The initial leg of the Canadian Screen Awards (CSAs) saw Bell Media secure 14 wins at the News, Entertainment and Sports Awards.

This ceremony, hosted by Michelle Dubé (pictured left) and Omar Sachedina (pictured right) at the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto, marks the first of five and took place on Friday (May 30) afternoon. The ceremony for the Documentary, Factual, Lifestyle and Reality Awards is set for Friday evening.

Bell Media’s 14 wins, which included three awards for TSN’s coverage of the 2024 Copa America, were neck-and-neck with CBC, which tallied 13 wins itself.

Including the Copa America wins, Bell Media’s sports programming via TSN was behind six of its honours. Among TSN’s wins was Best Live Sports Event, Technical Production for the 2023 Grey Cup and Best Direction, Live Sports Event for the 2024 Women’s World Hockey Championship.

Bell Media’s news programming through CTV News tallied five wins, including Best National Newscast for CTV National News with Omar Sachedina and Best Political News Program or Series for CTV Question Period.

In entertainment, CTV’s The Good Stuff with Mary Berg took Best Talk or Entertainment News Series while the four hosts of The Social won for Best Host, Talk Show or Entertainment News. Through Crave, Bell Media won the Best Entertainment or Variety Special for ETalk Presents: Deadpool and Wolverine.

CBC took one sports award for Mark Lee’s play-by-play announcing during the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, but secured seven of its 13 through entertainment. CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes was behind four of those awards, winning for Best Sketch Comedy Program or Series; Best Performance, Variety of Sketch Comedy for its ensemble; and Best Writing and Best Direction for Variety or Sketch Comedy.

The pubcaster took two additional entertainment awards for its Insight Productions-produced 2024 Juno Awards in Best Live Entertainment Special and for host Nelly Furtado. It also won in the comedy special category for Mae Martin: The Gala, from Just For Laughs.

Rogers Sports & Media and Corus Entertainment both took home three awards. Rogers, via Sportsnet, won two in live sports, for their coverage of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final and one for Hockey Night in Canada‘s Kevin Bieksa as the Best Sports Analyst. Corus won two for local news via Global BC News Hour and one for Global National‘s Jeff Remple as the Best National Reporter.

Tomorrow (May 31) will see the presentations Cinematic Art Awards and the Scripted Television Awards, with the ceremonies culminating Sunday (June 1) in a 90-minute broadcast hosted by Edmonton-born Lisa Gilroy. Due to the Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Final concluding, the ceremony will now broadcast simultaneously on CBC and CBC Gem.

The full list of winners is available on the Academy website.

Photo by George Pimentel Photography