KCBS LEADS THE PACK IN EMMY BIDS

As it has for the past several years, KCBS-TV Channel 2 emerged as the leader in the 39th annual Los Angeles Emmy Awards nominations that were announced Thursday by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

KCBS collected 52 nominations, including 15 for its magazine series “2 on the Town.” Although 10 fewer than it received last year, “2 on the Town” still captured the most nominations for a series this year. Its companion program, “Friday at Sunset,” garnered eight.

KABC-TV Channel 7 trailed KCBS with 39 nominations, including nine for its magazine series “Eye on L.A.,” while KNBC-TV Channel 4 got 23.

Winners will be announced at a dinner presentation May 16 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Six nominations went to “2 on the Town” producer Michael P. Meadows, the most for any individual. Ted Green, producer of the “Lakers Pre-Game Show” on independent KHJ-TV Channel 9, received five.

KCET Channel 28 and KHJ-TV led the pack among independent stations, with 17 nominations each; KTLA Channel 5 followed with 13. Independent and network-owned stations compete separately in many categories but together in others.

KCET won the most nominations for a special program, garnering five for “Eleanor: In Her Own Words,” starring Lee Remick as Eleanor Roosevelt.

KCBS’ “2 on the Town” will compete with KABC’s “Eye On L.A.” for best information series on one of the network-owned stations. Independent station nominations in the category are KCET’s “Arts Illustrated” and KHJ’s “Off Hand.”

Network nominations for best information special are KABC’s “Free at Last” and “Miracles of Medicine,” as well as KCBS’ “Catalina” and “Santa Barbara” segments of “Friday at Sunset” and “Hawaii-Alaska” from “2 on the Town.”

Independent station nominations for best information special are KCET’s “Turning Points,” KHJ’s “To Kill in California,” Rogers Cable’s “Rescue Mission on South China Sea” and KTIE’s “Nicaragua: One Woman’s View.”

Network nominations for best public-affairs special are KNBC’s “I Forgot to Say Goodbye” and KCBS’ “Breast Cancer: My Body, My Life.” Independent nominees are KTLA’s “Impact ‘86: Dying With Dignity” and KTTV’s “They Dreamed of Being First.”

For best network public affairs series, nominees are KNBC’s “Headlines on Trial” and “Fight Back: With David Horowitz.” Independent nominees are KCET’s “Propositions ‘86,” KHJ’s “School Beat” and KOCE’s “Jim Cooper’s Orange County.”

Network nominees for best entertainment special are KNBC’s “‘86: You Had to Be There”; KABC’s “Haunted New England” and four KCBS “2 on the Town” programs: “The Pointer Sisters,” “Night Court,” “Rio” and “Friends.” Independent nominees are KCET’s “Eleanor: In Her Own Words” and “Soundies.”

Network nominees for best entertainment series are KABC’s “Hollywood Closeup” and KCBS’ “Friday at Sunset.”

Network nominees for best children/youth special are KCBS’ “Southland Children, Northpole Dreams” and KNBC’s “Class Acts.” Independent nominees were KCET’s “Dropouts,” KTLA’s “The Popeye Club Christmas Special” and KTTV’s “Have You Ever Wondered.”

Network nominees for best news special are KTTV’s “Trail of Greed--Trail of Death” and KCBS’ “Shuttle Tragedy--Special Report,” “AIDS: The Human Story” and “Libya: America Strikes Back.”

Special events programming nominees are KNBC’s “Checkpoint: A Christmas Special,” KCET’s “27th Annual Christmas Music Program,” KOCE’s “A Night to Remember” and KTLA’s “1986 Tournament of Roses Parade.”

Nominations for live coverage of an unscheduled news event went to KTLA for “Ontario Plane Rescue” on the “KTLA News at Ten” and KCBS’ “Cerritos Disaster” on the “Channel 2 News.”

Mini-documentary nominations are KHJ-TV’s “Game Shows”; KCBS’ “Kids Who Kill,” “The Genetics Puzzle” and “Rock Epidemic”; KNBC’s “On the Street, On the Edge,” “Western Avenue” and “Big and Beautiful,” and KABC’s “Kids with AIDS.”

Nominees for spot news are KTTV for “Cerritos Crash Special Report” and KNBC for “Cerritos Air Disaster” and “Shuttle Disaster.”

In news reporting, nominations went to KCBS’ Chris Blatchford for “House of Gangs,” Peggy Holter for “Salvador Earthquake Relief” and Ross Becker, Dave Lopez, Patty Ecker, Jim Forbes and Paula Zahn for “The Cerritos Disaster.”

In sports reporting, nominations went to KHJ for “Larry Bird” and “Lakers--Drugs,” two of the Lakers’ pre-game shows; KTLA for “The Fred Merkle Story”; KCOP for “Sports Star of the Week”; KCBS for “Playing on a Pedestal,” and KNBC for “Mr. Roggin’s Neighborhood.”

In feature reporting, nominations went to KCBS’ Bill Stout and Peggy Fuller for “Lady Beth” and “Hunger in the Land of Plenty”; KCBS’ Craig Wirth for “Mud Bath” and “Turkeys,” KCBS’ Howard Stevens for “Howard Stevens Reports” and to KHJ’s Jim Murphy for “W-4 Forms.”

In news commentary, nominations went to KNBC’s Jess Marlow for “Racism” and KABC’s Bill Press for “Hasenfus Comes Home.”

Nominations for hosts/moderators of specials went to Rhea Perlman and Danny DeVito for KNBC’s “Child Care: Who Cares?”; Fritz Coleman for KNBC’s “‘86: You Had to Be There”; Tom Ritter and John Ritter for KTLA’s “Breaking Ground”; Robert Osborne for KTTV’s “1986 Academy Awards Weekend” and Steve Edwards for KABC’s “One on One.”

Nominations for performers went to Howard Stevens for KCBS’ “Friday at Sunset” and Lee Remick for KCET’s “Eleanor: In Her Own Words.”