Bryant Gumbel
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Bryant Gumbel (born September 29, 1948 in New Orleans, Louisiana), is an American television personality for news and sports programs. He is best known as a former anchor of the Today Show, a morning news and entertainment program on the NBC television network. He is the brother of veteran sports broadcaster Greg Gumbel.
Bryant Gumbel began his television career in October of 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 Jack Buck.
From 1975 until January of 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 Olympic Games from Seoul and the PGA tour in 1990.
After stepping down from the Today Show in 1997, Gumbel moved on to CBS to host its own morning news program called The Early Show. 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).
Bryant Gumbel earned a liberal arts degree from Bates College and has honorary doctorates from Bates, Xavier, Holy Cross, Providence College and Clark Atlanta University.
Having grown up in Chicago, Gumbel has acknowledged himself to being a diehard Chicago Cubs fan. In 2003, Gumbel was interviewed on the ESPN special The Babe and the Billy Goat: Reverse the Curse.
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 regards to Gumbel's comments toward Scott, that Gumbel was shown making up with Scott on the Today Show.