Deadline’s Contenders TV: Documentary + Unscripted Kicks Off Today

deadline.com:

What does it take to get Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness to show up on time for shoots on their Emmy-winning Netflix series? “Tough love,” jokes fellow cast member Bobby Berk.That’s one of the many revelations — humorous and otherwise — you can expect from Deadline’s all-day Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted virtual event, which gets underway Saturday at 9 a.m.

PT and takes you inside the hottest nonfiction series and films competing for honors this TV awards season.Among the 21 series and 60 stars, creators and showrunners being showcased in the all-day event, Lucy and Desi director Amy Poehler reveals how she uncovered the “human story” of television icons Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, mining a trove of never-before-heard audio tapes of the showbiz couple.

W. Kamau Bell tells us about taking on a fallen TV icon, Bill Cosby, in his Showtime series We Need to Talk About Cosby, revealing when he first began to believe scores of women accusing the actor-comedian of sexual assault.Big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara, the larger-than-life subject of HBO’s documentary series 100 Foot Wave, explains in dramatic detail what it’s like to be chased by a tsunami-sized wall of water, and Daymond John, one of the stars on Shark Tank, boldly declares he’s the only Shark on the ABC entrepreneurial series “bringing any kind of flavor.”The Masked Singer panelist Robin Thicke throws shade at his fellow judge Ken Jeong, and the show’s EP details his strategy for keeping the Fox show “fresh and inviting” for viewers, concealing celebrities in costumes ranging from an armadillo and a baby mammoth to a space bunny and a queen cobra.