Bracketology. One Shining Moment. Cinderella. Greg Gumbel.
For the better part of CBS Sports’ lucrative and award-winning rights to the NCAA mens basketball tournament, Mr. Gumbel has been a fixture as the network’s lead host for the Final Four.
This year, TNT will televise 13 games in all, including the two national championship games in North Texas. The two Final Four games will be broadcast across TBS, TNT and truTV, and the national championship game will be on CBS. Ernie Johnson is the lead studio host now and will work with with analysts Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Clark Kellogg, who returns to the studio after calling the games with Jim Nantz.
For his part, Mr. Gumbel said he knew the time was coming.
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“I’ve known about it for a while and it’s perfectly logical,” he told BlackEnterprise.com. “It’s a different company. It’s like saying if Fox had the Super Bowl, and you’re saying, Well, why didn’t they have Phil Simms [call the game]? It’s a different company. But I’ll still be there and I’ll still be doing a bunch of stuff that whole weekend.”
Just not as the lead host, a role that Mr. Gumbel, 67, has held for a number of years.
Will it feel different?
“It might,†admitted Mr. Gumbel, the lead host of the Final Four for 16 consecutive years. “You know, we haven’t gone through it yet. But will it be drastically different? No.â€
The other major move will see Greg Anthony move to
the floor and analyze the game alongside Mr. Nantz and Steve Kerr. Just as Mr. Anthony said Mr. Kellogg offered him perspective on what was to be a new experience, Mr. Gumbel said he helped Mr. Johnson when Turner Sports and CBS first joined forces.“We did that a couple of years ago when Ernie first came on,†Gumbel said. “When he first arrived I said, That this is how you basically go through the day because that first weekend of the tournament is just killer. But I walked him through it and he’s done it a couple of years since.”
Mr. Gumbel insinuated that his job as Mr. Johnson’s advisor is done.
“Ernie is a professional broadcaster,” he said, “and he doesn’t have a problem negotiating through [tough situations]. He does it every night on Turner doing the NBA. Granted, it’s a different animal but it’s still basketball.”
He added that the situation might have been tougher if Mr. Johnson was unprofessional or a jerk; in actuality, Mr. Johnson, a winner of the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Personality, is among the most highly-regarded people in the business.
“The key for me it’s a lot easier if you work with good people,” Mr. Gumbel said. “If you’re working with good people who know what they’re doing, and you know what you’re doing you can kind of make it through the end.”
Mr. Gumbel said CBS and Turner are both loaded with talent. “We probably have ten different announcers who can do the Final Four and the national championship if necessary. We probably have 15 different analysts who could do it. So it’s nice to have that treasure chest of people who can fill in and fulfill different roles as necessary.”
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Turner President David Levy agreed, saying the talent they assembled is the best in the business.
“Everything we’ve done for the tournament with talent is what we thought was best for the fans,” Mr. Levy said in an interview. “We’ve tried to put the best talent forward and tough decisions have to get made. There’s nothing wrong with Gumbel at all. He’s one of the best in the business, you know?
“But you can’t have two hosts.”
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