Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

North Hollywood, CA, August 6, 2007 – The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Board of Governors has voted to bestow its prestigious Governors Award jointly to American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" (FOX) and "The Addiction Project” (HBO), chairman Dick Askin announced today.

The award, which salutes an individual, company or organization whose works stand out with the immediacy of current achievement, will be presented at the 2007 Creative Arts Emmy® Awards. Hal Eisner, Chairman of the Governors Award Nominating Committee, oversaw the selection process.

“The Governors Award is the Television Academy’s highest honor," Askin said. “We salute these programs for harnessing the power of television to educate and inform viewers about two very significant issues that touch all of us."

"With 'Idol Gives Back,'" he explained, "American Idol was able to take their audience and raise their awareness of impoverished children and also delivered millions of dollars to help ease their plight.

"HBO's ‘The Addiction' was a landmark venture that stripped away misconceptions about addition and offered hope to addicts and their loved ones with information about new and effective treatments," Askin continued. "These shows exemplify the mission of the Governors Award and we are proud to recognize both of these remarkable programs with this esteemed award."

American Idol's "Idol Gives Back"

American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" was a star-studded gala and public service campaign that helped raise more than $75 million to benefit relief programs for children and young people in extreme poverty in America and Africa.

Hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Ellen DeGeneres, "Idol Gives Back" gathered the largest group of celebrities, musicians, corporate sponsors and humanitarians to create the most extensive philanthropic effort that any network has ever attempted.

The event took place over a two-day period (April 24th and 25th) in two Los Angeles venues (The Walt Disney Concert Hall and the American Idol Stage) and aired on FOX.

In addition, American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, along with judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and American Idol winner Carrie Underwood, visited some of the most impacted areas in the United States and Africa to profile the extreme plight of the poor, homeless and sick children who need help in order to survive.

"Idol Gives Back" embraced a unique opportunity to bring the issue of extreme poverty in the U.S. and Africa into the homes of millions of Americans.

American Idol’s “Idol Gives Back” was created and executive-produced by Simon Fuller, founder of 19 Entertainment; and executive-produced by Cecile Frot-Coutaz, CEO, FremantleMedia North America, Inc.; Nigel Lythgoe, President, 19 Television; and Ken Warwick, Executive Producer, FremantleMedia North America, Inc. Click here to visit the the Idol Gives Back website.

HBO's "The Addiction Project"

HBO's “The Addiction Project” was an unprecedented multi-platform and outreach campaign with events in over 100 cities aimed at helping Americans understand addiction as a chronic but treatable brain disease.

By making the project accessible to as many people as possible (i.e., opening it's signal, streaming all the content for free on hbo.com and making the series available free as podcasts), HBO believed it could effect a meaningful shift in America's approach to addiction.

HBO partnered with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and two arms of the National Institutes of Health – the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and assembled a master team of highly accomplished documentary filmmakers to make the 14-part series.

The result was a campaign that succeeded in touching tens of millions of Americans and building new awareness that addiction is a treatable brain disease that responds to effective medical and behavioral treatments. Visit the official Addiction Project website here.

Preceding Governors Award Recipients

Last year, mtvU received the Governors Award for its Campaign for Darfur.

Past recipients include Jerry Lewis , Viacom, Inc. for its pro bono public outreaches, Lifetime Network's "Stop the Violence Against Women," initiative, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC for the 9/11 special “Supporting America: A Tribute to Heroes," Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson, Masterpiece Theatre, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, CNN, Showtime's diversity programming, PBS, Alistair Cooke and MTV's "Fight For Your Rights: Take a Stand Against Violence," among others.

The Governors Award Committee is comprised of Television Academy Governors Beth Bohn, Donna Ekholdt, Kevin Hamburger, Melinda Lawton, Kate Linder and Nancy Thurston.

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Creative Arts Emmy® Awards to Air on E!

On Saturday, September 8, also at the Shrine Auditorium, 63 awards “categories” (a single award) and “areas” (possibility of one, more than one or no award) will be handed out at the black-tie Creative Arts Emmy® Awards—executive-produced by Lee Miller and John Moffitt with Spike Jones, Jr. producing and Chris Donovan directing.

The awards presentation will be televised on E! on Saturday, September 15, 2007 at 8 pm (ET/PT).

Download 2007 Primetime Emmy® Nominations Below

Click links below for complete lists of the 2007 Primetime Emmy® Awards nominations, as tabulated by the independent accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP. The nominations have been listed alphabetically by program within each category.

About The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was founded in 1946 just one month after network television was born. It is a non-profit organization devoted to the advancement of telecommunications arts and sciences and to fostering creative leadership in the telecommunications industry. In addition to recognizing outstanding programming through its Emmy® Award, the Television Academy publishes Emmy® Magazine and stages many industry-related programs, services and year-round events for the television community.

For additional press information and resources concerning the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, please direct your inquiries to Robin Mesger of The Lippin Group at (323) 965-1990.