After finding herself out of work in the recent overhaul at CNN, Soledad O’Brien is now joining another Today Show alumni, Bryant Gumbel, for Real Sports on HBO. The monthly news magazine will hire her on as a reporter, and her first story will be out this month, which focuses on veterans doing martial arts to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.
This new deal with HBO also gives them a first look at items from O’Brien’s production company, Starfish Media Group. You may recall that O’Brien chaired the CNN documentary series, Black in America, which was a hit for that network. HBO is in talks with her to actually continue that series on their channel.
The new job seems to suit O’Brien, even though she has a pretty limited sports background:
“It’s exactly what I’ve been doing for a long time — telling stories about human beings and their struggles,” she said.
Real Sports is a downright ancient program on HBO, making its debut in 1995. Each episode usually has four separate stories, ones that don’t necessarily focus on professional sports or famous athletes. One like the story O’Brien will tell in her first segment.
