For Your Consideration…

TV Real Weekly spotlights the documentary, factual and reality series in contention for the News & Documentary Emmy Awards this year.

Overshadowed by the drama and comedy presentations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, factual programming takes center stage at the News & Documentary Awards, slated to be presented by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on September 26.

Of the pure-play factual channels, National Geographic Channel swept the nominations with a total of 15, while Discovery Channel is up for 7, Animal Planet and HISTORY for two each, and Smithsonian Channel, Planet Green and Science with one each. The most nominated network overall for the News & Documentary Awards was CBS, with 34, followed by PBS (32) and NBC (19). ABC and HBO each scored 12, while CNN received 8.

The films up for best documentary are A&E’s Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, HBO’s A Small Act, PBS POV’s “Food, Inc.,” “Presumed Guilty” and “The Oath” and National Geographic’s Restrepo: Afghan Outpost.

In the long-form historical programming category, HBO is up for Studs Terkel: Listening to America. The other nominees are Independent Lens’ “The Longoria Affair,” Discovery’s The Kennedy Detail, HISTORY’s Third Reich and Nat Geo’s Witness: Katrina.

For arts and culture programming, nods went to HBO’s Smash His Camera, Independent Lens’ “Art & Copy,” Showtime’s Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, POV’s “Storycorps Animated Series” and VH1’s Rock Doc Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America.

Science’s Creating Synthetic Life is one of the nominees for outstanding science and technology programming, next to HBO’s Google Baby, Discovery Channel’s Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking and Nova’s “Building the Great Cathedrals.”

For nature programming, meanwhile, the nominees are Discovery’s First Life with David Attenborough, Animal Planet’s Secret Life of Elephants and PBS Nature’s “Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air” and “Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom.”

On the news front, contenders for outstanding coverage—long form are PBS’s Frontline, with episodes “The Quake” and “The Wounded Platoon,” and Independent Lens (“A Village Called Versailles”) alongside HBO’s War Don Don and National Geographic Channel’s Restrepo: Afghan Outpost.

Frontline also scored a nod for outstanding investigative journalism—long form with “Law & Disorder,” while fellow PBS series POV secured nods for “Presumed Guilty” and “The Oath.” The category is rounded out by Alex Gibney’s Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer for A&E.

The Primetime Emmy Awards, meanwhile, will honor nonfiction, reality and reality competition alongside the drama, comedy and movie/mini-series categories.

For non-fiction special, the nominees are OWN’s Becoming Chaz, HISTORY’s Gettysburg, HBO’s His Way and BIO’s Jaws: The Inside Story, plus Stand Up to Cancer, which aired on a number of networks.

For non-fiction series, Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations made the cut, together with BIO’s Biography, PBS’s American Masters and Pioneers of Television, ESPN’s 30 for 30 and TCM’s Moguls & Movie Stars.

The outstanding reality program nominees, meanwhile, are PBS’s Antiques Roadshow, Discovery’s Deadliest Catch and MythBusters, A&E’s Hoarders, Bravo’s Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List and CBS’s Undercover Boss. Bravo’s Top Chef is looking to again be named outstanding reality-competition after winning last year over frequent winner and returning nominee The Amazing Race. Also in contention are American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Project Runway and So You Think You Can Dance.