2002 RealityNewsOnline/Reality TV Hall of Shame Year in Review Awards: "Best Of" Segment

It is time for the first annual RealityNewsOnline/Reality TV Hall of Shame Year in Review Awards! Let me explain how this all works before we get to the actual granting of the awards.

Half of this article resides here - you're reading it now, obviously. This is the RealityNewsOnline portion and will address the "best" awards. The "worst" awards are naturally posted separately over at the Reality TV Hall of Shame. All of these awards were arrived at by the following means: First, regular writers at RealityNewsOnline were invited to submit nominations for each of the categories. The nominations were tallied and the top five nominees in each category were put forth for a general vote. In some cases, there were ties for fifth, so more than five were put to the vote; in some cases, there were as few as two that received more than one nomination, and so only those two were made available for the final vote. The final vote was a secret ballot by RealityNewsOnline writers.

Below, you will find the list of nominees, some reasons why each were nominated (where appropriate), and then the final winner. We have also included a few that didn't make the final nomination, but are worth mentioning nonetheless. Like any other awards presentation, we will start with the more minor awards and move up from there. So without further ado, I give you the 2002 RealityNewsOnline/Reality TV Hall of Shame 2002 Awards!

Best Animal or Animals in a Reality Show

In addition to people on reality TV, there has been an increase in the number of animals seen on our screens. The nominees for this category are:

• The flatulent elephant in Survivor: Thailand
• The Big Brother 3 lizards
• Magilla, from Survivor: Thailand
• The Osbourne Dogs, especially Lola

By a margin of only one vote, the winner is… Magilla! He stole food and made a general nuisance of himself, but many people felt he was the most compelling character on Survivor: Thailand. Alas, he will probably be unable to pick up his award.

Best Shocking Moment on a Reality Show

This category recognizes the moment that threw us all for a loop - the twist that turned the game upside down. We have five nominees:

• Amy returns to the Big Brother 3 house.
• The tie in Survivor: Marquesas is broken by a random draw of colored stones, causing Paschal to lose despite never receiving a vote.
• The Mole 2's Elavia takes a $50,000 bribe and goes home, surprising many who thought she was the Mole.
• Big Brother 3's Marcellas is so supremely confident that he will be staying around, he decides not to use the Golden Veto on himself, and is immediately voted out.
• American Idol's Tamyra Gray loses to Nikki McKibbin in the vote to see who moves up to the final three.

Votes were spread all over this category, with Amy's return and Marcellas' failure to use the Golden Veto tying for second (don't worry - that's not the last we'll hear about Marcellas and the Veto). The winner, with twice as many votes as any other nominee, is… Tamyra Gray losing to Nikki McKibbin! Indeed, a more shocking moment I don't think has ever been seen on reality TV, if the traffic to RealityNewsOnline and Foxes On Idol are any indication. The day after Tamyra was voted out provided the largest single-day traffic ever for those sites. Definitely a shocking moment that will be remembered.

Funniest Moment on a Reality Show

This was definitely a close one, with only a few votes separating first place from fourth. This category recognizes those moments that made us laugh and could rightfully be called the funniest on the air this past year. The nominees are:

• Big Brother 3's Amy getting drunk, face-planting off the hammock, and chasing Marcellas around for the last bottle of alcohol.
• Big Brother 3's Marcellas being voted out after failing to use the Golden Veto on himself and having to have his painted gnome "Boo" with him on the couch, where he was hit on the head by host Julie Chen.
• Ozzy Osbourne falling off the chair.
• Sharon Osbourne throwing food at the neighbors' house during a dispute.
• Shii Ann's "D'oh!" look when she found out there hadn't really been a merge yet on Survivor: Thailand.

See, I told you Marcellas and that Golden Veto would come up again. But it still didn't win this time. (It comes up yet again, in the Reality TV Hall of Shame portion of the awards.) Instead, the winner is… Amy's drunken behavior. While it may be sad to think about how she was acting, it sure as hell was funny to watch at the time! Amy is the proud winner of this coveted award.

Best Hero Moment on a Reality Show

This category recognizes the person who acted heroic - whether to come to the aid of their team or another person. The three nominees are:

• Gerry saving Marcellas from the first eviction on Big Brother 3 because he felt that decision had been made based on bigoted reasons.
• Mike helping with the puzzle on the Real World/Road Rules Challenge to win a come from behind victory for the Real World team.
• Sharon Osbourne saving Ozzy's life on a daily basis.

There was a very clear winner in the voting for this category. The winner is… Sharon saving Ozzy on a daily basis! Where Ozzy would be right now without Sharon is probably something that should not be contemplated. But he definitely would not be entertaining us in his own reality TV show. Instead, he might have ended up like so many other washed-up and washed-out rock stars of his time. Truly a heroic effort by Sharon.