One of the bigger stories to rock the Worldwide Leader this year was a Sports Emmys scandal that directly implicated ESPN in a scheme that centered around College GameDay.
In the ridiculously dumb Emmy fraud scandal, the network submitted fake names for extra producers who did not exist so they could receive extra trophies. The Emmys for the fake producers were then re-engraved for on-air personalities like Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso and given to them.
After GameDay won its ninth Sports Emmy for Outstanding Weekly Studio Show on Tuesday, Herbstreit appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday. The win sparked some jokes between Hebrstreit and McAfee about the recent scandal, with Herbstreit surprisingly revealing that eight of his previous Emmy awards had been taken back.
Kirk Herbstreit reveals that he had eight of his trophies repossessed following the College GameDay Emmy scandal. pic.twitter.com/j8AJhtJiLo
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 22, 2024
“I had eight taken out of my house,” Herbstreit said. “For people that don’t know, when College GameDay or any of these shows win an Emmy — I was naive to the whole thing — I thought, obviously, the people on the set would get an Emmy. So, all these years, I didn’t know what was going on. I was not privy to that information. I just thought, ‘Hey, it finally came. Where’s it been?’ I stuck it on the mantle and kind of moved on.
“Last year or two years ago, they said, ‘Oh no, that was not supposed to go to you guys on the set.’ So, we had to take them all back. I was like, ‘Well, I’m not at my house in Nashville; you’re gonna have to go get them.’ ‘Ok. No problem.’ They went down and got ’em and took 8 of my 13 of them out of the house. And then, I guess — I don’t follow this as closely as a lot of these people — I think after that, they changed the rule.
“I think, and now, if GameDay wins one, guys like (McAfee), all the schlubs — guys like me and you and (Demond Howard) and Rece (Davis) and Coach (Lee Corso) — I think we accidentally get one now. Like, legally get one. I think technically it’s our ninth, but it would be our first one that we’re supposed to actually have in your house.”
Herbstreit can finally breathe easy and display this Emmy on his mantle with confidence — unlike the previous eight.
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About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.