‘Watchmen’, ‘When They See Us’, ‘Finding Neverland’ earn Peabody Award nominations

HBO led the pack in entertainment with seven nominations.

May 6, 2020

Watchmen theGrio.com — Regina King in a scene from "Watchmen," premiering on Oct. 20. (Mark Hill/HBO via AP)

The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors announced all 60 nominees across the categories of entertainment, children’s and youth, documentaries, news, podcast/radio, and public service on Wednesday. Nominees “represent the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and digital media during 2019.”

Although HBO led the pack entertainment-wise, PBS had the most total nominations with 11 nods, followed by HBO with seven; the most of any cable network or streaming platform this year (and the most nominations in the Entertainment category).

The Watchmen earned one of the network’s nods in the entertainment category along with Chernobyl, Our Boys, and Succession.

The shocking Michael Jackson documentary, Finding Neverland, is nominated in the documentary category along with True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality.

In the news category, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: Raced to Death The Plight of the American Thoroughbred made the list.

Netflix came next with five nominations. Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us earned a nod for Netflix, as did their hit, Stranger Things.

OWN’s groundbreaking series, David Makes Man, earned a nomination as well.

While the annual awards ceremony has been canceled due to the coronavirus crisis, winners will be announced at a later date. Nominees were chosen by 19 jurors from nearly 1,300 entries.

Last year’s winners included a long list of fantastic projects, including Barry, Pose, Killing Eve, Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj, Hannah Gadsby: Nanette, Random Acts of Flyness, The Good Place, The End of the F***ing World, The Americans and Steven Universe.

Last year, PBS’ children’s variety show Sesame Street was named the 2019 Institutional Award winner for “50 years of education and entertaining children in the U.S. and around the world” and “reminding citizens and politicians why public broadcasting is necessary and valuable, challenging us to make a difference and to be good, caring people while we do so.”