LOS ANGELES—The Television Academy has announced the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is the recipient of the 2025 Governors Award, recognizing the organization’s more than five decades of service in enriching America’s media landscape through funding and support for educational, cultural and public-interest programming.
The honor is a bitter-sweet one. The CPB, which lost its Federal funding this summer, is on the verge of being shut down, with most staff being laid off and operations ending on Sept. 30.
“The Governors Award recognizes and celebrates extraordinary contributions that transcend television and transform society,” said Television Academy chair Cris Abrego. “For more than half a century, CPB has been a steadfast champion of storytelling that informs, educates and unites us and ensures public media remains a vital space where diverse voices are heard and communities are served. With this award, we honor CPB’s enduring legacy and its extraordinary impact on the cultural and civic life of our nation.”
The Emmy statuette will be presented to Patricia de Stacy Harrison, the longest-serving president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Under Harrison’s leadership since 2005, CPB has guided public media through digital transformations to help stations adopt new technologies and leverage multimedia platforms to ensure high-quality content reached audiences across television, radio and online, the Academy reported. In 2011, CPB launched the longest-running public media initiative to successfully address the national high school dropout crisis, transforming educational access and graduation rates across the country.
The award will be presented during the 2025 Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony on Sunday, Sept. 7.
The Governors Award is bestowed by the Television Academy’s Board of Governors and honors an individual, company or organization that has made a profound, transformational and long-lasting contribution to the arts and/or science of television.
Established in 1967 by the Public Broadcasting Act, CPB is a private, nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress to serve as the steward of the federal investment in public broadcasting and support more than 1,500 locally owned and operated public radio and television stations across the United States. CPB has supported independent filmmakers and innovations in storytelling, creating a cultural legacy for all Americans with iconic and Emmy-winning series, such as Sesame Street, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, The MacNeil/Lehrer Report and PBS NewsHour, NOVA, Finding Your Roots, Reading Rainbow, Molly of Denali, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, FRONTLINE, and Independent Lens.
Public media has a long and distinguished history of outstanding journalists, storytellers and documentary filmmakers who raised the bar for excellence, including Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff, William F. Buckley, Diane Rehm, Terry Gross, Ira Glass, Bill Moyers, Ken Burns, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Stanley Nelson Jr. the Television Academy noted.
Since its establishment, CPB has built public media into a nationwide service, funding programs for all ages that educate, enlighten and entertain; supporting local and national newsrooms that provide fact-based information; and funding a technological infrastructure for content distribution and emergency alerts.
Today, public media connects the country, serving 99% of the U.S. population free of charge and commercial free, over the air and online in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and Native communities in American Samoa, and rural and urban areas. It is often the only media available to residents of remote areas, the Academy said.
CPB supported public media’s pioneering work in closed captioning, descriptive video services and radio technology for live-captioned and Braille radio programs to be more accessible to persons with disabilities.
In July, Congress voted to eliminate all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, marking the end of nearly six decades of federal investment in America’s public media system.
Over the last 20 years, CPB’s funding has enabled stations to embrace new technologies and expand public media’s reach to new audiences. Through trusted content that amplifies public media’s uniquely American story across voices from all walks of life, CPB has consistently met the ever-changing needs of the communities that local public radio and television stations serve. “This is our legacy,” said Harrison. “CPB will serve as the foundation for the future of America’s public media.”
Previous recipients of the Governors Award, which was first presented in 1978, include LGBTQ+ media advocacy organization GLAAD, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, Debbie Allen, Greg Berlanti, Tyler Perry, Star Trek, American Idol, William S. Paley, Hallmark Cards Inc., Masterpiece Theatre, Comic Relief and PBS.
The 2025 Creative Arts Emmy Awards will be held over two consecutive nights, Saturday, Sept. 6, and Sunday, Sept. 7, at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE, helmed by executive producer Bob Bain and Bob Bain Productions. An edited presentation of the ceremonies will air Saturday, Sept. 13, at 8:00 PM PDT on FXX. Available to stream on Hulu through Oct. 7.
The 77th Emmy Awards will telecast live from the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, (8:00-11:00 PM EDT/5:00-8:00 PM PDT) on the CBS Television Network and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.
