As “egos” trumped ethics, the exposure of a years-long plan to take home more honors left a major sports network returning dozens of awards.
The circumvention of the rules was central to an ESPN scheme in which network executives were said to have used fake names to win Emmys for ineligible talent. That's what The Athletic said in a report Friday detailing how the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) had discovered how nearly 40 trophies had been wrongfully obtained, possibly as far back as the 1990s.
“Since at least 2010, ESPN has inserted fake names into Emmy entries, then taken the awards won by some of these imaginary individuals, re-recorded them and gave them to on-air personalities” , wrote the medium. explained that NATAS had reworked its verification process in 2022 and requested ESPN's verification on a number of names.
Central to the scheme was the “College GameDay” program where, until 2023, live talent could not receive awards in individual categories such as studio analyst or outstanding host, as well as for a weekly studio program exceptional
To avoid this, talents such as Lee Corso, Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Shelley Smith and Gene Wojciechowski were listed as associate producers under the aliases Lee Clark, Chris Fulton, Kirk Henry, Dirk Howard, Shelley Smith and Gene Wilson, respectively. .
As a result, 37 statuettes have been returned so far with more potentially still connected to the program.
“Certain members of our team clearly erred by submitting certain names that may date back to 1997 in Emmy categories where they were ineligible for recognition or statuettes,” ESPN said in a statement about the scandal. “This was a misguided attempt to recognize people on air who were important members of our production team. Once current leadership became aware, we apologized to NATAS for violating guidelines and worked closely with them to completely overhaul our submission process to protect us from this happening again.
“We brought in outside counsel to conduct a full and thorough investigation and the individuals found responsible were disciplined by ESPN,” they added.
That included the August termination of Lee Fitting, the New York Post reportedas the senior vice president of production for “College GameDay” and other programs had been unceremoniously let go before the awards show aired.
Along with Fitting, Craig Lazarus, vice president and executive producer of original content and features, and Drew Gallagher, coordinating producer of “College GameDay,” were listed as ineligible for future Emmys.
“You have to remember that these personalities are so important and they have egos,” a person involved in the ESPN Emmy submission process told The Athletic.
However, Smith rejected this, stating that it was the executives who focused on the accolades. “It's a big deal for the people who go (to the ceremony) and the old-school TV guys,” he said.
Admitting: “I was happy to win (2018),” he added, “But the other times (the trophy) would just pop up and I wouldn't even know I was supposed to get one.”
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