Peabody Awards Kick Off 2022 Honors With 'Dopesick' Win

Hulu's "Dopesick" is the first of 30 honors to be handed out this week by the Peabody Awards.

Peabody Awards Kick Off 2022 Honors With ‘Dopesick’ Win

Hulu’s “Dopesick” is the first program honored as the Peabody Awards starts announcing the winners of its 2022 awards this morning.

The virtual announcements kicked off with Jon Stewart presenting the award for “Dopesick,” which was accepted by star Michael Keaton. “Tackling such an important issue as the opioid crisis in America was not only daunting but well worth it. We are so honored to receive this award from an institution like the Peabody Awards,” Keaton said. “To address the devastation that has been brought on by the Sackler family and big Pharma, and still honor the people in Appalachia, which isn this case is what we chose as the location, and still show enormous respect for these people, all this is really gratifying for me.”

In his presentation, Stewart added, ‘Sometimes to drive these stories home you have to dramatize them. You have to make them human. And man, does ‘Dopesick’ do that. This stories they tell bring home the real toll of the opioid epidemic in ways you can’t look away from. A heartbreaking, realistic and true to life portrait of all that everyone’s been through. And Michael Keaton don’t miss! It doesn’t matter what he does. It’s must watch.”

Peabody lauded “Dopesick” for bringing to life “the ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States, courtesy of the now-infamous Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, the company responsible for the drug OxyContin. The Michael Keaton-starring limited series is truly a gut punch, forcing us to see, constantly and unwaveringly, how the choices the Sackler family and its company made directly led to the destruction of countless lives and families.”

More Peabody awards will be announced starting at 9 a.m. PT this morning, and throughout the week. Watch the “Dopesick” presentation here:

Already revealed: “Fresh Air with Terry Gross” has been named this year’s recipient of the Institutional Award (presented by Stephen Colbert), while Dan Rather has won the Career Achievement Award (presented by Dolly Parton). TV Rain/Dozhd received the Journalistic Integrity Award.

Here is the full list of the 60 nominees for the 82nd Annual Peabody Awards. Peabody Awards are given in the categories of entertainment, documentary, news, podcast/radio, arts, children’s and youth and public service programming, and were founded in 1940 at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

PBS led the field with 13 programs qualifiying as finalists, followed by HBO with eight and Hulu and Netflix with five apiece.

A unanimous vote by the Peabody Awards Board’s 19 jurors is necessary for include on the final lists, which is how the 60 nominees are culled from over 1,200 entries. Among the selections are stories from underrepresented groups that encompass a wide range of issues, including the Jan. 6 insurrection, access to abortion, trans rights and the continuing struggle for criminal justice reform.