Ross Greenburg out at HBO

Sports journalism will miss this creative talent who produced some fantastic films and documentaries for HBO Sports...

New York, NY (July 18, 2011) – Ross Greenburg, President of HBO Sports since September of 2000 as well as an Executive Vice President of HBO, announced today that he will not renew his contract and, therefore, will resign from the company.
“This was a difficult decision that I have been contemplating for some time,” Greenburg said. “It has been a glorious 33 years at HBO, but it felt like the right moment for me to focus my time and energy on developing projects that are particularly interesting to me.
“I would like to thank the many dedicated and talented men and women who have been a part of HBO Sports over the years. Because of their hard work and creativity, HBO Sports has been recognized among the best programmers and producers in every form of sports television.”
“We believe that Ross’ track record speaks for itself,” said HBO Co-President Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo, President, HBO Programming. “He has helped redefine the sports programming genre and set an extraordinary standard of excellence in the industry. We will miss his leadership, vision, creativity and passion for sports television.”
Greenburg joined HBO Sports in 1978 as an Assistant to the Producer. He was named a Senior Vice President and the Executive Producer of HBO Sports in October of 1994. For the past 11 years he has been at the helm of the sports division, overseeing boxing, documentaries and specials, magazine shows, and the most acclaimed reality series franchise in sports television.
To a large degree, Greenburg redefined and reinvigorated the genre of sports documentaries. His unique storytelling work includes the 1991 and 1992 Peabody and Emmy Award®-winning documentaries "When It Was a Game" and "When It Was a Game II." HBO has won the Sports Emmy® for Outstanding Documentary each of the past four years. Earlier this year, the HBO presentation of “Lombardi” was awarded the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Documentary while “Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals” was named a Peabody Award winner. He also served as co-executive producer with Billy Crystal for the 2001 HBO Films presentation 61*.
Greenburg has won more than 85 major television sports awards including 51 Sports Emmy® Awards and eight George F. Peabody Awards.
In 1995, Greenburg created “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” which has established itself as the leading sports journalism program on television.
Early in his career, Greenburg produced more than 200 of the most celebrated prizefights in modern history. In the 1980s, these fights included the classic matchups of Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns, Leonard vs. Marvin Hagler, and Hearns vs. Hagler; the meteoric rise of Mike Tyson and many others. In the 1990s, Greenburg helmed the production of the memorable matchups between Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe, and most of the fights that lifted the careers of Roy Jones Jr., Oscar de la Hoya and Lennox Lewis.
He revolutionized the way the sport was covered on television, and many of his innovations – such as overhead cameras, microphones in the corners and simultaneous translations of non-English-speaking trainers – are standards for boxing coverage today.
The highest performing pay-per-view event in history took place on Greenburg’s watch: the 2007 “superfight” between Oscar de la Hoya and Floyd Mayweather that generated 2.44 million buys on HBO Pay-Per-View®.
In addition, Greenburg launched the all-access reality series franchise “24/7” in 2007 and it was Greenburg and his team that joined forces with NFL FILMS to produce “Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Baltimore Ravens” in 2001. The series reached new heights in 2010 with the New York Jets.
A graduate of Brown University, Greenburg also served as Executive Producer of the theatrical motion picture “Miracle” in 2004. It was labeled by critics “as the first great movie of the year.”




http://thebiofile.com/2011/07/biofile-with-ross-greenburg/

 

Ross Greenburg was no Leon Gast.

 

Sounds like that would be a perfect job for Mark Shapiro.

 

Shapiro can't punch off his back foot.

 

It's probably time for some new blood. Some of the HBO docs have been outstanding, but they're all pretty much the same.

I don't think any of them in the last few years have been as good as "The Two Escobars," "June 17, 1994" or "The Best That Never Was" from the 30 for 30 series.

"Real Sports" and "Hard Knocks" remain top-notch, however. I've never watched any of the "24/7" shows, but I've heard they're outstanding.

 

The Two Escobars was really well done. So are the 24-7s.

 

The Two Escobars was ESPN

 

this guy is a giant in the industry.

his body of work speaks for itself.

check out 'the curious case of curt flood'.

 

Rumor has it that his crucial mistake was angering the promoter Bob Arum by not televising the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley fight which was then scooped up by Showitme and generated multi millions in PPV profits. Now Arum is holding Pacquiao's next fight with Marquez away from HBO. Lots of politics going on. Bob Arum is not a man to fool around with.

 

don't buy the arum theory.

arum will do business with whoever cuts him the best deal.

greenburg's track record transcends any single disagreement.

 

Get your facts right Henry. Arum only considered other options because Greenburg shut the door on Pacquiao-Mosley. No question Greenburg was a creative journalistic force and contributed so much excellent content to HBO programming. But regarding running boxing at HBO there were a LOT of criticisms over the last two years, as documented by Thomas Hauser of secondsout.com. Google Hauser/Greenburg/HBO.

 

So what is it, rumor or fact?