HBO’s Emmy-winning sports documentary series Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel will end after nearly 30 years on the premium service, executives confirmed.

The series, which will conclude after its current 29th season run, debuted in 1995 with Gumbel, former host of NBC’s Today Show and CBS’s The Early Show, at the helm exploring stories that intersect sports and society. The series has won 37 Sports Emmy Awards during its nearly three decades on the air.

Gumbel, who received the Sports Emmys Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this year, said that working on the series has been “gratifying” to him over the years. 

“Since day one at Real Sports we’ve consistently tried to look beyond the scoreboard and focus instead on the many societal issues inherent in the world of sports,” he said. “In the process, we’ve had the opportunity to tell complex stories about race, gender, class, opportunity and so much more. Being able to do so at HBO for almost three decades has been very gratifying. I’m proud of the imprint we’ve made, so I’m ready to turn the page. Although goodbyes are never easy, I’ve decided that now’s the time to move on.”  

HBO and Max content chairman and CEO Casey Bloys also said in a statement: “For 29 seasons, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel has delivered a master class in sports storytelling, garnering 37 Sports Emmy Awards and three Peabody awards in the process. 

“As the longest-running HBO series, Bryant and his Real Sports team have long been a cornerstone of HBO programming,” Bloys added. “The series will continue to resonate in the realm of sports journalism and we are so proud to have been part of such a remarkable odyssey.”

ESPN tonight (Jan. 27) will re-air Kobe Bryant’s final NBA game in tribute to the late basketball star, who tragically died yesterday in a helicopter accident.

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The sports network will air the April 13, 2016 Los Angeles Lakers-Utah Jazz game in which Bryant scored 60 points. ESPN will move its Kansas-Oklahoma State college basketball game to ESPN2 to make room for the telecast, said network officials. 

Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among nine passengers who died Sunday when a helicopter they were travelling in crashed in Calabasas, Calif.

In other Bryant tributes, HBO will air a retrospective on Bryant’s life and career during its Jan 28 episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Real Sports revisits two long form pieces on Bryant that book-ended his career: A 2000 feature reported by James Brown when Kobe was in his fourth season and a 2016 profile from correspondent Andrea Kremer as Bryant was ending his basketball career and transitioning to new endeavors in entertainment, sports and business, according to HBO.

The NBA said it has postponed the Jan. 28 Los Angeles Lakers-Los Angeles Clippers game "out of respect for the Lakers organization, which is deeply grieving  the tragic loss of Lakers Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people in a helicopter crash on Sunday." The league said the game will be rescheduled at a later date.

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Former NBC 'Today' host Bryant Gumbel has spent the last 23 years as host of Emmy-winning HBO documentary Real Sports, which over the years has developed award-winning investigative pieces and in-depth profiles from across the sports spectrum. 

In this 2015 interview, Gumbel talked about the intersection between sports and popular culture. 

National cable sports network FS1 scored the most Sports Emmy Awards during ceremony held Tueaday night in New York.

FS1 took home nine Sports Emmys to top all cable and broadcast networks, according to the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Sister broadcast network Fox finished second with seven awards, according to the Academy.

HBO and NBC tied for third with five awards, while CBS, ESPN and MLB Network garnered four awards each.

Overall, the Fox Sports Media Group earned 18 Sports Emmys, followed by the NBC Sports Group with 15 statuettes. NBC’s coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics won the most Sports Emmys with four, followed by two awards each for Fox’s New England Patriots-Altanta Falcons Super Bowl coverage and the network's coverage of the classic 2016 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians, as well as HBO’s long-running magazine show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.

“Tonight we salute the competence, skill and grandeur that is the sports broadcasting industry,” said Bob Mauro, President, NATAS in a statement. “In addition to celebrating the outstanding work by this evening’s nominees, we are pleased to honor Brent Musburger for his long and prolific career and present him with the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award.”

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HBO Sports in 2015 completed one of the most successful boxing campaigns in its history, led by the record-setting May 2 Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao pay-per-view fight it co-promoted with Showtime. Leading the division’s charge into 2016 is recently named executive vice president Peter Nelson. He will set the strategic direction and oversee programming for the division, which along with boxing also produces the network’s long-running sports magazine show, Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, as well as its sports documentaries. He spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the HBO Sports brand and its strategic outlook. Here are edited highlights of their conversation.

MCN:How would you define the HBO Sports brand?

Peter Nelson: We encapsulate a portion of the broader mosaic of HBO’s brand, which champions unique voices in their artistry and excellence, and that overarching vision is one we endeavor to meet and exceed every day within sports.

Ranging from live fights to the illegal hunting of African elephants chronicled on Real Sports, what encompasses our sports programming as a whole is depth and quality of storytelling. In capturing disparate and unimaginable worlds through the lens of sports, we hope the passions, sorrows and triumphs brought to light reflect back to sharpen the focus of our own humanity.

MCN:Boxing for years has been the staple of HBO Sports. How important is boxing to HBO Sports from your perspective?

PN: Boxing has been integral to HBO’s DNA nearly from its inception, and our work today is entwined with and a continuation of that legacy begun in 1973. In 2015, we saw double-digit percentage of increase in viewership, underscoring the sport’s appeal with our subscribers. As with any sport, as stars dim, others begin to glow brighter, and currently we have a generation forming a new constellation of superstars: Canelo Alvarez, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, Terence Crawford, Sergey Kovalev, Andre Ward, Roman Gonzalez, among others. These fighters embody that historical commitment HBO has shown to exhibiting the best fighters in the world against the best possible competition.

MCN:HBO Sports has already scheduled two pay-per-view boxing matches this year. Coming off a record-setting 2015, how aggressive will the company be in PPV boxing?

PN: For pay-per-view, 2015 was an unprecedented year. We approach pay-per-view keeping in mind the various needs of all involved: of fighters, promoters, affiliate partners, and, above all, consumers. We’re excited to see where 2016 takes us.

MCN:Given the shifts in how viewers watch television, how important is live sports programming in general and to HBO in particular?

PN: Live sports programming is by definition destination programming, a key component in a VOD landscape for networks looking to maximize appeal and audience. For four decades, we’ve had live boxing on HBO, a property that our subscribers are passionate about. We strive each year to be known as the network to turn to for the biggest names, the best fights and the highest quality presentation in the sport. We look every day to meet and exceed those expectations in curating that experience.

MCN:HBO Sports is also known for its documentaries. What role will they play in HBO Sports’s future, and what should viewers expect to see from the genre in 2016?

PN: Sports documentaries are part of our sports culture, ever since our first doc back in 1991 through last year’s biographies of Greg Louganis and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. As we look to the future, we seek to continue with stories that dovetail with a brand known for prismatic, compelling, and innovative narratives. We have the privilege of unrivaled documentarians working with and reaching out to us. When the right projects come together, it is our job to ensure these filmmakers wish to call HBO Sports home.

MCN:How will new technologies such as 4K and virtual reality affect the future of sports television, and will HBO look to implement such technologies in its telecasts?

PN: Technology enhancements are the lifeblood of live sports production telecasts. We actively look to test new technology and are poised to incorporate them as they make sense for us. Live sports are an incredibly exciting space in which to see the future of tech flourish.

MCN:Are there any other sports that HBO Sports will look to add to its portfolio?

PN: We keep an eye on the landscape, always having the optionality of being flexible and opportunistic. Right now, however, it’s unlikely that we would add another live sport to our slate. We’re excited to play the hand we’re playing.

HBO’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel has made its recent segment with UFC women’s champion Ronda Rousey available online in its entirety.

The Rousey interview, which aired last night on sports magazine show, marks the first time the series has offered a full segment from the series to non HBO subscribers, according to network officials.

The monthly Real Sports With Bryant Gumbelseries is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.