October 30, 2008

CableFAX Program Awards: Best Show or Series, Public Affairs

Winner: It's Your Call With Lynn Doyle, Modern Slavery EP, CN8, The Comcast Network

It’s Your Call is celebrating 10 years of digging deeper into public affairs issues than most similarly minded programs. And so pleased is Comcast with its success that the MSO carries a live show each weeknight, reruns it the following morning and offers VOD access for three days. We can see why. The series’ hybrid news/talk show format enables host Lynn Doyle to not only report on important issues but embrace the human element that draws us in like a magnet. The winner in our contest was a segment on modern-day sex slavery in the U.S. that left us aghast as testimony from a U.S. attorney and, most chillingly, a former captive disguised in a hat and glasses revealed that the trade is alive and well. Doyle’s precise but magnanimous interviewing style allows guests to take center stage. She realizes, as always, that little embellishment is necessary.

Honorable Mentions:
American Skinheads, M2 Pictures: Fear and loathing pulse through this doc about the rise of racist skinhead subculture in the U.S. It gets special mention for its ability to take viewers inside skinhead crews, the hate music industry that’s spreading their violent message and law enforcement teams too often unable to bring them to justice.

Healthcare ’08: Search for Solutions, Retirement Living TV: How sick is health care? Seniors want answers, yes, but all can benefit from this series of conversations with presidential candidates, journalists, advocates and doctors.

Return to 2008 CableFAX Program Awards table of contents.