Has ESPN padded its stats?
After an in-depth investigation by The Athletic, the cable sports giant has admitted to giving fake names to the Emmy Awards host in order to get more statuettes for on-air talent.
The plan went unnoticed until last year, when it was discovered by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), which hands out the Emmy Awards. Since then, several ESPN anchors have been asked to return their awards. However, according to The Athletic, there is no evidence that the on-air talent in question knew about the plan.
In total, the program resulted in at least 30 statuettes being presented to presenters who were not actually eligible to receive them. The exact mastermind remains a mystery, but the motivation behind the plan appears to be an attempt to circumvent NATAS rules, which ban on-air presenters from being included in the credit list for the Outstanding Weekly Studio Show award until 2023 become. Hosts had always been eligible for individual awards, but NATAS had denied them the chance to win a trophy for an entire show to prevent what it called “double dipping”: being honored twice for the same work.
The process wasn't particularly sophisticated, according to The Athletic: ESPN submitted fake names for its nominated programs to NATAS, and after these fictitious people won the awards, the network collected them, had them re-engraved and presented them to on-air personalities, including several College Gameday presenters.
Neither Kirk Herbstreit (right) nor Lee Corso (left) were ever accused of wrongdoing
ESPN's Desmond Howard and Chris Fowler are said to have received the Emmy Awards unfairly
In addition to ESPN agreeing to return the statuettes, the network's executive producers Craig Lazarus and Lee Fitting were barred from participating in the awards in the future. Fitting was fired from the network last summer – a move that the This is reported by the New York Post was prompted by the discovery of the plan – and has since taken a job with the WWE.
According to The Athletic, ESPN personalities who improperly received statuettes include college football analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard, anchors Tom Rinaldi, Sam Ponder, Chris Fowler and Shelly Smith, and reporter Gene Wojciechowski .
In each case, the false name submitted by ESPN to NATAS closely resembled the name of the person who was ultimately awarded the award: “Kirk Henry” for Kirk Herbstreit, “Lee Clark” for Lee Corso, and “Shelley Saunders” for Shelley Smith.
And it wasn't just the college game day hosts. SportsCenter's Linda Cohn has only officially won a single Emmy, but she pictured her Fab 4 statuettes in a celebratory Instagram post in November.
The Athletic also discovered several other supposed winners that could not be verified, including Erik Andrews (likely Erin Andrews) in 2011.
The real Andrews, who now works at Fox Sports, told The Athletic that she received an Emmy statuette in the mail around 2010 but didn't know it had been acquired improperly.
The real Erin Andrews (left), who now works at Fox Sports, told The Athletic that she received an Emmy statuette in the mail around 2010 but didn't know it had been acquired improperly
Jenn Brown, who left ESPN in 2013, told The Athletic that she also didn't know the Emmy she received was obtained improperly.
“This is all news to me and kind of unfortunate because there are people who think they were entitled to have one,” Brown told The Athletic. “Rules are there for a reason…it's unfortunate.” [those were] abused for so many years.'
In reviewing credit lists from 2010 to 2018, The Athletic discovered more than 30 fictitious names, as well as several others that could not be identified, all listed as “associated producers.”
When asked why ESPN would lie to NATAS, a person involved in the network's Emmy submission process told The Athletic, “You have to remember that these personalities are so important and they have egos.”
Another senior ESPN official told The Athletic that network producers obsessed over the Emmys and used them as evidence of their continued dominance in sports media.
ESPN host Linda Cohn has claimed to be a four-time Emmy winner, but has actually only won one
Cohn has only officially won a single Emmy, but took to Instagram to snap a picture of her Fab 4 statuettes
“Some members of our team clearly erred in submitting certain names, possibly dating back to 1997, in Emmy categories in which they were not eligible for recognition or statuettes,” the network said in a statement.
“This was a misguided attempt to recognize on-air individuals who were key members of our production team.” After this was brought to the attention of current leadership, we apologized to NATAS for the policy violation and worked closely with them to resolve this to completely overhaul our submission process to prevent something like this from happening again.
“We retained outside counsel to conduct a full and thorough investigation, and those found responsible have been disciplined by ESPN.”
NATAS' Adam Sharp also issued his own statement to The Athletic.
“NATAS has identified a number of fictitious credits submitted by ESPN for multiple Sports Emmys contests,” the statement said. “When this was brought to the attention of ESPN senior management, the network took steps to accept responsibility for the actions of its employees, conduct a thorough investigation and correct course.”
“These steps included ESPN returning statuettes to fictional characters and committing to further internal accountability and procedural changes at the network.”