The next Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel airs on Tuesday, November 22 and will be the last new edition before next month’s Year in Review program.
Here’s the press release.
REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL EXAMINES A SEXUAL ABUSE CASE IN TENNIS; PROFILES BUTLER UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL COACH BRAD STEVENS; AND RECONNECTS WITH THE NEW YORK JETS’ MARCUS DIXON WHEN THE EMMY®-WINNING SHOW RETURNS NOV. 22, EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO
REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL presents more enterprising features and reporting when its 176th edition, available in HDTV, debuts TUESDAY, NOV. 22 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
Other HBO playdates: Nov. 22 (2:40 a.m.), 23 (11:00 a.m., 6:00 p.m., 2:55 a.m.), 26 (11:00 a.m.) and 29 (1:00 p.m., 12:30 a.m.), and Dec. 4 (8:00 a.m.), 7 (7:00 p.m.) and 9 (8:00 p.m.)
HBO2 playdates: Nov. 24 (4:50 a.m.), 27 (6:10 a.m.) and 30 (6:05 a.m., 7:00 p.m.), and Dec. 3 (6:30 p.m.), 7 (8:00 a.m., midnight) and 13 (2:00 p.m., 10:30 p.m.)
HBO On Demand availability: Nov.28-Dec. 19
Segments include:
*Bob Hewitt. Every day the care and instruction of children are entrusted to athletic coaches, but sometimes that trust is painfully compromised. Earlier this year, the Boston Globe conducted a six-month investigation that disclosed allegations of sexual abuse by several adult women against Tennis Hall of Famer Bob Hewitt, who won all four Grand Slam titles in both doubles and mixed doubles in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The allegations against him, which reach back to the ‘70s, contend that Hewitt harassed and sexually abused girls as young as ten years old. Although no formal charges were brought against the 71-year-old Australian, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 1992, has formed a committee to review the allegations. REAL SPORTS correspondent Mary Carillo, who competed in the 1977 U.S. Open at Forest Hills when Hewitt captured the doubles title, travels to Hewitt’s home in South Africa and investigates the truth behind his controversial past.
Producer: Joe Perskie.
*Brad Stevens. In 2007, Brad Stevens became the head coach of men’s basketball at Butler University, located just 30 minutes north of his hometown of Zionsville, marking a changing of the guard in Indiana basketball. Now entering his fifth season, the fresh-faced Stevens has raised more than a few eyebrows by leading Butler to four consecutive NCAA tournaments and back-to-back national championship games. After losing the title game in 2010 and 2011, the 35-year-old coach is confident that his mid-major Horizon League team remains a force to be reckoned with. In this REAL SPORTS/Sports Illustrated collaboration, correspondent Jon Frankel travels to Indianapolis to meet the charismatic Stevens as he prepares for another run at the NCAA championship with his underdog Bulldogs.
Producer: Nick Dolin.
*Marcus Dixon. In fall 2003, Marcus Dixon expected to split his time at Vanderbilt University between football games and the classroom. Instead, the first time REAL SPORTS host Bryant Gumbel visited the 6’4” defensive lineman, he was in a Georgia penitentiary. Dixon was a senior in high school when he was accused by a sophomore classmate of rape. The case went to trial, and despite the fact that the jury determined that the sex had been consensual, Dixon was convicted of statutory rape and aggravated child molestation – the first time Georgia’s Child Protection Act had been applied in this way – and was sentenced to ten years in prison.
Following the initial REAL SPORTS report, the Supreme Court of Georgia overturned Dixon’s conviction on appeal, and he was released from prison the same day. He subsequently excelled at Hampton University, signed with the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2008, and in 2010, signed with the New York Jets, where he is currently in the rotation on the defensive line. Bryant Gumbel reconnects with the 27-year-old Dixon, who has thrived since his release from prison.
Producers: Jake Rosenwasser, Joe Perskie.
REAL SPORTS has won the Sports Emmy® for Outstanding Sports Journalism 14 times, in addition to being the first sports program honored with the duPont Award for excellence in broadcast journalism. In May, the program received the 2010 Sports Emmy® for Outstanding Sports Journalism for Aug. 2010’s report revealing the scientific link between sports concussions and the onset of ALS. Overall, REAL SPORTS has collected 22 Sports Emmys® in 16 years.
The executive producer of REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL is Rick Bernstein; Kirby Bradley is senior producer.
That’s it.
