Kim Rosenstock accepts the Television Academy Honor for Dying for Sex at the 19th Television Academy Honors in the Dick Wolf Theatre at the Academy’s Saban Media Center on Wednesday, May 20, 2026 in Los Angeles.(Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Content Services)

Invision for the Television Academy

On May 20th, the Television Academy hosted its 19^th Annual Television Academy Honors at its headquarters, recognizing seven outstanding programs that have harnessed television’s extraordinary power to drive positive change among audiences worldwide. This year’s honorees included: Adolescence, Deaf President Now!, Dying For Sex, Heated Rivalry, Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television, and South Park. Showrunners, filmmakers, and producers will accept their Television Academy Honor during the special event hosted by Emmy^® nominee, TV creator, host, and producer Padma Lakshmi (Top Chef) and attended by celebrities and industry leaders.

The program began with the President and CEO of the Television Academy, Maury McIntyre, greeting academy members, actors, directors, showrunners, and industry insiders. “For almost 80 years, the Television Academy has been celebrating excellence in television, but it is this night and this honor that I feel truly exceptional work. I strongly believe that television is simply the most effective medium for bringing about positive social change. The programs we recognize tonight are some of the best of the best from the past year that exemplify how the power of storytelling can broaden perspectives, champion the unheard, introduce viewers to different cultures, thoughts, and ideas, and expand our understanding of our shared humanity,” he stated.

The ceremony’s host, Lakshmi, chimed in, “Out of all the ceremonies that the Television Academy hosts each year, tonight this event is the one with the most soul. Television excellence is abundant, but directly contributing to social change, or even just social awareness, these days elevates a program from excellent to vital. Our honorees tonight, each in their own way, have benefited society as a whole. These are the shows that people will talk about long after they’ve wrapped,” she said to the audience.

Women-led productions, FX’s Dying for Sex and HBO’s Seen and Heard, were almost among the group of programming that were honored. “Many of us have seen the positive impact, seeing someone who looks like you or belongs to your community or faces the same struggles you face on the screen, and yet too frequently that just becomes a box to tick. The docuseries Seen and Heard: The History of Black Television debunks the cynicism surrounding diversity and reminds us Black people have been creating television since the beginning,” Lakshmi introduced.

The two-part docuseries, executive-produced by Issa Rae, highlights Black representation in television, from on-screen to behind the scenes. “I got involved in this project when Black TV was at its height recently. Insecure was huge and just starting to wind down into its final season, and Issa wanted to make a project about the impact of Black creatives on television, said Giselle Bailey, co-director of Seen and Heard.

When accepting the honor, she said, “First of all, thank you to the Television Academy for this honor, and for the selection committee. I think what we’ve certainly learned is that these stories survive because they're fought for and because there are champions. So, thank you for being part of that fight. It's such a deep honor to be able to speak to so many of the people that we grew up like watching, you know, I'm thinking about just the glimpse of light in my eye, watching some of these really heroes of culture, and then being able to speak to them, and for them to give us what really felt like a guide, because as we were making this, we were really living the story that we were telling, the fight for autonomy to tell our stories the way that we want to, for ownership.”

Bailey continued, “It’s important to celebrate ourselves and to bet on ourselves, as Oprah once said. I think Issa has really been an inspiration throughout this and has inspired the path forward, not just because of the stories she chooses to tell, but also because of how she chooses to tell them, where she chooses to tell them, and how she has really shaped television. Thank you for everything you do and for betting on voices like ours to tell your story.”

Next to be honored was Dying for Sex, a limited FX series that followed a woman who was dying from breast cancer and her journey to pleasure despite the harrowing diagnosis. Created by Liz Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock, the show is based on the popular podcast of the same name, which was hosted and created by Nikki Boyer and her late best friend, Molly Kochan. Boyer said of her best friend’s perceived reaction to the series, “I think she would feel very valued and very proud of herself.”

Emmy-nominated, co-creator and showrunner of the series, Rosenstock accepted the honor on Kochan’s behalf. “On behalf of the entire team of Dying for Sex, we thank the Television Academy for this amazing award, and it’s such a massive privilege and honor to be recognized alongside the other recipients here, whose work has inspired us so much,” she said. “The series has resonated with people in a way that I think none of us could have really anticipated, but of course, because we're so scared to look at death in our country.”

She continued, “I also want to thank Nikki Boyer, who’s here tonight, who I think isis one of the greatest people I’ve ever met, and definitely one of the most wonderful collaborators I've ever had the privilege of working with. It's just really a message to us all to let ourselves know and be known, like, and to love our friends, and to know our friends, and to listen to our friends' stories, and tell them, and tell them again, and, and that this is how we all like live on and connect, because this is just the story of one really amazing woman, but it's she represents so many people in this community that is so often, you know, put in the shadows and very rarely at the center of a narrative, and that all happened because her best friend Nikki Boyer asked her to record her stories, and then put them out into the world, and wouldn't give up until it was done the way that she felt would honor Molly's spirit.”