Sydney Topf (COM’25) (from left), Addison Cummings (COM’25), and Sophia Falbo (COM’25) celebrating BUTV10’s big win at the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Boston/New England chapter awards ceremony on June 7. Photo by Addison Cummings

Film & TV

COM Students Win New England Emmy Award for 2024 BUTV10 Election Coverage

United We Vote, a special hour-long program about the last presidential election, named Best Student Newscast

Several Boston University College of Communication students recently added an honor to their résumés that most professional journalists wait years—even decades—to achieve. Earlier this month, BUTV10 producers Addison Cummings (COM’25), Sophia Falbo (COM’25), and Sydney Topf (COM’25) accepted the Emmy Award for Best Student Newscast for their hour-long 2024 presidential election special, United We Vote, which aired the day after last November’s election. 

The recent graduates, along with other members of the show, were honored at the annual ceremony held by the local chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) June 7. The event recognized a wide range of professionals working for news organizations throughout New England, as well as aspiring journalists at local colleges, universities, and high schools.

The COM special’s co–executive producers, Cummings, Falbo, and Topf spent nearly a year working on the show, which included man-on-the-street interviews with voters, coverage from various polling places, and guest interviews. They even netted a newsmaker interview with Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate in 2016, for the special. 

Last summer, amidst their various study abroad programs and internships, the three held regular planning meetings by phone, building a production team so they could hit the ground running in September.

“I think what made our show so unique, compared to what [BUTV10] has done in the past,” Topf says, “is that we recruited very early, because we wanted to get to campus and just get started.” In the end, United We Vote boasted a team of more than 50 people, the majority of them students.

Cummings, Falbo, and Topf were in charge of staffing the show, and with help from BUTV10 station manager Adam Boyajy (COM’03) and faculty advisor Tina McDuffie, a COM associate professor of the practice, they facilitated weekly staff meetings and made sure that their creative vision and professional goals would come to fruition on election day. 

“We were loud and proud with this show, and everyone was full force on social media, which really got the word out in a way that differed from the past marketing strategies of the election shows,” Cummings says. 

The week leading up to the election was filled with intense meetings and late nights as the team secured on-air interviews ahead of time and put the finishing touches on filmed segments and packages that would be inserted into the live broadcast. 

“On the Monday [before the election] was the first time some people had been in those positions before,” Falbo notes. “Neither of [the show’s news anchors] had ever anchored a live show, so drawing on our experiences anchoring Good Morning BU, we had to bring them up to speed.”

Throughout the planning process for United We Vote, the three producers were mindful of the fact that the 2020 presidential election wasn’t called until four days after election night, when Joe Biden was announced the winner. They were prepared for a repeat scenario this year. When that didn’t happen, they had to adapt quickly. 

“The day we went live, the entire show went out the window,” Topf says. “Once we woke up [Wednesday morning], we knew that we had to, not change, but fix and edit and revise everything, so it was all hands on deck for sure.”

When the BU show aired live on November 6, it drew not just viewers on campus, but from across the United States and around the globe. 

A thrilling moment 

In early May, the show’s three producers learned that United We Vote had been nominated for Best Student Newscast at the Boston/New England NATAS awards. 

“At the end of the day, it really didn’t matter [if United We Vote won],” Falbo says. “The experience, for me, wouldn’t have changed… I seriously took so much away learning from these two incredible women next to me. It really blew my mind, because obviously we’d known each other for years, but we grew so close.”

Still, the three say, winning the Emmy proved to be a thrilling moment. They relished the chance to dress to the nines (the event was black tie optional) and to meet Emmy-winning journalist Meredith Vieira, best known for her role as a former anchor of NBC’s Today Show.

“She was very interested in hearing about us, what we wanted to do and what we had done in the past,” Topf says. “She came up to us and was offering us all of this advice.”

“The whole night was a ‘pinch me moment’—it was unbelievable,” Topf says. “Holding the Emmy, seeing the glass pillar that said “United We Vote, Best College Newscast”… It was just the perfect way to wrap up my four years at BU.”

The night of the Emmy awards ceremony was the last the three friends got to spend together in Boston. Cummings is working as a communications associate at the New York Times and Falbo will be working as an on-air reporter for a local TV station in New York. Topf plans to pursue political journalism opportunities in Washington, D.C., and for now is freelancing for her hometown local newspaper, Montclair Local, in Montclair, N.J.

While the Emmy win is the proverbial cherry on top, the three co–executive producers say that they’re most proud of the way the show’s team came together to create a fact-based, nonpartisan program.

“Despite everyone’s own political beliefs, standing hand in hand and working towards the greater good…in this project is what ultimately uplifted us, and, I believe, allowed this show to be so great,” Cummings says.