HBO Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Magazine and documentary series==== Since 1977, HBO has offered documentary- and interview-based weekly series focusing on athletes and the world of athletics. On September 22, 1977, HBO premiered the channel's first original weekly series, and its first sports-related documentary and analysis series, ''Inside the NFL'', a program that featured post-game highlights and analysis of the previous week's marquee [[National Football League]] games (using footage provided by [[NFL Films]]) as well as interviews with players, coaches and team management. The program was one of the first studio shows on cable television to offer weekly NFL game reviews, predating the launches of similar football review shows on ESPN and other sports-centered cable networks. ''[[Inside the NFL]]'' would go on to become the network's longest-running program, airing for 31 seasons until it ended its HBO run in February 2008. (After HBO canceled the program, ''Inside the NFL'' was subsequently acquired by Showtime, under arrangement with [[CBS Sports]], formally moving to the rival premium channel in September 2008.)<ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO fills in its hand for fall |periodical=Broadcasting |page=63 |date=September 12, 1977}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title='Inside the NFL' ending 31-year run on HBO|url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/football/2008-02-06-3063546697_x.htm|agency=[[Associated Press]]|newspaper=[[USA Today]]|date=February 6, 2008|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=CBS, Showtime go 'Inside the NFL'|url=https://variety.com/2008/scene/news/cbs-showtime-go-inside-the-nfl-1117986847/|periodical=Variety|date=June 3, 2008|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> The network would build upon the concept behind ''Inside the NFL'' through the debuts of additional sports talk and documentary programs: the [[Major League Baseball]]-focused ''[[Race for the Pennant]]'' (1978–1992), ''HBO Sports Magazine'' (1981–1982), ''[[On the Record with Bob Costas]]'' (2001–2005) and its revamped iteration ''[[Costas Now]]'' (2005–2009), and ''[[Joe Buck Live]]'' (2009). Another program built on similar groundwork, ''[[Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel]]''—which eventually became the network's flagship sports [[newsmagazine]]—premiered on April 2, 1995, and lasted for 29 seasons before ending on December 19, 2023. The hour-long monthly series (originally airing quarterly until 1999), hosted by veteran television journalist and sportscaster [[Bryant Gumbel]], regularly received positive reviews for its groundbreaking journalism and typically features four stories centering on societal and athletic issues associated with the sports world, investigative reports, and interviews with famous athletes and other sports figures. {{As of|2020}}, ''Real Sports'' has received 33 [[Sports Emmy Awards]] (including 19 for Outstanding Sports Journalism) throughout its run, as well as two Peabody Awards (in 2012 and 2016) and three [[Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award]]s.<ref>{{cite news|title=A REALLY GOOD SHOW CELEBRATES 10 YEARS|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/os-xpm-2005-04-08-0504080218-story.html|author=Scott Andera|newspaper=[[Orlando Sentinel]]|date=April 8, 2005|access-date=July 7, 2020|archive-date=July 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200708142113/https://www.nydailynews.com/os-xpm-2005-04-08-0504080218-story.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Of note, the show's 2004 Sports Emmy win for "Outstanding Sports Journalism" and 2006 duPont–Columbia University Award win for "Outstanding Broadcast Journalism" was for a half-hour hidden camera investigative report—guided by human rights activist [[Ansar Burney]]—into slavery and torture in secret desert camps in the [[United Arab Emirates]] (UAE), where boys younger than age 5 were trained in [[camel racing]]. The segment uncovered a carefully hidden [[child slavery]] ring that bought or [[kidnapping|kidnapped]] hundreds of young boys in [[Pakistan]] and [[Bangladesh]], who were then forced to become camel jockeys in the UAE and questioned the sincerity of U.S. diplomatic pressure on the UAE, an ally to the United States, to comply with the country's ban on children under age 15 from participating in camel racing. The documentary brought worldwide attention to the plight of child camel jockeys in the Middle East and helped the Ansar Burney Trust convince the governments of [[Qatar]] and the UAE to end the use of children in the sport. In 2001, HBO and [[NFL Films]] began to jointly produce the documentary series ''[[Hard Knocks (2001 TV series)|Hard Knocks]]'', which follows an individual [[National Football League|NFL]] team each season during [[training camp]] and their preparations for the upcoming football season.<ref name="An Original Voice"/><ref>{{cite web|title=HBO Hard Knocks|url=http://www.hbo.com/hardknocks/|publisher=Home Box Office, Inc.|access-date=October 5, 2012}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page