HBO’s John Adams won the grand jury prize as the best of the best at the Banff World Television Awards. The Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning U.S. miniseries about the American president also won the best drama award.

Special awards went to Paul Gross, who was presented the NBC Universal Canada Award of Distinction; Victor Garber, who received the Award of Excellence; and Mark McKinney, who won the Sir Peter Ustinov Award. Accepting his award, McKinney deadpanned to the audience, ‘I’ve always had a fantasy about winning a big award like this, but in my dream you were all standing.’

The Rockie for best Canadian program went to Passage, from PTV Productions for BBC Scotland. The 90-minute documentary about Scottish doctor John Rae and the Northwest Passage was helmed by John Walker. The prize is sponsored by Playback.

Receiving special mention as runner-up for both the grand jury and best Canadian program prizes was Paris 1919. Canal Plus’ Ne dites pas à ma mère (France) took the inaugural best francophone award, while Bravo!’s I Met the Walrus (Canada) won the first Banff award for best kids and animation.

The awards ceremony was hosted by Entertainment Tonight Canada’s Rick Campanelli. He joked that ETC is the country’s number one entertainment show, at least according to Global, and eighth, according to CTV – referring to the ongoing media release war in which both networks claim to have the highest-rated entertainment shows.