NATAS Lifetime Achievement Award To Larry King

Broadcasting legend and cable news icon Larry King will receive the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) at the 32nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards. The award will be presented on Sept. 26 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, located in the Time Warner Center in New York.

King is being honored for his influential 50-year broadcasting career, and his 25 years as host of CNN’s top-rated Larry King Live. King set the Guinness world record for the longest-running television show hosted by the same person, on the same network and in the same time slot.

For a quarter of a century, NATAS said, “Larry King Live has covered every major news story, reported on national and world events, and interviewed the most prominent personalities in politics and popular culture. King’s show was a must-stop for presidents and politicians, and gave viewers direct access to some of the most important and influential people in the United States and the world.  From the White House to Graceland, from the beaches of Normandy to New York’s Ground Zero, from inside the boxing ring with Mike Tyson to the basketball court with LeBron James, King took his viewers on a remarkable, first-hand journey with him.”

Larry King Live debuted on CNN in 1985, and its success helped build a mass audience for cable news. Before joining CNN, King was the host of a popular nationally syndicated radio show, The Larry King Show. King was one of the first talk show hosts to bring the radio call-in format to TV. His informal, conversational interview style attracted a wide range of guests and resulted in candid and revealing conversations.  Bill Maher described Larry King as “the master of getting people to open up and tell their story.”

Larry King Live frequently made news, and occasionally made history: Ross Perot famously announced his candidacy for president on the show. In 1993 King hosted the NAFTA debate between Perot and then Vice President Al Gore, which at the time was the highest rated broadcast in CNN’s history. King has his finger on the pulse of current events, with interviews including PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadiniead, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher and Colin Powell .

 NATAS added: “Larry King came into peoples’ homes every night for half a century, and for the past 25 years was a dominant force in cable news programming. With his global reach on radio and television, his unmatched roster of guests and topics, and his authentic engagement with his listeners and viewers, Larry King changed the landscape of cable television, and television news in general.” King stepped down as host of Larry King Live in December 2010, but continues to host specials for CNN.