‘West Wing’ and ‘Sopranos’ Repeat as Peabody Winners

“The West Wing” on NBC and Home Box Office’s “The Sopranos” each won for the second straight year Thursday at the Peabody Awards for broadcast or cable excellence.

The only other program to have won the honor two years in a row was CBS’ quirky “Northern Exposure,” said Louise Benjamin, interim director of the Peabody Awards.

The annual awards are handed out by the University of Georgia’s Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. A total of 34 winners were selected this year from nearly 1,100 entries.

Katie Couric, host of NBC’s “Today” show, won an award for her weeklong series on colorectal cancer, during which she underwent a colonoscopy on the air. Couric’s husband, TV legal analyst Jay Monahan, died three years ago from the disease, which was discovered too late.

Fox’s comedy series “Malcolm in the Middle” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2000” also came away with awards.

HBO was one of the big winners, hauling in five awards, including for “The Sopranos.” It also won for “King Gimp,” an Oscar-winning documentary about a disabled artist; “Ali-Frazier 1: One Nation . . . Divisible”; “Cancer: Evolution to Revolution” and the miniseries “The Corner.”

In local television news coverage, KHOU in Houston won for breaking the story about Firestone tires and tread separation. WJXT in Jacksonville, Fla., won for its documentary on domestic violence.

Public Broadcasting Service presented four winning programs produced by WGBH-TV in Boston: the children’s series “Arthur,” a “Frontline” documentary called “Drug Wars,” the “Masterpiece Theatre” production of “David Copperfield,” and a nonfiction series about large structures called “Building Big.”

Public radio was cited for three programs: “The NPR 100,” which highlighted the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century; Minnesota Public Radio’s financial news program “Marketplace”; and “Witness to an Execution.”

The Peabody board also gave a personal award to H. Martin Haag, longtime head of broadcast news for the A.H. Belo Corp. Haag, who now works as an executive at Audience Research & Development in Dallas, was cited for his award-winning work as news director at WFAA-TV in Dallas from 1973 to 1989.

Haag was credited with raising journalistic standards for television news and with investing more time in exploring issues and trends, instead of simply chasing breaking stories.

Other winners included:

* “Death by Denial,” a “60 Minutes II,” CBS News report on the African AIDS epidemic.

* “The Paper Chase,” a “Dateline NBC” examination of denied medical claims.

* “Heroes Under Fire,” coverage of the death of six firefighters by “48 Hours,” CBS News.

* “Regret to Inform” by P.O.V. in New York, presented on PBS.

* “1900 House,” a program that asked a modern family to step into a re-creation of turn-of-the-century England, a Wall to Wall Production for Channel 4 in association with Thirteen/WNET, presented on PBS.

* “CNN Perspectives: Cry Freetown,” a report on the civil war in Sierra Leone by CNN Productions in Atlanta, Insight News Television and Channel 4 International.

* “Napoleon,” David Grubin Productions in New York and Devillier Doregan Enterprises, presented on PBS.

* “Walking with Dinosaurs,” a live-action film with computer animation that recreates the world of dinosaurs, co-produced by BBC Discovery Channel and TV Asahi in association with ProSieben and France 3.

* “School Sleuth: The Case of an Excellent School,” produced by Learning Matters and The Merrow Report in New York, presented on PBS.

* “Sharing the Secret,” program on teenage eating disorders, produced by Robert Greenwald Productions and Pearson Television in Santa Monica, presented on CBS.

* “The Crossing,” a dramatization of George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River, produced by A&E; Network in New York and Columbia TriStar Television Productions in association with Chris/Rose Productions.