Athens, GA (January 22, 2025) – The Peabody Awards will return to Los Angeles and the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on June 1, 2025, as it celebrates 85 years of stories that defend public interest, encourage empathy and teach us to expand our understanding of the world around us. Awards will be given in the following categories: entertainment, documentary, news, podcast/radio, arts, children’s and youth, immersive and interactive media, and public service programming.
“Receiving the Peabody Award for ‘Fellow Travelers’ was a career highlight,” said Ron Nyswaner, creator and executive producer of the Showtime series, which received a Peabody Award in the entertainment category last year. “It inspires me to defy the algorithm-driven demands of the business, igniting in audiences the realization that we are all part of the same thrilling and terrifying adventure of being human.”
“Our 2024 debut in L.A. was a major success, and we look forward to continuing to introduce the wider Hollywood creative community to what makes Peabody the premier award for media that matters,” said Jeffrey Jones, executive director of Peabody. “In such polarized times, the stories that Peabody honors are unifying in their clear call to address injustices and see humanity in all its beauty and messiness. Honoring such programs remains our goal.”
The Peabody program is based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. The Peabody Board of Jurors is comprised of media industry professionals, as well as journalists, critics and scholars, appointed to six-year terms. All programs that are nominated and win Peabody Awards must receive a unanimous vote by the Board of Jurors.
The new Board of Jurors chair this year is Dr. Dana Heller, Dean of the College of Arts at Eastern Michigan University, and author of multiple books and articles on topics related to television, pop culture, media and gender/sexuality.
McFadden has been among the nation’s leading broadcast journalists for more than four decades, including stints as former co-anchor of ABC’s “Nightline” and the former Senior Investigative and Legal Correspondent at NBC News. She has been recognized with a host of journalism’s most prestigious awards including nearly 20 Emmy nominations and 3 wins; 2 Peabody Awards, an Edward R. Murrow award for hard news; the Overseas Press Club Award, along with a Loeb Award for business reporting. Called “the most impactful” of journalists by the highly regarded Poynter Institute, her in-depth reporting around the world, often about the abuses faced by women and children, has led to policy changes and increased support for victims.
D’Addario is the chief correspondent at Variety and the author of the novel The Talent. At Variety, he writes features and criticism and is among the moderators of the magazine’s Actors on Actors video series. He was previously the television critic both at Variety and at Time. D’Addario has won awards from the Los Angeles Press Club for profile writing and for political commentary.
Hadadi is a television critic with Vulture/New York magazine who also writes about film and pop culture, with a particular interest in labor, feminism and Middle Eastern and Muslim representation. Her reviews, essays, recaps, and other writing have also been published by RogerEbert.com, the Los Angeles Times, GQ, Slate, The A.V. Club, Polygon, The Washington Post, Pajiba, Crooked Marquee, The Playlist, Fox Digital, Bright Wall/Dark Room and Inverse. She is a regular panelist on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, and her written and video essays have been published by Criterion and Film Movement.
Delli Carpini is the Oscar H. Gandy Emeritus Professor of Communication and Democracy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, where he served as Dean, and was previously Director of the Public Policy Program of the Pew Charitable Trusts. His research explores the role of the citizen in democratic politics, with particular emphasis on the impact of mass media and information and communications technologies on public opinion, public deliberation, political knowledge, and political participation, and has authored several books, articles and essays on the subjects.
Additional members of the 2025 Board of Jurors include:
- Manuel Betancourt, Contributing Editor, Film Quarterly; Film/TV Critic, Culture Writer
- Doug Herzog, Former President of Viacom’s Music Entertainment Group
- Michael Isip, President & CEO, KQED
- Cynthia Ló pez, CEO of New York Women in Film & Television
- Nicholas Quah, Podcast Critic, Vulture
- Kent Rees, Industry Content and Marketing Strategist
- Mark Rufein, Program Director of Real Jazz, SiriusXM Satellite Radio
- Russ Schriefer, American Political and Corporate Strategist, and Media Consultant
- Cynthia Tucker, Pulitzer Prize-winning Syndicated Columnist
- Bonnie Turner, Veteran Film and Television Writer and Producer
- Mark Whitaker, Former Managing Editor of CNN Worldwide, Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News and Editor of Newsweek
- Andrea Wishom, President of Skywalker Holdings, LLC, and Former Harpo Productions Executive
Past Peabody Award winners include some of the most beloved and groundbreaking series of all time, including “Hill Street Blues,” “Murphy Brown,” “The Wire,” “Veep,” The Sopranos,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Ofeice” and “Succession”, and limited/mini-series including “Roots,” “Tales of the City,” “Chernobyl,” and “Dopesick.” Children’s and youth honorees have included “ABC Afterschool Specials,” “Bluey” and “Doc McStufeins,” while landmark educational programs such as “Cosmos” and “NOVA” have also been honored. Peabody began recognizing Interactive and Immersive Media in 2021, with organizations such as The New Yorker, The Washington Post and The New York Times receiving honors. The Peabody Awards precedes The Emmy Awards as the longest running awards program to honor how television/broadcasting, and now digital and podcast programming, can have positive effects on society.
Nominees for the 2025 Peabody Awards will be announced in April, with winners announced in May. The 2025 ceremony will be produced by Bob Bain Productions. For more information, please visit peabodyawards.com.
Is the sixth paragraph of the press release missing? The subsequent ones mention three people only by last name, which was momentarily confusing, because when I see the name D'Addario the first thing that comes to mind is Alexandra…