NBC’s coverage of the 24th Winter Olympic Games and FOX’s telecast of the FIFA World Cup were big winners at this year’s 44th Annual Sports Emmy Awards, taking home three Emmys each. ESPN was the biggest winner of the night with 13 Emmys. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presented this year’s Sports Emmy Awards at an awards ceremony at the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall. Bryant Gumbel will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for his role in sports journalism.
The Sports Emmys went ahead despite a writers’ strike leading to the postponement of NATAS’ first Daytime Emmys, which airs next month. “While we come together tonight, the rest of the television community is divided,” NATAS president and CEO Adam Sharp said at the ceremony. Sharp added, “You will notice that most of the elements typically scripted at our ceremony have been stripped out in recognition and respect of the WGA’s leading writers for their participation in the strike.”
Winners were announced in 47 categories, spanning a range of content from studio hosts, event analysts, live specials and live series, documentaries, journalism, public service content, and esports categories. The winners in some of the prominent categories are:
– Outstanding Live Special: 24th Olympic Winter Games Tournament (NBC)
– Outstanding Live Series: Monday Night Football (ESPN)
– Outstanding Playoff Coverage: NLCS (Fox | FS1)
– Outstanding Short Documentary: 38 at the Garden (HBO Max)
– Outstanding Feature Documentary: The Redeem Team (Netflix)
– Outstanding Studio Show – Weekly: Fox NFL Sunday (Fox)
– Outstanding Studio Show – DAILY: SportsCenter (ESPN)
– Outstanding Person/Studio Host: Mike Tirico (NBC | The Rock Channel) Golf Channel)
– Outstanding Person/Play-by-Play: Mike Breen (ABC)
– Outstanding Who/Studio Analyst: Ryan Clarke (ESPN | ESPN2 | ABC)
– Outstanding Person/Reporter: Lisa Salters (ESPN | ABC)
The Emmy Awards also recognized outstanding technical teams, camerawork, editing, writing, audio/sound, and graphic design in several categories. Overall, the Sports Emmy Awards celebrated the excellence in sports programming and acknowledged the challenges faced by the industry in a rapidly changing media landscape.