HBO garnered a trio of Peabody Awards, while Sundance Channel and BBC American each captured one.
The premium programmer earned a pair for its series and a third for a documentary film. HBO Entertainment, in association with Leverage, Closest to the Hole Productions and Sheleg, scored a Peabody for In Treatment, its fictional psychiatrist drama starring Gabriel Byrne in the lead role, while Mirage Enterprises and Cinechicks in association with The Weinstein Co., BBC and HBO Entertainment were honored for the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, based on Alexander McCall Smith's best-selling novels about African detective Precious Ramotswe.
The Thrilla in Manila, chronicling the last of three legendary fights between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, their rivalry and antipathy, won for Darlow Smithson Production, HBO Sports and HBO Documentary Films.
Sundance Channel received a Peabody for Brick City, its five-hour documentary series about the struggles of Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J. and other denizens as they tried to lift their blighted communities. A second season, from Sundance Channel and Brick City TV LLC, is in production.
For its part, BBC America was bestowed with a Peabody for its nightly newscast BBC World News America, which was honored for overall excellence.
BBC World News America also won a second Peabody for a report on maternal mortality in Afghanistan, "Where Giving Life is a Death Sentence," by BBC correspondent Lyse Doucet. That piece received The David Bloom Award at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner in Washington on March 17.
The 69th annual awards honoring the best in electronic media for 2009 were announced March 31 by the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Peabody Awards will be handed out May 17 at New York's Waldorf-Astoria.
Click here for a complete list of winners.
