ESPN Tops List of Sports Emmy Nominations

A trio of ESPN networks led the nominations for Sports Emmy Awards this year with a total of 42 nods between ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Classic.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the nominees for the 27th Annual Sports Emmy Awards Wednesday at a meeting of the Octagon/Street & Smith’s World Congress of Sports at The Pierre Hotel in New York.

ESPN grabbed the top spot with 26 nominations; HBO was second with 17; Fox came in third with 16; ABC was fourth with 14; ESPN2 grabbed 12 and CBS nabbed 11.

National Television Academy President Peter Price was joined at the meeting by President of HBO Sports Ross Greenburg; President of ESPN Inc. and ABC Sports George Bodenheimer; President of Turner Sports David Levy; and President of CBS New and Sports Sean McManus.

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award goes to sports film writer/producer/director Bud Greenspan who has just completed filming his ninth Official Olympic Film this winter in Torino. Greenspan, who has impacted decades of Olympics coverage, is a member of the U. S. Olympic Hall of Fame, and his films have received seven Sports Emmy Awards.

The Sports Emmys are given in categories such as live special, live series, studio show - weekly, studio host, play-by-play, studio analyst and event analyst. This year, new awards will be given for Outstanding Sports Content on Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms such as Internet, cellphones, iPods, PDAs and other devices.

The 27th Annual Sports Emmys will be presented May 1 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center located at the Time Warner Center in New York. Leading sports broadcasters, personalities and television professionals will acts as presenters for this year’s event.

An expanded list of nominees appears below. The complete list of nominees, tabulated by Lutz and Carr, LLP, New York is available at www.emmyonline.tv.

ESPN     26

HBO     17

FOX     16

ABC     14

ESPN2     12

CBS     11

TNT     9

NBC     7

ESPN Classic 4

ESPN.com     3

Fox Sport Net     3

NFL Network     2

Speed Channel     2

Discovery Channel     2

MLB.com     1

OLN     1

USA     1