Coverage of Last Year’s Devastating Fires, and the Aftermath, Dominate L.A. Area Emmy Nominations — as PBS SoCal, ABC7, KMEX Lead Tally

PBS SoCal, KABC/ABC7 and KMEX led the tally on Tuesday as the TV Academy announced nominations for the 78th annual L.A. Area Emmy Awards.

The annual ceremony will take place on Saturday, July 25, at the Skirball Cultural Center. As for this year's nominee totals, PBS SoCal landed 29 nominations; KABC/ABC7 received 21, Univision outlet KMEX received 20, Telemundo's KVEA had 18, KNBC/NBC4 landed 15 and Spectrum News 1 had 10.

Per the TV Academy, the Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards "honor locally produced programs in the categories of Crime and Social Issues, Culture and History, the Arts, Human Interest, Sports, the Environment, and Live and Breaking News Coverage."

For the station newscast awards, every TV station that submits is eligible. This year's eligibility period was for the 2025 calendar year, which means many of the news categories were dominated by local coverage of the devastating wildfires that ripped through the region last January.

Last year, PBS SoCal (KOCE/KCET) led the 2025 L.A. Area Emmy awards with eight total, but the other big winner of the night was Telemundo’s KVEA-TV, which took home all three station awards for best newscasts — for daily morning (4 a.m. to 11 a.m.), daily daytime (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and daily evening (7 p.m. to 12 a.m.).

Find this year's nominees here.

PBS SoCal Leads L.A. Area Emmys 2025 Winners Tally, While Telemundo’s KVEA Sweeps All Three Station Newscast Awards

PBS SoCal (KOCE/KCET) led the 2025 L.A. Area Emmy awards with eight total, but the other big winner of the night was Telemundo’s KVEA-TV, which took home all three station awards for best newscasts — for daily morning (4 a.m. to 11 a.m.), daily daytime (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and daily evening (7 p.m. to 12 a.m.).

The 2025 Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards were held Saturday at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, hosted by Spectrum News 1 host/anchor Kelvin Washington.

Jim Hill was recognized with 2025 Los Angeles Area Emmy Governors Award, for his five-decades-long career in broadcasting and 45 years as a sportscaster at KCBS/KCAL in Los Angeles. The award was presented by former LA Laker star James Worthy.

Bob Bain and Bob Bain Productions produced this year’s event, featuring categories including Live and Breaking News Coverage, Crime and Social Issues, Culture and History, the Arts, Health and Science, Human Interest, Music, Sports, and the Environment.

KVEA and KMEX both landed seven Emmys total on Saturday — a strong dual showing for L.A.’s top two Spanish-language stations. KABC-TV and KTLA-TV followed with three each, while Spectrum News 1 and Spectrum SportsNet LA got two a piece.

Go here for the winners for this year’s Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards.

First TV Academy In-Person Event in Over a Year: KCET Leads 2021 L.A. Area Emmy Wins, While KTLA Lands Two Top Newscast Awards

It was the first in-person event for the Television Academy in at least 16 months, and Saturday night's L.A. Area Emmys — held outdoors, in front of the TV Academy's North Hollywood headquarters — was another good sign that we're marching back to a new normal (although, as we know, the rapid spread of the Delta variant among stubborn, ill-informed anti-vaxxers may change all that).

Public broadcaster KCET, which had led all local TV stations in nominations for the this year’s Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, also wound up taking home the most (for the fifth year in a row), with nine awards. It was followed by Telemundo’s KVEA and Spectrum SportsNet, both of which landed six.

The Television Academy announced the 2021 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award winners in an in-person ceremony at its North Hollywood headquarters on Saturday. Spectrum News 1 journalist Giselle Fernández hosted this year’s awards ceremony, which was produced by Bob Bain and Bob Bain Productions.

Other big winners included KTLA-TV, which was named best morning newscast (between 4 a.m. and 11 a.m.) and evening newscast (between 7 p.m. to midnight).

KCET’s haul included Emmys in arts; information segment; L.A. local color; music composition; informational series (more than 50% remote); informational series (more than 50% studio); and independent programming.

LA CityView Media Group was awarded the 2021 Los Angeles Area Emmy Governors Award, for its more than three decades of covering news geared toward Angelenos and Southern Californians, especially this year’s public health department pandemic updates throughout 2020 to all local area news outlets.

Click here to see this year’s nominees and winners.