BOB FISHMAN

Lead Director, NCAA Basketball

Director, NFL ON CBS

Bob Fishman joined CBS Sports in 1975 and has served as lead director of CBS Sports’ college basketball coverage, including the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship and Final Four since 1982. Fishman also serves as a director for the Network’s coverage of the NFL, which he has done for more than three decades.

Inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2019, Fishman has compiled an impressive list of accomplishments. He has earned 16 Emmy Awards, including six for the NCAA basketball tournament, as well as for the Daytona 500, U.S. Open Tennis, NFL football, THE NFL TODAY and the World Series. Fishman also has earned two Eclipse Awards for horse racing coverage, and three Directors Guild of America awards.

Fishman was the lead director for CBS Sports’ coverage of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships for 27 years (1988-2014) and directed figure skating at the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Olympic Winter Games, as well as the ’98 Nagano, Japan Opening Ceremony. His auto racing credits include 20 years at the Daytona 500 (1979-2000) as well as many other NASCAR races, and Formula One Detroit Grand Prix. Fishman was the first American director to utilize the Race Cam (remote controlled in-car cameras) when the technology was introduced to the U.S. by Australian engineers.  

During his tenure at CBS Sports, he has directed the World Series (1992-93) and for many years, the NBA playoffs, The Belmont Stakes, college football, the original NFL TODAY, CBS SPORTS SPECTACULAR anthology show, and countless horse races from coast-to-coast. Fishman also directed swimming and track and field at three Pan American Games.

He has directed various CBS primetime skating specials, including the “Ice Wars” series, “Scott Hamilton, Back on the Ice” and in 1996, was nominated in the DGA’s Music and Variety category for “Sergei Grinkov, Celebration of a Life.” Fishman also co-produced and directed “Dolphins, Whales and Us,” a CBS entertainment documentary, which was awarded the international Cine Golden Eagle award.

Fishman began his career at CBS News as a production assistant in 1972 before moving over to CBS Sports in 1975.