YOUTUBE ORIGINALS WINS FIRST PGA AWARD FOR "DEFYING GRAVITY: THE UNTOLD STORY OF WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS"
THE 6-PART DOCUSERIES FEATURING TEAM USA HOPEFULS AND RENOWNED GYMNASTS AWARDED WITH OUTSTANDING SPORTS PROGRAM
LOS ANGELES, CA, MARCH 25, 2021 -- On Saturday, March 20, the Producers Guild of America unveiled that YouTube Originals received their first PGA Award with "Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women's Gymnastics" for Outstanding Sports Program. This 6-part documentary series from Emmy-winning Main Event Media (United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell), an All3Media America company, and Five All in the Fifth Entertainment (LANCE), premiered September 2020 in partnership with Glamour, and explores what it takes to be an Elite gymnast, through the voices of its greatest champions.
"We are thrilled that the Producers Guild of America has awarded 'Defying Gravity' as one of this year's premier outstanding sports programs," said Susanne Daniels, Global Head of Original Content for YouTube. "YouTube was privileged in bringing together some of the most talented women in the sport of gymnastics to share their triumphs and heartbreaks, and we are honored to share their inspiring stories."
"We are honored to be recognized by the PGA for a project that so many talented people worked so hard on - this was truly a team effort," said Executive Producer Alex Garinger of Five All in the Fifth. "We were all so inspired by the incredible gymnasts featured in the series and can't wait to see many of them in action this summer."
Each episode of "Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women's Gymnastics" raises questions on the most challenging and thrilling aspects of gymnastics. How do athletes preserve their passion, confidence, and voice in a sport that pushes them beyond their limits? How do gymnasts maintain their mental toughness and laser focus while contending with all the external pressures placed upon them? And in an era of difficulty-dominant scoring, how do athletes stay unafraid of their own power? The documentary series examines these sport-specific subjects, while going in-depth on the broader themes of self-expression and resilience.
In addition, the series does not shy away from the darker aspects of the sport, showing how gymnasts overcome body image issues, ageism, and abuse. Episode 5 of the series features survivors describing the sport's culture of abuse and explaining how they're using their voices and the life skills that gymnastics taught them to reclaim their beloved sport.
The documentary series features 2021 Team USA hopefuls Jade Carey, Olivia Greaves, Morgan Hurd, Sunisa Lee, Grace McCallum, Riley McCusker, MyKayla Skinner, Trinity Thomas, and gold medalist Laurie Hernandez; plus appearances and featured stories from numerous gymnastics icons, including Vanessa Atler, Mohini Bhardwaj, Ellie Black, Svetlana Boginskaya, Amanda Borden, Oksana Chusovitina, Kathy Johnson Clarke, Nadia Comaneci, Jamie Dantzscher, Coline Devillard, Becky Downie, Nellie Kim, Madison Kocian, Olga Korbut, Phoebe Mills, Dominique Moceanu, Katelyn Ohashi, Betty Okino, Carly Patterson, Samantha Peszek, Aly Raisman, Cathy Rigby, Kyla Ross, Daniela Silivas, Bridget Sloan, Tracee Talavera, and Jordyn Wieber.
"Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women's Gymnastics" is produced by Main Event Media, All3Media America, and Five All in the Fifth Entertainment. The series is directed by Bess Kargman (First Position, Coach) who also serves as the executive producer alongside Jimmy Fox for Main Event Media and Alex Garinger and Douglas Banker for Five All in the Fifth Entertainment, with April Smith and Julian Cautherley serving as co-executive producers.
Susanne Daniels is Global Head of Original Content for YouTube. Nadine Zylstra, Head of Family, Learning and Impact for YouTube Originals, along with Ian Roth on the Learning and Impact Development team oversee the series.
"Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women's Gymnastics" is part of a slate of learning projects including "Black Renaissance," a special celebrating the contributions of Black History featuring President Obama, Michelle Obama, Jason Reynolds, Stacey Abrams, H.E.R. and many more, "Dear Class of 2020," a tribute to last year's graduating class and centered around the timely themes of hope, resilience, and camaraderie and "Celebrity Substitute," where celebrities and educators come together to energize distance learning. Other award recognized series include "Create Together," the Emmy Award winning interactive mini-series hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt which will premiere season two on April 22, "Could You Survive The Movies?," awarded with a Daytime Emmy(R) for Outstanding Educational or Information Series, where YouTube Creator Jake Roper explores the magic and science behind classic movies; and Emmy-nominated "Glad You Asked" which seeks to answer some of life's most interesting questions, from 'Why do we cry?' and 'What happens when we die?' to 'Will we survive Mars?'.
About YouTube Originals:
YouTube Originals are award-winning, creative and engaging scripted and unscripted series and films across music, personalities, and learning for fans all over the world. Spotlighting both YouTube creators alongside Hollywood's biggest stars, YouTube Originals provide an experience that only YouTube can offer. By tapping into the platform's growing global community, fan engagement product capabilities, and innovative content mixed with pioneering live-streamed specials, there is truly something for everybody. Fans experience YouTube Original content through ad-supported YouTube as well as YouTube Premium, a subscription service that offers access to YouTube Original series and movies, a streaming music platform, and an uninterrupted, ad-free experience across all of YouTube. YouTube Originals are available in nearly 80 countries worldwide.
About Main Event Media:
Main Event Media, an All3Media America company, is an Emmy-winning production company based in Los Angeles. Founded by producer Jimmy Fox, the company creates content across multiple genres including scripted, documentary, reality and original podcast production. The company's work includes multi-time Emmy-winning CNN series United Shades of America, Peacock comedy series Punky Brewster, Roku food game show Eye Candy, Amazon Prime docuseries Inside Jokes, Snapchat documentary series While Black with M.K. Asante, YouTube Originals series Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women's Gymnastics, E!'s Celebrity Call Center, TNT's Inside the NBA All-Star Roast, Nickelodeon competition series Top Elf, E! drama series The Arrangement, Investigation Discovery's Breaking Homicide, multiple specials for Discovery Channel's Shark Week, Paramount Network true crime series It Was Him: The Many Murders of Ed Edwards and CNBC's Make Me a Millionaire Inventor. Main Event has been recognized for its work garnering Critics Choice, Critics Choice Real TV, TCA, PGA, NAACP and International Documentary Association (IDA) nominations.
About All3Media America:
All3Media America is the U.S. arm of global independent television, film and digital production group All3Media. With teams in Los Angeles and New York, All3Media America's portfolio companies are responsible for hits that include the Emmy Award-winning Undercover Boss for CBS, the Emmy Award-winning United Shades of America for CNN, Chrisley Knows Best for USA, Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back for FOX and Uncharted for National Geographic, the Emmy Award-winning Cash Cab for Discovery, Worst Cooks in America for Food Network and Betrayed for Investigation Discovery. All3Media's unique federal structure, a model followed in both the U.S. and worldwide, encourages the creative and strategic independence of its growing roster of production companies. Today comprised of over 40 global production companies and counting, All3Media is one of the largest production houses in the world. All3Media is owned jointly between Discovery Communications and Liberty Global.
About Five All in the Fifth Entertainment:
Led by co-founders Douglas Banker and Alex Garinger, Five All in the Fifth Entertainment produces documentary, feature film, television, and digital projects. Recent documentary productions include Hip Hop Uncovered, a six-part documentary series about music industry gatekeepers, which premiered in February 2021 on FX; LANCE, a 30 for 30 film about Lance Armstrong, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and on ESPN in May 2020; and Rodman: For Better or Worse, a 30 for 30 film about Dennis Rodman, which premiered in September 2019 on ESPN. Five All is currently in production on documentary and non-fiction projects for Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, Showtime, and YouTube Originals. Past projects include feature films The After Party, for Netflix, and Party Boat, for Crackle; unscripted series World Star TV, for MTV2, and On the Run Eatin' with N.O.R.E., for Complex; and scripted series Like and Subscribe, for Funny or Die.
About Glamour:
For over 80 years, Glamour has been the preeminent female empowerment title in America. Today, with a record combined audience of over 37.1 million, including 3.6 million YouTube subscribers, 12 million listeners to Glamour's podcasts, 14 million social followers, 9.9 million monthly web views, and 8.5 million monthly video views, the numbers speak to Glamour's unique storytelling abilities - and trusted position as a champion for women.
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