The Emmy Award-winning Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel returns on Tuesday with three new stories and one update. One story will have an interview with former NBA coach Phil Jackson who talks about whether he’ll return to the league. Two stories have Olympic themes and one will focus on one of the most dangerous races in the world.
Lots of interesting stories. HBO gives us a preview.
REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL GOES ONE-ON-ONE WITH LEGENDARY NBA COACH PHIL JACKSON; PROFILES U.S. OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTER HOLLEY MANGOLD; EXAMINES THE DANGEROUS ISLE OF MAN MOTORCYCLE RACE; AND RECONNECTS WITH 2008 OLYMPIAN LOPEZ LOMONG WHEN THE EMMY®-WINNING SHOW RETURNS JUNE 19
Now in its 18th season, REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL presents more enterprising features and reporting when its 183rd edition, available in HDTV, debuts TUESDAY, JUNE 19 (10:00 p.m. ET/PT & 9:00 p.m. CT), exclusively on HBO.
Other HBO playdates: June 19 (2:25 a.m.), 22 (10:30 a.m., 8:00 p.m.), 24 (10:30 a.m.), 25 (3:30 p.m.), 27 (6:00 p.m., 1:15 a.m.) and 30 (10:00 a.m.), and July 2 (11:30 p.m.) and 5 (7:00 p.m.)
HBO2 playdates: June 20 (2:00 p.m.), 23 (9:20 a.m.) and 29 (6:00 a.m., 8:00 p.m.), and July 1 (4:15 p.m.), 3 (8:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m.) and 9 (11:00 a.m., 11:00 p.m.)
HBO On Demand availability: June 25-July 16
Segments include:
*Philling Time. He’s won more championships than any other professional team coach in history. So why is Phil Jackson relaxing at his secluded house in Montana, instead of issuing orders from the bench of an NBA team? In an exclusive interview with the 11-time title winner, REAL SPORTS correspondent Andrea Kremer goes to Jackson’s rarely-seen compound in Big Sky country to discuss what’s ahead in his life and whether a return to an NBA team is in his future.
Producer: Nick Dolin.
*Holley Mangold. At 5’8” and 350 pounds, Holley Mangold isn’t your typical world-class athlete. Loud and bawdy, the 22-year-old won a spot on the U.S. Olympic weightlifting team after hoisting 320 pounds in the clean-and-jerk event. Sitting in the stands cheering her on was older brother Nick Mangold, All Pro center for the New York Jets. The siblings grew up playing all kinds of sports, but when Holley saw Nick play Pee Wee Football, she followed suit, playing offensive line from grade school through high school and becoming the first high-school female ever to play from the line of scrimmage in Ohio. When she took up weightlifting in college, however, she really set herself apart, ascending to the top of the sport in only four years. In this REAL SPORTS/Sports Illustrated report, correspondent Mary Carillo catches up with Holley Mangold as she prepares for the fast-approaching London Olympic Games.
Producer: Lisa Bennett.
*Isle of Man. The Isle of Man, a 226-square mile island in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland, hosts motorcycle racing’s most prestigious event, the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, but the competition has been under heavy scrutiny for safety concerns since it began in 1907. The Snaefell Mountain Course, where the race is held during the final week of May and the first week of June, has resulted in 237 deaths, and the event was stripped of its world championship status in 1976. REAL SPORTS correspondent Jon Frankel travels to the British Isles to learn more about this prominent, very dangerous, race.
Producer: Tim Walker.
*Lopez Lomong. Lopez Lomong is considered one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan.” After being captured by rebel soldiers during a brutal Sudanese civil war and suffering through weeks of watching others die at their camp, the six-year-old ran for three days until he reached Kenya, where he was placed in a refugee camp. Lomong spent the next ten years of his life as a refugee before being adopted by a rural New York family. He subsequently emerged as an elite talent in long-distance running, earning a scholarship to Northern Arizona University, where he won two NCAA championships, and a chance to represent the United States at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
When REAL SPORTS last talked to Lomong, he was training for the 2008 Games, at which he was chosen by his fellow Americans to carry the U.S. flag in the opening ceremonies and reached the semi-finals of the 1500M. Correspondent Mary Carillo reconnects with the 27-year-old as he prepares for the 2012 London track trials.
Producers: Jake Rosenwasser, Mike Sullivan.
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.
That’s all.
