The competition for the Best Reality Host Emmy in 2024 is heating up as Alan Cumming and RuPaul face off once again. Let’s dive into their remarkable journeys and performances.
Reality Rematch: Alan vs. RuPaul
The two most recent winners for Best Reality Host are facing off for the second consecutive year: Alan Cumming (The Traitors), who triumphed in 2024, and RuPaul Charles (RuPaul’s Drag Race), who holds the record with eight victories between 2016 and 2023. While Cumming claimed a second trophy last year when The Traitors won Best Competition Program, he has a long road ahead to match RuPaul’s staggering career total of 14 Emmys — the most ever for a person of color.
History of the Best Reality Host Category
The Best Reality Host category has favored repeat winners since its creation in 2008, with Jeff Probst (Survivor), Jane Lynch (Hollywood Game Night), and RuPaul all stepping up to the podium more than once. This trend bodes well for Cumming to secure back-to-back statuettes this year. In fact, there are only two single-win instances in the category’s history: Tom Bergeron (Dancing With the Stars) in 2012 and Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum (Project Runway) in 2013.
Alan Cumming’s Performance on The Traitors
On The Traitors, the impeccably dressed Cumming is known for charming the contestants before overseeing their murders and banishments. He’s playing a heightened version of himself, a character he equally considers to be a “James Bond villain” and a “castle daddy,” the Scottish entertainer told Gold Derby. Cumming is nominated for Season 3, which began with the host tempting the players into allowing notorious reality TV villain Boston Rob Mariano onto the show. They initially voted no, but Cumming found another way of bringing him into the castle — as a Traitor, no less.
RuPaul’s Innovations in Drag Race
In Season 17 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, RuPaul introduced a slippery new twist where the eliminated queens had a chance of staying in the competition if they pulled a lucky lever that dropped co-judge Michelle Visage into a tank of water. While winner Onya Nurve and runner-up Jewels Sparkles never had to face the “Badonka Donk” twist, they shared with Gold Derby how Mama Ru imparted key life lessons on the show, including the need to “put the wall down” and how there’s “power in presence.”
Jeff Probst’s Return to the Emmy Nominations
For the first time ever, Probst is nominated in Best Reality Host at the same time Survivor is up for Best Competition Program. His unique history in the host category includes an undefeated four-year streak followed by a surprising 12-year snub, before his return to the lineup in 2024. “There are so many other good shows in the genre that I kind of thought we’d never hear from [the Emmys] again,” Probst told Gold Derby. “So, it was a real surprise. Totally an honor. … I’m happy to be in the conversation. We’re still here!”
Kish’s Emmy Nomination for Top Chef
Kish is the fourth host from Top Chef to receive an Emmy nod (her second overall), following Padma Lakshmi‘s solo bids in 2022 and 2023, the duo of Tom Colicchio and Lakshmi in 2009 and 2020, and a group nomination for Lakshmi, Colicchio, and Gail Simmons in 2021. Kish knows her way around a kitchen, as she previously won the 10th season of Top Chef in 2013.
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Shark Tank’s New Host Dynamics
Shark Tank saw Daniel Lubetzky promoted to a full-time regular host for Season 16, a move preparing for the departure of Mark Cuban, who exited in the finale. The other entrepreneurs are now on their fifth bids for hosting, but they have yet to win this specific category. However, Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, and Kevin O’Leary did take home their first Emmy Awards last year as producers when Shark Tank won Best Structured Reality Program.
Best Reality Host and Best Competition Program
Four of the five programs represented in Best Reality Host are also nominated in Best Competition Program: RuPaul’s Drag Race, Survivor, Top Chef, and The Traitors. The fifth series nominee, The Amazing Race, has won the top prize 10 times, compared to five victories for RuPaul’s Drag Race, and one apiece for Top Chef and The Traitors. Host and producer Phil Keoghan told Gold Derby that the Emmy nominations are “incredibly rewarding … especially to still be part of the zeitgeist after 24 years. It’s an incredibly difficult show to produce. It hasn’t gotten any easier over the years. If anything, it’s gotten harder.”
A version of this article originally appeared in Gold Derby’s special Emmy digital magazine.
