Disney, Showtime, HBO Garner ‘Vision’ Nods

Disney Channel, Showtime and Home Box Office garnered the lion’s share of nominations for the National Association of Mulit-Ethnicity in Communications’ 10th annual "Vision Awards."

Showtime pulled an industry-high eight nominations, including four of six slots in the drama category for original movies Jasper, Texas, Deacons for Defense and Good Fences, said the organization, which will announce the winners during an April 16ceremony in Los Angeles.

Disney drew six nominations, three in the comedic-performance category alone for its series The Proud Family (for actresses Paula Jai Parker and Jo Marie Payton) and That’s So Raven (for comedian Raven).

HBO also collected six nominations in a number of categories, including documentary (Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives), music/variety (Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry) and news/informational (Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel).

Black Entertainment Television received five nods, along with Zee TV. All of the latter’s were in the foreign-language category.

The NAMIC Vision Awards honor cable companies that have demonstrated a commitment to producing quality multiethnic and cross-cultural programming content.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.