The Southeast Emmys earlier this month feted several Atlanta broadcasters, giving Emmys to 11Alive’s Cheryl Preheim, WSB-TV’s Jorge Estevez and Fox 5′s Justin Felder.
Preheim, who has been with 11Alive since early 2017, won a regional Emmy as best news anchor. Estevez, who joined Channel 2 Action News in 2020, took home two Emmys including best daily news reporter. Felder, who has been with Fox 5 since 2015, was named best sports anchor, which he also won in 2020.
As usual, 11Alive pocketed the most Southeast Emmy’s earlier this month among Atlanta broadcasters, landing 17 wins including overall excellence.
The station’s tally includes four more Emmys for Brendan Keefe, who left the station last summer to move to rival CBS affiliate Atlanta News First. He remains the local king of collecting Emmys. His lifetime total now is 126 regional Emmys and one national one. He had 74 Emmys for 11Alive over eight years.
He noted he only worked at 11Alive last year through August, which limited his opportunities for Emmy work. And he was also on a six-month non-compete which meant he wasn’t able to be on air with WANF-TV until February of this year.
“It’s about a standard of excellence that remains my guiding light,” Keefe said. “Now, with Atlanta News First, I’m helping lead the largest television investigative team in the Southeast.”
WSB-TV won best morning newscast and for daytime/evening newscast. Kristen Crowley of 11Alive took home the Emmy for best investigative reporter. And Fox 5′s Eric Perry won for best live reporter.
With more than 100 awards to hand out, the annual event at the Grand Hyatt in Buckhead could be a bit of a slog. Evelyn Mims, Southeast Emmys president, said she was aggressive in limiting winning speeches to 30 seconds using “Jaws”-like music and cutting off mics. She said only three people exceeded their time. The awards ended in just three hours and 17 minutes, she said. In the past, it has often taken more than four hours.
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