''Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' is a monthly sports

news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or n ...

on HBO. Since its debut on April 2,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, the program has been presented by television journalist and sportscaster

Bryant Gumbel Bryant Charles Gumbel (born September 29, 1948) is an American television journalist and sportscaster, best known for his 15 years as co-host of NBC's '' Today''. He is the younger brother of sportscaster Greg Gumbel. Since 1995, he has hosted ...

Overview

Format

Each episode consists of four stories covering society and sports, famous athletes, or problems afflicting sports. As of 2018, the show has been honored with 32

Sports Emmy Awards The Sports Emmy Awards, or Sports Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports E ...

and won

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

s in 2012 and 2015. ''Real Sports'' was the inspiration for two other HBO shows: ''

On the Record with Bob Costas ''On the Record with Bob Costas'' was an American monthly sports television talk show hosted by the sportscaster Bob Costas. The show ran for four 12-week seasons on HBO from 2001 to 2004 before being revamped into '' Costas Now''. ''On the Recor ...

'' and '' Costas Now''.

Correspondents

Current Correspondents: *

''(host)'' *

Mary Carillo Mary Carillo (born March 15, 1957) is an American sportscaster and former professional tennis player. She is an analyst for ''Tennis on NBC'' and a reporter for NBC Olympic broadcasts. Career Tennis Carillo played on the women's professiona ...

* Jon Frankel *

Andrea Kremer Andrea Kremer (born February 25, 1959) is a multi-Emmy Award-winning American television sports journalist. She currently calls ''Thursday Night Football'' games for Amazon Prime Video making sports history, along with Hannah Storm, by becoming t ...

Soledad O'Brien María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien (born September 19, 1966) is an American broadcast journalist and executive producer. Since 2016, O'Brien has been the host for ''Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien,'' a nationally syndicated weekly talk show ...

* David Scott * Carl Quintanilla * Kavitha Davidson *

Ariel Helwani Ariel Helwani (born July 8, 1982) is a Canadian-American sports journalist, known for his coverage of mixed martial arts (MMA). He is best known for his work at ''MMA Fighting'', but has also worked for Fox and ESPN. Helwani is widely considered ...

Former correspondents: *

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the hono ...

* Bryan Burwell * Frank Deford *

Jim Lampley James Lampley (born April 8, 1949) is an American sportscaster, news anchor, film producer, and restaurant owner. He was best known as a blow-by-blow announcer on ''HBO World Championship Boxing'' for 30 years. He also had covered a record 14 O ...

* Sonja Steptoe *

Lesley Visser Lesley Candace Visser (born September 11, 1953) is an American sportscaster, television and radio personality, and sportswriter. Visser is the first female NFL analyst on TV, and the only sportscaster in history who has worked on Final Four, ...

Armen Keteyian Armen Keteyian (born March 6, 1953) is an Armenian American television journalist and best-selling author. Most recently he was the Anchor and an Executive Producer for ''The Athletic''. Previously he spent 12 years as a network television correspo ...

Bernard Goldberg Bernard Richard Goldberg (born May 31, 1945) is an American author, journalist, and political pundit. Goldberg has won fourteen Emmy Awards and was a producer, reporter and correspondent for CBS News for twenty-eight years (1972–2000) and a p ...

Notable stories

Camel Jockeys – Sports of Sheikhs

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...

, guided by human rights activist

Ansar Burney Ansar Burney ( ur, انصار برنی; born 14 August 1956) is a Pakistani human and civil rights activist and former caretaker Federal Minister for human rights in Pakistan cabinet from 2007 to 2008. He graduated with Masters in Law from ...

, an HBO team used a

hidden camera A hidden camera or spy camera is a camera used to photograph or record subjects, often people, without their knowledge. The camera may be considered "hidden" because it is not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another obj ...

to document slavery and torture in secret desert camps where boys under the age of five were trained to race camels, a national sport in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...

. This half-hour investigative report exposed a carefully hidden

child slavery Child slavery is the slavery of children. The enslavement of children can be traced back through history. Even after the abolition of slavery, children continue to be enslaved and trafficked in modern times, which is a particular problem in devel ...

ring that bought or kidnapped hundreds of young boys in Pakistan and Bangladesh. These boys were then forced to become camel jockeys in the UAE. The report also questioned the sincerity of U.S. diplomacy in pressuring an ally, the UAE, to comply with its own stated policy of banning the use of children under 15 from camel racing. The documentary won a

Sports Emmy Award The Sports Emmy Awards, or Sports Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports E ...

in 2004 for "Outstanding Sports Journalism" and the 2006

Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award honors excellence in broadcast and digital journalism in the public service and is considered one of the most prestigious awards in journalism. The awards were established in 1942 and administered ...

for outstanding broadcast journalism. It also brought world attention to the plight of child camel jockeys in the Middle East and helped Ansar Burney Trust to convince the governments of Qatar and the UAE to end the use of children in this sport.

Jack Johnson and Kelly Slater singing "Home (Live from the Beach)"

During the summer of 2013, Jon Frankel's interview with

Kelly Slater Robert Kelly Slater (born February 11, 1972) is an American professional surfer, best known for being crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. Slater is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time. Slater is also ...

spawned an HBO Sports video of Jack Johnson and Kelly Slater performing "Home (Live from the Beach)".

Controversial remarks

In February 2006, Gumbel made remarks regarding the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

and the lack of African-American participation. On the August 15, 2006 episode of ''Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'', Gumbel made the following remarks about former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and

National Football League Players Association The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is a labor union representing National Football League (NFL) players. The NFLPA, which has headquarters in Washington, D.C., is led by president J. C. Tretter and executive director De ...

president

Gene Upshaw Eugene Thurman Upshaw Jr. (August 15, 1945 – August 20, 2008), also known as "Uptown Gene" and "Highway 63", was an American professional football player for the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League (AFL) and later the National Foot ...

and directed these comments to new commissioner

Roger Goodell Roger Stokoe Goodell (born February 19, 1959) is an American businessman who is currently the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL). On August 8, 2006, Goodell was chosen to succeed retiring commissioner Paul Tagliabue. He was chose ...

: In response, Tagliabue said, "What Gumbel said about Gene Upshaw and our owners is about as irresponsible as anything I've heard in a long time." Gumbel replied with, "It's a lot like covering any story ..You see what is in front of you and you report on it." On the October 18, 2011 episode, Gumbel invoked

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in his criticism of NBA Commissioner

David Stern David Joel Stern (September 22, 1942 – January 1, 2020) was an American lawyer and business executive who was the commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1984 to 2014. Stern oversaw NBA basketball's growth into one of t ...

over the league's lockout.

References

External links

Official site
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''Real Sports'' - Fang's Bites
{{HBONetwork Shows HBO original programming HBO Sports American sports television series 2010 in bodybuilding History of female bodybuilding 1990s American television news shows 2000s American television news shows 2010s American television news shows 1995 American television series debuts English-language television shows HBO Shows (series) WITHOUT Episode info, list, or Article