HBOTop Winner At Vision Awards

Home Box Office’s telefilm Bury My Heart at Wounded Kneewon two of the network’s three Vision Awards honors -- the most for any cable channel -- during the National Association for Ethnicity In Communications’ annual awards ceremony Wednesday.

CNN and Disney Channel each won two of the 14 Vision Awards handed out during a luncheon ceremony this afternoon in Beverly Hills. The Vision Awards recognizes the cable industry’s commitment to producing quality, multi-ethnic original programming.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which chronicled the history of Native Americans in the American West during the 19th century, won best drama honors, as well as best drama performance for actor Adam Beach, according to NAMIC. HBO’s stand-up comedy special D.L. Hugley: Unapologetic, took home best comedy honors.

CNN’s winning programs were American Morning: MLK Series/Soledad O’Brien for Best News/Informational show and Special Investigations Unit: Judgment in Jena in the Documentary category. 


Disney Channel’s preschool series Handy Manny took the award for best animation show and its blockbuster original telefilm High School Musical 2 for Best Children’s show.


Bravo, BET J and ESPN also won awards at the luncheon, which was sponsored by Warner Bros. The Awards luncheon was part of NAMIC Southern California chapter’s West Coast Creative Summit

The full list of winners follows:

ANIMATION                                                
Handy Manny (“A Very Happy Holiday”)/Disney Channel

BEST PERFORMANCE – COMEDY

Whoopi Goldberg – The Word According to Whoop”/Bravo

BEST PERFORMANCE – DRAMA

Adam Beach – Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee/HBO

CHILDREN’S
High School Musical 2/Disney Channel

COMEDY
D.L. Hughley: Unapologetic/HBO

DOCUMENTARY
Special Investigations Unit: Judgment in Jena/CNN

DRAMA
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee/HBO

FOREIGN LANGUAGE
El Honor De Un Sacrificio/The History Channel

LIFESTYLE
Styleyes Miami/Si TV

NEWS/INFORMATIONAL
American Morning: MLK Series/Soledad O’Brien/CNN

ORIGINAL MOVIE OR SPECIAL
Akon: The Rhythm of Africa/The Africa Channel

BEST REALITY
How Do I Look?/Style Network

SPORTS
After Jackie/ESPN

VARIETY/TALK SHOW
My Two Cents/BET J

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.