ESPN leads with the most nominations for the 44th Annual Sports Emmy Awards

Overview

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) has announced the nominees for the 44th Annual Sports Emmy Awards. The awards recognize outstanding achievement in sports television production across various categories. ESPN leads all other network groups with 59 nominations, followed by NBC Sports with 38, FOX Sports with 33, CBS Sports with 29, Turner Sports with 26, NFL Network with 15 and HBO with 10.

Top Nominees

NBC Sports’ coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics and NFL 360 from NFL Network received the most nominations with ten each. Turner Sports’ coverage of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament was nominated for eight awards, while FOX Sports’ coverage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup was nominated for seven.

Other top nominees include ESPN’s SportsCenter, NBA on TNT, College GameDay and SEC Nation. CBS and Fox have significantly increased their nominations since 2015.

Categories

Nominees were announced in a total of 47 categories including Outstanding Live Special and Live Series, four Documentary categories, Journalism, Public Service Content and Esports Coverage.

Outstanding Live Special category includes events such as Super Bowl LVII; Winter Olympics from Beijing; Sunday Night Football from NBC; UFC 268; Premier League Weekend from NBC; NBA on ABC – Game One of Finals; UEFA Euro Final-Italy vs England from ESPN and so on.

In Outstanding Live Series category include nominees like College GameDay from ESPN; UEFA Champions League on CBS All Access; Football Night in America: Sunday Night Football from NBC and many more.

Playoff Coverage category includes events such as NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament from CBS/Turner; NFL Divisional Playoffs from CBS/NFL Network/Paramount+ and NFC Wild Card Playoffs from NBC among others.

Edited Event Coverage category features events such as Super Bowl LVII on Fox, NBA Countdown on ESPN and Indy 500 on NBCSN amongst others.

Esports Championship Coverage includes nominees such as League of Legends World Championship from Riot Games; The International from Valve Corporation/Steam and OWL Grand Finals Weekend from Blizzard Entertainment/YouTube.

Ceremony

The Sports Emmy Awards ceremony will be held on May 22 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City. The event will be held live and in-person with a limited audience due to COVID-19 protocols.

Bryant Gumbel, the veteran American television journalist, is set to receive a Lifetime Achievement award for his contributions to sports broadcasting. He has been in the industry for over five decades.

Final Thoughts

The 44th Annual Sports Emmy Awards continues to honor outstanding achievements in sports television production. ESPN leads all network groups with the most nominations followed by other big players such as NBC, FOX, CBS, Turner Sports, NFL Network, and HBO. With only a few days left until the ceremony on May 22, we are excited to see who comes out on top in their respective categories.

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