Peabody Awards

As radio rose in popularity in the late 1930s, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to establish a prestigious award for excellence in broadcasting similar to the Pulitzer Prize. Lambdin Kay, manager of WSB Radio in Atlanta, asked John Drewry, dean of the University of Georgia’s Grady School of Journalism, to sponsor the awards, on the recommendation of Lessie Smithgall, a graduate who worked at the station.⁠[1]

The awards are named for George Foster Peabody, a benefactor of the University of Georgia; they were founded after his death and named posthumously to recognize his contributions to the university.⁠[2]

The first awards were issued in 1941 for excellence in radio programming broadcast in 1940.⁠[1]

Jeffrey P. Jones became only the fifth director of the Peabody Awards in 2013, having previously directed the Institute of Humanities at Old Dominion University. He is executive director of the George Foster Peabody Awards at the University of Georgia and Lambdin Kay Chair for the Peabodys in the Department of Entertainment & Media Studies. Under his leadership, television specials of the ceremony were broadcast nationally on Pivot, PBS and Fusion, and Peabody established its first Boards of Directors on both coasts.⁠[1]

On March 27, 2013, the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication honored ABCABCABC (American Broadcasting Company) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It grew out of NBC’s Blue radio network, took its name after becoming independent in 1943, developed into a national television network after merging with United Paramount Theatres in 1953, was acquired by Capital Cities in 1985, and has been owned by The Walt Disney Company since 1996. With CBS and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks, and it is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry News with two Peabody Awards, one of them for its coverage of Superstorm Sandy. The Peabody website lists the award as a 2012 winner; its citation notes that all of ABC News’s units took part and that a network-wide appeal helped raise more than $18 million for the Red Cross.⁠[3][4]

Wendy FisherWendy FisherWendy Fisher is an American television news executive and senior vice president of editorial for CBS News and Stations. She spent more than 30 years at ABC News from 1989, serving as senior vice president of global newsgathering from 2020 to 2023, before joining CBS in 2024.Open the full entry, then deputy managing editor at ABC News, features on her LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry profile a video titled “Wendy Fisher - Superstorm Sandy - 2012 Peabody Award Acceptance Speech.”⁠[5]

In 2015, in partnership with Facebook, Jones created the Peabody Futures of Media Award to recognize digital storytelling in formats such as video games, virtual reality, interactive documentaries and data journalism.⁠[1]

In 2020, Peabody created a separate Board of Jurors to formally award interactive and immersive media, launching the initiative in 2022 with a set of “legacy” winners for groundbreaking works from previous decades. The website states that beginning in 2023 Peabody expanded its mission to award interactive and immersive projects, including virtual reality, augmented reality, interactive documentary and journalism, social video and co-creation.⁠[1]

During the COVID pandemic of 2020–22, Peabody moved its annual celebration of winners online; in 2021 it launched a weekly newsletter of viewing recommendations.⁠[1]

In 2023, in conjunction with the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University and produced by PRX, Peabody launched the podcast We Disrupt This Broadcast, which looks at entertainment winners through the lens of cultural and industrial disruption in the streaming era.⁠[1]

In 2024, the annual awards ceremony was held in Los Angeles for the first time, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.⁠[1]

On April 23, 2026, the Peabody Board of Jurors announced the winners of the 86th annual Peabody Awards, honoring work from the previous year. A unanimous vote of 28 jurors chose 34 winners from more than 1,000 entries, with HBO Max receiving the most at six. The winners were celebrated on May 31 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly HillsBeverly HillsBeverly Hills is an incorporated city in Los Angeles County, California, known for its film-industry residents, Rodeo Drive shopping district and hotels. Incorporated on January 28, 1914, it covers about 5.71 square miles and recorded 32,701 residents in the 2020 census. It operates under a council–manager system. The Metro D Line extension reached Wilshire/La Cienega in May 2026.Open the full entry.⁠[6]

Winners in the News category included “Los Angeles Burning,” the coverage of the 2025 Southern CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry wildfires by ABC News and KABC-TV in Los Angeles. The citation notes that KABC was on the scene from the fire’s first moments and that ABC News’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight brought their resources to the crisis and its aftermath. ABC News correspondent Jaclyn LeeJaclyn LeeJaclyn Lee is a multiplatform reporter for ABC News, which she joined in 2023 after working as an anchor and reporter at WPVI-TV in Philadelphia and as a reporter and weekend evening anchor at WVEC-TV in Norfolk, Virginia.Open the full entry’s LinkedIn profile lists the award among her honors.⁠[6][7][8]

Peabody Awards are chosen each year by a diverse Board of Jurors through unanimous vote, in the categories of entertainment, documentary, news, podcast/radio, arts, children’s and youth, and public service programming.⁠[1]

Anyone credited on a Peabody Award-winning program, as well as executives at the company, station or network, may purchase a statuette engraved with their name and title.⁠[2]

Peabody Awards: Official website: https://peabodyawards.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

University of Georgia: Official website: https://www.uga.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]

Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication: Official website: https://grady.uga.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]

X: Public account: https://x.com/PeabodyAwards (opens in a new window).⁠[12]

Facebook: Public page: https://www.facebook.com/PeabodyAwards (opens in a new window).⁠[13]

Instagram: Public account: https://www.instagram.com/peabodyawards/ (opens in a new window).⁠[14]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/PeabodyAwardChannel (opens in a new window).⁠[15]

LinkedIn: Company page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/peabodyawards/ (opens in a new window).⁠[16]