ESPN under fire for providing fake names to secure Emmy Awards for their ‘College GameDay’ stars in brazen scandal

ESPN had to give back their Emmy Awards after the scandal was exposed.

ESPN under fire for providing fake names to secure Emmy Awards for their ‘College GameDay’ stars in brazen scandal

ESPN MNF (Credits: Imago)

ESPN can’t seem to avoid scandals and controversies for now. Recently they got caught in the middle of a controversial feud between the New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and ABC late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel. And now, a massive scheme by the network to secure Emmy Awards for their College GameDay stars has been exposed.

According to a recent report The Athletic, the leading sports network used fake names for Emmy Awards to obtain more hardware for their stars, who were deemed ineligible to receive the prestigious awards. Allegedly, ESPN has been using the brazen scheme for more than a decade.

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According to multiple reports, ESPN has been operating the scheme since 2010. They would submit made-up names with the same initials as their stars under the disguise of executive producers. And then, once they get their hands on the trophy, they would reportedly re-engrave the awards and then give them to their stars.

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Many stars such as Samantha Ponder (fake name: “Steven Ponder”), Lee Corso (“Lee Clark”), Desmond Howard (“Dirk Howard”), Kirk Herbstreit (“Kirk Henry”), Tom Rinaldi (“Tim Richard”), and Chris Fowler (“Chris Fulton”) are some of the personalities who allegedly received the awards using the scheme. 

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 clarified in a statement according to NY Post

The brazen scheme was exposed after the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) got suspicious and asked ESPN to verify their names back in 2022. Later, the network admitted to using fake names following an internal investigation.

ESPN apologize over their scheme to secure Emmy Awards

After The Athletic broke the report about ESPN’s fake name scheme to secure the prestigious Emmy Awards for their stars, the network had to apologize for their mistake.

ESPN Emmy Awards
ESPN issued an apology for their scheme (Photo by Ron Chenoy)

According to BBC, ESPN spokesperson Julie McKay revealed the scheme may date as far back as 1997 and once the current leadership was notified, they immediately took action to correct the mistake.

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 [The National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences] for violating guidelines.
Julie McKay said via BBC

Nonetheless, ESPN had to give back 37 trophies they received using fake names. Apart from being forced to return the trophies, NATAS has also imposed a one-year ban from Emmy eligibility for the senior leadership of “College GameDay”.

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