Lee Fitting’s somewhat mysterious dismissal from ESPN in August may have a bit more context now following Thursday’s report that the network engaged in a long-running scheme to acquire Emmy Awards for on-air talent that weren’t eligible to receive the awards.
The Emmy statuette name-changing scheme did “factor” into Fitting’s dismissal, The Post’s Andrew Marchand reported Thursday.
Fitting, who was named WWE’s head of media and production on Tuesday, is now ineligible for future Emmys as part of ESPN’s punishment, according to The Athletic.
The former ESPN exec oversaw production for programming, which included “Monday Night Football” and “College GameDay” until the network parted ways with him.
The bombshell report indicated that ESPN made up fake names for Emmy Awards in order to obtain statuettes for on-air talent, who were not eligible to win them under rules set up by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).
The network would submit the false names — which had similar initials to on-air talent — listing them as an associate producer and then re-engraving the statuettes before handing them off to the talent.
The NATAS eventually caught wind of this practice, and as part of ESPN’s punishment, the network returned the trophies and received a one-year ban from the Emmys for senior leadership.
ESPN executive Craig Lazarus, along with Fitting, was also specifically named as ineligible for future Emmys.
“Some members of our team were clearly wrong in submitting certain names that may go back to 1997 in Emmy categories where they were not eligible for recognition or statuettes. This was a misguided attempt to recognize on-air individuals who were important members of our production team,” ESPN said in a statement to The Post.
“Once current leadership was made aware, we apologized to NATAS for violating guidelines and worked closely with them to completely overhaul our submission process to safeguard against anything like this happening again.”
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