The producers of Fox’s  program “American Idol” are likely asking themselves what they need to do on their show to ever beat CBS’ series “The Amazing Race” and win the best reality competition trophy at the Primetime Emmys.

Singing competition “American Idol” remains the most watched show on TV, and the team behind the show would surely like to cap that accomplishment with an Emmy for the program.

But it was not to be on Sunday, as “The Amazing Race” and its tale of globetrotting competition, again took the trophy, winning in the category for the seventh straight year. That got Jeff Probst, the host of the rival reality show competition “Survivor,” who won an Emmy for his job on the program, talking backstage to reporters about a possible solution to “The Amazing Race’s” dominance.

“Maybe ‘Amazing Race’ should just do what Oprah (Winfrey) did and just pull themselves out of the competition and say, ‘We’ve won enough, our walls are full of trophies, we’ll let someone else win,’” said Probst, whose show survivor is also on CBS, just like “The Amazing Race.”

Bert Van Munster, one of the creators of “The Amazing Race,” was not about to take Probst up on his suggestion.  Standing backstage with the team behind the show, he jokingly said, “I’m going to have to discuss it with my committee, but it’s unlikely.”

And he showed no signs of wanting to pull the plug on “The Amazing Race,” which began in 2001.

“I’m a paranoid television producer,” he said. “I would never give something up that’s so good.”

When Emmy nominations came in on Thursday, one of the biggest headline-grabbing surprises was the best comedy series nod for Fox cartoon “Family Guy.” The show from bad boy TV darling Seth MacFarlane leapfrogged the long-running, critically acclaimed “The Simpsons”  to become the first animated program nominated for a primetime comedy Emmy since “The Flintstones” in 1961.

How did “Family Guy” succeed where “The Simpsons” failed?

Since first appearing on television in 1989, “The Simpsons” managed to land cartoon dad Homer Simpson’s buzzword “d’oh!”  into the Oxford English Dictionary, created a multi-billion dollar merchandising empire, inspired critics to call Homer, wife Marge and children Bart, Lisa and Maggie America’s first family of TV and spawned a raft of other primetime animated series, including ”Family Guy.”

Time magazine has said, “‘The Simpsons’ triumph is so absolute and its reach so total that it’s hard to realize that there was a time when its dense, rapid-fire allusions weren’t the lingua franca of comedy, when irreverence wasn’t the default mode of popular culture.”

The show has even been the subject of university courses.

But still, “The Simpsons” has encountered resistance from a small sector of TV viewers who will never flip to a cartoon, and it has never been nominated for a best comedy series Emmy, although in other categories it has garnered a couple dozen Emmy nods, including for best animated series.

The fact that “Family Guy” has succeeded in winning an Emmy nomination in the coveted best comedy series category speaks loudly of the show’s appeal. Edgier than

 ”The Simpsons,” MacFarlane’s creation is, like its predecessor, a Fox Broadcasting show. It has generated more controversy than “The Simpsons,” thanks to episodes such as a 2005 sequence featuring a song-and-dance routine about a man diagnosed with AIDS.

But “Family Guy” has also garnered 11 Emmy nods in other categories since its 1999 creation.

What is it about “Family Guy” that allowed it to go where no comedy series has gone since “The Flintstones”? And since critics have said that “The Simpsons” has been running on empty for several years, does it stand a chance of ever getting a best comedy nod?

Braving blistering afternoon heat and more than a little sweat, the world’s top television stars rolled onto the red carpet at the Emmy Awards in downtown Los Angeles in all their finery.

Once the arrivals wrapped up and the show got started, it was left to us onlookers to decide who looked great and who, well, didn’t.

Supermodel and “Project Runway” host Heidi Klum was no doubt the flashiest star on the carpet in a crystal-studded Armani gown with massive butterfly-shaped earrings.

“30 Rock” creator and star Tina Fey, meanwhile, looked understated but elegant in an eggplant-colored strapless dress.

Yellow was a popular color, donned by both Mariska Hargitay of “Law and Order: SVU” and Teri Hatcher of “Desperate Housewives.”

But once all the stars had strutted their stuff, who looked the absolute best? Or worst, for that matter?

“30 Rock” actor Judah Friedlander thought he deserved the “best dressed” award, but we’re guessing people may have something to say about that. Sorry, Judah.

After her clothing line was yanked from all Los Angeles’ Kitson boutique stores, “The Hills” star Lauren Conrad is getting a new chance at showcasing her fashion design skills in a major way. The 22-year-old has been tapped to design a couture gown for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards trophy girls who hand out U.S. television’s top honors.

“When the show approached me, I was so excited,” Conrad said in an email to Reuters. “I love designing dresses and I can’t wait to see my own designs on the Primetime Emmy Awards.  The dress will be elegant yet simple with a Lauren Conrad Collection vibe.”

Conrad is a newcomer to the fashion scene and her eponymous clothing line, which was unveiled for the first time during this year’s at L.A. Fashion Week, has received stormy reviews. Kitson owner Fraser Ross even went so far as to describe sales of Conrad’s line at the boutiques as “lackluster” to New York magazine. Still, the Southern California casual-inspired dresses and tops are in high-end stores such as Fred Segal, Bloomingdale’s and Planet Blue. 

The Emmy  producers would seem to be smart by capitalizing on Conrad’s celebrity status and large following of fans.  “The Hills” is MTV’s highest-rated show, and Conrad regularly graces the front pages of celebrity gossip magazines. And she is just as coy about what her Emmy gowns will look like as she is savvy about dealing with her star status and the media.

When asked what the gowns will look like, she wrote: “You’ll just have to wait until Sept. 21 for the finished product.” The Emmys are given out in a nationally televised ceremony from L.A. on Sept. 21.

Meanwhile, another celebrity is trying her hand in the fashion world on a new cable reality TV series.  Forrest Whitaker’s wife and former model, Keisha Whitaker, will host a new reality show on cable TV’s TLC network named after one of the most popular questions at Hollywood red carpet events: “Who Are You Wearing?”

On each episode, four undiscovered designers will have the opportunity to create a red carpet dress for the celebrity guest judge of the week. Some celebrities who will be lending their red carpet prowess to the show are “Heroes” star Ali Landry, Laila Ali, daughter of boxer Muhammad Ali, and E! TV’s red carpet judge Melissa Rivers. The show premieres on August 22 at 10pm on TLC.

The folks who decide the Emmys this year expanded to six the nominees for best dramatic series, but they still gave a final thumbs down to HBO cops and thugs drama “The Wire”. Once again, they failed to recognize what many fans and critics hail as one of the best television shows ever, and Emmy watchers are calling the lack of a nomination a major snub. So one wonders, can the show’s devoted fans be that wrong?

What was it about “The Wire” that turned off Emmy voters during its five-season run that wrapped this year on HBO – the network that Emmy voters have so often lauded in the past when nominating “The Sopranos” or “Sex and the City?”

Was “The Wire” too real in graphically showing that many U.S. institutions are broken, and likely beyond repair? Reality shows are in vogue. What about a dramatic series that gets real about failing cops, courts, newspapers, politicians and schools? Even the drug dealers central to each episode are taken to task for dysfunction.

Was it because “The Wire” was based in Baltimore and not in a city darling to T.V. viewers like New York or Miami or Las Vegas?

Was it that “The Wire” faced competition early on in its run from HBO’s own stable of high-quality drama series like “The Sopranos” and “Deadwood” so that, by the time “The Wire” became a first-string player on the network this season, too many episodes had passed for viewers — and Emmy voters — to catch up the events on DVD?

What about the acting? After all, the lead actor nailed the unique Baltimore accent even though he’s British. But no major acting nominations were issued either for “The Wire.”  

Before the nominations were announced, Entertainment Weekly assistant managing editor Kristen Baldwin said Emmy voters would be remiss to pass over the show again this year. But she added, “It’s a very dense, dark, complicated show” that viewers may not appreciate without watching more than the single episode submitted for Emmy consideration. So, was “The Wire” too depressing in a year when news headlines were pretty depressing and people wanted escapist entertainment?

Finding answers, of course, would require polling voters at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences which gives out the Emmys, and that’s not practical.

One would think those questions might be gnawing at “The Wire” creator David Simon, but in the past he has disparaged the Emmys. Besides, he’s moved on and is now focused on armies of another sort — the U.S. Marines who fight without the attention he thinks they deserve in Iraq in the current run of his new HBO drama  ”Generation Kill.”

But that show, which also has earned some good reviews, begs this question for next year’s Emmys: Will voters embrace Baghdad after ignoring the streets of Baltimore?

(Writing by Bernie Woodall)

Britney Spears helped the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother” add more viewers, and now she stands to earn an Emmy nomination for her work on the show.

Spears, 26, is listed on an Emmy ballot of 41 names for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series, said John Leverence, a spokesman for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Nominations for Emmys — U.S. television’s highest honors – will be announced on July 17.

The pop star’s two-episode venture into prime-time TV came after more than a year of turbulence in her real life that included a bitter custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline, two stays at Los Angeles-area hospitals for psychiatric evaluation, and a court order putting her assets into a conservatorship overseen by her father.

In recent months, however, her life seems to be back on track, and one key piece of evidence has been her appearances on “How I Met Your Mother.” Spears played an easily seduced receptionist named Abby. The show had been in danger of cancellation, but ratings shot up with Spears’ guest starring role.