VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race and A&E’s Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath were two of the top series to win awards at the 4th annual NATPE Unscripted Breakthrough Awards on Tuesday.
Other shows to win honors included HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver in the factual category, and Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise in the docu-soap category.
RuPaul’s Drag Race beat out fellow competition series Bravo’s Top Chef andNBC’s America’s Got Talent, American Ninja Warrior and The Voice, depriving NBCUniversal of a win in a category where it went in with four out of five nominees.
But Bravo got a win of its own with the Real Housewives franchise, pulling the tablecloth out from under Bravo’s Below Deck, A&E’s Born This Way, E!’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians and TLC’s My 600 Lb. Life.
Emmy winner Last Week Tonight prevailed over its fellow HBO news program Vice News Tonight, CNN’s Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, TBS’s Full Frontal With Samantha Bee and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
HBO also won the documentary category, with The Defiant Ones overcoming the Emmy- and TCA Award-winning Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath and Netflix’s Casting JonBenet, Get Me Roger Stone and The Keepers.
However, Leah Remini was redeemed in the new innovation category, where Scientology and the Aftermath won out over fellow A&E programs 60 Days In, Born This Way and Live PD, as well as competition winner RuPaul’s Drag Race.
NBC’s The Wall, hosted by Chris Hardwick, was the game-show winner, topping Fox’s Beat Shazam, hosted by Jamie Foxx; VH1’s Hip Hop Squares, hosted by DeRay Davis and produced by Ice Cube; and ABC’s Match Game and The $100,000 Pyramid, hosted by Alec Baldwin and Michael Strahan, respectively.
Dan Abrams, chief legal analyst for ABC News and host of Big Fish Entertainment’s Live PD, hosted the luncheon ceremony at the Eden Roc Miami Beach Resort on Tuesday (Jan. 16).
