Primed and ready for the NAACP Image Awards
AFTER 45 years, the NAACP Image Awards are finally getting a live primetime television showcase.
TV One will carry the awards Saturday at 8 p.m. from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. They will be preceded by a red carpet at 7 p.m.
The annual awards, which primarily focus on what Leonard James, chairman of the Awards Committee, calls “black-centric entertainment,” include 54 categories in television, movies and music.
Just as a sampling, nominees for outstanding actress in a comedy series include Aisha Tyler, “Archer,” FX; Mindy Kaling, “The Mindy Project,” Fox; Niecy Nash, “The Soul Man,” TV Land; Tasha Smith, “Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse,” OWN; and Wendy Raquel Robinson, “The Game,” BET.
Outstanding comedy actor nominees include Andre Braugher, “Brooklyn Nine Nine,” Fox; Cedric the Entertainer, “The Soul Man,” TV Land; Don Cheadle, “House of Lies,” Showtime; Dulé Hill, “Psych,” USA; and Kevin Hart, “Real Husbands of Hollywood,” BET.
Three of Hart’s colleagues on “Real Husbands,” Boris Kodjoe, Nick Cannon and JB Smoove, are all nominated as best supporting comedy actor.
James notes that the awards are a “major fund-raiser” for the NAACP and that this year’s ceremonies will also incorporate e several civil rights ts anniversaries: the he 100th anniverary y of Marcus Garvey founding the Universal Negro Improvement Association; the 60th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education and the 50th anniversary of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.