ESPN Leads Sports Emmy Nominations, Brent Musburger to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award – Variety

ESPN and its sister networks led all of their competition in the nominations for the 38th Annual Sports Emmy Awards, securing 50 nods across 41 categories. In addition, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced that legendary sportscaster Brent Musburger would be honored at this year’s ceremony with the lifetime achievement award.

“It has been another outstanding year for the sports television industry and the quality of this year’s record number of entries continues to raise the bar of what sports programming can be,” said Steve Ulrich, senior vice president of the Sports Emmy Awards. “With Brent Musburger being recognized for his almost 50 years in sports television, it will be a grand night as we celebrate this stellar cast of nominees on May 9th at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall.”

The NBC Sports Group trailed ESPN by just nine nominations, racking up 41 of their own for their coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil and their coverage of the NFL among other sporting events. Fox Sports Media Group got 39 nominations, while Turner Sports got 20.

Nominations were announced in categories including Outstanding Live Sports Special, Live Sports Series and Playoff Coverage, three Documentary categories, Outstanding New Media, Outstanding Play-by-Play Announcer and Studio Host.

Musburger’s lifetime achievement award comes after a career that began in local television in 1968. He joined ABC in May 1990 after 15 years as CBS Sports’ primary host and play-by-play commentator. His career includes play-by-play or hosting responsibilities for the Super Bowl, College Football Championship, Final Four, Masters, Rose Bowl, Little League World Series, FIFA World Cup, Indianapolis 500, NBA Finals, MLB Playoffs, U.S. Open tennis, Belmont Stakes and much more. He announced his retirement in January.

Read a partial list of the nominees below. To read the full list, click here.

Outstanding Live Sports Special
– 2016 NBA Finals- Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors (ABC)
– 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship-Clemson Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide (ESPN)
– Games of the XXXI Olympiad (NBC)
– 112th World Series- Cleveland Indians vs. Chicago Cubs (Fox)
– Super Bowl LI-New England Patriots vs. Atlanta Falcons (Fox)

Outstanding Live Sports Series
– ESPN College Football (ESPN/ABC)
– Monday Night Football (ESPN)
– NASCAR on Fox (Fox/FS1)
– Sunday Night Football (NBC)
– NFL on Fox (Fox)

Outstanding Playoff Coverage
– NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (CBS/tbs/TNT/truTV)
– NFC Divisional Playoff-Green Bay Packers vs. Dallas Cowboys (Fox)
– NFL Playoffs-Detroit Lions vs. Seattle Seahawks/Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Kansas City Chiefs (NBC)
– National League Championship Series-Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Chicago Cubs (FS1)
– NBA Western Conference Finals-Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Golden State Warriors (TNT)

Outstanding Sports Journalism
– “60 Minutes Sports Showtime-The Baylor Scandal” (CBS News)
– “Outside The Lines-After the Fall” (ESPN)
– “Outside The Lines-Hazing: The Hidden Horror” (ESPN)
– “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel-The Guru: Bikram Choudhury” (HBO)
– “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel-The Lords of the Rings: An Investigation into the IOC” (HBO)

Outstanding Sports Personality-Studio Host
– Kevin Burkhardt (Fox/FS1)
– Bob Costas (MLB Network/NBC/NBCSN)
– David Feherty (Golf Channel/NBC)
– Dan Patrick (NBC/NBCSN)
– Mike Tirico (Golf Channel/NBC)