National Sports Journalism Center

Ten years ago, if you told HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg that the future of his franchise might be rooted in the same TV genre which strands average people on deserted islands and profiles sex-addicted celebrities, he would have called for the guys in white coats to give you a special ride.

But in 2009, Greenburg beams as he describes the success of HBO’s unscripted “reality TV”-style sports projects such as its behind-the-scenes look at major boxing bouts — dubbed "24/7" and the Hard Knocks program’s look at training camps in the NFL.

“We’ve been able to look into the lives of these sports personalities and what they go through . . . in a form that is not only familiar, but (desired) by younger fans,” said Greenburg, an HBO employee since 1978 and the channel’s top sports executive since 2000. “The sports fan is used to seeing everything on the field. We use reality TV – which I think is not even necessarily the right name for this – to take people places sports fans have never been before.”

Perhaps that’s why I have loved these shows as much or more than anything on HBO’s sports schedule. Sure, Real Sports often lives up to its title as the 60 Minutes of the sports world and the boxing bouts can be thrilling.

But watching Cincinnati Bengals Head Coach Marvin Lewis chew up his chronically under-performing team after a disappointing 24-21 preseason loss to the St. Louis Rams in the latest Hard Knocks cycle, you actually felt sorry for guys paid serious sums to chase a ball around in the dirt.

Similarly, as borderline players learn whether they have been cut or not in the cycle’s last episode, you see the awful waiting game and what-have-you-done-for-me-lately attitude which can make pro football such a meat grinder for those without obvious, runaway talent.

And even as the so-called “reality” shows on entertainment TV are revealed as anything but, the brand of unscripted television HBO Sports brings feel different.

So much of modern sportscasting feels conflicted – analysis and opinions offered by broadcasters torn between giving fans the straight dope and hyping the matchups for their own employers’ ratings. At times, despite all the fanfare and technology, you can feel at arm’s length from the stories behind the action.

All of which may explain why Greenburg is extending HBO’s "24/7" franchise beyond boxing to tackle new territory – the world of NASCAR through the eyes of three-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson. The shows for "24/7 Jimmie Johnson: Race to Daytona" won’t air until late January and February 2010, but cameras have already begun following the driver in an attempt to capture a new look at the sport.

Producers expect to film more than 1,000 hours of video to create four-episode series, which steps outside pugilism for the first time to try spotlighting Johnson’s preparation for the Super Bowl of NASCAR – the Daytona 500.

As always with celebrity-driven unscripted shows, the biggest question center on how much access cameras will get and how much leeway producers have to show candid moments which won’t always make the subject look good.

But both Greenburg and Johnson have promised unprecedented access and storylines – well aware that the fly-on-the-wall vibe is what hooks viewers.

It’s the kind of approach Greenburg said is necessary for a channel that doesn’t have $30-million to spend buying the rights to air actual games (outside of boxing, where premium channels have long dominated telecasts).

The challenge only grows as the number of blogs, Web sites and mobile platforms proliferate — all focused on providing bits of the sports experience you might not absorb from the actual contest.

So what can make a sports fan feel like they’re getting their subscription-fees worth on the sports end of HBO, in a world of endless ESPN and regional sports channel coverage?

“We always felt we had to be unique and attack sports through storytelling,” said Greenburg, an employee at ABC Sports during the time of legendary president Roone Arledge who said he simply adapted Arledge’s mantra of trying to go beyond the game on the field in broadcasts and deliver the news at hand. “HBO can’t be another network. In our DNA, we know we have to be different."

Of course, there have been challenges. The channel’s attempt to build a successor talk show to Bob Costas’ "Costas Now" around play-by-play guy Joe Buck nearly flamed out in controversy, as Howard Stern sidekick and sports fan Artie Lange delivered a profanity-laden appearance back in June that nearly imploded the show.

HBO also saw rival Showtime pick up its 31-year-old sports commentary show "Inside the NFL" last year, after the premium cable channel canceled the series.

And ESPN has stepped aggressively into the sports documentary field with its "30 for 30" series, promising a different approach than the classic HBO sports documentaries such as 1991’s "When It Was a Game" and 2005’s "Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team."

So now, more than ever, the fresh feel of unscripted television also feels like the future of HBO Sports.

“We’re not going to put 12 people in a house and have them pick people to kick out . . . but I think 24/7 and Hard Knocks are areas where we can grown and dive into new sports,” he said. “My old saying is, ‘It’s not the wand, it’s the magician.’ Can you make people emotionally attached to their television screen and the content? That’s what we do; we’re forced to – we don’t have any choice.”

Eric Deggans is TV and Media Critic for the St. Petersburg Times and a 1990 graduate of the Indiana University School of Journalism. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Village Voice, VIBE magazine, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Sun-Times and many other publications. He also writes a blog on media, The Feed, at blogs.tampabay.com/media.