REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL Heads to Africa with Raptors President Masai Ujiri; Visits the Many Dogs Rescued from Michael Vick’s Dog-Fighting Ring; and Reports on a Tragedy at Auburn that Altered Two Families when a New Edition Debuts Tuesday, October 22, Exclusively on HBO
REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL, TV’s most-honored sports journalism series, with a record 19 Sports Emmy® Awards for Outstanding Sports Journalism, presents more enterprising features and reporting when the show’s 271st edition debuts TUESDAY, OCT. 22 (10:00–11:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
The show is also available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and partners’ streaming platforms.
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:
Masai Ujiri.
In July 2018, Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri made one of the riskiest trades in recent memory, acquiring the recently injured star forward Kawhi Leonard in return for franchise stalwart DeMar DeRozan and others. But the stunning move led to what’s become the crowning achievement for Ujiri and the Raptors after the team dispatched the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. And it was all the more special considering how far Ujiri has come — from a small African city in northern Nigeria where he grew up, all the way to America. David Scott travels with Ujiri back to his childhood home with the Larry O’Brien title trophy in tow, and to Cameroon where he held one of several basketball camps he orchestrates across the continent that hopes to inspire the next generation of players and leaders.
Producer: Jordan Kronick.
Michael Vick’s Dogs.
It used to be that dogs rescued from dog-fighting rings were euthanized because they were deemed too emotionally scarred and dangerous to be saved, but the notoriety of Michael Vick’s dog-fighting case presented an opportunity to redefine how dog-fighting dogs were treated after they were rescued. The Best Friends Animal Society argued that every dog deserved an opportunity to be saved and offered to give the most traumatized dogs a place to rehabilitate and recover. Twelve years after the case broke, Jon Frankel reports on what came of the dogs and meets the families who adopted the dogs into their homes after they were brutalized.
Producer: Jake Rosenwasser.
Andy Burcham.
Legendary Auburn Tigers announcer Rod Bramblett was killed in a car accident along with his wife Paula in May. The very man who replaced Bramblett in the broadcast chair was his best friend and booth partner, Andy Burcham, who, together with his wife Jan, has now welcomed the Bramblett children — Shelby and Joshua — into their home. Mary Carillo reports on the fateful evening that impacted so many lives, and how Burcham remembers and honors his close friend.
Producer: Maggie Burbank.
REAL SPORTS recently received the 2019 Sports Emmy® Award for Outstanding Sports Journalism. In total, REAL SPORTS has been honored with the Sports Emmy® for Outstanding Sports News Anthology five times in the past seven years, capturing 34 Emmys® in 24 years overall. The show was recently nominated for two News and Documentary Emmy® Awards for Best Story in a Newsmagazine and Outstanding Investigative Journalism in a Newsmagazine.
The executive producers of REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL are Peter Nelson, Rick Bernstein and Joe Perskie.
Follow @HBOPR on Twitter & Instagram for more news & information.
