2026 Television Championship
194 entries were submitted in the Features and News television competitions held this academic year. The five top winners of those competitions qualified for the Hearst National Television Championship in San Francisco.
On Sunday, May 31, television finalists and judges – Candy Altman, Jeff Bartlett and Scott Herman – met for orientation, a critique of the qualifying assignments and a review of the Championship assignment.
For the Championship assignment, the television finalists were asked to produce a story on the following topic: “AI – It impacts everything- from the way we live, to business,
education, healthcare, transportation, jobs. Name any category and there’s an Artificial Intelligence conversation taking place. Even in news reporting. San Francisco and the Bay Area were at the forefront of the era of personal technology. And they are on the cutting edge again. Find a local story related to AI.”
They spent the next couple of days traversing the city, capturing images and sounds, conducting interviews and editing their work.
The judges received the completed packages by Wednesday evening for review. The winners were announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday evening held in the Gold
Ballroom of San Francisco’s Palace Hotel.
The first-through-third place winners were awarded scholarships of $10,000, $7,500, and $5,000 respectively.
The two finalists earned $1,500 scholarships each.
The winners and finalists are featured below.
