Discuss baseball, football, basketball, Olympics, and more with sports broadcasting icon Bob Costas in a 30-minute Zoom!
Costas has been the face of many of the largest sports events U.S. television has ever produced, while mastering his craft in a variety of roles. Whether it was the play-by-play call of the World Series or the NBA Finals or sitting behind the desk to welcome viewers to familiar gridirons across America for a big night in the NFL or to foreign cities across the globe for the Olympic Games, he is the benchmark of sportscasting. Costas is considered one of sports' great voices and erudite observers combining knowledge with wit and humanity.
Through his storied career, Bob was part of many of sports television’s biggest blockbusters becoming one the most respected minds and voices in sports media. Costas served as NBC’s primetime host for a U.S. television-record 11 Olympics (1992-2016). The 2012 London Games were the most-watched multi-day television event in U.S. history, reaching a staggering 217 million viewers. From 2006 to 2016, he also hosted the very successful Football Night in America. Bob hosted six Super Bowls, including Super XLIX in 2015, which still ranks as the most-watched program in U.S. television history (114.4 million viewers). In 2009, he joined MLB Network where he still calls marquee games and contributes to a broad range of baseball programming. Costas also does play-by-play for TBS, as well as special sports related reporting for CNN. Costas also announced all kinds of whackier events, such as elevator races at 30 Rock, making him a favorite of David Letterman, Jay Leno, and Conan O’Brian. And for six years hosted his own Emmy award-winning late night interview program, Later with Bob Costas.
Bob also held true to his elite standard for journalistic excellence with interview and commentary programs including HBO’s On the Record and Costas Now. He has conducted no-holds-barred interviews with figures ranging WWE owner impresario Vince McMahon to Presidents of the United States. His riveting interview with Jerry Sandusky aired a mere few days after the former Penn State assistant coach was accused of child sexual abuse. Numerous times, Costas has become the conscience of U.S. sports fans, tackling controversial issues like gun culture, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s association with the Sochi Olympics and the impact that concussion science would have on the future of American football.
Bob Costas has won 29 Emmy awards, more than any other sports broadcaster. In addition, he is the only broadcaster in television history to have been awarded Emmys for news, sports, and entertainment. Bob is an eight-time National Sportscaster of the Year and four-time American Sportscasters Association Sportscaster of the Year. He also received the TV Guide Award for Favorite Sportscaster, Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism and Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, as well as being an inductee into multiple Halls of Fame - including the Broadcasters Wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.