The Publicists of the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG, IATSE Local 600) will present the multi-award-winning actor Sir Patrick Stewart with the 2024 Television Showperson of the Year Award. Stewart will receive the award at the 61st Annual ICG Publicist Awards luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Friday, March 8.
Stewart embodies the spirit of the Television Showperson of the Year, which honors an individual whose accomplishments in television best represent that special spirit traditionally defined as showmanship.
In making the announcement, Publicists Award chairs Tim Menke and Sheryl Main shared, “We are honored to celebrate Stewart’s venerable career, including the recently completed final season of CBS Studios/Paramount+’s Star Trek: Picard, in which he reprised his signature role, first appearing in 1987, in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
Stewart’s illustrious career spans over six decades. A classically trained theater artist who got his start at the Royal Shakespeare Company before breaking into film and television, Stewart’s legendary performances have garnered him three Olivier Awards plus Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, Critics Choice and Tony Award nominations, among countless honors. His beloved screen work, known to audiences worldwide, includes his iconic portrayals of Star Trek’s Jean-Luc Picard and X-Men’s Professor Charles Xavier. In 2023, he became an instant New York Times best-selling author with the debut of his memoir, “Making It So.”
Previous recipients of the Television Showperson of the Year Award include Norman Lear, Ava DuVernay, Greg Berlanti, Quinta Brunson, Ryan Murphy, John Landgraf, Shonda Rhimes, Chuck Lorre, Steven Bochco, Aaron Spelling and Bob Hope.
ESPN and other channels return to DirecTV with a new Disney deal after a nearly 2-week blackout
DirecTV announced Saturday it had reached a deal with Walt Disney Co. that will restore ESPN and ABC-owned stations to its service after a nearly 2-week dispute that blacked out those networks for millions of viewers across the U.S.
The end of the impasse came in time for sports fans to watch ESPN's slate of college football games on DirecTV. It also will ensure that ABC's telecast of the Emmy Awards on Sunday night will be available in more major markets where viewers subscribe to DirecTV's pay service.
ABC had been unavailable since Sept. 1 on DirecTV in several markets where the station is owned by Disney. Those were located in the San Francisco Bay Area; Fresno, California; New York; Chicago; Philadelphia; Houston; and Raleigh, North Carolina.
DirecTV's 11 million subscribers abruptly lost access to ESPN, the ABC-owned stations and other Disney-owned channels such as FX and National Geographic during the Labor Day weekend in a dispute over carriage fees and programming flexibility.
Some viewers were watching the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament when ESPN suddenly went dark and others were getting ready to watch a college football showdown between LSU and Southern California.
The impasse also kept the NFL's opening game of Monday Night Football off of DirecTV's service.
Financial details of Disney's new deal with DirecTV weren't disclosed as part of Saturday's announcement. DirecTV's payments to Disney will be based on "market-based" pricing, according to the announcement about the deal.
The agreement also will give DirecTV the ability to offer Disney's video streaming services a la carte as well as in its own bundled packages. DirecTV won the right to include ESPN's forthcoming direct-to-consumer... Read More