FRONTLINE Wins 4 News & Documentary Emmy Awards (2024)

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(Eric Gulliver)

September 28, 2022

Patrice Taddonio

FRONTLINE was a winner four times over at the 43rd annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

Over the course of the two-night ceremony, which took place in New York City on Sept. 28 and 29, 2022, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences recognized both FRONTLINE’s documentary journalism and its interactive digital storytelling.

First, at Wednesday’s News Emmys ceremony, FRONTLINE’s collaborative domestic and international reporting received Emmy Awards in two categories:

Yemen’s COVID Cover-Up won the “Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form” Emmy. In the report from FRONTLINE and BBC News Arabic, journalist Nawal al-Maghafi returned to her home country to investigate how the coronavirus pandemic had deepened what has been called one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. She was the first journalist from an international broadcaster to be allowed into the war-torn country since the pandemic began, and in Houthi-controlled northern Yemen, she found evidence of a far higher COVID death toll than authorities were admitting. From a team including al-Maghafi, Sara Obeidat, Gary Beelders and Dan Edge (see full credits list), the short documentary, a GBH/FRONTLINE production in association with BBC News Arabic, premiered in February 2021.

Boeing’s Fatal Flaw took home the Emmy in the “Outstanding Business, Consumer or Economic Coverage” category. In the documentary, FRONTLINE and The New York Times investigated what led up to the 737 Max airplane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Spotlighting the voices of those who lost loved ones in the crashes,the documentary revealed how intense market pressure and failed oversight contributed to a catastrophic crisis for one of the world’s most iconic industrial names. From a team including Tom Jennings, Vanessa Fica, Kate McCormick, Frank Koughan, David Gelles, James Glanz, Natalie Kitroeff and Jack Nicas (see full credits list), Boeing’s Fatal Flaw, a FRONTLINE production withThe New York Timesand Left/Right Docs, premiered in September 2021.

Then, FRONTLINE and its partners were honored with two additional awards during the Documentary Emmys ceremony the following night:

A Thousand Cuts took home the Emmy for “Outstanding Social Issue Documentary.” The feature-length documentary chronicled how journalist Maria Ressa became a prime target of then-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on the press, and how she and her news organization, Rappler, responded. From a team including Ramona S. Diaz, Leah Marino, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements and Carolyn Hepburn (see full credits list), the documentary offered a powerful look at the implications for democracy when press freedom is threatened and disinformation flourishes on social media. A Thousand Cuts — a Concordia Studio, Motto Pictures, and CineDiaz production developed in association with Topic for GBH/FRONTLINE — had its U.S. broadcast premiere on FRONTLINE in January 2021. Ressa would later be named a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The “Outstanding Interactive Media: Innovation” Emmy went to Un(re)solved, a multiplatform investigation by FRONTLINE with Ado Ato Pictures, StoryCorps, Black Public Media, the Northeastern University Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, PBS and GBH. The project examines a federal effort to grapple with America’s legacy of racist killings through the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. In the Un(re)solved interactive web experience and a touring, augmented-reality installation, audiences speak the names of people on the Till Act list to enter a digital forest of quilted memories and shine “the light of truth” on their stories, in the words of pioneering journalist Ida B. Wells. The project memorializes cold-case victims’ lives and also transmits a deeper understanding of the cycle of racially motivated crimes throughout American history. From a team including Tamara Shogaolu, Dawn Porter, Raney Aronson-Rath, Carla Borras, Collyn Stephens, Michelle Mizner, Dan Nolan and Anthony DeLorenzo (see full credits list), the Un(re)solved interactive and installation launched in June 2021.

“It’s such an honor to see our reporting recognized with these News & Documentary Emmys,” says FRONTLINE Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath. “We’re so proud of all of our Emmy-winning and nominated directors, producers, reporters and staff, as well as the stellar partners with whom we collaborated on these Emmy-winning investigations and with whom we share this honor. We celebrate and congratulate our PBS colleagues who were also recognized over the past two nights. And as always, we are profoundly thankful to GBH, PBS and CPB for supporting journalism that holds truth to power.”

Including FRONTLINE’s 13 nominations, PBS received this year. Additionally, Judy Woodruff, PBS NewsHour anchor and managing editor, was honored as a Lifetime Achievement Emmy winner on Wednesday night.

FRONTLINE, which is broadcast nationwide on PBS and produced at GBH, has now won 104 Emmy Awards to date. From feature-length documentaries, to shorter-form stories, to immersive interactive storytelling, you can explore the series’ latest Emmy Award-winning journalism below.