CBS Sports producer Gareth Hughes passed away July 30 in Manhattan. He was 41. Hughes, with eight Emmys to his credit, suffered from bile duct cancer.
Hughes worked on the NFL, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, The Masters golf tournament and the Army-Navy football game, among other sports events.
“He had this rare ability to see the absolute seedling of an idea through to the final product,” Alanna Campbell, CBS Sports feature producer, told The New York Times, “whether it was a show, a story or a technically complex shoot.”
Hughes was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and grew up mainly in Oxford, Ohio. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer when he was 11 months old, the Times reported. He attended Skidmore and started in television working with the New England Patriots.
Hughes joined CBS in 2009 and worked on live events, documentaries and 60 Minutes Sports on Showtime. He also produced CBS special In the Huddle With Tony Romo. CBS Sports execs describe him as an avid mentor to younger staffers.
For CBS’s Super Bowl LV pregame show earlier this year, Hughes produced a feature that honored essential workers over the previous year. It was titled “Essential: An Ode to COVID’s Frontline Workers.”
