Gumbel Ponders Post-Olympic Life

“Today” or not “Today”? That is the question looming for Bryant Gumbel as he looks beyond the duties he will perform for NBC here as prime-time studio host during the XXIV Summer Olympic Games Sept. 17-Oct. 2.

Gumbel’s contract with NBC expires Dec. 2, two months after the Games conclude, and it has been reported that the Olympics could be his last hurrah for the network before he trades in “Today” for a new tomorrow somewhere else.

“I’m a grown man and I should be able to make a decision, but I haven’t yet,” he said Wednesday, in answer to a barrage of questions from American journalists here for a pre-Olympic press tour.

NBC executives, he said, have been gracious in letting him know he would be welcomed back and that they will do what is necessary to make that happen.

But “part of the problem is that the ‘Today’ show is right here,” he explained, holding his hand in front of his face. “You say goodby, and you’re 24 hours from the next show.

“On those days when you’ve had a wonderful day, you’d like to do it forever, but on those days when you’ve sat across from Garrison Keillor, James Earl Jones or Jeane Kirkpatrick, you say, ‘Let me out of here. This has been one day too long.’ ”

He was asked about a deadline for making a decision (“It doesn’t do any good to create artificial deadlines”), about what he might want to do (“I don’t know . . . . I didn’t envision doing ‘Today’ until someone presented it as a possibility”) and if he would trade jobs with anyone in TV (“No”).

“I do things until I’m not challenged or excited by them and they stop giving me satisfaction. Then I start wondering what might,” he said. “I do not necessarily think being in front of a television camera is my life’s work. There are a lot of things to do out there.”

Gumbel is in his seventh year as host of NBC’s early morning “Today” show. In the 37 years the program has been on the air, only Hugh Downs (nine years) and Dave Garroway (eight years) were at the helm longer.