of honors at the 2018 Creative Emmys this past weekend. This included RuPaul himself winning Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program and season 3 contestant Delta Work (Gabriel Villarreal) for Best Contemporary Hair Styling – Television and New Media Series (shared with Hector Pocasangre).
The only award left that they are nominated for that hasn’t been presented yet is Outstanding Reality Competition Program, which will be given out during the live show. In my honest opinion, RPDR deserves to win this more than any of the other shows nominated for several reasons, five of which are listed below.
Enough with The Voice and The Amazing Race Winning
The Voice has yet to produce a star (please correct me if I’m wrong), yet they’ve had a bajillion seasons at this point. To me, that show is about molding the careers of the judges that come and go on it and not the contestants. Drag Race has produced 126 stars at this point, all of which are household names who sell out shows on a global level and have become very profitable in the process.
As for The Amazing Race, its enough already. The show has won 10 times and I forget that its even on the air at this point. The only other series besides these two that have won in this category is Top Chef. All three are up against RPDR this Monday night alongside Project Runway and American Ninja Warrior.
Ru Won Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program 3 Years in a Row
It takes a village, and that village deserves an award just as much as Ru. Why not just do a two-in-one and give them that Emmy just like they did with Outstanding Host? Yas, gawd!
The Show Island Hopped to a Much Bigger Network
When your show is that fantastic, that amazing and that major that it goes from a barely known network (LOGO) to one of the most watched and in demand ones like VH1, you must be doing something right. Nothing against LOGO, as they gave it a platform for it to begin and eventually blossom, but it was only a matter of time for them to jump ship and go elsewhere. This transition from one to the other happened in 2017 when season 9 began and shows no signs of ever going back to where it started.
Catchphrases, Stunts, Lewks, Etc.
The impact that RPDR has had on our society is like nothing else that’s out there. It’s inspired a ton of catchphrases (VANJIE DUH) and has allowed each contestant to become their own brand which is something that would’ve never happened many moons ago. Every other show that is nominated in this category has that ability too, but no one does it bigger or better than Ru’s hit show.
Cultural Impact for the Gods… Hunty
This show is watched by millions of people from all types of backgrounds, sexual identities and more with little to no judgement about the audience who tunes in. Even in the LGBTQ community, drag was considered to be alternative and a bit out of left field and now it has become more mainstream than even Ru expected. That sort of a cultural phenomenon, which happened within a world that used to be shunned and is now universally loved and appreciated for the most part, deserves to not be awarded but praised with a s**t ton of respect. Here’s hoping Ru and co take home the gold this Monday.
This was created by one of our Contributing Writers and does not reflect the opinion of Instinct Magazine or the other Contributing Writers when it comes to this subject.