“Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson” won for outstanding arts, culture or entertainment coverage at Wednesday’s (Sept. 28) 43rd News & Documentary Emmy Awards at the Palladium Times Square in New York City.
The show looked at how the media treated Jackson in its coverage of the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show on Feb. 2, 2004.
Many believe sexism and racism caused Jackson to bear the brunt of the criticism for the incident, in which her breast was briefly exposed, while her on-screen singing partner Justin Timberlake emerged relatively unscathed. The incident happened when the two stars were performing Timberlake’s hit “Rock Your Body.” Jackson had already sung her hits “All for You” and “Rhythm Nation” in a halftime show that also included Jessica Simpson, P. Diddy, Nelly and Kid Rock.
As the subject of the documentary, Jackson did not personally receive an Emmy. Jackson is a five-time Grammy winner and an Oscar nominee for co-writing “Again” from the 1993 film Poetic Justice.
“Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson” was produced under the banner of The New York Times Presents FX.
Reporter/senior producer Rachel Abrams and reporter Alan Light were among those who received Emmys for their work on the show. Emmys were also awarded to executive producers Sam Dolnick, Ken Druckerman, Stephanie Preiss, Mary Robertson, Jason Stallman, Banks Tarver; executive in charge Angi Kuhn; supervising producer Liz Day; story producer Liz Hodes; producer/director Jodi Gomes; producers Fred Charleston Jr., Anthony McLemore, Timothy Moran and Kevin Vargas; co-producer Melanie Bencosme; additional producer Rick Wilkinson; archival producer Johanna Schiller; director of photography Asad Faruqi; and video editor Geoff O’Brien.
The News & Documentary Emmy Awards are presented as two separate ceremonies. Categories honoring television news programming were presented on Sept. 28; categories honoring documentaries will be presented on Thursday (Sept. 29). Both ceremonies are live-streamed at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on the Academy’s dedicated platform, powered by Vimeo.
The 43rd Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards honors programming content that originally premiered in 2021. All programming is available on the web here and via The Emmys apps for iOS, tvOS, Android, FireTV, Roku, and Samsung Smart TV (full list available here).
The awards are presented by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). The complete list of winners is available on the Academy’s website.
