REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL Returns to HBO, Today

REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL, TV's most honored sports journalism series, returns with more enterprising features and reporting when its 229th edition debuts TUESDAY, APRIL 19 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.

For up-to-the-minute updates about REAL SPORTS, follow on Twitter at @RealSportsHBO or join the conversation using #RealSports.

Segments include:

*Heads Up. Going to the ballpark is an age-old tradition, but attending Major League Baseball games can more dangerous than most think. Foul-ball injuries, including severe accidents such as facial fractures and traumatic brain injuries, happen hundreds of times every year in MLB ballparks, and many are preventable. The league and its clubs have largely avoided financial responsibility for these accidents, since every MLB ticket contains a disclaimer that fans enter at their own risk and U.S. courts generally uphold this long-standing "Baseball Rule." Amid public scrutiny, MLB is taking measured steps to make the ballpark experience safer for fans, but as REAL SPORTS host Bryant Gumbel learns on a trip to the Tokyo Dome, other leagues around the world are taking more drastic steps to make the game safer for fans, with visible results.

Producer: Nick Dolin.

*Arms Race. Outstanding student-loan debt in the United States currently stands at more than $1 trillion. Meanwhile, a financial arms race is underway, as the pursuit of winning athletic programs continues to drive up college costs. However, the majority of schools caught up in this competition are losing money, with just about two dozen athletic programs turning a profit on sports last year. This growing expense is sinking many students financially and, some claim, weakening the education they receive, as REAL SPORTS learns from professors at New Jersey state school Rutgers University. Correspondent Jon Frankel reports.

Producer: Jake Rosenwasser.

*Trump. Donald Trump, the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, is no newcomer to controversy. In 2006, the high-flying New York tycoon embarked on a mission to build one of the greatest luxury golf resorts in the world - along with hundreds of homes and condos, a giant hotel and a conference center - near Aberdeen on the historic northeast coast of Scotland. The project sparked heated opposition from locals who felt the venture would spoil their pristine coastline and jeopardize the 4,000-year-old sand dunes of special scientific interest, but the developer broke ground in 2010 and Trump International Golf Links opened in July 2012.

Nearly four years later, with plans to build a second golf course and more housing stalled, critics say Trump has failed to deliver on the promise to create 6,000 jobs and BILLIONS of dollars in investment. REAL SPORTS correspondent Bernard Goldberg learns that Trump is not the savior the Scots once thought and that many even want to ban him from the country following his comments about preventing Muslims from entering the U.S.

Producer: Tim Walker.

Other HBO playdates: April 19 (4:00 a.m.), 21 (1:20 p.m.), 23 (11:45 a.m., 1:20 a.m.), 25 (11:45 a.m., 6:00 p.m.), 27 (8:00 p.m.) and 28 (5:00 a.m.), and May 1 (8:30 a.m.) and 4 (5:15 p.m.)

HBO2 playdates: April 20 (8:15 a.m., 12:30 a.m.), 22 (4:00 p.m.), 26 (2:30 p.m., 3:05 a.m.) and 28 (10:00 p.m.), and May 7 (5:00 p.m.) and 15 (5:15 p.m.)

The show is also available on HBO NOW, HBO GO and HBO On Demand.

On Jan. 19, REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL received its third duPont Award for broadcast excellence from Columbia University. Previously honored in 2006 and 2012, the show was recognized for its eye-opening reporting on Qatar, which was awarded the 2022 World Cup amid a storm of controversy and corruption charges. In addition to receiving duPont Awards and the George. F. Peabody Award, REAL SPORTS has won Outstanding Sports Journalism Emmys® 16 times and earned 28 Sports Emmy® Awards overall since debuting in 1995. The series was nominated for four Sports Emmy® Awards for 2015, with the winners to be announced May 10.

Follow REAL SPORTS updates on HBO.com/realsports and facebook.com/realsports. Immediately following the debut of this month's show on April 19, log on to HBO.com/realsports for a special overtime session hosted by Bryant Gumbel.

The executive producer of REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL is Rick Bernstein; Joe Perskie is senior producer.

Image courtesy of HBO

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