TV Guide Awards

The TV Guide Award was an annual award created by the editors of TV Guide magazine, as a readers poll to honor outstanding programs and performers in the American television industry. The awards were presented until 1964. The TV Guide Award was revived 1999–2001.

Ellery Queen won a TV Guide Award in 1950 for Best Mystery Show on Television. The Lucky Strike ads of the early 1950s won the first TV Guide award as commercial of the year. The trophy was a bronze statuette of a heroic figure holding a filigree globe. The 1952 TV Guide Magazine award was given to Zoo Parade, which also won the 1950 George Foster Peabody Award and the 1951 Look TV Award.American Bandstand was featured on its second anniversary in the Philadelphia issue of TV Guide, which said it was "the people's choice" for a 1954 TV Guide award. The magazine had been founded the year before by Walter Annenberg, owner of American Bandstand.

In 1961 the TV Guide Award was cited by the Associated Press as one of the three important entertainment awards, together with the Academy Awards and the Emmy Awards. Ballots were printed in a single issue of the magazine. Completed ballots were submitted by U.S. Mail and tabulated by direct-mail specialists Cassidy-Richlar, Inc.

The TV Guide Award Show was broadcast in color on March 25, 1960, on NBC. Robert Young hosted a series of skits featuring Fred MacMurray and Nanette Fabray. Seven awards were presented in the final ten minutes of the show. Recipients were chosen based on 289,000 ballots submitted by readers of TV Guide.

Broadcast on NBC, the second annual TV Guide Award Show was presented June 13, 1961. The hour-long program was hosted by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., with comedy sketches featuring Jackie Cooper and Nanette Fabray. NBC-TV was recognized for its 1960 election night coverage, and the following awards were presented.

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