NBC4 led the winners at the 66th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards with 8 honors, including those for investigative reporting, news writing and its regularly scheduled daily evening newscast, NBC4 News at 11PM.
In the other two regularly scheduled newscast categories, outstanding daily morning newscast went to KTLA5 for its KTLA 5 Morning News at 7AM broadcast, and daily daytime newscast went to KMEX for its Noticias 34 a Las Seis broadcast.
Awards in 45 categories were given for news, sports, entertainment, public affairs, medical and other programming produced by and for the Los Angeles market. The ceremony took place before a full house at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre on the Television Academy’s NoHo Arts District campus.
The host of the ceremony was Lauren Sivan of Fox11 News, and presenters included more than 30 local anchors, reporters and producers. The ceremony was streamed via live webcast at the Television Academy’s website, Emmys.com. In addition, this year marked the Los Angeles Area Emmys’ first-ever online Thank You Cam, which allowed winners to expand upon their acceptance speeches without time constraints.
News events covered in the honored programing included dozens of local stories, as well as some with an international scope, including the papal conclave that resulted in the selection of Pope Francis and the typhoon that devastated the Philippines in November of 2013.
The typhoon was the focal point of the award for news special, which was won by KTLA5 for the station’s first telethon, Season of Sharing: Help for the Philippines. The event raised more than $150,000 for typhoon relief. Accepting the award, KTLA5 anchor Cher Calvin, who is of Filipino descent, said, “Thank you for helping my mother country.”
The award for hard news reporting went to reporter David Goldstein and producer Catherine Gelera of KCBS2/KCAL. The winner for investigative reporting was the NBC4 team — featuring reporter Joel Grover — for “In Harm’s Way,” a story that exposed the dangers posed by bus drivers who put passengers at risk by texting while driving.
“In Harm’s Way” was recognized later in the evening when Ernesto Torres, who shot the segment, took the award for outstanding new videographer.
The winner for single-camera programming videographer was Jeff MacIntyre of ABC7. Later in the evening, MacIntyre won for programming editor as well.
David Ono of ABC7, who took home 3 statuettes in each of the past 2 years, won 3 again this year: for light news story — single report (for “The Artist,” a segment about an L.A. artist who make models of New York City storefronts), news feature reporting (a tie: the other winner was NBC4’s Bruce M. Hensel) and programming writing.
The award for news writing went to Mary Harris of NBC4 — the seventh time she has won in this category. Coincidentally, Harris also wrote the script for this year’s L.A. Area ceremony.
NBC4 also prevailed in the category of serious news story — multipart report for “Auto Shop Scheme,” about unscrupulous tow truck drivers who take advantage of motorists in the aftermath of auto accidents. Serious news story — single report went to KVEA for Veteranos Desterrados.
Among live news events, NBC was recognized for live coverage of an unscheduled news event for its coverage of the Springs fire. The award for live special events — programming went to KMEX for Fiestas Patrias.
In the information/public affairs categories, ABC7’s Vista L.A. won for information/public affairs series (more than 50% remote) and KCET’s SoCal Connected took the statuette for information/public affairs series (more than 50% studio-based).
SoCal Connected also scored in the feature segment category for "Stray Cat Strut," about L.A.'s vast population of feral cats, and in the information segment category for "Compton Confidential."
Sports categories included awards for sports series — programming, which went to Time Warner Cable SportsNet for Backstage: Lakers; live sports coverage, won by Time Warner Cable Deportes for Lakers vs. Raptors; sports feature, which went to Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket for "Kopitar’s OT Winner"; sports series — news, won by KVEA for Atleta de la Semana; sports special, won by Prime Ticket for Before the Bigs: Blake Griffin; and sports tease, which was won by Fox Sports West for “The Real A Team — Angels Season Opener.
Other winners included:
Entertainment Programming
Invisible Cities: An Opera for Headphones
KCET
Children/Youth Programming
#LaPrepa Prime Time Varsity Games
Time Warner Cable Deportes
Arts and Culture/History
The Hollywood Reporter in Focus: The Wolf of Wall Street
PBS SoCaL
L.A. Local Color
54th Annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration
KCET
Crime/Social Issues
Alcaldia 2013
KMEX
Education
The Power of the PSA
CBS2/KCAL9
Public, Municipal and Operator Produced Cable
Metro Motion: Union Station 75th Anniversary Special
CityTV of Santa Monica
Director — Programming
Mike Maas, CBS2/KCAL9
Director — News
Horacio Cervantes, KMEX
2014 marked the fourth year that the Los Angeles Area Emmys participated in a job-shadowing program with The Fulfillment Fund, which assigned a group of Los Angeles Unified School District students to various departments involved in producing the awards ceremony.
Also, for the first time, a group of students from the Telecommunications and Film Department at the University of Alabama made the trip west to participate in the production process.
Following NBC4 in the award rankings were ABC7 with six Emmys; KCET with five; CBS2/KCAL9 and KMEX with four each; KTLA5 and KVEA with three each; CBS2, Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket and Time Warner Cable Deportes with two each; and CityTV of Santa Monica, Fox Sports West, KTTV-TV, PBS SoCaL, Prime Ticket and Time Warner Cable SportsNet all taking home one.
The producers of the ceremony were Joetta Di Bella, Los Angeles Area vice chair Greg Taylor and Los Angeles Area Peer Group governors Sabrina Fair Thomas and Gerri Shaftel Constant. The Academy's senior vice president, awards, is John Leverence, and Julie Shore is vice president, awards. Liz Korda Smith is the Los Angeles Area Awards director.
A video replay of the event is available here.
See more photos from the ceremony here.
See a complete list of winners here.
