2026 Los Angeles Emmy winners: PBS SoCal tops the night with 8 awards
PBS SoCal led the 78th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, with KMEX-TV and KVEA close behind in a busy local TV night.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
PBS SoCal led the 2026 Los Angeles Emmy winners on Saturday night, taking eight awards at the 78th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, Deadline reported.
The public broadcaster matched its 2025 total, according to Deadline. KMEX-TV also repeated its prior-year haul with seven wins, while KVEA collected six.
ABC7 and NBC4 each finished with four awards. Spectrum News 1 and Spectrum SportsNet each won two, while LA36, Spectrum SportsNet LA and USC Football each picked up one.
The ceremony was hosted by ABC7 entertainment reporter George Pennacchio, Deadline reported. ABC7’s David Ono received the 2026 Los Angeles Area Emmy Governors Award at the event, which was produced by Bob Bain and Bob Bain Productions.
Who won at the 2026 Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards?
PBS SoCal’s wins included live programming, entertainment, music composition, education and arts categories. Its winning programs included “66th Annual LA County Holiday Celebration,” “Color in Motion: Chromatic Explorations of Cinema,” “Art & Science Collide,” “Aging in America: Survive or Thrive,” “For Dear Life: Art, Medicine & Disability,” “Aretha! With Sheléa and the Pacific Symphony” and “Combating Climate Change With Trees.”
KVEA remained a major force in local newscasts. After sweeping all three regularly scheduled newscast categories last year, the station won two of the three this year: daytime for “Noticiero Telemundo 52 Al Mediodía” and evening for “Noticiero Telemundo 52 A Las 11PM.” ABC7 won the morning newscast category for “Eyewitness News at 6AM.”
ABC7 also won for investigative news story with coverage of Southern California firestorms and the Palisades fire investigation, plus live special events news for the 40th annual Kingdom Day Parade and live coverage of an unscheduled news event for breaking news coverage of the firestorms.
KVEA’s other wins included human interest news story for “Repartidor de Fresas Detenido,” business/consumer news story for “Ausentismo en los Campos de Cultivo,” live sports coverage for “Nuestra Copa, Nuestra Pasión” and sports news story for “La Huella del Fútbol.”
KMEX-TV won health/science news story for “Inteligencia Artificial y la Ciencia del Cambio Climático,” feature segment for “Indispensables, Pero Invisibles: Manos Que Reconstruyen,” crime/social issues news story for “Infierno en Adelanto,” art/cultural/historical news story for “L.A. Cumbia,” culture/history for “Somos de Aquí,” and two informational series categories for “Al Punto California” and “Tu Voz LA.”
NBC4’s wins included news series for “Black Heritage: Altadena Roots and Resilience,” entertainment news story for “Bob’s Brush With Fame,” environment news story for “Cryo-Rescue: Race to Preserve Life” and short promo news for “NBC4: Picking Up the Pieces.”
What were the sports and special-category winners?
Spectrum SportsNet won sports feature for “After the Fire (Backstage Lakers)” and sports series programming for “Backstage: Lakers.” Spectrum SportsNet LA won sports special for “竜巻 – The Story of Nomomania.”
Spectrum News 1 won L.A. local color for “Hispanic Heritage Month – Candelas Guitars” and sports tease for “Shohei Ohtani: Baseball’s Solar Eclipse.” LA36 won public service announcement for “Emergency Lights? Pull to the Right,” while USC Football won short promo sports for “War Time.”
Deadline reported that the night also honored coverage tied to the aftermath of the January 2025 fires and work focused on two of Los Angeles’ biggest teams, the Lakers and the Dodgers.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.