Lee Fitting, the new head of WWE’s Media & Production teams (Kevin Dunn’s replacement), was recently ruled ineligible for future participation in the Emmy Awards due to a scheme to reserve awards for ESPN College Gameday stars.
The Athletic is reporting that Fitting, who was the SVP of Production for ESPN before his release in August, oversaw College Gameday among his productions, and was named in a scheme where ESPN inserted fake names in Emmy entries to assign those Emmys won to on-air personalities.
ESPN has issued the following statement to the The New York Post:
“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. 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.”
Andrew Marchand of The Post also reports that the scheme was a factor in why Fitting left ESPN in August. He tweeted,
“It’s been a bit of a mystery as to why Lee Fitting was let go by ESPN this summer, but I’m told the Emmy trophy name changing scheme was a factor in his dismissal.
Fitting was just hired by WWE as its head of media media and production.”
It's been a bit of a mystery as to why Lee Fitting was let go by ESPN this summer, but I'm told the Emmy trophy name changing scheme was a factor in his dismissal.
Fitting was just hired by WWE as its head of media media and production.
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) January 11, 2024
