Bryant Gumbel has made a career out of delivering the news to millions of Americans.
For 15 years, viewers would wake up with Gumbel as he shared the top stories on NBC’s Today show. He also turned his love for sports into a successful HBO series, aptly titled Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.
On October 21, however, Gumbel became a top story when news broke that he was hospitalized in New York City. According to TMZ, Gumbel experienced a “medical emergency” and was transported from his New York apartment building to a local hospital.
One of his family members told the outlet that Gumbel is “OK,” but did not reveal further details about his health. (Us Weekly reached out for comment.)
As Gumbel continues to receive medical care, learn more about the broadcaster, who was just beginning to enjoy retirement.
Bryant Gumbel’s Experience on the ‘Today’ Show
Jane Pauley and Bryant Gumbel NBC / courtesy Everett Collection
Gumbel began coanchoring the Today show in 1982 alongside Jane Pauley. (He later worked with Deborah Norville and Katie Couric.)
“I was not a very popular choice,” he shared in a profile with The Television Academy in 2015 when looking back on his start. “The issues were twofold. Number one, that a lot of people — it seems funny now — took exception to a Black guy sitting next to a white woman. And a lot of people took exception to the idea of a ‘sports guy’ being in charge of a news program.”
Over time, Gumbel would impress the viewers and powers that be with his preparation and ability to handle a wide variety of stories and topics.
When Gumbel decided to depart NBC’s morning show in 1997 to pursue an opportunity at CBS News, Matt Lauer took over his position.
“He was relentless in terms of his preparation,” Lauer previously shared of his coworker. “When we would go someplace, Bryant always had a folder out, always was going through notes for a segment for the next morning, whether he was interviewing the secretary of state or Martha Stewart. He was absolutely obsessive about preparation, and it showed in every interview he did.”
Bryant Gumbel’s Time on ‘Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel’
Bryant Gumbel Patrick Harbron / HBO / Courtesy: Everett Collection
One of Gumbel’s favorite assignments in his career was hosting Real Sports on HBO.
“I consider it the best program on which I’ve ever worked,” Gumbel told The Television Academy in 2015. “It’s telling serious stories about societal problems and issues through the medium of sports.”
Each show had three or four long-form segments featuring correspondents like Mary Carillo, Andrea Cramer, Carl Quintanilla and Gumbel himself.
Before the final episode aired in December 2023, the show won a total of 37 Sports Emmy Awards and three Peabody Awards.
Bryant Gumbel’s Wife Hilary Quinlan
In August 2022, Gumbel married Quinlan at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. According to People, about 25 friends and family members were in attendance for the intimate ceremony.
He was previously married to June Baranco, and they share two adult children.
Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric’s ‘Today’ Show Relationship
Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel Ken Regan / TV Guide / NBC / courtesy Everett Collection
For nearly six years, Couric and Gumbel worked together as cohosts for Today.
During an April 2024 episode of Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, Couric praised her former colleague’s talents in front of the camera.
“He is a guy’s guy,” she said. “He was prickly but I mean, what a talent. He’s such a seamless broadcaster, eloquent. When that countdown would happen, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, he would just hit it perfect.”
At the same time, Couric recalled a moment when Gumbel made comments about her maternity leave after she welcomed her first child.
“He was like, ‘Why don’t you just drop it in the field and come back to work right away or something?’” she recalled. “He was kidding. He was goofing on me but giving me a lot of s***, but it was emblematic of an incredibly sexist attitude.” Gumbel never publicly commented on her claims.
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Bryant Gumbel’s Previous Health Scares
In 2009, Gumbel revealed he had surgery to remove a malignant tumor and part of his lung.
“It’s nothing to hide from. They opened up my chest, they took a malignant tumor and they took part of my lung and they took some other goodies,” Gumbel recalled on a 2009 episode of Live With Regis and Kelly. “The pathology on most of the stuff had been benign, but enough aggressive cells had escaped the tumor that it warranted some treatment and I went through that and it’s done now.”
Less than one year before his October hospitalization, Bryant’s brother and longtime CBS sportscaster, Greg Gumbel, died at the age of 78 after a battle with cancer.
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