REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL Returns Tuesday, October 20
Media Release

REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL Returns Tuesday, October 20

Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel

Correspondent Soledad O’Brien Examines The New Generation Of Teenage Video Gaming Millionaires

HBO’s REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL, celebrating its 25th anniversary this season, returns for an all-new episode on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT). The series is also available on HBO and to stream on HBO Max.           

For up-to-the-minute updates about REAL SPORTS, follow on Twitter at @RealSportsHBO or join the conversation using #RealSports, and on HBO.com/realsports and facebook.com/realsports.

 

Segments include:

  • Video Game Stars. The world of competitive video gaming has been taken over by school-aged boys, minting a new generation of teenage multi-millionaires unlike ever before. From stadium-packed tournaments to streaming games from their bedrooms, top athletes are making more money than their parents, and are becoming bonafide celebrities.  Correspondent Soledad O’Brien sits down with some of esports biggest young stars to learn what it takes to get to the top of the industry. Producer: Nisreen Habbal. 
  • A Baseball Reckoning. On the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro Leagues, a new movement is growing to recognize the accomplishments of black players during the segregated era. According to historians and researchers, even as the anniversary was celebrated throughout baseball this year, the actual history of the Negro Leagues is still vastly misunderstood, often shunned, and still unfairly marginalized. The history itself, they say, is segregated from the official record of the game, just as black players were segregated from the Major Leagues. Bryant Gumbel explores why Negro League statistics are still not recognized as part of the official history of the game, and why the Hall of Fame has not elected a Negro League player since 2006. Producer: Nick Dolin.
  • Valentino Dixon. As a kid growing up on the streets of East Buffalo, the sport of golf was the last thing on Valentino Dixon’s mind. Yet, in a remarkable twist of fate, the sport would one day save his life, and earn Dixon his freedom after spending 27 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Producer: Chapman Downes.           
  • Steve Gleason (Revisit). When REAL SPORTS first profiled former NFL player Steve Gleason eight years ago, he was a man in decline, suffering from the fatal condition known as ALS, but still able to control some of his body. Today, he can do virtually nothing on his own, and being highly susceptible to the effects of COVID, he has spent weeks on end separated from his own family and the greater society. But Gleason refuses to surrender to the isolation of the pandemic and has found a way to widen his own world using technology – as well as inspire others.  He has launched a remote interview program where he and his guests share their struggles and triumphs. To date, he’s had conversations with leading figures of the day, from actor Hugh Jackman to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Producer: Katie Melone.

The executive producer of REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL is Joe Perskie.