Emmys get a reality check — at last

Of course, excellent hosts like those nominated for Emmys work closely with show producers, or even are producers on their own shows. But they're capable of improvising, managing, and working on their own, and don't need to be operated like a puppet by a producer.

J.D. Roth, the executive producer of shows such as NBC's "Biggest Loser" and The CW's "Beauty and the Geek," is one of those producers who's dealt with such hosts. His face and voice are probably familiar because he hosts or narrates many of the shows his company produces, including Fox's "Unan1mous" and Discovery Kids' "Endurance."

He does that because "there's no better way as a producer to control what's going on on your set than to be in front of it,"

Roth told me in July. "A lot of hosts now, they wear the earpiece, and I have to sit back there, and they become robo-host, and I gotta talk to them, and everything that comes out of my mouth comes out of theirs."

As a result, he's hosting ABC's forthcoming hybrid game and reality show "Opportunity Knocks," because having a "robo-host" involves "a delay ... that this show can't afford to take. This is an in-the-moment show; it's not a cue card show," he said.

"People don't realize that hosting is a muscle, and if you have a lot of live experience," Roth said. "A lot of hosts just think, hey, it's no problem, you put on the jacket, you go out there with a mic in your hand and you become Bob Barker. And that's not how it works. It takes years and years. It's a craft, just like acting is."

It's a craft that will soon be formally acknowledged by the television industry. But like acting, it's a field increasingly crowded with talent-starved people, and reality TV already has enough of those.

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