WFTV wins five Emmy awards

Among Central Florida TV stations, WFTV-Channel 9 was the big winner Saturday at the 42nd Annual Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards.

The ABC affiliate collected five prizes. It was honored for best daytime newscast for its coverage of the Hurricane Irma recovery. Vanessa Echols and Jorge Estevez were the anchors.

WFTV also earned prizes for its continuing coverage of an Orlando police officer’s shooting, a feature story by reporter Steve Barrett called “Beautiful Melody” and anchor Estevez’s live coverage of “Puerto Rican Parade: The Year of Hurricane Maria.”

“Central Florida Spotlight,” which is anchored by WFTV’s Greg Warmoth, was honored for its episode marking two years since the Pulse nightclub shooting.

WESH-Channel 2 won three Emmys, and Spectrum News 13 earned two Emmys. WKMG-Channel 6 and WUCF-Channel 24 each received one.

The Orlando Sentinel was a winner in the interview-discussion category for “Two Years After Pulse” by former staffer Kayla O’Brien. It’s the secondever Emmy for the Sentinel.

WESH won prizes for two features: “Survivor’s Story: Peter Gold” by Amanda Crawford and “Paralympic Rower” by Adrian Whitsett. WESH was also saluted for graphic arts-set design for “The Olympic Zone: PyeongChang 2018.”

News 13 received honors for its news special “Opioid Crisis Town Hall” and news editing by Eugene Buenaventura on the documentary “Raising Heroin’s Children.”