Skip to content
Colleges
Link copied to clipboard

ESPN personalities reportedly won Emmy Awards under fake names. Now they have to give them back.

ESPN must return at least 37 Emmy Awards that incorrectly went to on-air talent, according to The Athletic.

The ESPN "College Game Day" crew sits on set in front of Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, before a 2018 NCAA college football game between Clemson and Texas A&M.
The ESPN "College Game Day" crew sits on set in front of Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, before a 2018 NCAA college football game between Clemson and Texas A&M.Read moreSam Craft / AP

A number of ESPN on-air talent have won Emmys for their work on broadcasts and studio shows — or at least they thought they did.

In an investigation from The Athletic, Katie Strang found that ESPN listed on-air hosts on College GameDay and other shows as associate producers under fake names, making them eligible for awards they would not otherwise be able to win.

The network then re-engraved the trophies with the correct names before sending them to the on-air talent.

College GameDay won eight outstanding weekly studio show awards from 2008-2018. On-air talent was not eligible to win alongside the producers as part of that category until a recent rule change in 2023. So instead of Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso winning Emmy Awards, “Kirk Henry” and “Lee Clark” did.

» READ MORE: John Tortorella lashes out at local reporter about Kevin Hayes-Cutter Gauthier report

Now, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), the organization that administers the Emmy Awards, is asking for those awards back. NATAS requested ESPN return at least 37 statuettes that were incorrectly presented to on-air talent.

“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,” ESPN said in a statement to The Athletic.

Strang said there was no evidence the on-air talent was aware of the scheme.

» READ MORE: Doc Rivers says Daryl Morey ‘talked too much’ during their Sixers tenure

ESPN vice president Craig Lazarus, former senior vice president Lee Fitting, and College GameDay coordinating producer Drew Gallagher are ineligible for “future Emmy participation,” per Strang’s report. The New York Post reported that the scheme was a factor in Fitting’s dismissal from the company this summer.

The mistaken awards date as far back as 1997.