Sports Emmy Award Nominations: ESPN Networks Lead the Way With 54 Nods

CBS’s 118th Army-Navy Game, ESPN’s E:60, SC Featured led all programs with eight nods each

ESPN’s stable of networks garnered 54 nominations, when the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) today announced the nominees for the 39th Annual Sports Emmy Awards. ESPN’s 54 nods were the most of any network group, followed by CBS and Fox with 31 apiece and NBC Sports Group with 28. CBS’s 118th Army-Navy Game and ESPN’s E:60 and SC Featured topped all individual programs, with eight nominations apiece, followed by CBS’s AFC Championship Game and the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on CBS/TBS/TNT/TruTV/NCAA.com. 

Also earning Sports Emmy nominations were Turner Sports (19), NFL Network (13), MLB Network (12), HBO Sports (7), Showtime Sports (6), Verizon (4), Netflix (3), SI.com (2), and Univision (2). In addition, Apple iTunes, Audience, Comcast Watchable, DirecTV, Gear VR, Oculus VR, Outside Television, Snapchat, Twitch, Vice, and YouTube earned one nomination each.

When broken out by individual network, CBS led the pack with 31 nominations, followed by ESPN (29); Fox (21); NBC (18); FS1 (16); ESPN2, NFL Network, and TNT (13 each); MLB Network (12); NBCSN and TBS (10); ESPN Deportes (eight); HBO and truTV (seven); Showtime (six); ABC, ESPNews, and Telemundo (five); Golf Channel and Verizon (four); and Netflix and SI.com (three).

As for nominations by program, CBS’s 118th Army-Navy Game and ESPN’s E:60 and SC Featured each had eight, followed by CBS’s AFC Championship with six and Turner/CBS’s 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball with five. ESPN’s College GameDay, MLB Network’s MLB Tonight, and NASCAR on Fox received four nominations apiece. Garnering three nominations each were TBS/Twitch’s 2017 ELEAGUE, ESPN’s 2018 College Football Playoff National, Verizon’s Dear Basketball, HBO’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, NBC’s 35th America’s Cup, NBC’s The 143rd Kentucky Derby, and CBS/NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football.

“The world of sports television grows larger with each passing year, and this year was no exception,” said NATAS Chairman Chuck Dages in the announcement. “The 39th Sports Emmy Awards encompassed a record-setting number of entries across multiple categories, and the level of quality continues to show the growth and seemingly unlimited potential of what is available for the sports-viewing audience.”

Said Sports Emmy Awards SVP Steve Ulrich, “This looks to be a wide-open competition this year. There are newcomers in many categories, and, coupled with content creator extraordinaire Barry Frank receiving the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award, it should be an exciting evening.”

Winners in all 40 categories, along with Lifetime Achievement Award recipient  Barry Frank, will be honored on Tuesday, May 8 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall. Here is a list of the nominees in the Live and Technical categories:

CLICK HERE for the full list of 2018 Sports Emmy Award nominees and stay tuned here at sportsvideo.org for more in-depth breakdown of the awards nominees.

NOTE: All nomination totals are based on the official NATAS announcement.