Peabody Awards: ‘When They See Us,’ ‘Watchmen,’ ‘Dolly Parton’s America’ among winners

Erik Anderson June 10, 2020

The Peabody Awards have selected 30 winners as “the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and digital media during 2019,” including HBO’s Watchmen and Succession, Netflix’s When They See Us and Stranger Things and Hulu’s Ramy in the entertainment section.

“This year’s winners are a vibrant collective of inspiring, innovative, and powerful stories,” said Jeffrey P. Jones, executive director of Peabody. “True to the spirit and legacy of Peabody, our winners are also distinguished by the presence and resilience of many emerging and diverse voices.”

PBS led the field with seven awards, including four for its POV series, while HBO and Netflix had four wins each. CNN and NBC had two, while Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Plus, Hulu, Lifetime, and OWN each earned one.

Although the awards were decided on ahead of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police last month, several winners focused primarily on police brutality and systemic racism in the criminal justice system, including the documentary The Edge of Democracy; the Emmy-winning When They See Us about the 1990s Central Park Five case on Netflix; the podcast Dolly Parton’s America; and the HBO limited series Watchmen.

No date has been set to announce the winners as the ceremony has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Peabody Awards are based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Here is the full list of winners:

ENTERTAINMENT

Chernobyl
HBO Miniseries and SKY in association with Sister, The Mighty Mint, and Word Games (HBO)

David Makes Man
Page Fright and Outlier Productions in association with Warner Horizon Scripted Television
(OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network)

Dickinson
Apple / wiip / Anonymous Content / Tuning Fork Productions / Sugar 23 Productions (Apple TV+)

Fleabag
All3Media International Limited and Amazon Studios (Prime Video)

Ramy
Hulu, A24 Television (Hulu)

Stranger Things
Monkey Massacre Productions & 21 Laps Entertainment (Netflix)

Succession
HBO Entertainment in association with Project Zeus, Hyperobject Industries, and Gary Sanchez Productions (HBO)

Unbelievable
Timberman-Beverly Productions, Sage Lane Productions, Escapist Fare, Katie Couric Media, and CBS Television Studios for Netflix (Netflix)

Watchmen
HBO in association with White Rabbit, Paramount, Warner Bros. Television and DC (HBO)

When They See Us
Participant Media, Tribeca Productions, Harpo Films, Array Filmworks for Netflix (Netflix)

DOCUMENTARIES

Apollo 11
CNN Films (CNN)

For Sama
FRONTLINE PBS, Channel 4 News, ITN Productions, Channel 4 (PBS)

Independent Lens: HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING
A production of Idiom Film, LLC and Louverture Films, in association with Field of Vision (PBS)

POV: Inventing Tomorrow
Fishbowl Films, Motto Pictures, 19340 Productions, Shark Island Institute, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, IQ190 Productions, American Documentary | POV (PBS)

POV: Midnight Traveler
Old Chilly Pictures LLC, American Documentary | POV, Independent Television Service (PBS)

POV: The Distant Barking of Dogs
Final Cut for Real, Mouka Filmi, STORY, Bayerischer Rundfunk, ARTE, American Documentary | POV (PBS)

POV: The Silence of Others
Semilla Verde Productions, Lucernam Films, American Documentary | POV, Independent Television Service, Latino Public Broadcasting, El Deseo (PBS)

Surviving R. Kelly
Bunim/Murray Productions and Kreativ Inc. for Lifetime (Lifetime)

The Edge of Democracy
A Busca Vida Filmes Production in association with Violet Films for Netflix (Netflix)

True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality
HBO Documentary Films and Kunhardt Films (HBO)

PODCAST/RADIO

Dolly Parton’s America
Osm Audio and WNYC Studios (WNYC)

Have You Heard George’s Podcast?
BBC Sounds/George the Poet Ltd. (BBC Sounds)

In the Dark: The Path Home
American Public Media (APM Reports)

Threshold: The Refuge
(Auricle Productions)

NEWS

A Different Kind of Force: Policing Mental Illness
(NBC News)

American Betrayal
NBC News, Engel Unit (NBC/MSNBC)

Long Island Divided
(Newsday)

The Hidden Workforce: Undocumented in America
(CNN)

Unwarranted
(WBBM-TV)

CHILDREN’S & YOUTH

Molly of Denali
WGBH Educational Foundation, Atomic Cartoons (PBS Kids)

Author
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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.