
42nd Sports Emmy Nominations: ESPN Tops Among the Networks, Super Bowl LV Leads All Programs By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 - 4:21 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
In a year of sports production unlike any other, ESPN led all network groups with 54 nominations, and CBS Sports' presentation of Super Bowl LV topped all individual programs with 11 nods in the 42nd Annual Sports Emmy Awards nominations. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) unveiled the nominees today, and the ceremony will be live-streamed at Watch.TheEmmys.TV on June 8 at 8 p.m. ET.
ESPN's 54 nods were the most of any network group, followed by Fox Sports (with 31), NFL Media (28), NBC Sports Group (25), CBS Sports (24), Turner Sports (20), HBO (13), MLB Network (10), Netflix (9), RBTV and Univision (5 each), and YouTube, Apple TV , and Showtime (3 each).
CBS's Super Bowl LV earned the most nominations of any program, while NFL Network's NFL 360 had a breakout year with nine nods and ESPN's E:60 had seven. Four nominations apiece went to Fos NASCAR, Fox NFL Sunday, NFL Network's NFL Total Access, HBO's Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, Netflix's Rising Phoenix, and ESPN's SC Featured. Turner's 2020 NBA All-Star Game on TNT, Fox NFL, Apple TV 's Greatness Code, Turner's Inside the NBA, MLB Network's MLB Tonight, RBTV's The Old World - A Mindtrip Through Europe, and ESPN's The Undefeated Presents each earned three nominations.
Today, we honor the talented professionals who, during this unprecedented time of a worldwide pandemic, still found ways to inform, entertain, and excite the passionate fan base that makes up the sports universe, said NATAS President/CEO Adam Sharp in the announcement. The challenges they have overcome and this inspiring and diverse set of nominees are nothing short of remarkable.
In a year when sports production literally ground to a halt, added Justine Gubar, executive director, Sports Emmy Awards, NATAS, we received a record number of submissions. From innovative solutions to the constraints of production during the pandemic to the superb storytelling that confronted the social-justice issues of our times, we are so proud of what our nominees were able to achieve. I'm particularly excited about the debut of our Outstanding Sports Personality - Emerging On-Air Talent category, which welcomes five new sports personalities into the Emmy-nominee family.
On the technology side, the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award will go to one of the five nominees: Fox NASCAR's Racing Drone, Fox NFL's Megalodon, MLB Network Showcase's Statcast 3D, MLB Postseason on TBS's Base Cam, or NBC's HDR LUTs on Notre Dame Football.
In the Outstanding Technical Team Event category, CBS earned nominations for its Masters and Super Bowl LV coverage, ESPN was nominated for its College Football Playoff National Championship, Fox for its NASCAR coverage, and ESPN/TNT/NBA for the NBA Bubble operation.
On the Outstanding Technical Team Studio side, nods went to the 2020 NFL Draft by ESPN/ABC/NFL Network, ESPN's College GameDay, Fox's NASCAR coverage, MLB Network's MLB Tonight, and The Super Bowl Today on CBS.
Also of note in the live-event categories, Outstanding Live Event Audio/Sound nominations went to NBC's NASCAR coverage and Sunday Night Football, Fox MLB, The NFL on CBS, and ESPN's US Open tennis coverage. In addition, the award for Outstanding Live Graphic Design will g to one of the following: ESPN's College Football, Fox NFL, MLB Networks' MLB Tonight (Welcome Home), Nickelodeon/CBS's NFC Wild Card Game, or CBS's Super Bowl LV.
Here is a full list of the nominees:
OUTSTANDING LIVE SPORTS SPECIAL
2020 NBA All-Star Game on TNT - TNT
The 116th World Series (Tampa Bay Rays vs. Los Angeles Dodgers) - FOX
The 146th Kentucky Derby - NBC
The Match on TNT, Champions for Charity - TNT
Super Bowl LV (Kansas City Chiefs vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers) - CBS
OUTSTANDING LIVE SPORTS SERIES
FOX NASCAR - FOX/FS1
FOX NFL - FOX/NFL Network
NFL on CBS - CBS
PGA Tour on CBS - CBS
Sunday Night Football - NBC
OUTSTANDING PLAYOFF COVERAGE
2020 NBA Playoffs on TNT - TNT
AFC Playoffs - CBS
NASCAR Playoffs on NBC - NBC/NBCSN
NFC Wild Card Game (Chicago Bears vs. New Orleans Saints) - Nickelodeon/CBS Sports
Sunday Night Football: Playoffs - NBC/Peacock
OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL TEAM EVENT
College Football Playoff National Championship (Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Alabama Crimson Tide) - ESPN
FOX NASCAR - FOX/FS1
The Masters - CBS
NBA Bubble - ESPN/TNT/NBA
Super Bowl LV (Kansas City Chiefs vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers) - CBS
OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL TEAM STUDIO
2020 NFL Draft - ESPN/ABC/NFL Network
College GameDay - ESPN
FOX NASCAR - FOX/FS1
MLB Tonight - MLB Network
The Super Bowl Today - CBS
THE GEORGE WENSEL TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
FOX NASCAR, The Racing Drone - FOX/FS1
FOX NFL, Megalodon - FOX
MLB Network Showcase, Statcast 3D - MLB Network
MLB Postseason on TBS, Base Cam - TBS
Notre Dame Football, NBC HDR LUTs - NBC
OUTSTANDING EDITED SPORTS EVENT COVERAGE
America's Game: The 2019 Kansas City Chiefs - NFL Network/NFL Films
Hey Rookie: Welcome To The NFL: 2020 NFL Draft - ESPN/NFL Films
NFL Game Day All-Access, Super Bowl LV - NFL Network/NFL Films
NHL on NBC, WIRED: Stadium Series - Los Angeles Kings vs. Colorado Avalanche - NBCSN
UFC The Walk, McGregor vs. Cowboy - UFC Fight Pass/UFC
OUTSTANDING EDITED SPORTS SPECIAL
Inside the NBA, Kobe Bryant Memorial - TNT
NFL 360, Black History Month - NFL Network
NFL 360, Women in Football - NFL Network
SC Presents: 2020 - Heroes, History and Hope - ESPN
The Undefeated Presents, The Stop - Living, Driving and Dying While Black - ESPN
OUTSTANDING EDITED S
North America Stories
20/11/2025
LONDON The winners of the Rise Awards 2025, which recognize women and companies whose achievements have stood out in the media technology industry, have been an...
20/11/2025
SANTA MONICA & NEW YORK Lionsgate's Worldwide Television Distribution Group and Debmar-Mercury have launched MovieSphere Gold in more than 30 million homes....
20/11/2025
ALAMEDA, Calif. Clear-Com has introduced its four-channel HelixNet beltpack, a next-generation advancement of its widely used two-channel model, and anticipates...
20/11/2025
NEW PROVIDENCE, N.J. Streaming technology and services provider Kiswe has launched Kiswe Core, a next-generation cloud-based platform designed to simplify the s...
20/11/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Dolby Laboratories has signed on as an official signature partner of the Bay Area Host Committee (BAHC) for the 2026 Super Bowl and the we...
20/11/2025
STUTTGART, Germany 3 Screen Solutions (3SS) has announced that the Canadian multiservice operator Telus has launched its Telus TV+ entertainment platform on Sam...
20/11/2025
Major League Baseball has announced deals with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix covering 2026-2028 that make ESPN the exclusive rightsholder of MLB.TV, see regula...
20/11/2025
Berklee Presents Holiday Extravaganza: Duke Ellingtons The Nutcracker Suite and ...
20/11/2025
The NVIDIA Blackwell RTX upgrade is nearing the finish line, letting GeForce NOW Ultimate members across the globe experience true next-generation cloud gaming ...
20/11/2025
Tanya Berger-Wolf's first computational biology project started as a bet wit...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
19/11/2025
Scripps Research scientists receive $1.1 million to advance AI modeling for HIV vaccine development New AI system helps scientists rapidly pinpoint the most pro...
18/11/2025
NBA Debuts New Comms Infrastructure and Systems for RefereesTwo-phase rollout is intended to improve game flow, enhance officiating accuracyBy Dan Daley, Audio ...
18/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: How Aggreko Delivers Certainty For Broadcasters On The Wor...
18/11/2025
Kiswe Extends DTC Products With Kiswe Core Cloud-Based Tool for Distributing Con...
18/11/2025
Spanish Basketball Federation partners with ScorePlay to power digital transform...
18/11/2025
HBS selects BBright encoders and decoders to connect ST 2110 live production wor...
18/11/2025
Ashes to Ashes: Inside TNT Sports' hybrid and maverick' production plan...