As I was writing my blog yesterday, the Sports Emmys were being handed out. I had no idea. Thus, you're forgiven if you didn't know either. I understand these aren't the Primetime Emmys and the potential viewing audience would be significantly smaller, but shouldn't the awards for the best in sports television be, I don't know, on television!? Just a thought. Anyway, since I'm sure nobody knows who actually won, let's go over some of the winners.
We'll start with the individual awards that go to sportscasting personalities. These are the de-facto acting awards of the Sports Emmys. (Let's be honest here, people don't watch the Oscars to find out who won Best Cinematography. They want to see the movie stars.) NBC cleaned up here, taking three of the four awards.
Outstanding play-by-play man went to Mike Emrick, which seemed like a no-brainer. Emrick's brilliance is lost on many since not a lot of people watch hockey, but he's clearly the best in the business. And it showed during the Olympics, when he remained objective during the gold medal game and even showed enthusiasm when Sidney Crosby scored to give Canada the gold over the U.S. Outstanding Sports Event Analyst was another easy choice--Cris Collinsworth. He's widely regarded as the most knowledgeable, unbiased commentator out there. Replacing John Madden was a challenge that would've been hard for any other analyst. Not Collinsworth. The transition was seamless. If they had an award for best announcing team, it would go to Al Michaels and Collinsworth without question.
Speaking of Michaels, he was deservedly given the Lifetime Achievement Award. He can and has done it all in a 35-year career. Of course, he'll always be known for his call of the Miracle on Ice. "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" Michaels also did baseball, calling three World Series (including the 1989 Earthquake Series), college football and basketball, but he's probably best known as the longtime voice of Monday Night Football. When Monday Night Football moved to ESPN and NBC got the rights to Sunday night games, Michaels made the move to NBC, where he and Madden stayed partners. Now he's teamed with Collinsworth, which, as I already said, is the best tandem around. As an added bonus, now that he's an NBC employee, Michaels is back working the Olympics, serving as the daytime host in Vancouver.
NBC's primetime host for the Olympics is, of course, Bob Costas. Costas grabbed another Emmy in the Outstanding Studio Host category. I'm pretty sure he automatically wins this one every other year, since he's so good in his role as Olympics host. I can't even begin to guess how much work he puts into those two weeks, but it doesn't go unnoticed. Seeing as Bob Costas is the reason why I wanted to get into broadcasting (still waiting for that big break) and my Facebook profile picture is one of me and him (and the fact that I love the Olympics more than the Yankees), I'm probably a little biased here. I don't care. As far as I'm concerned, Bob Costas deserves every award he wins. Plus, his "Studio 42" series on MLB Network is excellent. Oh, and P.S., he works at NBC, which means he's on the Football Night In America pregame show.
The only individual personality award that NBC didn't win was Outstanding Studio Analyst, which went to ESPN College GameDay's Kirk Herbstreit. My boycotting of all things BCS football means I'm obviously not as familiar with Herbstreit's work as the NBC trio, but from what I know about him, he knows his college football. He leaves the shtick to Lee Corso and just breaks down the games. Seeing as Charles Barkley was nominated in this category for some reason (seriously, does he know how to speak English?), I can't really complain about Herbstreit winning the Emmy.
College GameDay also won for best weekly studio show, while MLB Tonight was the best daily studio show. Outstanding Playoff Coverage was awarded to CBS for the NCAA Tournament, Outstanding Live Series went to Sunday Night Football, and the World Cup Final took the honors for Outstanding Live Special. No complaints here about any of those. I watch two of the three series regularly, the World Cup Final is a global experience, and who doesn't watch the NCAA Tournament?
HBO also won seven awards, the most of anybody, for its brilliant work. 24/7: Penguins-Capitals was the Outstanding Edited Special, Hard Knocks won the Emmy for Outstanding Edited Series-Anthology, Real Sports won for Best Journalism (no surprise there, Real Sports is both entertaining and informative), and Lombardi was chosen as the Best Documentary. I don't know what this recent Vince Lombardi kick is all about, but the HBO documentary was fantastic, and I can't wait to see the play!
There were a bunch of other awards, but I think I covered most of the major ones. HBO and NBC both had seven winners to lead the networks. Overall, the World Cup garnered five Emmys, with three going to ABC, one to ESPN and one to ESPN2. The Vancouver Olympics also won five Emmys, three for NBC and two for NBCOlympics.com, but you can really say that's seven since Bob Costas and Mike Emrick's Olympic work helped them both win (Cris Collinsworth was an Olympic contributor, but won his for football, so he doesn't count). That knowledge makes me happy. The two biggest events on the sports calendar last year were the Olympics and the World Cup. It's good to see they were both properly recognized.
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