After discovering an embarrassing scandal, ESPN was forced to return 37 Emmy Awards to the Academy. Dating back to at least 2010, gave Emmy Awards to on-air talent for College Gameday. The show itself was highly decorated by the Academy. However, their rule book states that individual on-air talent is ineligible to receive awards for the show. In other words, there was no “double-dipping” allowed. ESPN sought to bypass this rule to celebrate their stars.
Their workaround was submitting fake names of “associate producers” to the Academy for College Gameday. When “College Gameday” won Emmy Awards, these people would get individual trophies for being part of the show but not on-air talent. When ESPN received the statuettes, they would re-engrave the names of the people they wished to get the award. The talent would be none the wiser, and they would accept their trophy when it came in the mail.
SOURCES:
ESPN used fake names to secure Emmys for ‘College GameDay’ stars – The Athletic
ESPN returns 37 Emmys won using fake names: report | The Hill
ESPN apologizes for nearly 30-year scheme to defraud Sports Emmys | Fortune
ESPN returns 37 Emmys after using fake names to nab trophies – Los Angeles Times
ESPN EMMYS
