REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL

TELLS THE HEARTWARMING STORY OF PRO BOXER BOYD MELSON

WHEN THE EMMY^®-WINNING SHOW RETURNS APRIL 16, EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO

Now in its 19th season, REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL, TV’s most honored sports journalism series and the only sports program recognized with a prestigious 2012 George Foster Peabody Award, presents more enterprising features and reporting when its 193rd edition, available in HDTV, debuts TUESDAY, APRIL 16 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.

Other HBO playdates: April 16 (3:10 a.m.), 19 (1:30 p.m., 9:00 p.m.), 21 (8:45 a.m.), 24 (7:00 p.m., 3:05 a.m.), 26 (1:00 a.m.), 27 (9:30 a.m., 11:15 p.m.) and 30 (11:00 a.m., 5:15 p.m.)

HBO2 playdates: April 18 (11:30 a.m., midnight), 22 (3:30 p.m., 10:00 p.m.) and 26 (7:00 p.m.), and May 1 (9:00 a.m., 5:00 a.m.), 5 (1:00 p.m.), 7 (2:00 p.m., 1:00 a.m.) and 11 (8:25 a.m.)

HBO On Demand^® availability: April 22-May 13. The show will also be available on HBO GO^®.

Segments include:

*Fight to Walk. Most talented amateur boxers turn pro with dreams of fame, fortune and title belts. New Yorker Boyd Melson’s aspirations are slightly different. The 31-year-old boxes for his “soul mate,” Christan Zaccagnino, who was paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident at age ten. Melson donates every dollar he earns in the ring to spinal cord research with the hope that modern medicine will discover a way for Zaccagnino to walk again. A West Point graduate, he maintains a grueling schedule to train while working a typical nine-to-five office job. REAL SPORTS correspondent Frank Deford visits with Melson and Zaccagnino to learn more about this amazing tale of love and devotion.

Producer: Chapman Downes.

Last month, REAL SPORTS was the sole sports program recognized for broadcast excellence in 2012 by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a George F. Peabody Award. It is the only sports program ever honored with the duPont Award, having first been recognized in 2005, and receiving its second duPont Award in 2012.

REAL SPORTS has won the Sports Emmy^® for Outstanding Sports Journalism 15 times and has received 23 Sports Emmy^® Awards overall.

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