According to Katie Strang of The Athletic, ESPN made up fake names for Emmy Awards for on-air talent that couldn't receive awards.
Now, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which oversees the Emmys, has stopped it.
Breaking News from @TheAthletic: ESPN returned 37 Emmy statues after a probe found the network had used fake names to secure awards for "College GameDay" stars. https://t.co/D2kpgU5IHP pic.twitter.com/oPqlRQc1z3
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 11, 2024
"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. This was a misguided attempt to recognize on-air individuals who were important members of our production team," ESPN told the New York Post.
"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."
This controversy has been going on since 2010. With it, they'd get awards for fake people, re-engrave them, and deliver them to various on-air personalities.
The personalities include, but aren't limited to, Samantha Ponder, Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, and Desmond Howard.
"I think it was really crummy what they did to me and others," ex-ESPN talent Shelley Smith, who had two fake Emmys taken away, told the outlet.
The Post said the scheme focused on "College GameDay" hosts because they weren't eligible to be honored in a credit list until 2023.
Some fake names were "Kirk Henry" for Herbstreit, "Lee Clark" for Lee Corso, and many others. It was upended after NATAS required ESPN to verify the names.
ESPN engaged in a scheme to win extra Emmys for College GameDay by unsubtly modifying the names of its hosts. This was to dodge a weird rule that prevented on-air talent from being eligible for some awards, so they just gave them fake names. 😅 https://t.co/197vT10zjs pic.twitter.com/6dxOvYfQvw
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 11, 2024
Now, ESPN has been forced to return 37 Emmys, a one-year ban from it for senior leadership, and ESPN executive Craig Lazarus and former ESPN employee and "College GameDay" executive Lee Fitting are now ineligible to receive an Emmy.
