The Television Academy has revealed plans to bestow a Hall of Fame Cornerstone Award to four major commercial broadcast networks, a formal acknowledgement of their roles in television history and their ongoing position in the television industry ecosystem.
The Cornerstone Award presentation will be part of the Academy’s milestone 70th Anniversary celebrity gala, the opening event of the newly-built Saban Media Center at the Academy’s reimagined campus, being held on Thursday, June 2.
The honor for ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, the only television institutions to be inducted into the Academy’s prestigious Hall of Fame, is being granted to recognize the historic impact and industry leadership of the networks in making a transformational medium possible.
Slated to accept the awards during the evening event are Ben Sherwood, Co-Chairman, Disney Media Networks & President, Disney|ABC Television Group; Nina Tassler, former Chairman, CBS Entertainment and Television Academy Foundation Board Member; Peter Rice, Chairman and CEO of Fox Networks Group; and Robert Greenblatt, Chairman, NBC Entertainment.
Chairman and CEO of the Television Academy, Bruce Rosenblum said, “Without the stalwart courage, passion and creativity of countless visionaries at each of these four networks, this magical thing called television would have never evolved and the extraordinary innovations and possibilities that the future holds for our industry would never become reality.”
Rick Rosen, Chair of the Academy’s Hall of Fame committee, and a founding member/head of television at William Morris Endeavor, said, “Because of these iconic players, television has enjoyed decades of exceptional creativity and business success. Looking forward, each will clearly continue to be a material part of a magnificent new golden age that is just beginning.”
Marking the Academy’s 70th Anniversary, the invitation-only gala will also feature a gathering of television’s stars for a historic “class photo” representing TV’s most memorable past and current personalities and moments.
Guests will receive the first look at the dramatic expansion of the Academy’s new home, the result of a $40 million “New Destination” capital campaign. The new Saban Media Center includes a 600 seat theater featuring the most advanced Dolby sight and sound system of any non-commercial U.S. theater, along with production spaces that will facilitate digital content featuring industry professionals and Academy events for global distribution, office space for the Television Academy’s philanthropic Foundation, as well as a conference center for symposiums and industry gatherings.
