In reality, few shows are voted off by Emmy

By James Hibberd

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Apart from honoring reality hosts for the first time, Emmy's major unscripted categories largely followed last year's script.

The competition series nominees, unveiled Thursday, were CBS' "The Amazing Race," Fox's "American Idol," ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" and Bravo's "Project Runway" and "Top Chef." All competed in 2007, with "Race" winning for a fifth year.

For the second consecutive year, CBS' "Survivor" was notably absent from the competition series list. The snub was even more surprising this year as the veteran reality show's most recent cycle garnered strong critical praise.

"I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I was a little disappointed that 'Survivor' wasn't nominated," said Jeff Probst, who picked up a nomination in the host category. "We're coming off two of our very best seasons."

The nominees for outstanding nonfiction series also were familiar. Discovery Channel's "The Deadliest Catch," PBS' "American Masters," Biography Channel's "Biography" and Bravo's "Inside the Actors Studio" all received nominations again this year.

Showtime's "This American Life" was the only newcomer, filling a spot vacated by Discovery's one-off miniseries "Planet Earth."

Outstanding reality program featured a couple new faces, with A&E's "Intervention" and Discovery's "Dirty Jobs" landing in the category for the first time, joining returning nominees ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," Bravo's "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" and PBS' "Antiques Roadshow"

"Dirty Jobs" executive producer Craig Piligian said his expectations were so low that he didn't even know Emmy nominations were being announced Thursday.

Ryan Seacrest ("American Idol"), Tom Bergeron ("Dancing with the Stars"), Howie Mandel ("Deal or No Deal"), Heidi Klum ("Project Runway") and Probst ("Survivor") were the inaugural nominees for host of a reality-competition series.

Bergeron said he has worked up a strategy to beat the competition: "I'm going to have dimples put in to compete with Probst, shaving my head to compete with Howie, waxing my legs to compete with Heidi and cutting 20 years off my resume to compete with Ryan."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter