(11ALIVE) — As if hosting “Saturday Night Live” to huge ratings wasn’t enough, Facebook fans now want Betty White to host next year’s Academy Awards. (Read More)

Friday, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Southeast Region announced that 11Alive had been nominated for 27 Emmy awards.  Here’s a rundown of the nominations:

Newscast – Daily Markets (1-25)
11Alive News

General Assignment Report
A Hero’s Reward
Jennifer Leslie, Dan Reilly

Fire & Faith
Jennifer Leslie, Steve Flood

Breaking News
Flood Rescues
Jennifer Leslie, Charles Olmstead, Deven Miller

Team Coverage
September Floods

Spot News
Hit and Run
Doug Richards, Dan Reilly

Continuing Coverage
State of Stimulus: Tracking the Money

Investigative Report
Parvo Puppy Mill
Shawn Hoder, Ross McLaughlin

Feature News Report
Daddy’s Home For Christmas
Marc Pickard, Richard Crabbe

Margie’s Wish
Julie Wolfe

One More Prom
Marc Pickard, Richard Crabbe

Business/ Consumer
Counterfeit Cash
Shawn Hoder, Ross McLaughlin

Health/Science
The Choking Game
Jonathan Samuels, Duffie Dixon

Specialty Assignment Report
Journey to Jhenya: Our Adoption from a Siberian Orphanage
Valerie Hoff, Mike Thomas

Sports-News Single Story
The Woodland Warriors
Matt Pearl

Public/Current/Community Affairs
Heroes for the Holidays
Philip Humes, Elizabeth Deschesne, Ted Hall, Brenda Wood

Special Event Coverage – Live/Edited
Centennial Olympic Park: 4th of July
Paul Ossmann, Ted Hall, A.J. Keane, Philip Humes

Station Excellence
WXIA-TV/WATL-TV

News Excellence
11Alive News
Ellen Crooke

Interactivity
Triplets Graduation
Bill Kalway, Matt Pearl, Danny Noa, Ellen Crooke, Josh Roseman, Michael King, Chris Sweigart, Donna Lowry, Kathleen Bourn, Erika Facey-Palmer, Tyson Paul, Jon Samuels, Keanne Sadeq, Phil Humes

Editor – News
Dan Reilly

News Producer
Philip Humes – 11 Alive News Tonight
Rich Hardwick

On-Camera Talent – Anchor – News
Brenda Wood

On-Camera Talent – Reporter – General Assignment
Duffie Dixon
Jaye Watson

On-Camera Talent – Reporter – Live
Duffie Dixon

Photographer – News
Jon Samuels

www.youtube.com/watch?v=68kSse3m0SU

“B-roll” is apparently an “old film term” which I am too young to understand, and you probably don’t care about the details anyway.

Here’s what’s interesting: Sometimes reporters will find themselves assigned to cover a story that is “weak on video”.  Usually that means the story is about an event that was not visually capture, or a story about an issue.  These are often referred to as a “great story for newspapers”.

Apparently, an Asian media mogul has developed a way to fudge that b-roll by making news reports look like video games.  As this report from CNN shows, his company creates animations to depict the news.

Wouldn’t it just be easier to call these guys?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SItFvB0Upb8

The Late Show with David Letterman has had a Twitter account for some time, but the feed has historically been little more than a promotion space for upcoming shows.  Now, Letterman’s thoughts are being mixed in.

Dave’s first tweet: “Do you smell veal and peppers?”

My favorite of Dave’s tweets (he only has three so far): “I’m making toast!”

This past Sunday, 60 Minutes profiled Tyler Perry, an Atlanta media mogul who making a name for himself, by bucking the trend.

Ironically, his success has upset much of the Hollywood establishment, and Perry has drawn a lot of criticism, especially when it comes to race.

In his closing moments of his profile on 60 Minutes, Perry responded to those criticisms, especially those from Spike Lee, in this thought provoking commentary.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbVjF7eP3bw

First the saga of “balloon/cardboard box boy” continues with the discovery of two theme songs Richard Heene.  Apparently he fancies himself starring in either a “Psyience Detective” show, or a reality contractor show.  He went so far as to produce theme songs for each show:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLYtt8eIEco

Then, for you Real Housewives of Atlanta fans, there’s this video from FunnyorDie.com.  Enjoy.

There are several reasons I enjoy working with a photojournalist from time to time.  One, it’s great to have a fantastic shooter to make a story come alive.  And two, it’s great to have somebody to talk to while you’re driving around town.

Dan has been around the 11Alive newsroom for quite some time.  He’s a great guy and always willing to share a story or two about the characters of years past.

This week, we were discussing one of the icons of 11Alive, photographer Bruce Mason.

Bruce is known in media circles as one of first people to tie a rope around his waist and hang out of the side of a helicopter to capture aerial news footage.  This was a time before robotic cameras were mounted on the bottom of the chopper and gyroscopically stabilized.

This week, Dan told me the story of how Bruce was quite a celebrity in Japan in the mid-90s.

As one of the few people in the world crazy enough to hang out of the side of helicopter flying hundreds of feet above Atlanta, in 1995 Bruce was featured as the answer to a trivia question on a Japanese television game show, “Show By Shobai”.

Bruce was kind enough to share video of the game show with me.  I have no idea what is going on here.  But it is quite entertaining.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoWVNFGTu08