Has ESPN been padding its stats?
The cable sports giant has admitted to submitting fake names to the presenter of the Emmy Awards in an attempt to garner more statuettes for on-air talent following an in-depth investigation by The Athletic.
The scheme went unnoticed until last year, when it was discovered by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), which presents the Emmy Awards. Several on-air hosts have since been asked by ESPN to return their awards. However, there is no proof that the on-air talent in question were aware of the scheme, according to The Athletic.
In total, the scheme resulted in at least 30 statuettes being presented to on-air hosts, who were actually ineligible to receive them. The precise mastermind remains a mystery, but the motivation behind the plan appears to be an effort to sidestep NATAS rules, which, until 2023, forbid on-air hosts from being included in the credit list for the 'outstanding weekly studio show' award. Hosts have always been eligible for individual awards, but NATAS had denied them the chance to win a trophy for an entire show to prevent what it described as double dipping: Being honored twice for the same work.
The operation wasn't overly sophisticated, according to The Athletic: ESPN would submit fake names to NATAS for its nominated programs, then, after those fictitious individuals won the awards, the network would collect them, get them re-engraved and present them to on-air personalities, including several College Gameday hosts.
OT: ESPN scheme to get on-air hosts Emmy awards
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Fuck ESPN. That is all.
Say it again, louder for those in the back - FUCK ESPN!!!
If they're willing to do something this petty, imagine what they'd be willing to do when they have hundreds of millions of dollars on the line with their TV deals.
Everybody gets a trophy! Yay!
Well, not FSU.
This is all FSU got...
It just gets better and better with that clown show. They also just had Stephen A Smith call Jason Whitlock a b*tch and fat piece of shit on air.
To pile on, remember when Pat McAfee said Aaron Rodgers wouldn't appear on his show again this season yesterday?
Guess who was on his show today
Hahaha is this real? What is the backstory here?
Or am I getting fooled with AI deep fake stuff
ESPN and Michigan are perfect for each other.
A sampling of some credits for College Gameday:
Kirk Henry (Kirk Herbstreit), Lee Clark (Lee Corso), Dirk Howard (Desmond Howard), and Tim Richard (Tom Rinaldi) appeared in all seven years. Steven Ponder (Sam Ponder) and Gene Wilson (Gene Wojciechowski) appeared in five from 2014-18. Chris Fulton (Chris Fowler) appeared in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2015
I don't understand. So college gameday can get an award, but on air talent can't accept, so ESPN made up fake names to accept the award instead of the on air talent?
Why can't on air talent accept the award?
I think it's that on air talent can't be recognized for the award and receive the statuette since they are eligible for individual awards.
On-air talent (until 2023) were only eligible for individual awards, so they couldn't get two awards for the same show (front of camera work and behind camera work).
So ESPN fairly won awards for the shows, but submitted fake names to get more trophies to give to the on-air talent that worked on the shows. It seems more weird than some nefarious scheme to unfairly win awards. Maybe an ego thing for the on-air people.
Hmm, I bet I could find and 3D model of the statuette and print it. Probably could find the Grammy, Oscar and Tony statuettes, too.
A long weekend and a couple cans of spray paint and I could have the EGOT.
That's essentially what they did. They would take the trophies with the fake names, have them re-engraved, and given to the anchors.
Yea this what i don't get. Def seems weird/extra, but it's not like they got an award that they otherwise would not have gotten?
But it is an award they would not have gotten. They have categories for broadcasters that they were not winning, and this category is more for the producers of the program, which is why the separated it out so people could not "double dip" and get additional awards. The awards that Gameday won were for the producers of the show, not for the on-air talent, but these guys decided they wanted to give those guys trophies so they came up with the scheme. I am wondering if Herbstreet or any of those guys knew that they Emmys they had on their shelves were not earned by them, but by their crew.
It's not the "award" conceptually, it's the "trophy" physically
This feels like such a boring "scandal." The issue isn't a fraudulent award, the show was and still is getting recognized, but who got to take home a statue? Who cares if Herbstreet gets to take home a trophy or not? I feel like no one here actually has strong opinions on the Emmy "double-dip" rule (which seems silly), and is just generally peeved at ESPN and is using this as a bludgeon against them.
I do. Why?
Taking a page out of LOLUVa's playbook huh? If you can't get the trophy, make some fakes!
ESPN, caught doing ESPN things.
.