ABC News’ Dan Abrams to Host NATPE Unscripted Breakthrough Awards

Dan Abrams, chief legal analyst for ABC News and host of the A&E series Live PD, has signed on to present the fourth annual Unscripted Breakthrough Awards at NATPE Miami.

The NATPE Unscripted Breakthrough Awards are designed to honor programs and celebrate people that broke through the clutter in the preceding year and became part of the cultural conversation, altering the expectations of what constitutes a reality program. The winners will be announced at a special luncheon ceremony on Tuesday, January 16.

Another highlight of the 2018 event will be a conversation between Lionsgate Television Group Chairman Kevin Beggs and Facebook’s head of market development, Matt Jacobson, during the session titled How a Listening Culture Can Help Businesses Drive Results and Recruit Talent.

Additionally, a brand-new concept for NATPE Miami will be the Open Development session, co-curated by Dan Goodman of Believe Entertainment Group. Three projects will be presented on stage by their creators, followed by a live discussion among a team of experts representing all aspects of the development process. The panel of experts will include Mina Lefevre of Facebook, Caitlin McGinty of The Story Lab (Dentsu Aegis), Jeff Grossman of CBS Interactive and Ivana Kirkbride of Verizon’s go90.

The new program Unscripted Breakfast: Insights and Discussion will be held the morning of Thursday, January 18, and will open with a keynote from Jennifer O’Connell of Lionsgate and Hans Schiff from CAA. The session will feature two more panels. In addition, Lionsgate Television Group’s Sandra Stern has joined the Old Guard vs. New Guard panel, which will be part of the first-ever NATPE Streaming Summit.