Three-Station Tie for Top Honors at Los Angeles Area Emmys

Three stations — ABC7, KTLA5 and NBC4 — led the winners at the 64th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards with seven honors each. And for the second consecutive year, NBC4 scored a trifecta, taking all three of the highly competitive regularly scheduled newscast categories. NBC4 also led all winners in 2011 and 2010. The Los Angeles Area Emmys honor excellence in programming produced by and for the Los Angeles market. At this year’s ceremony, held once again at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre on the grounds of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, awards were given in more than 40 categories, spanning all facets of news, sports and public affairs programming. In addition, the prestigious Governors Award was given to Susan Stratton, a trailblazer for women in sports broadcasting and a veteran producer-director at KCAL9 for nearly 30 years. Presenters for the evening, which was streamed via live webcast at the Television Academy’s website, Emmys.com, included more than 30 local anchors, reporters and producers. NBC4’s repeat in the top three victories came at the end of the evening, when NBC4 at 6:00 P.M. was named outstanding regularly scheduled daytime newscast from 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m., followed by Today in L.A. at 6:00 A.M. being honored for regularly scheduled daily morning newscast from 4:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m., and culminating with NBC4 News at 11:00 P.M. winning for regularly scheduled newscast from 7:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. David Ono of ABC7 took home three statuettes, prevailing in the category of outstanding hard news reporting, outstanding writer-programming and arts and culture/history. His honors in the latter two categories were for “Witness: American Heroes,” the true story of Nisei soldiers who fought for the United States during World War II. The Nisei — second-generation — soldiers were a group of Japanese-American fighters from the 100th and 442nd Regimental Combat Teams. While these men served their country, their families were detained in internment camps due to prejudice following the attack on the Pearl Harbor. Seventy years later, the soldiers received the Congressional Gold Medal for their patriotism and valor. Ono shared the award for arts and culture/history with executive producer Jeff MacIntyre, producer Robert Horsting and associate producer Michelle Kim. Other reporting awards went to KTLA5's Dave Malkoff for news feature reporting and Michael Eaves of Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket for sports reporting. In addition, CBS2's Paul Magers won for serious news story-single report and KTLA5's Carolyn Costello took the statuette for serious news story-multi-part report. The award for outstanding news writer went to Nicolette Medina of CBS2/KCAL9. Medina, who in her acceptance speech introduced her 93-year-old grandfather, who was seated in the audience, also won the Emmy for serious news story-single report. The award was given for “Rocketdyne,” a report on unsafe levels of radioactive material at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site in the Simi Hills. Medina shared the award with reporter Paul Magers. Also winning in multiple categories was the KCET public-affairs series SoCal Connected, which won two Emmys: for feature segment and information segment. This was the SoCal Connected’s third consecutive win for feature segment and second consecutive win for information segment. In the competitive investigative reporting category, the winner was ABC7 for "Serial Plaintiffs," about the phenomenon of citizens who file lawsuits against large numbers of local businesses in an effort to receive payment for alleged claims. The Television Academy’s Los Angeles Area governors, Greg Taylor and Sabrina Fair Thomas, introduced Los Angeles Kings announcer Bob Miller and Los Angeles Lakers analyst Stu Lantz, who saluted Governors Award recipient Stratton. The Governors Award is given to an individual, company or organization for outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences, or management of television, consistently over a period of years, or in recognition of an outstanding singular achievement or contribution. When she took the stage to accept her honor, Stratton reflected on her long and illustrious career, which included 29 years in charge of the Lakers’ television broadcasts, as well as Kings' hockey, Raiders and Rams football, Forum Boxing and much more. A true trailblazer, Stratton was one of the first women to work in sports broadcasting, and when she started with the Lakers, no woman had ever produced an NBA broadcast. As part of a job-shadowing program with The Fulfillment Fund, a group of Los Angeles Unified School District students were assigned to various departments involved in producing the Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards ceremony — including directing, lighting, video, audio and script. Following ABC7, KTLA5 and NBC4 in the award rankings were FOX SPORTS WEST with four Emmys; CBS2/KCAL9, FOX SPORTS WEST/PRIME TICKET and KCET with three each; CBS2 and L.A. COUNTY CHANNEL with two statuettes; and CITYTV OF SANTA MONICA, KLCS, KMEX, KTTV-TV and PRIME TICKET all taking home one. See a complete list of winners here.