The National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) has announced that the recipients of NATPE’s 17th Annual Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards are: award-winning actress Christine Baranski; ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke; prolific television creator, producer and writer Courtney A. Kemp; president of NBCUniversal’s Telemundo Global Studios, Marcos Santana; and chairman, WarnerMedia News and Sports, and president, CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker. They will receive the prestigious awards during the NATPE Miami 2020 convention during a dinner gala on January 22, 2020, at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. The dinner, with its A-list attendees, benefits the NATPE Educational Foundation, with a portion going to the Broadcasters Federation of America (BFOA). Bob Holmes is returning as executive producer of the show.

Named in honor of Brandon Tartikoff, one of television’s greatest programmers, the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards were created to recognize an exceptional ensemble of professionals who exhibit extraordinary passion, leadership, independence and vision in content programming. Tartikoff had an unmatched love for television, life and family. He will always be remembered among the most gifted programmers of his generation.

Past honorees include Steven Bochco, James Burrows, Jon Feltheimer, Jane Fonda, Bob Greenblatt, David Kelly, Norman Lear, Chuck Lorre, Regis Philbin, Peter Roth, Josh Sapan, Ted Sarandos, Dick Wolf, and Betty White. 

The NATPE Educational Foundation was launched in 1978 by the late Lew Klein to promote educational activities and focuses on faculty development, recognizing that improving faculty knowledge translates into a better classroom experiences for students and thus has impacted thousands of students, some of whom now have illustrious careers in the industry.

Baranski is an Emmy, two-time Tony, Screen Actors Guild, Drama Desk and American Comedy Award winner. Baranski currently stars as Diane Lockhart in the critically acclaimed CBS All Access original series “The Good Fight,” a role she originated on CBS’ “The Good Wife.” Other television credits include her Emmy-winning role on “Cybill,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Frasier.” Film credits include: “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”, “A Bad Moms Christmas,” “Mamma Mia!” “Trolls,” “Miss Sloane,” “Into the Woods,” “Chicago,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “Bowfinger,” “Bulworth,” “Cruel Intentions” and “The Birdcage,” among others. She will next be seen in the Netflix feature “Christmas on the Square.” A graduate of the Juilliard School, Baranski received her big break in Tom Stoppard’s hit Broadway comedy “The Real Thing,” directed by Mike Nichols, for which she won a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award.

Burke is responsible for all development, programming, casting, marketing, business affairs and scheduling operations for ABC prime time and late-night. She reports to Dana Walden, chairman, Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment. One year into her tenure, Burke has developed some the most buzzed-about live events of the year, including “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s ‘All in the Family’ and ‘The Jeffersons,’” which has reached more than 23 million total viewers on broadcast alone, and won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special (Live), the only major category win this year for a broadcast network; and “The Wonderful World of Disney presents: The Little Mermaid Live!” – the highest-rated live broadcast musical in four years. Additionally, The Oscars and CMA Awards have posted double digits gains vs. the prior year. For the first time ever, “The Bachelorette” was the No. 1 TV series of the summer, and the network’s “Summer Fun & Games” drove ABC to regain the title as the No. 1 network for summer for the first time in 24 years.  Burke is also delivering on her promise of female-forward programming, with new series “Stumptown,” “Emergence” and the No. 1 new comedy of the season, “mixed-ish”; all three shows rank in the top five new fall series (based on L7). Prior to her role as president of ABC Entertainment, Burke was executive vice president, Programming and Development at Freeform, where she was charged with overseeing all scripted and unscripted development and current original programming, in addition to casting and talent development. Burke was also responsible for creating and executing a cohesive programming strategy for multiplatform distribution, and accelerating and amplifying the high-quality, brand-defining content for which Freeform is known. During her tenure, she had great success building on Freeform’s strong foundation, delivering the No. 1 new cable comedy and No. 1 new cable drama of 2018 for the network’s target audience of W18-34 with “grown-ish” and “Siren.” She also continued Freeform’s dominance as the No. 1 most social cable channel.

Kemp is a highly regarded creator, showrunner, and producer in the television industry. Kemp is the creative force behind Starz’s critically acclaimed gritty New York drama, Power which is currently in its sixth and final season. Under Kemp’s fearless leadership as series creator and showrunner, Power has consistently over-performed in viewership and continues to elevate itself above its competition in an oversaturated television landscape. Power, Starz’s most watched original series to date, currently boasts an average weekly multiplatform viewership of over 10 million, making it the second-most-watched series on premium cable. While the series will soon wrap up its sixth and final season, the Power cinematic universe that Kemp has built will continue for many years to come, with the first spinoff series, Power Book II: Ghost, written and created by Kemp and starring superstar Mary J. Blige, set to debut next year.

Santana is the president of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises’ Telemundo Global Studios. In this role, Santana leads the division’s domestic and international scripted production units including Telemundo Studios, Telemundo International Studios and Telemundo International, as well as all of the division’s co-production partnerships. Under his direction, each entity produces its own unique brand of content geared to reach distinctive audiences.

And Jeff Zucker was named chairman, WarnerMedia News and Sports in March, 2019.  He has also served as president of CNN Worldwide since 2013.  Zucker oversees all of WarnerMedia’s live programming, including all divisions of CNN Worldwide and Turner Sports.  At CNN, that includes the US television network, CNN International, HLN, all of CNN’s digital properties, and Great Big Story. His sports portfolio includes Turner Sports, Bleacher Report, and the AT&T Regional Sports Networks.