July 15, 2008–Public broadcasting was the clear frontrunner among the nominees for the 29th annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards, announced Tuesday. With 38 mentions, PBS drew more than double the number of its nearest competitors–ABC and CBS, both with 17. NBC was next with 14.
The cable news channel with the most nominations was CNN with five (“Anderson Cooper 360” accounted for two of those), but it placed behind National Geographic Channel, HBO/Cinemax and History (12, 10 and six, respectively) among cablers.
Special longform programs, newsmagazines and stalwarts like “Frontline” and “P.O.V.” helped PBS nab a good portion of its noms.
Over at the broadcast nets, the evening news broadcasts brought in the most mentions, but other news programming–CBS' “60 Minutes,” ABC's “20/20” and NBC's “Dateline”–also drew noms.
Winners will be announced on Sept. 22, when the news and documentary Emmy Awards will be handed out at Lincoln Center.
