ESPN garners 43 Sports Emmy nods

ESPN, Inc. earned 43 Sports Emmy Award nominations, the most of any submitting company for the sixth time in seven years. ESPN networks garnered 30 nominations, ESPN on ABC programming 10, and ESPN.com three. In its first year on ESPN, Monday Night Football earned four nominations, including in the Live Series category and Mike Tirico in Play by Play. Other notable nominations are 14 for studio programming, including past multiple winners Outside the Lines and ESPN Classic’s SportsCentury; 11 for ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE) offerings; eight for NFL coverage, including two for ABC’s Super Bowl XL broadcast; and six for NBA entries (including Tirico, whose work includes both NFL and NBA). The winners will be announced Monday, April 30. More details:

* Monday Night Football, the most honored franchise in Sports Emmy
history, continued that tradition in its first year on ESPN with four
nominations;
* In addition to MNF, ESPN was nominated for College Football and
Major League Baseball in the Live Series category, giving the network
three of the five entries;
* ESPN earned three of the five nominations for Studio Show Weekly
— College GameDay (football), ABC’s NBA Nation and Sunday NFL
Countdown, a six-time winner;
* ESPN took three of the five nominations for Studio Show Daily –
Baseball Tonight, Outside the Lines and Pardon the Interruption;
* ESPN garnered four the six nominations in Short Feature (two
from SportsCenter, two from NBA Nation);
* EOE’s 11 nominations include four for One of a Kind: The Rise
and Fall of Stu Ungar, a one-hour documentary on the life and death of
poker player Stu Ungar; three for Ali Rap, a tribute to the words and
witticisms of Muhammad Ali based on the book by George Lois; two for
Timeless and one for The Contender;
* ESPN.com, winner of last year’s first-ever New Media award, has
three nominations across the expanded three online categories – The Real
Frozen Tundra – Barrow, Alaska (Long Form) and Off Mikes, last year’s
winner, and Love at First Beep (General Interest);
* the 2006 FIFA World Cup is nominated in Live Special.