Report: ESPN used fake names to secure Sports Emmys for ‘College GameDay’ on-air talent

ESPN has returned at least 37 Sports Emmys after the award show administrators found that the network used fake names in Emmy entries, according to a report in The Athletic.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences said ESPN submitted the fake names, and after the network received the awards, it had them re-engraved and gave them to on-air talent. 

The Emmys that are in question were for awards that on-air talent was ineligible for. According to the report, some of the network's biggest names such as Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Chris Fowler, Desmond Howard and Samantha Ponder, received awards.

“I think it was really crummy what they did to me and others,”  former ESPN reporter Shelley Smith, one of many people who had Emmy awards taken away, told The Athletic.

"College GameDay" was the show that benefited the most, when it won eight Emmys within a 10-year period for outstanding weekly studio show.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences prohibited on-air talent from being on a credit list for that specific category. That rule changed in 2023.

But the network got around that rule by submitting the fake names.

According to the report, some of the aliases used include Kirk Henry for Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Clark for Lee Corso, Dirk Howard for Desmond Howard and Tim Richard for Tom Rinaldi.

Former ESPN reporter Jenn Brown, who left the network in 2013 and received one of those Emmys, said she didn't know she was ineligible for her award.

"This is all news to me and kind of unfortunate because you’ve got people who believe they rightfully had one," Brown told The Athletic. "There are rules for a reason … it’s unfortunate (those were) abused and for so many years, too."