Despite being nominated for two separate categories at the 2019 Emmys’ Creative Arts, Survivor went home without a win in either.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; Survivor: David vs. Goliath is one of the greatest seasons in the show’s history, let alone in the Advantage Era of the show. Not only was it an unpredictable rollercoaster where you didn’t know what was going to happen next, but it was masterfully presented with new storytelling techniques that revitalized the show’s cinematography.
It’s no wonder that after being completely shut out of Emmy nominations in 2018, the two 2019 Emmys categories Survivor was nominated for related to the visual style. As reported earlier this summer, the show was nominated for Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Program while a David vs. Goliath episode was nominated for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Program.
Unfortunately, neither nomination held up, as Queer Eye won the Picture Editing category at the 2019 Emmys’ Creative Arts last night. While the cinematic nature of the destructive Fijian cyclone season was a visual masterpiece in Survivor, the reality documentary series Life Below Zero won for Cinematography.
It’s been a few years since Survivor has won at the Emmys. In fact, it was during Jeff Probst’s four-year Emmys of winning awards as Outstanding Host of a Reality or Reality-Competition Program ending in 2011. Winning that award both four times in a row and as a total are records that are threatened to be broken after last night, as RuPaul tying both those records with RuPaul’s Drag Race.
If there’s any year that Survivor can hope to win an Emmy, it’s at next year’s ceremonies. The 2020 cycle will feature two new seasons with a completely different casting director (casting for a reality show is a category), the 20th anniversary season and the ability to reflect upon the stellar editing and cinematography the show has produced the past year are all factors in getting that push.
Then again, we’re talking about an awards show for a reality competition program that has been on the overall decline across the past five years; it’s not the end of the world.