This year’s Emmy race features some of the most explosive nonfiction content in recent years: docuseries on the fate of a beloved talk show host, a vulnerable young woman victimized in a case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, the scandal involving Nickelodeon kids shows, and a revealing look inside one of professional sports’ greatest dynasties.
Deadline’s Contenders TV: Documentary + Unscripted virtual event — your indispensable guide to TV awards season — goes in depth on all of it Saturday in a showcase that kicks off at 9 a.m. PT.
Click here to register and watch the livestream.
Among the panelists joining today are key talent behind Lifetime’s Where Is Wendy Williams?, Investigation Discovery’s Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, and The Dynasty: New England Patriots from Apple TV+. Gypsy Rose Blanchard herself joins us to talk about telling her shocking story in Lifetime’s The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. And that’s just for starters.
Ken Jeong, EP and host of I Can See Your Voice, visits to share insights on his Fox music guessing game series. Another innovative unscripted competition show, Peacock’s The Traitors, is represented at Contenders by host and producer Alan Cumming, plus EP Sam Rees-Jones and two of the show’s “traitors.” We’ve got the team from Squid Game: The Challenge, the hit Netflix reality competition series inspired by the enormously successful Korean drama. And JoJo Siwa and other celebrity “recruits” will spill secrets of their experience on the Fox unscripted series Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
While Special Forces brings the gritty, glam is served by The Super Models, the Apple TV+ series about how Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista ruled the runways in the 1990s. Creators of the four-part documentary, including Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams, join Contenders to discuss their intimate look at these beauty icons.
No show has been a bigger hit with Television Academy voters in recent years than RuPaul’s Drag Race, the cultural phenomenon from MTV Entertainment Studios that has claimed more than 30 Primetime Emmys going back to 2016. Contenders welcomes four queenly contestants from the series including Sapphira Cristál and Nymphia Wind.
Queens — the kind who rule the animal world — get their due in the National Geographic docuseries narrated by Angela Bassett. We hear from the creative team behind the series starring orcas, elephants, lions and more. Music royalty, meanwhile, comes into focus with Kings from Queens: The Run DMC Story. Darryl “DMC” McDaniels joins a panel discussion on the Peacock three-parter.
We’ve got late-night covered with panels on The Daily Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live! And we’ll pull back the curtain on the Oscars — hosted again this year by Jimmy Kimmel — with the award show’s Emmy-contending EPs and more.
Ron Howard stops by Contenders to talk about Jim Henson Idea Man, his Disney+ film about the genius who created the Muppets. Contenders further explores the premium documentary space with panels on Prime Video’s Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story and For Love and Life: No Ordinary Campaign, and Girls State, the Apple TV+ film directed by Emmy winners Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss.
Follow the livestream all day on the site and via #DeadlineContenders. Keep checking back on Deadline for complete panel coverage. On Monday, we’ll launch the event’s streaming site featuring the complete panel videos.
Check out today’s lineup, schedule and panelists below.
Contenders TV: Docs + Unscripted
All times PT
9 a.m. – Livestream begins
LIFETIME
The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard
Gypsy Rose Blanchard (Subject)
Nicole Vogel (EP)
Laura Fleury (EP)
Melissa Moore (EP)
Where Is Wendy Williams?
Mark Ford (EP)
Erica Hanson (EP)
DISNEY+
Jim Henson Idea Man
Ron Howard (Director)
ABC
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Molly McNearney (Co-Head Writer/EP)
Danny Ricker (Co-Head Writer/Supervising Producer)
Gary Greenberg (Writer/Supervising Producer)
The Oscars
Raj Kapoor (EP)
Katy Mullan (EP)
Molly McNearney (Writer/EP)
Hamish Hamilton (Director)
PRIME VIDEO
For Love and Life: No Ordinary Campaign
Christopher Burke (Director)
Tim Rummel (Producer)
Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story
Gelila Bekele (Writer/Director/Producer)
Armani Ortiz (Director/Producer)
MTV ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Sapphira Cristál (Contestant)
Q (Contestant)
Nymphia Wind (Contestant)
Xunami Muse (Contestant)
APPLE TV+
Girls State
Jesse Moss (Co-Director/Co-Producer)
Amanda McBaine (Co-Director/Co-Producer)
The Dynasty: New England Patriots
Matthew Hamachek (Director/EP)
The Super Models
Roger Ross Williams (Director/EP)
Larissa Bills (Director/Producer)
Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces
Morgan Neville (Director/Producer)
PEACOCK
Kings From Queens: The RUN DMC Story
William H. Masterson III (Producer/EP)
Kirk Fraser (Director)
Darryl “DMC” McDaniels (Talent/EP)
The Traitors
Alan Cumming (Producer/Host)
Sam Rees-Jones (EP)
Parvati Shallow (Traitor)
Kate Chastain (Traitor)
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Queens
Chloe Sarash (Showrunner/Writer)
Vanessa Berlowitz (EP)
Faith Musembi (Director/Producer)
FOX
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test
Tyler Cameron (Recruit)
Erin Jackson (Recruit)
JoJo Siwa (Recruit)
Nick Viall (Recruit)
I Can See Your Voice
Ken Jeong (EP/Host)
NETFLIX
Squid Game: The Challenge
Toni Ireland (EP)
John Hay (EP)
Erika Dobrin (Casting Director)
Mathieu Weekes (Production Designer)
COMEDY CENTRAL
The Daily Show
Zhubin Parang (Writer/Co-EP)
Jen Flanz (Showrunner/Writer/EP)
Josh Johnson (Correspondent)
INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV
Mary Robertson (Director/EP)
Emma Schwartz (Director/Co-EP)
Giovonnie Samuels (Former Cast Member – All That)
Bryan Hearne (Former Cast Member – All That)
