After announcing its winners in the spring, the Peabody Awards celebrated the 34 honorees at a Beverly Hills event on Sunday.
The awards span television, podcasts/radio and the web in categories for entertainment, news, documentary, arts, children’s/youth, public service and interactive/immersive programming and media. Winners are chosen by a unanimous jury vote and selected for their potential to change culture. Heated Rivalry, Pluribus, The Pitt, Andor, The Rehearsal, Adolescence and Jimmy Kimmel Live! were among the Hollywood winners, with Kimmel having a standout moment on stage after months of publicly battling Donald Trump.
Ben Affleck was on hand to honor Kimmel, teasing that “for years he’s used his show to challenge authority on a nightly basis, and by authority I think we all know who that really means — one particularly credit-hogging narcissist named Matt Damon,” referencing Kimmel’s longtime on-screen beef with the star. Affleck continued, “when they pulled his show off the air, Jimmy refused to back down. What he said to me was it wasn’t for his own benefit, but because he knows justice dies in the dark — I taught him that as Batman.”
“Comedy and satire are vital parts of democratic speech, whether the government likes them or not,” Affleck added before Kimmel took the stage, as the late-night host — joined by sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez — admitted “I’ve felt pretty dumb a lot of times in my life but I’ve never felt dumber than I do right now,” while he stood beside documentarians and reporters who had worked on projects about ICE, abuse and wars.
