ESPN Busted for Fake Emmys Scandal

ESPN is in hot water for an Emmy Awards scandal. The Athletic recently published a story that talks about how ESPN found a way around an Emmys rule that prohibited on-air talent from being awarded in the Outstanding Weekly Studio Show category. The guidelines from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) say hosts, analysts and reporters could win individual awards for their on-air performances and features, but would not get a trophy if their shows win.

The Athletic says the rule was made to prevent “double dipping,” which happens when on-air talent wins two awards for the same work. ESPN worked around this by inserting “fake names in Emmy entries, then took the awards won by some of those imaginary individuals, had them re-engraved and gave them to on-air personalities,” according to the report. 

The ESPN show that’s at the heart of the scandal is College GameDay, which has won multiple Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Weekly Studio Show between 2008 and 2018. During that period, the credit lists submitted to NATAS for Emmy consideration featured fake names that were close to the names of the actual on-air talent, such as Seven Ponder (Samantha Ponder), Lee Clark (Lee Corso) and Kirk Henry (Kirk Herbstreit). 37 improperly obtained trophies have been returned, while at least two ESPN employees — Craig Lazarus and the since-departed Lee Fitting — have been ruled ineligible from future Emmy participation. Fitting was let go by ESPN in August after 25 years at the company. 

“Some members of our team were clearly wrong in submitting certain names that may go back to 1997 in Emmy categories where they were not eligible for recognition or statuettes,” ESPN said in a statement. “This was a misguided attempt to recognize on-air individuals who were important members of our production team. Once current leadership was made aware, we apologized to NATAS for violating guidelines and worked closely with them to completely overhaul our submission process to safeguard against anything like this happening again.”

Another fake name submitted was Wendy Nickson which is for on-air talent Wendy Nix. Nix, who left ESPN in August, confirmed she received an Emmy in 2010 and said she had no idea it was improperly obtained. Another on-air talent, Jen Brown confirmed to The Athletic she received an Emmy around the same time but didn’t realize the network submitted her under the name Jen Brownsmith. 

“This is all news to me and kind of unfortunate because you’ve got people who believe they rightfully had one,” Brown, who left ESPN in 2013, said. “There are rules for a reason … it’s unfortunate (those were) abused and for so many years, too.”  

When asked why people at ESPN would bend the rules to secure Emmy Awards for on-air talent, a person involved in the network’s Emmy Submissions process in recent years said: “You have to remember that those personalities are so important, and they have egos.”