UVA’s pundit emeritus and head of the Center for Politics, Larry Sabato, has been nominated for an Emmy for his massive open online course The Kennedy Half Century. And the center snagged a nomination for best historical documentary for its Bombs Away: LBJ, Goldwater and the 1964 Campaign that Changed it All, directed by Paul Tait Roberts and produced with the Community Idea Stations.
Sabato’s online course is the first to be nominated for an Emmy, according to a press release. More than 200,000 students have taken the course that traces Kennedy’s early legislative years and looks at how subsequent presidents have used Kennedy to craft their own political images.
The Kennedy Half Century documentary, another Community Idea Stations collaboration, won an Emmy for best historical documentary last year. In 2013, the UVA/public television partnership won an Emmy for Out of Order, about gridlock and hyper-partisanship in Congress.
Sabato said he was unsure if he’d attend the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Awards in June, but if he did and was a winner, he’d thank the staff of the Center for Politics, PBS Community Idea Stations WVCE and WHTJ, and Paladin Pictures.
As for what he’d wear on the red carpet, said Sabato, “Blue and orange, of course.”