NBC's Beijing Games Coverage Receives 12 Sports Emmy Nominations

By John Ourand & Jon Show, Staff Writers, SportsBusiness Journal

NBC’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics has picked up more Sports Emmy award nominations than any other event. The nominations were announced this morning at the IMG World Congress of Sports. NBC’s Olympic productions garnered 12 nominations, including Live Sports Special. The National Academy of Arts & Sciences also plans to honor NBC Sports & Olympics Chair Dick Ebersol with a lifetime achievement award at the awards presentation, scheduled for April 27 in N.Y. Overall, ESPN has the most nominations, with 42, followed by NBC (28), HBO (18) and Fox (18). NASCAR coverage also was well-recognized, with ESPN and Fox earning five nominations each for coverage of the series. Turner’s NASCAR programming, “TNT Summer Series,” earned a nomination for Outstanding Live Sports Series. Turner, now in its third year of televising postseason baseball, received nominations for its NBA and MLB studio shows on TNT and TBS, respectively. “I’m happy that both of our studio shows were nominated,” said Turner Sports President David Levy. “I like the balance there.” Interesting categories include Outstanding Weekly Studio Show, which pits five NFL shows against one another, including two from ESPN, and one each from Fox, NBC and CBS/Showtime. CBS' "The NFL Today" pregame show was not given a nomination. ESPN’s “College Gameday” is the only non-NFL programming to be given a nomination in the category.

INDIVIDUAL HONORS: CBS' James Brown was nominated as Outstanding Studio Host, along with Bob Costas (NBC/HBO), Bryant Gumbel (HBO), Chris Berman (ESPN) and Ernie Johnson (TNT/TBS). One of the most visible awards, for Outstanding Sport Event Analyst, saw nominations for Cris Collinsworth (NFL Network/NBC), Doug Collins (TNT), John Madden (NBC), Johnny Miller (NBC), Ron Jaworski (ESPN) and Tim McCarver (Fox). The number of competing networks for which analyst Cris Collinsworth worked for in '08 drew a head scratch from HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg as he read Collinsworth’s nomination for Outstanding Sports Personality -- Analyst. The nomination noted his work with HBO, Showtime, CBS and NBC. “That’s amazing,” Greenburg said.