FRONTLINE Wins 2 News & Documentary Emmy Awards; Series’ Leader Recognized by NATAS

FRONTLINE won two Emmys at the 45th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, a two-night ceremony that also saw the investigative series’ editor-in-chief and executive producer honored by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).

Produced at GBH in Boston and broadcast nationwide on PBS, FRONTLINE was recognized with Emmys for documentaries on U.S. politics and a global spyware scandal:

• Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court won the Emmy for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary. As reports emerged of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepting luxury trips and gifts and of his wife, Ginni, supporting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, this two-hour documentary examined how race, power and controversy collided in the couple’s rise, and how the duo reshaped American law and politics. From director, writer and producer Michael Kirk, writer and producer Mike Wiser, producer and reporter Vanessa Fica, and reporter Jane Mayer (see full credit list), the May 2023 documentary was made with support from Preserving Democracy, a public media reporting initiative from The WNET Group.
• Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus won the Outstanding Investigative Documentary Emmy. A two-part series in partnership with Forbidden Films (the documentary arm of Forbidden Stories) and the Pegasus Project consortium, it investigated the powerful spyware Pegasus, sold to governments around the world by the Israeli company NSO Group and used on journalists, activists, the wife and fiancée of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi and others. The series followed journalists across the world as they raced to piece together who had been targeted with the software, with technical support from Amnesty International’s Security Lab and additional support from Citizen Lab. The film by Anne Poiret & Arthur Bouvart, which was directed by Anne Poiret, produced by Laurent Richard & Sandrine Rigaud, and filmed by Arthur Bouvart and Thibault Delavigne (see full credits list), premiered in January 2023.

Additionally, FRONTLINE’s editor-in-chief and executive producer, Raney Aronson-Rath, was one of eight documentary filmmakers and news industry professionals inducted onstage into the Silver Circle, which NATAS describes as “an elite group of professionals who have made significant contributions to television” for 25 years.

“We are so honored to see FRONTLINE’s work recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in this way, and I am proud and grateful to be inducted into the Silver Circle,” Aronson-Rath says. “We share this great news with our editorial partners, film teams and, of course, with GBH, PBS and CPB and our viewers, who support FRONTLINE’s investigative journalism week in and week out.”

The News & Documentary Emmy Awards were held on Sept. 25 and 26. Including 17 nominations for FRONTLINE, PBS this year received 34 News & Documentary Award nominations and GBH received 20. FRONTLINE has now earned 108 News & Documentary Emmy Awards since the series began.

Watch this year’s Emmy-winning FRONTLINE documentaries below. They are also available to stream in the PBS App, at pbs.org/frontline and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

OUTSTANDING POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTARY

Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court (credits)

OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE DOCUMENTARY

Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus (credits)