ESPN2 is no longer just its sister station’s little brother.
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ESPN’s “SportsCenter” tied for the lead among individual
programs, getting five nominations. |
“The Deuce” was nominated for a dozen Sports Emmys by the National Television Academy, including five for its “Timeless” series. ESPN2’s “Cinderella Man: The James J. Braddock Story” claimed three nominations, giving the network nine more than last year’s total. ESPN dominated the field with 26 nominations (three fewer than last year), followed by HBO with 17 and Fox with 16. ABC had 14 nominations, while CBS had 11.
The nominations were announced Wednesday in New York City during the Octagon/Street & Smith’s World Congress of Sports. The Sports Emmys will be presented May 1 in New York City. Ross Greenburg, president of HBO; George Bodenheimer of ESPN and ABC; Turner Sports President David Levy; and Sean McManus of CBS joined Peter Price, president of the academy, in announcing the nominations.
Keeping with the norm, no Olympics in 2005 led to a sharp drop-off for NBC.
The Peacock Network was nominated for seven Sports Emmys, 16 fewer than its second-best total of a year ago. NBC, which led the field with seven Emmy wins last year, had only one live event receive recognition this time around — its coverage of the 130th Preakness Stakes.
But there were slight declines across the board thanks to a pair of newcomers and the surge of a standby. The Discovery Channel and Speed Channel, now Speed, each broke through with a pair of nominations, while TNT’s coverage of the NBA increased its total from a year ago from three to nine.
ESPN’s “SportsCenter” was nominated five times, while HBO’s “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel” received four nominations. “Monday Night Football” received three nominations during its final season on ABC.
A new category was added this year — Outstanding Sports Content for Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms — that was open to media delivering information via the Internet, cell phones, iPods, PDAs and other devices. ESPN.com took three of the four nominations in that category. MLB.com claimed one.
The academy will present its Lifetime Achievement award to filmmaker and U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame member Bud Greenspan, who just completed his ninth official Olympic film this winter in Turin. His films have received seven Sports Emmy awards.
 CATEGORY NOMINATIONS | |
| Outstanding live sports special | |
| 130th Preakness Stakes | NBC |
| 134th British Open on TNT | TNT |
| Little League World Series | ABC/ESPN |
| MLB on Fox | Fox |
| The Masters | CBS |
| |
| Outstanding live sports series | |
| Monday Night Football | ABC |
| College Football | ESPN |
| Sunday Night Football | ESPN |
| NASCAR on Fox | Fox |
| NFL on CBS | CBS |
| |
| Outstanding sports personality: Play-by-play | |
| Al Michaels | ABC |
| Jim Lampley | HBO |
| Jim Nantz | CBS |
| Joe Buck | Fox |
| Keith Jackson | ABC |
| Outstanding sports personality: Sports event analyst | |
| Joe Morgan | ESPN |
| John Madden | ABC |
| Johnny Miller | NBC |
| Tim McCarver | Fox |
| Troy Aikman | Fox |
| |
| Outstanding sports personality: Studio host | |
| Bob Costas | NBC/HBO |
| Bryant Gumbel | HBO |
| James Brown | Fox |
| John Saunders | ABC/ESPN |
| Rich Eisen | NFL Network/CBS |
| |
| Outstanding sports personality: Studio analyst | |
| Chris Collinsworth | HBO |
| Harold Reynolds | ESPN |
| Howie Long | Fox |
| Kirk Herbstreit | ESPN |
| Tom Jackson | ESPN |
| |
| PROGRAMS/SERIES WITH 3+ NOMINATIONS | |
| Program/series (network) | No. of nominations |
| SportsCenter (ESPN) | 5 |
| Timeless (ESPN2) | 5 |
| Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel (HBO) | 4 |
| Monday Night Football (ABC) | 3 |
| Cinderella Man: The James J. Braddock Story (ESPN2) | 3 |
| Sunday Night Football (ESPN) | 3 |
| |
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| TOTAL NETWORK NOMINATIONS | |
| ESPN | 26 |
| HBO | 17 |
| Fox | 16 |
| ABC | 14 |
| ESPN2 | 12 |
| CBS | 11 |
| TNT | 9 |
| NBC | 7 |
| ESPN Classic | 4 |
| ESPN.com, Fox Sports Net | 3 |
| Discovery Channel, NFL Network, Speed Channel | 2 |
| MLB.com, OLN, USA | 1 |
