2010 Sports Emmys Include An Honor for Madden, Nomination for Gruden

The 2010 Sports Emmy nominations were announced yesterday with coach, analyst and video game magnate John Madden headlining the list of honorees. Madden, who retired from broadcasting in 2009 after 30 years in the business, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy.

In addition to Madden, the list has your heavy hitters in the industry. You have your Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Joe Buck, Bryant Gumbel, Ernie Johnson, James Brown, Charles Barkley, Jon Gruden, Phil Simms. Wait a minute…go back one. Jon Gruden?

Jon Gruden is nominated for an Emmy Award? Look. I'm no voter on some fancy committee, but I watch a lot of TV. And here's a guy – that guy right there – there's a guy that can't be one of the six best "Sports Event Analysts" in the country. Sure, he leads the category in grit and coachspeak, but there has to be someone else better than Gruden in the booth. Take, for example, RON JAWORSKI, who shares a booth with Gruden yet was not nominated for his work on Monday Night Football.

Maybe I'm missing something. There isn't one analyst in the college game that's better than Gruden? Or, for that matter, Tim McCarver? Gary Danielson, who Sporting News tabbed as the best football broadcaster in the business, didn't deserve a nomination? Since the NCAA Tournament is going on right now, we'd be remiss to not mention the fact that CBS has a host of analysts who could have garnered a nomination – Bill Raftery comes to mind – ahead of "that guy right there."

While we're on the topic of CBS, it's surprising that someone like Nick Faldo didn't get more consideration. The PGA Tour on CBS was nominated for Outstanding Live Sports Series, and Jim Nantz was nominated for his play-by-play work, yet none of the golf analysts made the cut. And while there is still no category for sideline reporting, the Academy does have a category for New Approaches in Sports Programming. So Cubed, the FoxSports.com show that had a premiere episode including full-frontal nudity and an entire segment mocking the WNBA players for looking like men, is nominated for an Emmy, while someone like David Feherty – often the best reason to watch a golf tournament – is left holding the bag, as it were.

ESPN led the way with 54 nominations, followed by 21 for HBO and NBC with 17. ESPN's E:60 led program nominations with seven, followed by Inside the NFL and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel which each received five nominations. Interesting that NBC's Sunday Night Football, widely recognized as the gold standard of live television production in sports, received one fewer nomination than NBC's production of the 2009 Ironman World Championship.

The most difficult category to chose? New Approaches to Sports Event Coverage, which includes March Madness on Demand, NFL RedZone, NFL Sunday Ticket, PGA Championship's online coverage and Sunday Night Football Extra on NBCSports.com. Can they split it five ways? The awards will be announced on April 26th.

Here's a full list of the nominees.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.