At the Southeast Emmys awards this past weekend at the Grand Hyatt in Buckhead, Channel 2 Action News took home news and station excellence award, just like 2013.
11 Alive, the NBC affiliate, matched its Emmy total from last year, with the most of any station: 20. It won for best newscast in the major market category.
For the first time, several categories were split so Hispanic stations could be honored separately. Telemundo Atlanta won best newscast and station excellence.
Hosts Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel and Vinnie Politan of HLN co hosted an efficient show, which finished 15 minutes earlier than normal.
Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Southeast Emmy organization showed highlights from past awards shows, including clips of former hosts such as Jeff Foxworthy and Alton Brown.
One of the most amusing moments was bringing back Mark Pettit, who 23 years earlier had lost his job at 11 Alive as an anchor but paid for his own ticket to the ceremony and won an Emmy - despite being unemployed. As a joke, he decided to resurrect the sign he used in 1991 which said: "I Will Anchor For Food."
But in the spirit of bygones-be-bygones, he included on the back of the sign, "It's all good!"
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
11 Alive's Matthew Pearl took home three Emmys, including best sports reporter and video journalist. His colleague Devin Fehely took home five, including best general assignment reporter. WXIA's Rebecca Lindstrom won for best live reporter.
WSB-TV's Justin Farmer won for best anchor among English-language stations. His colleague Jodie Fleischer nabbed the best investigative reporter Emmy.
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Here's the tally of the Atlanta stations that received the most Emmys:
WXIA-TV: 20
WSB-TV: 10
Georgia Public Broadcasting: 9
Telemundo: 6
Fox Sports South: 6
Public Broadcasting Atlanta; 4
WGCL-TV: 2
Univision: 2
WAGA-TV: 2
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
And here are some of the categories won by Atlanta stations:
Television News Gathering Excellence, general assignment: WXIA-TV's WWII Veteran Flyboy Funeral, Steve Flood, Jaye Watson
Television News Gathering Excellence, breaking news: WSB-TV January Tornado, Mike Dreaden, Ross Cavitt, Casey Nichols
Television Crafts Achievement Excellence, spot news: WSB-TV Passed Out Driver, Justin Crate, Liz Artz
Television Crafts Achievement Excellence, team coverage: WSB-TV McNair School Shooting
Television News Gathering Excellence, continuing coverage: WXIA-TV, Nathan Dwight & the N-Word, Devin Fehely
Television News Gathering Excellence, investigative report: WAGA-TV, District attorney, drug money, Mindy Larcom, Dale Russell, Randall Rinehart, Travis Shields, Michael Carlin
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Channel 2 Action News (WSB) is operated by Cox Media Group, which includes The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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