SIR DAVID FROST TO RECEIVE 2009 INTERNATIONAL EMMY® FOUNDERS AWARD

New York, July 9, 2009 — Sir David Frost, one of the preeminent television figures of the 20th century whose interviews with President Richard Nixon were immortalized in last year’s Oscar nominated movie Frost/Nixon, is set to receive the 2009 International Emmy® Founders Award. International Academy President & CEO, Bruce L. Paisner, announced today that Sir David will accept the Award at the 37th International Emmy® Awards Gala, on November 23, 2009 in New York City.

Sir David has been producing and hosting his own shows for more than 40 years and begins his fourth year of hosting and producing Frost Over The World for Al Jazeera English this September.   The program is received in more than 140 million homes in over 100 countries.

“Sir David Frost has been in the front line of television and entertainment for the last 40 years,” said Paisner. “His personal contributions to satire and political programming as well as his business acumen make him a defining figure of broadcasting and The International Academy is honored to be presenting him with the 2009 International Emmy® Founders Award in recognition of his monumental career.”

Over the years, Frost has interviewed hundreds of celebrities and newsmakers. He is the only person to have interviewed all seven British prime ministers serving between 1964 and 2009 and the seven US presidents in office between 1969 and 2008. His ground-breaking satirical show That Was The Week That Was and its follow-up, The Frost Report, served as a launch pad for many modern British comics (including most of the cast of Monty Python’s Flying Circus) and propelled Frost into the limelight. By the end of the 1960s he was producing shows in England and the U.S., and enjoying as much celebrity as those he was interviewing on TV.  Sir David received the Golden Rose of Montreux for The Frost Report in 1967 and two US Emmy Awards for The David Frost Show in 1970 and 1971. He also co-founded two UK network companies, London Weekend Television and TV-am.

From the late 60’s and during the 1970s and ’80s he became known as a high-profile interviewer, enhanced by his series of 1977 televised interviews with former U.S. president Richard Nixon.   He was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen in the New Year’s Honours List in January 1993, and received from BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts) their highest honour, the BAFTA Fellowship, in 2005.

Sir David Frost said today, “This Award is a crowning moment for me, bringing together, as it does, the United States, the United Kingdom and International Television.   When I began my television career in London in 1962 with TW3 I could never have imagined I would one day be receiving an Award like this in New York, a city that means so much to me.”

About The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is a membership based organization comprised of leading media and entertainment figures from over 50 countries and 500 companies from all sectors of television including internet, mobile and technology. The Academy’s yearly schedule of events includes the prestigious International Emmy® Awards Ceremony held in New York, The International Digital Emmy® Awards at MIPTV and a series of industry events such as Academy Day, The International Emmy® World Television Festival and Panels on substantive industry topics. The Academy was chartered with a mission to recognize excellence in television produced outside of the United States and it presents The International Emmy® Awards in the following fifteen categories: Arts Programming; Best Performance by an Actress; Best Performance by an Actor; Current Affairs; Children & Young People; Comedy; Digital Program: Children & Young People; Digital Program: Fiction; Digital Program: Non-Fiction; Documentary; Drama Series; News; Non-Scripted Entertainment; Telenovela; TV Movie/Mini-Series. For more information go to www.iemmys.tv.

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