TheLifetime Achievement Emmys are a class ofEmmy Awards presented in recognition of the significant lifetime achievements of an individual in the American television industry. They are analogous to otherawards based on cumulative achievement given out in the United States in the context of numerous career fields.
Winners who have been presented the Lifetime Achievement Emmy in the context of the News & Documentary Emmys, earning the citations due to theirjournalistic efforts, includeLarry King,Ted Koppel,Andrea Mitchell, andBarbara Walters.[1]
Notable instances involving the award include how performerFred Rogers, an actor known for works decided to children such asMister Rogers' Neighborhood, stopped the regular chain of events at the24th Daytime Emmy Awards in 1997 by successfully commanding the audience to give amoment of silence of commemorative thankfulness. Rogers additionally got astanding ovation before his comments, in which he told the crowd "may God be with you".[2]
Separate Lifetime Achievement Emmys are given out at theDaytime Emmys, theSports Emmys (known as theSports Lifetime Achievement Award), theNews & Documentary Emmys, and thePrimetime Engineering Emmy Awards (known as the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award), among other Emmy ceremonies. The first Emmy Awards ceremony in history was held on January 25, 1949, taking place at theHollywood Athletic Club of Los Angeles, California.
Winners who have been presented the Lifetime Achievement Emmy at the News & Documentary Emmys for theirjournalistic efforts includeLarry King,Ted Koppel,Andrea Mitchell, andBarbara Walters.[1] For his role behind the scenes, mass media centric business magnateTed Turner won the award in 2015. "There is no man that has made a bigger or more long-lasting impact on the world of television news than Ted Turner," Bob Mauro, the president of theNational Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), remarked.[3]
British broadcasterDavid Frost, who conducted theinterviews with former President Richard Nixon that received dramatization in the 2008 Oscar-nominated filmFrost/Nixon, received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy at theInternational Emmys in 2009.[4]
Entertainment figures who have received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy at the Daytime Emmys includeJudy Sheindlin, the central figure ofJudge Judy,[5] andJohn Clarke, a veteran film and television actor best known for starring onDays of Our Lives for thirty-seven years.[6]
Receiving the award in 1997, performerFred Rogers of programs decided to children such asMister Rogers' Neighborhood delivered one of the most notable moments in an Emmy acceptance speech during the24th Daytime Emmy Awards, successfully commanding the audience to give amoment of silence of commemorative thankfulness. Rogers got astanding ovation before his comments, in which he told the crowd "may God be with you".[2]
In 2020, sports reporterLesley Visser became the first woman to be awarded the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award, for her pioneering work in the generally male-dominated industry ofsports television. "To be a pioneer at nearly every juncture... isn’t easy despite how Lesley Visser makes it look," Justine Gubar, the Executive Director of the Sports Emmy Awards, publicly remarked, while adding that Visser had become an "unparalleled role model and mentor to countless up-and-coming journalists".[7]
In 2022, actorLeVar Burton became the first person to be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work onchildren's television. He will be presented with his award at the inauguralChildren's and Family Emmy Awards on December 11, 2022. Burton's efforts to promoteliteracy in the United States has taken over two decades and involved multiple productions such as the television seriesReading Rainbow; the performer has not only read books to young people but also explained current events to them and otherwise worked to educate them.[8]
