Television Academy announces new inductees, special award for Sean Penn

The Television Academy Tuesday announced it will induct six new members into its Hall of Fame, as well as honor actor/director/activist Sean Penn with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.

New members who will be inducted during Nov. 16 ceremonies are actor/director/choreographer Debbie Allen, documentarian Ken Burns, CBS and Warner Bros. executive Bob Daly, BET founder Robert Johnson; acting legend and EGOT winner Rita Moreno, and Donald Morgan, a longtime director of photography and lighting designer.

Induction ceremonies will take at the Television Academy’s Saban Media Center, where busts of previous inductees will also be unveiled.

The Hall of Fame “honors persons who have made outstanding contributions in the arts, sciences or management of television over a lifetime career or via singular achievement,” the academy said.

“These legendary performers, creators, craftspeople and television executives are luminaries in our industry,” said Frank Scherma, chairman and CEO of the academy.

“Their work has influenced and immeasurably elevated the current television landscape and culture. We are proud to induct these trailblazers into the Hall of Fame and honored to celebrate their extraordinary contributions to our industry.”

Added Rick Rosen, the Hall of Fame’s Selection Committee chair: “This year’s honorees have told the American story through television in ways that will forever shape our history and culture. Whether they reshaped the industry itself through visionary leadership or created pieces of work that have had a lasting legacy, these individuals will forever be remembered for the impact they’ve had on the medium, and the Television Academy is proud to enshrine that.”

Penn will receive the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, established in 2002 to honor an individual whose philanthropic efforts exemplify Hope’s own decades-long work in that area. The academy called it “one of the highest honors presented by the Television Academy’s Board of Governors, in conjunction with the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation.”

The academy noted Penn’s founding of the Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) after the devastating 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and the organization’s work with the Los Angeles Fire Department during the coronavirus pandemic, helping to staff the mass testing site at Dodger Stadium, among Penn’s numerous philanthropic efforts over the years.

More recently, CORE has deployed humanitarian response to war-torn Ukraine and, following natural disasters, to Puerto Rico, Florida and Pakistan.

“Sean’s activism and immense humanitarian efforts have had a profound impact on the global community, and he has effectively used his platform to motivate change,” said Kim Coleman, co-chair of the Humanitarian Award Selection Committee.

Said co-chair Michael Spiller, “Sean is responsible for getting help to people who need it the most. From Haiti to Ukraine to Los Angeles, he is an inspiration to us all.”

The 2022 Hall of Fame honorees will join more than 150 people previously inducted since its inception in 1984.

News busts that will be unveiled are of Shonda Rhimes, Julia Louis- Dreyfus, Joan Rivers and Katie Couric.

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