Channel 5 leads local Emmys

WMAQ Channel 5 led all stations with 10½ awards when the 50th annual local Emmys were presented Saturday night at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place downtown.

WGN Channel 9 claimed seven awards, and WTTW Channel 11 earned 6½, sharing one with Channel 5. WBBM Channel 2, which led all stations in nominations, went home with six Emmys.

WFLD Channel 32 earned four Emmys, three by Mark Saxenmeyer to lead all individual reporters. Channel 2's Pam Zekman won two, including her first for outstanding overall achievement as a reporter. Weather forecaster Ginger Zee led Channel 5 with two Emmys.

Comcast SportsNet Chicago also won four Emmys.

The ceremony had some early glitches bedeviling first presenters Bill Kurtis and especially Walter Jacobson, but then settled into a routine. Kurtis, though, got off one of the lines of the night when he warned Jacobson, "Drive safe," going home, a reference to Jacobson's previous traffic stops.

Former Channel 9 Bozo Joey D'Auria, presenting with Rich Koz of WCIU Channel 26, piled on, saying, "We really have to work hard to be funnier than Walter Jacobson."

Otherwise, the ceremony was marked by a businesslike approach, even if it couldn't be called efficient.

Couple of the night was Channel 5 President and General Manager Larry Wert and Joe Ahern, recently removed as president and general manager of Channel 2. Wert invited Ahern to "be his date" Saturday morning, and Ahern accepted. "I only asked that he didn't wear heels," Wert said.