The University of Georgia Peabody Award winners this year included HBO Max’s “Hacks,” Hulu’s “Dopesick,” FX’s “Reservation Dogs” and two series shot in Georgia: Amazon Prime’s “Underground Railroad” and ABC’s “The Wonder Years.”
The prestigious annual awards, selected by a jury chaired by Atlanta broadcast legend Monica Pearson, are given out in multiple categories, including entertainment, news, podcasts and documentaries.
Pearson noted that the 18 jurors, who include esteemed journalists, academics and industry people, need to agree unanimously for any entrant.
She said she was impressed with many of news investigative pieces that won Peabody’s including a look at broken families and homelessness in the San Francisco area, a minute-by-minute look at the 1/6 insurrection by The New York Times, a deadly use of the prolonged prone restraint technique by police officers in Denver and a Vice series on trans communities around the world.
And she said there was an especially strong children’s program “City of Ghosts” available on Netflix and its depiction of Los Angeles.
Here is the entire list of winners.
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Credit: Robb Cohen for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Robb Cohen for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Live Nation is for the time being back to calling Lakewood Amphitheatre by that name because the sponsorship with Cellairis has ended.
Cellairis, which repairs mobile devices and sells accessories, paid for naming rights in 2018 through the 2021 season.
It’s the fourth sponsor for the amphitheater during its 33-year run. It was Coca-Cola Amphitheatre from 1989 to 1998, followed by retailer HiFi Buys from 2001 to 2007, followed by Aaron’s, the Atlanta-based rent-to-own chain, from 2009 to 2015.
The amphitheater, which can handle up to 19,000 attendees, this season has already hosted the Dave Matthews Band with upcoming acts like Kid Rock (June 15), Train (June 28), Halsey (June 30), Luke Bryan (July 7) and Thomas Rhett (July 22).
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Under new ownership, Blackhall Studios has now been renamed Shadowbox Studios, which is set to become one of the largest studios in the state with planned expansion.
Los Angeles-based hedge fund Commonwealth Asset Management purchased Blackhall last year from local entrepreneur Ryan Milsap for $120 million. Another investor, Silver Lake, recently joined with a minority stake.
The Decide DeKalb Development Authority in April unanimously approved a hefty incentives package to the studio, which has operated near I-285 and Bouldercrest Road in southwest DeKalb since 2017. This includes both a conventional $34 million tax break over 20 years and an additional $34 million “infrastructure credit” that officials said would help offset the cost of the studio addressing the “extraordinary and challenging infrastructure and topography needs” on the expansion site, which covers 155 undeveloped acres south of its current operations.
The expansion would more than double the studio’s existing square footage, putting it at over 2 million square feet. It would go from its nine current soundstages to a total of 35.
Credit: SHADOWBOX
Credit: SHADOWBOX
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