Eight years in, the Critics Choice Real TV Awards still know how to throw a party. And The Traitors dominates every time it shows up to one.
The Traitors dominates again at this year’s ceremony, walking away with five wins and leaving little doubt about which unscripted series has the awards circuit on lock right now. Best Competition Series. Best Ensemble Cast in an Unscripted Series. By the time the night wrapped, Peacock had taken more hardware home than anyone else in the room.
Not a bad evening for a show built entirely around lying to your friends.
The Traitors Critics Choice Real TV Awards Run Is Something Special
Three years ago this show was a conversation. Two years ago it was a phenomenon. Now it is just the standard everyone else gets measured against.
Alan Cumming won Best Show Host again. That is three in a row, for anyone keeping count, and at this point the only real question is whether anyone else is even in the running. His version of hosting The Traitors is so specific and so strange and so completely his own that the category almost feels like it was invented for him.
Then came the individual awards, and The Traitors kept right on going.
Lisa Rinna took Female Star of the Year. Rob Rausch earned Male Star of the Year. Both of them. Same show. Same night. Add that to the program wins and the Cumming three-peat and you start to understand why people keep talking about this series the way they do.
What Lisa Rinna and Rob Rausch Winning Means
The Traitors Reality TV success is not just about the format anymore. It is about what the show does for the people in it.
Lisa Rinna has been in this industry long enough to have had several different careers, and Female Star of the Year is a reminder that she is still finding new gears. Rob Rausch earning Male Star of the Year alongside her turned what was already a big night into a full statement. Two cast members. Two top individual honors. One show.
Alan Cumming making it three straight Best Show Host wins on top of all that was almost too much. Almost.
Love on the Spectrum Gives Netflix Plenty to Celebrate
The Traitors dominated the top line but Netflix had a genuinely strong night too.
Four wins for the streamer, and Love on the Spectrum was responsible for the most meaningful ones. Best Unstructured Series and Best Relationship Show, both for the second year running. There is a simplicity and a sincerity to that show that is very hard to manufacture, and voters keep responding to it. Deservedly so.
The Great British Baking Show, Trust Me: The False Prophet, and Mr. Scorsese filled out the rest of the Netflix column.
The Rest of the Night Had Some Good Stories Too
Dancing with the Stars won Best Competition Series: Talent/Variety. Jeopardy! took Best Game Show. Shark Tank claimed Best Business Show for what feels like the hundredth time, which is a compliment.
Two ties worth noting. Top Chef and The Great British Baking Show split Best Culinary Show. Couples Therapy and Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives shared Best Structured Series. Ties at awards shows are always a little awkward but both of those felt earned.
Sports got its due with ESPN‘s 30 for 30 winning Best Sports Show and Inside the NBA taking Best Sports Show: Talk/Analysis.
Reality TV Is Bigger Than Ever and The Traitors Is Still on Top
The Critics Choice Real TV Awards started in 2019 because someone decided unscripted programming deserved the same serious attention as scripted. Every year since, the argument for that decision has gotten stronger.
The genre is enormous now. Competition shows, dating series, docuseries, culinary programming, sports talk, travel. Viewers have genuinely never had more to choose from, which makes sustained dominance harder than it looks.
The Traitors does not seem to care about any of that.
Five wins. Both individual star honors. Alan Cumming adding trophy number three to his shelf. The Traitors dominates the Critics Choice Real TV Awards conversation for another year, and if this night was any indication, that conversation is nowhere close to over.
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