The fourth annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards celebrated excellence in children’s and family television.

The event, described as the “most wholesome awards show,” was hosted by actor and puppeteer John Tartaglia at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York.

The ceremony opened with a heartfelt piano performance by singer Regina Spektor, who sang the classic “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, ending with a cheerful “Hello, neighbor!” to the audience.

Celebrities including Amber Riley, Ms. Rachel (Rachel Accurso), Monique Coleman, and Bill Nye presented awards throughout the evening.

Among the notable awardees, actor Joe Locke secured the award for outstanding lead performer for his role in *Heartstopper*.

Tabitha Brown was recognized in the outstanding children’s personality category for *Tab Time*, while veteran actor John Lithgow earned an award for his voice performance in *Spellbound*.

Disney Channel’s popular musical series, *Descendants: The Rise of Red*, was a major winner, taking home five prizes, including for outstanding fiction special.

The awards recognized excellence across a wide range of categories. In music, *Secrets at Red Rocks* won for outstanding music direction and composition for a live action program for the episode “Open Your Mind a Little,” and AppleTV’s *WondLa* received the award for outstanding music direction and composition for an animated program for the episode “Heart.”

wide range of children’s and family programs were honored across major categories.

Sesame Street won Outstanding Preschool, Children’s or Family Viewing Series, while Star Wars: Skeleton Crew took home Outstanding Young Teen Series and also earned awards for editing, sound, and visual effects.

Descendants: The Rise of Red emerged as a major winner, claiming Outstanding Fiction Special along with honors for art direction, hairstyling and makeup, choreography, and original song.

In animation, The Tiny Chef Show won Outstanding Preschool Animated Series, while Win or Lose dominated the children’s animated categories with wins for series, writing, directing, and editing.

Ultraman: Rising earned Outstanding Animated Special and a sound award.

Performance awards went to Joe Locke for Heartstopper, Nonso Anozie and Christian Convery for Sweet Tooth, and Leslie Carrara-Rudolph for puppetry on Sesame Street.

Voice acting honors included John Lithgow for Spellbound and David Errigo Jr. for Tiny Toons Looniversity.

Additional recognition went to projects such as A Real Bug’s Life, Wonder Pets: In the City, and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, highlighting excellence in writing, music, editing, sound, and technical achievement.

Overall, the awards celebrated standout achievements in live action, animation, music, technical production, and performance across preschool, children’s, and young teen programming.