Bryant Gumbel’s HBO Show ‘Real Sports’ Comes To An End After 29 Years
After 29 years, Bryant Gumbel’s long running HBO show “Real Sports” has come to an end.
The veteran sports show will air its last episode on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 10 p.m. Eastern, AP reports. A cart of champagne awaited Gumbel and the production staff after the final taping came to a close.
His wife and grandchildren watched from the control room as producers and their families said their farewells.
“I’m OK,” Gumbel said ahead of taping. “I’m sad, but everything has to end at some point and this is the right time for this to end.”
The show’s end comes as Gumbel’s, 75, contract comes to an end and HBO which is now controlled by Warner Bros. Discovery works to cut back spending.
After 29 seasons, the final episode of Bryant Gumbel's award-winning sports journalism show premieres this week on HBO. Gumbel talks with friend Jane Pauley about his most important role model, and why the 320th edition of "Real Sports" is his last. https://t.co/b06ry8ykfc pic.twitter.com/BKg6bFbkvx
— CBS Sunday Morning(@CBSSunday) December 17, 2023
With many sports shows coming from networks owned by leagues, like the NFL or MLB, Gumbel’s “Real Sports” highlighted a golden era of sports journalism that could be on its way out.
“The show tried to do some things in sports journalism that no one else was doing,” Gumbel said. “I think it was one of the few avenues that could honestly explore issues without having to worry about ratings or sponsorships or relationships.”
“I’ve been on the other side of that coin,” he continued. “I’ve worked for networks who were what they would call now the ‘broadcast partner’ of a sports entity. And you’d only be a fool to think you can follow any story wherever it wants if it collides with that relationship. Life doesn’t work that way.”
Now with “Real Sports” coming to an end after 30 years, others in the field wonder if there will be another platform to fill the void. With more athletes resorting to social media to get their stories out rather than sitting down for a “60 Minutes”-style interview with Gumbel, it could be an end of an era.
“It has been the gold standard in sports journalism on TV for the last three decades and it really is quite a loss,” Mark Hyman, director of the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland said. “It checked all the boxes — timely, ambitious, well-funded, independent.”
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