NATPE Unveils Reality Breakthrough Award Winners

MIAMI: NATPE presented the third annual Reality Breakthrough Awards at a ceremony hosted by comedian Bob Saget at the Fontainebleau, with O.J.: Made in America taking home the prize in the documentary category.

In addition to O.J.: Made in America winning for best documentary, Chrisley Knows Best was awarded best docusoap. In the factual-entertainment category, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver reigned supreme, while Hollywood Game Night picked up the top honor for game shows and The Voice won for best reality competition. Meanwhile, Steve Harvey was named best reality host and Blake Shelton won for best reality personality.

Shark Tank received the award for best structured reality. In the unstructured reality category, the winner was Hard Knocks.

The NATPE Reality Breakthrough Awards honor programs and people that “broke through the clutter” in the preceding year, and became part of the cultural conversation, altering the expectations of what constitutes a reality program. The 2017 iteration featured four additional categories.

The judging panel included Brett Hansen, the partner and head of alternative television at United Talent Agency (UTA); Chachi Senior the senior VP of original programming at Spike TV; Corie Henson, the executive VP of alternative entertainment at 20th Century Fox Television Distribution; David Gross, an agent at Creative Artists Agency (CAA); Denise Contis, the executive VP of development and production at Discovery; Eliot Goldberg, the senior VP of nonfiction and alternative programming at AMC and SundanceTV; Jenny Groom, the senior VP of alternative programming and development at NBCUniversal; Josh Pyatt, partner at WME Entertainment; and Lauren Gellert, the executive VP of development and original programming at WE tv. Also on the panel were Michael Bloom, the senior VP of unscripted and specials at TNT/TBS; Michael Kagan, the head of international television and media at ICM Partners; Nina Diaz, the executive VP and head of reality at VH1; Rob Mills, the senior VP of alternative series, specials and late night at ABC Television Network; Rod Aissa, the executive VP of original programming and development at Oxygen Media; Russ McCarroll, the senior VP of development and programming at HISTORY; Sean Zeid, the head of domestic alternative television at Paradigm Talent Agency; and Todd Christopher, partner and chief strategy officer at The Gersh Agency.