Bryant Gumbel

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Image:Bryant Gumbel.jpg Bryant Charles Gumbel (born September 29, 1948), is an American television personality for news and sports programs. He is best known for his 15-year stint as co-anchor of NBC's The Today Show. He is the brother of veteran sports broadcaster Greg Gumbel.

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Early life

Gumbel was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the second child of parents Dunbar Gumbel and Rhea Alice LeCesne. He attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine where he played football and baseball and was a member of the class of 1970. He was a history major and wrote sports columns for the school newspaper, the Bates Student.

Gumbel earned a liberal arts degree from Bates College and has honorary doctorates from Bates, Xavier University, College of the Holy Cross, Providence College and Clark Atlanta University.

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Television career

Gumbel began his television career in October 1972, when he was named a sportscaster for KNBC-TV out of Los Angeles. He first worked for NBC Sports in the fall of 1975 as co-host of its NFL pre-game show GrandStand with the late Jack Buck.

From 1975 until January 1982 (when Gumbel left to do the Today Show) Gumbel hosted numerous sporting events for NBC including of Major League Baseball, NCAA basketball, and the National Football League. Gumbel returned to sportscasting for NBC when he hosted the prime time coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics from Seoul and the PGA tour in 1990.

He spent 15 years on the Today Show with three co-hosts (Jane Pauley, Deborah Norville, and Katie Couric). His work on the Today Show earned him several Emmys and large group of fans. He is currently tied with Katie Couric as longest serving morning personality on NBC.

After stepping down from the Today Show in 1997, Gumbel moved on to CBS, where he hosted various shows before becoming the co-host of the network's morning show The Early Show on November 1, 1999. Gumbel left The Early Show in 2002 and is currently concentrating mostly on his duties as host of HBO's investigative series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (a show that he has hosted since 1995).

In April 2006, The NFL Network announced that Gumbel along with Cris Collinsworth would to call its new package of NFL games. This is despite the fact that Gumbel unlike his brother Greg, has never called play-by-play for live sporting events before in his career.[1]

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Miscellaneous Info

Having grown up in Chicago, Gumbel has acknowledged being a diehard Chicago Cubs fan. In 2003, Gumbel was interviewed on the ESPN special The Babe and the Billy Goat: Reverse the Curse.

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Awards

Reportedly, Gumbel has raised over $8 million for the United Negro College Fund.

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Bryant Gumbel Memo

In 1989 Gumbel wrote a memo to Today Show executive producer Marty Ryan, which was critical of other Today Show personalities. This memo was leaked to the press. In the memo, Gumbel commented that Willard Scott "holds the show hostage to his assortment of whims, wishes, birthdays and bad taste...This guy is killing us and no one's even trying to rein him in." He commented that Gene Shalit's movie reviews "are often late and his interviews aren't very good."

There was enough negative backlash in regard to Gumbel's comments toward Scott, that Gumbel was shown making up with Scott on the Today Show.

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Chappelle's Show reference

During the second season of Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show, Gumbel was compared to Malcolm X by comedian Paul Mooney. In a skit, Mooney was playing a psychic named Negrodamus when he was asked the question, "Why do white people like Wayne Brady so much?" Negrodamus responded "White people love Wayne Brady because he makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X." This became one of the most famous lines from the show and eventually led to an episode where Wayne Brady retaliates for the comment.

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Controversial remarks

  • During coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel he made the following remarks, "Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t like them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying, maybe over the next three weeks we should all try too. Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won ... So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin."
  • A CBS camera caught a disgusted Bryant Gumbel blurting out "What a fucking idiot" just after he wrapped up a hostile interview with Robert Knight of the Family Research Council (FRC). The incident occurred at about 7:15am ET Thursday, June 29, 2000 following Knight's appearance to defend the Boy Scout policy of excluding gays from being leaders, a policy the Supreme Court had re-affirmed the day before. Gumbel's hostile reception for Knight had followed a much less confrontational approach to a representative of Planned Parenthood who had come aboard to support the Court's ruling overturning a law which banned partial-birth abortions.
  • "This comes at a time when Republicans are looking to gut the Clean Water Act and also the Safe Drinking Water Act. What are our options? Are we now forced to boil water because bottled water is not an economically feasible option for a lot of people?"
-- To Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer Erik Olson, June 1, 1995 Today. Real Video
  • "Largely as a result of the policies and priorities of the Reagan administration, more people are becoming poor and staying poor in this country than at any time since World War II."
-- July 17, 1989 Today Real Video
  • "And Kathleen Willey also spoke about Linda Tripp, a Clinton-basher who seems to be at every ugly turn in this controversy. Tripp was outside the Oval Office when Willey emerged from her encounter with the President. Just how is it that Linda Tripp is so often conveniently involved in the President’s troubles? For some clues let’s bring in The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, who has profiled the controversial Miss Tripp in this week’s issue. You write that co-workers often viewed her as an inveterate busybody. Has she always been a snoop and a gossip with a particular interest in other people’s romantic lives?"
-- On Public Eye, March 17, 1998. Real Video
  • "The bottom line is more tax money is going to be needed. Just how much will be the primary issue on the agenda when Congressional leaders meet with the President later today, Wednesday, May the 9th, 1990. And good morning, welcome to Today. It’s a Wednesday morning, a day when the budget picture, frankly, seems gloomier than ever. It now seems the time has come to pay the fiddler for our costly dance of the Reagan years."
-- Leading off Today, May 9, 1990. Real Video
  • "In the first two years this is a man [Clinton] who tried his best to balance the budget, to reform health care, to fight for gay rights, to support personal freedoms. Couldn’t those be considered doing the right things, evidence of true character?"
-- To David Maraniss, MSNBC’s InterNight, October 10, 1996. Real Video
  • "We keep looking for some good to come out of this. Maybe it might help in putting race relations back on the front burner after they’ve been subjugated so long as a result of the Reagan years."
-- On the Los Angeles riots, April 30, 1992, Today. Real Video
  • "Scott, as you and I both know, a popular move these days is to make a titillating charge and then have the media create the frenzy. Given Kenneth Starr’s track record, should we suspect that he’s trying to do with innuendo that which he has been unable to do with evidence?"
-- To CBS News reporter Scott Pelley, January 21, 1998, Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel. Real Video
  • "If I’m a young black man in South Central L.A., where poverty is rampant and unemployment is skyrocketing, I see that Washington’s promises of a year ago have gone unfulfilled, I see that perhaps for a second time, the court’s inability to mete out justice in a blind fashion, why shouldn’t I vent my anger?"
-- To U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), April 15, 1993, Today. Real Video
  • "We've got an awful lot to talk about this week, including the sexual harassment suit against the President. Of course, in that one, it’s a little tough to figure out who’s really being harassed."
-- Today, May 10, 1994. Real Video
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External links

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