ESPN forced to return over 30 Emmys after violating academy rules by using fake names to secure awards

ESPN was forced to return over 30 Emmy Awards after the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) uncovered a scheme by the network to give the statuettes to ineligible on-air talent. 

According to the Atlantic, the network used fake names on the Emmy entries, and after receiving the award, they had them re-engraved and gave them to the ineligible recipient. 

The NATAS rules said that on-air talent could not receive awards won by the show as a whole, but could win individual awards. The rules were in place to prevent on-air talent from "double-dipping" and winning two awards for the same work. 

Since at least 2010, ESPN used fictitious names that were similar to that of the on-air personalities. On their "College Gameday" show for example ESPN used "Kirk Henrey" for Kirk Herbstreit, "Lee Clark" for Lee Corso, and "Dirk Howard" for Desmond Howard, to name a few. 

In a statement, ESPN said, "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." It added, "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."

"We brought in outside counsel to conduct a full and thorough investigation and individuals found to be responsible were disciplined by ESPN," the network added. 

Adam Sharp of NATAS told the outlet that ESPN "took steps to take responsibility for the actions of its personnel, to investigate thoroughly, and to course correct," when notified of the violations. 

When asked why the network would go through the trouble of creating fake names to get their on-air talent awards, former ESPN on-air reporter Shelley Smith said, "You have to remember that those personalities are so important, and they have egos.” She noted, "It’s very important to the people who go (to the ceremony) and the old-school television guys.”