A shocking report from athletic It has been revealed that ESPN has been running a trick play on the Emmy Awards for decades so it could award individual trophies to stars who were ineligible at the time.
The scandal is related to an old rule that prohibits on-air hosts from individually accepting Emmy trophies given to their programs. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the organization that administers the Emmy Awards, introduced the rule to prevent “double-dipping” because hosts are still eligible to win awards in individual categories for the same body of work. explained The Athletic.
This rule will be repealed in 2023.
But over the decades, ESPN has come to a wise end. When submitting shows for award nominations, networks included fake names of people who appeared to be working behind the scenes. Then, when an ESPN show won, someone took the trophy awarded to the imposter and had it re-engraved with the real ESPN star's name. These stars will then receive their trophies in the mail, probably completely unaware that they haven't actually won them.
In total, ESPN will send “more than 30 coveted statuettes” to broadcast hosts, many of them current or former stars of “College GameDay,” the iconic college football program that airs on Saturday mornings. The Athletic claimed he was a player. during the fall.
From 2008 to 2018, “College GameDay” won eight Emmy Awards for Outstanding Weekly Studio Show. The Athletic examined credit lists associated with these wins and found that in nearly every case, ESPN submitted names that closely resembled real people, claiming each was an “associate producer.” .
According to The Athletic,
Kirk Henry (Kirk Herbstreit), Lee Clark (Lee Corso), Dirk Howard (Desmond Howard), and Tim Richard (Tom Rinaldi) appeared in all seven years. Stephen Ponder (Sam Ponder) and Gene Wilson (Gene Wojciechowski) appeared in five films from 2014 to 2018. Chris Fulton (Chris Fowler) appeared in his 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2015. Shelley Saunders (Shelley Smith) appeared on her list of credits in 2010.
But longtime SportsCenter host Linda Cohn may also be winning the Emmy she didn't win. NATAS confirmed that Cohn has won one Emmy, but she apparently owns four total. In an Instagram post dated November 2023, she referred to them as the “Fab Four.” She asked The Athletic for comment from an ESPN spokesperson.
NATAS eventually began to suspect that someone at ESPN was gaming the system, and in 2022, the Emmy Awards group asked the network to verify some of the names submitted for the award. At this point, ESPN, which also investigated the matter, was furious.
In its reporting, The Athletic tried to find out why ESPN went through so much trouble. Some network insiders suggested the system was designed to feed the egos of hosts and executives, while others said the rules were ostensibly “stupid.” , he said, because the rule allows industry officials to recognize good shows without taking credit for them. It appeared there.
Since NATAS threw the flag at ESPN, 37 statuettes have been returned, but it's unclear if they all came from ESPN. There's no indication that other networks have borrowed a page from ESPN's playbook and implemented similar plans.
ESPN released the following statement regarding the scandal:
Some members of our team made the obvious mistake of submitting certain names, which may date back to 1997, to Emmy categories that were not eligible for recognition or statuettes. This was a misguided attempt to recognize an on-air individual who was a key member of the production team. Once the current leadership was made aware of this, we apologized to NATAS for violating our guidelines and are working closely with NATAS to overhaul our submission process to ensure this does not happen again. Ta.
We brought in outside counsel to conduct a thorough investigation, and the individuals found responsible were disciplined by ESPN.
Adam Sharp of NATAS also provided the following to The Athletic:
NATAS identified numerous fictitious credits submitted by ESPN to multiple Sports Emmy contests. Once brought to the attention of ESPN's senior management, the network took responsibility for its personnel's actions, conducted a thorough investigation, and took steps to course correct. These actions include a return by ESPN of the minor regulations issued to the fictitious individuals and a promise to implement further internal accountability and procedural changes at the network.
At least three current or former ESPN employees, all of whom hold senior production positions, will no longer be eligible to receive an Emmy Award. The identity of the individual who authorized the plan in the first place remains unknown.
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