ESPY Award


An ESPY Award is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC, and previously ESPN, to recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony. The first ESPYs were awarded in 1993. Because of the ceremony's rescheduling prior to the 2002 iteration thereof, awards presented in 2002 were for achievement and performances during the seventeen-plus previous months. As the similarly styled Grammy, Emmy, Academy Award, and Tony, the ESPYs are hosted by a contemporary celebrity; the style, though, is lighter, more relaxed and self-referential than many other awards shows, with comedic sketches usually included.
From the show's inception to 2004, ESPY Award winners were chosen only through voting by fans. Since 2004, sportswriters, broadcasters, sports executives, and sportspersons, collectively experts; or ESPN personalities also vote. Award winners have been selected thereafter exclusively through online fan balloting conducted from amongst candidates selected by the ESPY Select Nominating Committee.

Charitable role

A portion of the proceeds from sales of tickets to the event devolves on the V Foundation, a charity established by collegiate basketball coach and television commentator Jim Valvano to promote cancer research. Valvano announced the creation of the charitable foundation during his acceptance of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award during the inaugural ESPY telecast on March 3, 1993, fifty-five days before Valvano's death from metastatic adenocarcinoma.

Design

The ESPY Award statuette was designed and created by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan.

Ceremonies

Timing

Between 1993 and 2001, the ceremony was held each year in either February or March and was broadcast recorded on ESPN.
Between 2002 and 2019, the ceremony was conducted on the Wednesday in July following the Major League Baseball All-Star Game; as it marks the only day of the year that none of the major North American professional leagues or college sports programs have games scheduled for that day—the National Basketball Association, National Football League, and National Hockey League are not in-season, colleges are in recess for the summer, and MLB does not contest games on the day following its all-star game—major sports figures are available to attend. The show aired on the subsequent Sunday four days later, although the results were reported publicly by ESPN.com.
In 2010, the ceremony was aired live by ESPN for the first time since 2003. In 2015, the ESPY Awards moved to network television, airing on ESPN's corporate sister ABC.

Location

The first seven editions of the ESPYs were held in New York City—in 1993 and 1994 at Madison Square Garden and from 1995 through 1999, at Radio City Music Hall. The awards relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, for two years beginning in 2000, and ultimately settled at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. In 2006, it was announced that the awards would move in 2008 to the Microsoft Theater, to be situated as the West Coast headquarters of ESPN at LA Live, adjacent to the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

Hosts

The ceremonies have been hosted variously by comedians, television and film actors, and sportspeople. American film actor Samuel L. Jackson is the only individual to have hosted four times. Comedian Dennis Miller, actor and singer Jamie Foxx, and talk show host and comedian Seth Meyers are the only others to have hosted the show more than once.

Year-by-year

Awards

American professional golfer Tiger Woods is the most-honored ESPY recipient, having received 21 awards.

Extant

Cross-cutter categories

Cross-cutter awards are those for which the eligibility is not confined to those sportspersons participating in, or those events occurring in, any single or specific sport.
Individual awards are those for which eligibility is limited to those partaking of a single individual or team sport or specific sport category.
Sponsored awards are those otherwise constituted as cross-cutter awards the titles and eligibility criteria of which reflect corporate sponsorship.

Cross-cutter categories

Cross-cutter awards are those the eligibility for which is not confined to those sportspersons participating in, or those events occurring in, any single or specific sport.
Individual awards are those for which eligibility is limited to those partaking of a single individual or team sport or specific sport category.
Sponsored awards are those otherwise constituted as cross-cutter awards the titles and eligibility criteria in which reflect corporate sponsorship.