The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors announced on Thursday the 34 winners elected to represent the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and streaming media during 2023. The winners were chosen by a unanimous vote of 32 jurors from over 1,100 entries from television, podcasts/radio, and the web/digital in entertainment, news, documentary, arts, children’s/youth, public service and interactive programming. Of the 34 total wins, HBO / Max received the most with seven awards, followed by PBS with five, Amazon MGM Studios with three and The Washington Post and FX with two each.
“Whether courageously documenting wars across the globe or cleverly bringing much needed smiles to our faces, the winners of the 84th Peabody Awards each crafted compelling and imaginative stories,” said Jeffrey Jones, executive director of Peabody. “Spanning a wide range of mediums and genres, they delivered enthralling projects that are worthy of our highest recognition.”
Entertainment led all categories this year with nine wins, followed by six for documentaries, and five for both news and radio/podcasts. Entertainment winner “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver received a third Peabody, while the TV show “Reservation Dogs” won its second.
Peabody also announced that Star Trek, the beloved science fiction franchise, has won the Institutional Award and that WITNESS, the international rights group that assists citizens across the globe in using video and digital technologies to protect and defend human rights, has won Peabody’s inaugural Global Impact Award. The Institutional Award recognizes institutions and organizations, as well as series and programs, for their enduring body of work and their lasting impact on the media landscape and the public imagination. The Global Impact Award recognizes media or organizations that have profoundly changed the world for the better.
The Institutional Award – “Star Trek”
The original “Star Trek” television series aired on NBC for only three seasons, from September 1966 to June 1969. It was fresh, prescient, and so ahead of its time that it couldn’t quite capture the mainstream audience required for hits. But fast forward nearly 60 years, and creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision is alive and well, having spawned a media franchise of 13 feature films, 11 television series, and numerous books and comics, with a legendary fan following.
The Global Impact Award – WITNESS
In 1992, one year after the world witnessed the civilian video recording of L.A. police brutality against Rodney King, the organization WITNESS was co-founded by musician and activist Peter Gabriel, the Reebok Foundation, and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights on the prescient premise that ordinary people using video to expose human rights violations could influence policy and create change, as well as save lives.
The impact of this work has been immense, including results such as convicting a warlord at the International Criminal Court; exposing sectarian violence, sex trafficking, and forced evictions; and establishing legal protections for some of the world’s most vulnerable people, from trash pickers in Delhi to elderly Americans at risk of financial, emotional, and physical abuse.
The ceremony
The winners of the 84th annual Peabody Awards will be celebrated on Sunday, June 9 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. The ceremony will be hosted by Kumail Nanjiani, the Oscar-nominated writer and Emmy-nominated actor and comedian.
This will be Peabody’s first in-person ceremony since 2019, as well as the first time ever in its history that the Awards will take place in Los Angeles. The awards ceremony will be produced by Bob Bain Productions. The 84th annual Peabody Awards are sponsored by Delta, and Variety will serve as the media partner for the awards ceremony.
Peabody is based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
Today’s Peabody Award winners, listed by category and in alphabetical order (network/platform in parentheses) are:
ARTS
“Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters” (World Channel and APT)
Black Public Media and World Channel
“Judy Blume Forever” (Prime Video)
Amazon MGM Studios, Imagine Documentaries
CHILDREN’S/YOUTH
“Bluey” (Disney+)
Ludo Studio, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, BBC Studios
DOCUMENTARY
“20 Days in Mariupol” (PBS)
FRONTLINE (PBS), The Associated Press
“All That Breathes” (HBO | Max)
HBO Documentary Films presents ALL THAT BREATHES in association with Submarine Deluxe and Sideshow; a Kiterabbit Films and Rise Films production in collaboration with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” (HBO | Max)
HBO Documentary Films presents a Participant and Neon presentation
“Bobi Wine: The People’s President” (National Geographic)
Southern Films / Ventureland / National Geographic Documentary Films
“POV: While We Watched” (PBS)
BRITDOC Films, American Documentary | POV
“The Stroll” (HBO | Max)
HBO Documentary Films
ENTERTAINMENT
“The Bear” (FX)
FX Productions
“Dead Ringers” (Prime Video)
Amazon MGM Studios, Annapurna Television
“Fellow Travelers” (Showtime)
SHOWTIME Presents a Fremantle and Showtime Studios Production
“Jury Duty” (Amazon Freevee)
Amazon MGM Studios, Picrow, The District, Piece of Work Entertainment
“The Last of Us” (HBO | Max)
HBO in association with Sony Pictures Television Studios, PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, and Naughty Dog
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Israel-Hamas War” (HBO | Max)
HBO in association with Peyance Productions and Avalon Television
“Reality” (HBO | Max)
HBO Films presents a Seaview and 2 Sq Ft production in association with Burn These Words, In The Cut Productions, Fit Via Vi, Cinereach, Tanbark Pictures
“Reservation Dogs” (FX)
FX Productions
“Somebody Somewhere” (HBO | Max)
HBO in association with Duplass Brothers Productions and The Mighty Mint
INTERACTIVE & IMMERSIVE
“The Hidden History of Racism in New York City” (Instagram)
Gen Z Historian, Urbanist Live
“Pentiment” (Xbox, PC, PlayStation 4|5, and Nintendo Switch)
Obsidian Entertainment
“We Are OFK” (PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Steam)
OFK
“You Destroy. We Create | The war on Ukraine’s culture” (Meta Quest)
NowHere Media
NEWS
“Against All Enemies” (NBC 5 / KXAS-TV Dallas-Fort Worth)
NBC 5 / KXAS-TV Dallas-Fort Worth
“Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court” (PBS)
FRONTLINE (PBS)
“Hate Comes to Main Street” (WTVF-TV, NewsChannel 5)
WTVF-TV, NewsChannel 5
“It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive” (Al Jazeera Media Network)
AJ+
“War in the Holy Land” (PBS NewsHour)
PBS NewsHour, PBS News
PUBLIC SERVICE
“America and the Taliban” (PBS)
FRONTLINE (PBS)
“The Post Roe Baby Boom: Inside Mississippi’s Maternal Health Crisis” (USA TODAY streaming channels)
USA TODAY and The Tennessean
RADIO/PODCAST
“The Big Dig” (GBH-News)
GBH-News and PRX
“The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop” (The Washington Post)
“Post Reports: Surviving to graduation” (The Washington Post)
“The Retrievals” (Serial Productions and The New York Times)
Serial Productions and The New York Times
“You Didn’t See Nothin” (Invisible Institute and USG Audio)
The Peabody Awards were founded in 1940 at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia and are still based in Athens today.
