Emmys get a reality check — at last

This year, for the first time in its history, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will award a prime-time Emmy to the best reality TV show host. Considering that hosts have been an integral part of many unscripted programs, they absolutely deserve recognition — and they'll get it, as the nominees will have to work, collectively hosting the telecast Sunday night.

In a time when reality show hosting is filled with personality-deficient talking heads being commanded by off-screen producers, all five nominated hosts are talented. Still, four of the five have vastly different roles because, just as during the early years of the other reality TV-related categories, the Academy hasn't yet figured out the category's parameters.

There are five completely different hosts up for the award: Ryan Seacrest, who emcees "American Idol"; Jeff Probst, who guides the "Survivor" cast on CBS; Heidi Klum, who judges Bravo's "Project Runway"; Tom Bergeron, who cracks jokes on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars"; and Howie Mandel, who's a primetime game-show host on NBC's "Deal or No Deal."

Only Bergeron and Seacrest host series that are even in the same genre of reality program, the live talent competition, and they're both masterful at coordinating live proceedings. However, as the person who defined what it means to host a reality show, Jeff Probst is the most deserving of the first win in the category. He demonstrates multiple hosting strengths: he's the Tribal Council inquisitor, challenge color commentator, and viewers' constant liaison all in one.

AP file Jeff Probst.

Still, Seacrest is probably more likely to win, since he hosts the most popular show in the country, and is the most blandly accessible. After all, those voting are the people who decided an aging "West Wing" was the best drama on TV four years in a row despite its being nominated against "The Sopranos," "Six Feet Under," and even "CSI."

The other three are much less likely to walk away with the statuette. Bergeron's occasionally bawdy wit, never mind that he works with a co-host, will probably send voters elsewhere. Mandel keeps his show moving but isn't really working in the same medium as the others (although Emmy voters may not realize that). And while she's on cable's most high-profile reality show, Heidi Klum's hosting consists of repeating essentially the same lines every week. It's in her unflinching judging that she really shines, not as host.

AP file Tom Bergeron.

The category may have imperfect membership — it's inexplicable how Mandel received a nomination and witty "Amazing Race" host Phil Keoghan did not — but its inclusion is long overdue, however imperfect the nominees or winner may be.

So many shows, so many bad hosts
Perhaps more significantly, the Emmy will be presented to one of the five hosts right when their collective craft is in a bit of a crisis.

With networks hurling new competition series onto their schedules, producers need to find talented, capable people to serve as ringmaster. Unfortunately, it seems that those people are already employed, and thus people who should not be fronting prime-time network or cable series still end up in those roles.

AP file Howie Mandel.

Those aren't the so-bad-they're-perfect hosts, such as "Bachelor" host Chris Harrison, who's a glorified butler mostly in charge of reading increasingly absurd teases, or "Big Brother" host Julie Chen, whose robotic hosting earned her the nickname Chenbot. And there are plenty of fantastic hosts on TV, strong personalities such as Mike Rowe on "Dirty Jobs" and Paige Davis on "Trading Spaces."

The bad hosts tend to show up on series airing on niche-based cable networks or on short-lived broadcast shows, such as Fox's "On the Lot," which was hosted by Adrianna Costa with too many hand gestures and not enough personality. Some shows survive crappy hosts by discarding them, as Bravo's "Top Chef" did, replacing awkward first-season host Katie Lee Joel with the far more affable and dynamic Padma Lakshmi.

Getty Images file Heidi Klum.

But television has apparently run out of hosts who aren't operated like robots, literally.

Watch those awkward hosts closely — especially on cable — and you may see a small wireless IFB earpiece (it resembles a hearing aid) coming out of one ear, particularly the one that's most often not facing the camera.

That's a sign that the host is being led and told what to do by producers, which is mostly surprising considering how bad they are even with the earpiece. Among those weak hosts wearing visible earpieces on recent or currently-airing series are Jai Rodriguez on Animal Planet's competition "Groomer Has It," Rene Fris on Bravo's "Shear Genius," Phillip Bloch on VH1's "Glam God," and Tabatha Coffey on Bravo's "Tabatha's Salon Takeover."

MORE FROM TELEVISION

Television Section Front

NYT: Anchor Lou Dobbs leaving CNN ‘Modern Family’ reinvents the family comedy Fox cancels sci-fi drama ‘Dollhouse’ Disabled want more performers to truly fit roles Is Leno’s 10 p.m. experiment nearing an end? 11 late-night TV shows: The good and the bad   CNN finds prime-time success elusive Ian McKellen rules in remake of ‘The Prisoner’ Ian McKellen on his new show and Shakespeare Lawyer: Suspect just pitching to Letterman Television Section Front   Add Television headlines to your news reader: