ESPN’s Sweeping Fake Emmy Scheme Uncovered in Shocking Exposé

Rebecca Iannucci
·3 min read
13
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

A stunning new report details more than a decade of fraudulent Sports Emmy submissions by ESPN that resulted in wrongfully obtained awards for the network’s on-air personalities.

In an exposé published Thursday by The Athletic, a sports-centric subdivision of The New York Times, it’s reported that since at least 2007 — but possibly dating as far back as 1997 — ESPN circumvented an Emmys rule that prohibited on-air talent from being awarded in the Outstanding Weekly Studio Show category.

More from TVLine

According to previous guidelines from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) — the organization that awards the Emmys — hosts, analysts and reporters could win individual awards for their on-air performances and features, but would not receive a trophy if their shows won. Per The Athletic, the rule was made in an effort to prevent “double-dipping,” which happens when on-air talent wins two awards for the same work. Thus, to get around that restriction, “ESPN inserted 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,” the report describes.

ESPN’s College GameDay series is at the heart of the scandal, having won multiple Sports Emmys for Outstanding Weekly Studio Show between 2008 and 2018. During that window, the credit lists submitted to NATAS for Emmy consideration included fake names that were very similar to the names of actual on-air talent, such as Kirk Henry (an alias for Kirk Herbstreit), Lee Clark (Lee Corso) and Steven Ponder (Samantha Ponder), among others.

Since the start of NATAS’ investigation into the fraud, 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.

“Some members of our team were clearly wrong in submitting certain names going back to 2007 (or that may go back to 1997) in Emmy categories where they were not eligible for recognition or statuettes,” ESPN said in a statement obtained by TVLine. “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.”

In his own statement to The Athletic, NATAS CEO Adam Sharp said, “NATAS identified a number of fictitious credits submitted by ESPN to multiple Sports Emmys competitions. When brought to the attention of ESPN senior management, the network took steps to take responsibility for the actions of its personnel, to investigate thoroughly, and to course correct. These steps have included the return by ESPN of statuettes issued to fictitious individuals and commitments to implement further internal accountability and procedural changes at the network.”

NATAS has also strengthened its credit verification process since 2022. According to the report, there is no evidence that the on-air talent who won the fraudulent Emmys had any knowledge they were ill-gotten.

Best of TVLine

Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter