Real Sports Back on Tuesday, July 17

HBO’s Emmy Award-winning newsmagazine, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, returns Tuesday with a profile of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Matt Kemp, a story about 1996 US Olympic gold medalist Dominique Moceanu’s long-lost sister and an update on band hazing at Historically Black College and Universities. While 20/20 already did a story on Moceanu and her sister, I’m sure HBO’s version will have something 20/20 did not cover.

Here’s the press release from HBO.

REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL
GOES ONE-ON-ONE WITH DODGERS ALL-STAR MATT KEMP;
TELLS THE IMPROBABLE STORY OF TWO GYMNASTS; AND
REEXAMINES MARCHING BAND HAZING AT HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES WHEN THE EMMY^®-WINNING SHOW RETURNS JULY 17, EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO

Now in its 18th season, REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL presents more enterprising features and reporting when its 184th edition, available in HDTV, debuts TUESDAY, JULY 17 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.

Other HBO playdates: July 17 (3:10 a.m.), 19 (2:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m.), 22 (1:00 p.m.), 23 (1:00 a.m.), 25 (10:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m.), 28 (10:45 a.m.), 30 (11:30 p.m.) and 31 (6:00 p.m.)

HBO2 playdates: July 18 (5:15 p.m., 1:50 a.m.), 20 (9:00 a.m., 8:00 p.m.), 24 (2:00 a.m.), 26 (2:00 p.m., 12:30 a.m.) and 29 (7:00 p.m., 5:10 a.m.), and Aug. 1 (5:30 p.m.) and 4 (11:25 a.m.)

HBO On Demand availability: July 23-Aug. 13. The show is also available on HBO GO.

Segments include:

*The Toast of Tinseltown. Boasting a new $160 million contract, emerging superstar Matt Kemp is the heart and soul of the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise. Kemp, 27, led the National League in home runs, runs batted in and runs scored last year, and was recently chosen to be a starting National League All-Star for the second straight season, despite a nagging hamstring injury that will keep him from playing in Kansas City. This current success stands in sharp contrast to his humble Oklahoma upbringing. In a REAL SPORTS/Sports Illustrated collaboration, correspondent Jon Frankel talks with Kemp about how the Dodgers have put their faith in him as a leader, and the pressures that come with that vote of confidence.

Producer: Michael Tolajian.

*Separated. Born without legs in the late 1980s, Jen Bricker was promptly given up for adoption by her parents. However, her foster parents treated her like a normal child, and she grew up in Illinois playing sports, despite her physical limitations. Around the same time, Romanian-American Dominique Moceanu was emerging as one of the United States’ best young gymnasts as part of the “Magnificent Seven” who captured team gold at the 1996 Atlanta games. Aware of her own Romanian heritage, Bricker rooted for Moceanu that summer, and, inspired by her idol, began competing and excelling in the sport. Recently, the two discovered an improbable bond much more profound than their shared interest in gymnastics, which would change both of their lives forever. REAL SPORTS correspondent Bernard Goldberg sits down with the two women to hear their moving story.

Producer: Joe Perskie.

*The Deadly Tradition. Among the most entertaining spectacles in college football is the game-day performance of the school band. Shockingly, behind the tradition and prestige of marching bands at historically black universities is a longstanding ritual of violent hazing, where bandmates hit, strike and even beat their counterparts. Two years ago, REAL SPORTS correspondent Frank Deford revealed some of the troubling incidents that led to the suspension of students and band directors, with victims filing and winning lawsuits. Yet the callous practice continued largely unabated. Last fall, at Florida A&M University, which was included in the Nov. 2010 report, drum major Robert Champion died after brutal hazing. Now, Deford leads HBO’s cameras back to the campuses to ask: Despite countless warnings, why does this dangerous initiation custom continue?

Producers: Josh Fine, Nick Dolin, Jake Rosewasser.

REAL SPORTS has won the Sports Emmy^® for Outstanding Sports Journalism 15 times and has received 23 Sports Emmy^® Awards overall. It is the only sports program ever honored with the duPont Award for excellence in broadcast journalism, having first been recognized in 2005. In January, REAL SPORTS received its second duPont Award, for a series of investigative reports on concussions, highlighted by the Aug. 2010 story revealing the scientific link between sports concussions and the onset of ALS. In April, the show received the Emmy^® in the category of Outstanding Sports Journalism for Bernard Goldberg’s 2011 report on the college bowl game money trail.

The executive producer of REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL is Rick Bernstein; Kirby Bradley is senior producer.