Graham Michael Bensinger (born August 17, 1986) is an American journalist known for his

eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

show ''In Depth with Graham Bensinger''. Bensinger is known for interviewing a number of personalities in American sports, and won an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

for an interview he did with

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1985 and 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson i ...

Early life and education

Graham Bensinger was born and raised in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, son of a financial adviser and grandson of a head of dentistry at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

. Bensinger attended

Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School MICDS (Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School) is an American secular, co-educational, independent school with more than 1,250 students from junior kindergarten through grade 12. Its campus is located in the St. Louis, Missouri, su ...

(MICDS). Bensinger began studying broadcast journalism at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, but left midway through his second year to pursue broadcasting full-time.

Career

Bensinger started his career in the 8th grade in St. Louis, going to a local library and looking up 50 former major league baseball players' home address, sending mailed letters and receiving phone calls (from

Will Clark William Nuschler Clark Jr. (born March 13, 1964) is an American professional baseball first baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1986 through 2000. He played for the San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, and ...

Bob Feller Robert William Andrew Feller (November 3, 1918 – December 15, 2010), nicknamed "the Heater from Van Meter", "Bullet Bob", and "Rapid Robert", was an American baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Clevel ...

Ernie Banks Ernest Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015), nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who starred in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between ...

Tim McCarver James Timothy McCarver (October 16, 1941 – February 16, 2023) was an American professional baseball catcher, television sports commentator, and singer. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1959 to 1980 for four teams, spending almost ...

) on his parents' home

landline A landline is a physical telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber from the subscriber's premises to the network, allowing multiple phones to operate simultaneously on the same phone number. It is also referred to as plain old ...

, as an internet radio show, ''G Sport Radio''. Graham launched his career with an internet-based sports radio station he developed in 8th grade. He also began buying time on St. Louis AM radio KSLG to talk sports. In 2003, his show began airing on

Sporting News Radio SportsMap was a sports radio network that was distributed by Gow Media. The SportsMap Radio Network supplied its network affiliates with a 24-hour schedule of sports programming, including call-in shows and sports updates. Over its history, thro ...

's St. Louis station, and moved to

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

's St. Louis station the following year. In November 2005 at the age of 19, Bensinger secured an interview with

Terrell Owens Terrell Eldorado Owens (; born December 7, 1973), also known by his initials "T.O.", is an American former professional football wide receiver who played 15 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Regarded as one of the greatest wide rec ...

that led to his suspension from the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

for the final nine games of the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

season. Bensinger was also granted interviews with

O. J. Simpson Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024), also known by his nickname "the Juice", was an American professional American football, football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League (NFL) ...

in February 2004 and July 2005. ''The Graham Bensinger Show'' aired on

SIRIUS Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio ( SDARS) service that operated in the United States and Canada. Sirius launched in 2002, and primarily competed with XM Satellite Radio, until the two services merged in 2008 to form Sirius XM. Li ...

for multiple years. During his junior year of high school, Bensinger interviewed

. He set up a video camera, and the footage ended up on ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

''. Bensinger was subsequently interviewed by

Diane Sawyer Lila Diane Sawyer (; born December 22, 1945) is an American television broadcast journalist known for anchoring major programs on two networks including ''ABC World News Tonight'', ''Good Morning America'', ''20/20 (U.S. TV series), 20/20'', and ...

, in addition to appearing on cable outlets. A year after the O. J. Simpson interview, Bensinger began writing for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

's website. Following his senior year of high school, he sat with Simpson again, and was able to sell the interview to ESPN as part of their E-Ticket series. This started a three-and-a-half-year-long relationship between Bensinger and ESPN, with Bensinger continuing to write, appear on television, podcast and work as an

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remain ...

sideline reporter. In 2009, Bensinger began partnering with

NBCSports.com NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock. The division is officially owned a ...

on a long-form video interview program, portions of which would air on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

TV platforms. After freelancing as a long-form interviewer for ESPN and NBC Sports, Bensinger debuted his own show in the fall of 2010. The first two seasons of ''In Depth with Graham Bensinger'' were a one-man operation where he handled all aspects of business and production himself. Bensinger staffed up for season three and expanded to over-the-air network syndication at the start of his show's fourth season, airing on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and

FOX Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

affiliates across the U.S, and the show is now run by a crew of ten. Previously, the show aired solely on regional sports networks. ''In Depth with Graham Bensinger'' is now in its 15th season (2025), which began with Bensinger taking a trip to India to speak with cricketer

Virat Kohli Virat Kohli (born 5 November 1988) is an Indian Cricket, international cricketer who plays One Day International, ODI cricket for the India national cricket team, national team and is a former Captain (cricket), captain in all formats. He is a ...

. According to the show's website, it reaches 3 million broadcast viewers, and 2.5 million digital views per episode, on average. Nielsen has calculated that the show averages 1.5 million weekly viewers. Internationally, the show airs via

ESPN International ESPN International is a family of Broadcasting of sports events, sportscasting and production networks around the world. It was begun in 1983, is operated by ESPN Inc. and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Current operations Canada ESPN Int ...

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

, FOX Sports International, in-flight on Emirates, across 170 countries and territories on

American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the United States Armed Forces provides to soldiers stationed or assigned overseas, and is headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland. AFN comprises two sub ...

and digitally on Bensinger's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel.

Awards

In Depth with Graham Bensinger won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for Graham's interview with

at his Las Vegas home.

References

EXternal links

* https://www.youtube.com/@TheGBShow/videos * https://www.youtube.com/@GrahamBensinger {{DEFAULTSORT:Bensinger, Graham 1986 births Living people American television talk show hosts American golf commentators S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni Writers from St. Louis Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School alumni