HBO, NBC Top List of Honorees at Peabody Luncheon

NEW
YORK, June 5: HBO and NBC came out on top at the 66th annual Peabody Awards
yesterday night, with HBO capturing five awards and NBC picking up four.

NBC
garnered awards for The Office,
Scrubs and Friday Night
Lights and a Dateline NBC segment that followed a middle-school teacher in
Atlanta.

HBO
scored awards for its film Elizabeth I and the documentaries Baghdad ER, Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer, The Music in Me and When the Levee Broke: A Requiem in Four
Acts, Spike Lee's film about
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

ABC also had a strong
showing, winning three awards. The network was honored for Ugly Betty, a special report titled Out of Control: AIDS
in Black America and Brian Ross'
ABC News investigative report on Rep. Mark Foley and his inappropriate
instant-messaging with young male pages.

CBS
took home an award for Ed Bradley's 60 Minutes report on the Duke rape case, with producer
Michael Radutzky accepting the award for Bradley, who died in November.
Radutzky said Bradley would have been "so proud and so honored" if he
were there to accept it.

Event
host and NBC employee Bob Costas noted that the network won more Peabodys this
year than any broadcast network in more than a decade. In a reference to NBC's
ratings struggle, he joked that NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker,
who was in attendance, had told him he doesn't "give a damn about ratings.

He
only cares about critical acclaim and prestigious awards."

The
Peabodys, administered by the University of Georgia, honor radio and television
networks for "distinguished achievement and meritorious service."