ESPY Awards

The ESPY Awards (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, and often referred to as the ESPYs) is an annual American awards show produced by ESPN since 1993, recognizing individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony. From 2015 to 2019, and since 2021, the ceremony has aired live on sister broadcast television network ABC, while ESPN continues to air them in the form of replays. 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 (for music), Emmy (for television), Academy Award (for film), and Tony (for theater), 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 global online fan balloting conducted from amongst candidates selected by the ESPY Select Nominating Committee.
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, 55 days before Valvano's death from metastatic adenocarcinoma.
The ESPY Award statuette was designed and created by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan. The statuette consists of a silver sphere, with the word "ESPY" engraved on it, mounted on a silver pedestal.
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 and from 2022 to 2023, the ceremony was held on the Wednesday in July following the Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game, as it marks the only day of the year on which none of the major North American professional leagues nor college sports programs have games scheduled. The National Basketball Association, National Football League, and National Hockey League are not in-season (though the NBA's post-draft training camp NBA Summer League is taking place and NFL teams are getting ready for training camp), colleges are in recess for the summer, and MLB does not contest games on the day following its all-star game. Thus, major sports figures (except for those in cycling, which has the Tour de France; minor league baseball; and golf, where The Open Championship usually starts that evening) are available to attend. The show aired on the subsequent Sunday four days later, although the results were reported publicly by ESPN.com.
In 2024, the ceremony was conducted on the second Thursday of July.
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 network ABC.
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 Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. In 2006, it was announced that the awards would move in 2008 to the Peacock Theater (formerly the Microsoft Theater), to be situated as the West Coast headquarters of ESPN at LA Live, adjacent to the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California.
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 (in 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2009). 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.
American professional golfer Tiger Woods is the most-honored ESPY recipient, having received 21 awards.
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 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.