Emmy Predictions 2018 - Which Program Will and Should Win for Unstructured Reality Series?

The nominations are in for The 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. So now, it's time to speculate on who will and should win in each major category. Next up for analysis is Unstructured Reality Program.

The Nominees Ranked By Which Program Should Win:

1. CNN's United Shades of America
2. A&E's Born This Way
3. VH1's RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked
4. Discovery's Deadliest Catch
5. A&E's Intervention
6. Discovery's Naked and Afraid

Like I've been saying with most of these reality races, I really have no vested interest in who deserves to win and who is actually going to win. As such, my rankings here could be completely random and arbitrary. I simply haven't seen the nominees. All I'm basing these opinions on is the buzz I hear surrounding these shows. In that regard, I've always heard positive things about United Shades of America, Born This Way and Untucked. It's still not enough for me to probably tune in and see if their value is substantially better than what else is currently out there. But I can still admire the hard work done by the teams to ensure that diverse perspectives are allowed into this genre and given a platform to actually be recognized in a significant way. That's very rewarding.

The Nominees Ranked by Which Program Will Win:

1. CNN's United Shades of America
2. Discovery's Deadliest Catch
3. A&E's Born This Way
4. VH1's RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked
5. A&E's Intervention
6. Discovery's Naked and Afraid

Since the split between structured and unstructured reality programs, only one show has won in this race twice - Deadliest Catch. That's in addition to the time that show won when it was just one category. As such, it always has to be considered as a serious contender in this race. It may be the veteran show that the voters can just return to again and again. Meanwhile, Born This Way, United Shades of America and Intervention have all won before. Intervention won before the category split though so it seems unlikely to prevail after so long. But the other two shows are the most recent winners in this category. If either of them wins, then it could be seen as a new dominating force in this field. Or perhaps the voters will continue to surprise with a new winner. In that case, it would be Untucked - even though it may be odd for the companion show to win before the main show wins for reality competition program.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my predictions? Let me know in the comments below!