TV/Radio

Costas returns to HBO with all-sports format

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published May 13, 2005

Bob Costas is getting back to basics.

The 17-time Emmy award winner returns to HBO at 9 tonight for the first episode of Costas Now, a revamped version of his previously acclaimed show, On the Record With Bob Costas.

But whereas On the Record veered away from sports into a duller Hollywood celebrity lovefest, Costas is hoping to pull back those viewers who were turned off last season with his return to a topical sports magazine show.

"Sport purists weren't altogether happy with the old format," Costas said on a conference call this week. "So this time our guests and conversation will center on the sports world. And there certainly is enough going on."

Regarded as the finest sports host around, Costas said his new show, which will air monthly, will be part 60 Minutes, Nightline and HBO's other sports magazine show, Real Sports.

In fact, for the first episode, Real Sports correspondent Armen Keteyian will have a piece on baseball's dirty little secret - amphetamines. And he talks to former major-leaguer Chad Curtis, who was on Real Sports nearly five years ago complaining about the problem of steroids long before it became a hot issue.

In the report tonight, Curtis and Tony Gwynn tell Keteyian it's a bigger problem than people realize.

"Eighty-five percent of the players, I believe, have at least one time or another taken ... an illegal substance for energy," Curtis said.

And Gwynn, the baseball coach at San Diego State, felt compelled to come forward because, "I have 38 guys (on my team) who just idolize what those guys on TV do.

"On our club (Padres), lots of guys were taking them," Gwynn says. "They were everywhere. If you wanted them you could get 'em."

The show also features a segment looking back at the life of late Red Sox star Tony Conigliaro, an interview with NBA commissioner David Stern and a baseball discussion with actor Billy Crystal (you didn't expect Costas to go cold turkey on the celebrities, did you?).

If that lineup sounds like an episode of Real Sports, it's because, well, it does.

Costas will try to distinguish his program by incorporating debate. An admitted fan of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, his first show will have a roundtable discussion featuring some of the biggest mouths in sports: Charles Barkley, Cris Collinsworth and John McEnroe.

Costas also said he will opine as well on anything that strikes him at the moment, but the key will be keeping the show loose and focusing on what we want to see him talk about: sports.

Welcome back.

[Last modified May 13, 2005, 00:57:16]