The Paris Olympics have put NBC and its employees in a mighty good mood.
Walking through NBC Sports’ headquarters midway through the games, one could almost feel the energy and good vibes.
And not just because of the live music and s’more-making in fire pits by the Eiffel Tower. No, not that Eiffel Tower. In a courtyard outside its Stamford, Connecticut, headquarters – the production home of the games — NBC constructed a scale model of the Paris landmark, where it sits next to gigantic Olympic rings.
It’s easy to understand why everyone is so cheerful (even if they are covering the Olympics from 3,600 miles away): The Olympics have their groove back. After the COVID-19 pandemic led to a muted 2020 and 2022 games (with empty arenas and families left at home), Paris has been a shot in the arm for the games.
The Paris Olympics have consistently delivered more than 30 million viewers each day of the games, according to data provided by Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, and the ratings are up by more than 75 percent compared to the Tokyo Olympics, which were held in 2021.
But while the Paris Olympics are ending, NBC executives are already thinking about the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, and of course the 2028 games, which will be held in Los Angeles. And what they learned from Paris will play a pivotal role in covering those games.
“The Olympics are our billion-dollar lab,” says Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal media group.
By far the biggest takeaway was that letting viewers watch events live did not seem to impact the primetime viewership. Molly Solomon, the executive producer and president of production for NBC Olympics, calls every games “a new puzzle” to put together.
“It doesn’t matter if they know the results. They want to know the stories of the athletes and how it played out,” Solomon says, though she adds that she is “really, really excited about the Pacific time zone and being live in L.A. So, we’ll see how the sports schedules work out.”
“But we take advantage of every time zone that the Olympics are in and figure out how can we make it resonate with the American people,” she adds. “And I think we found a perfect recipe for the European time zone [in Paris], and we can’t wait to apply this to Milano Cortina in 2026.”
“Historically, the fear has been if results were known people would tune out and go somewhere else,” adds NBC Sports president Rick Cordella. “But when you add the entertainment level that we’ve added to the prime time show, we’re seeing people come back and see it in a different light.”
A big piece of that puzzle was Gold Zone, the Peacock streaming show that sees hosts zooming from one event to the next, one gold medal after another. The program seems to have resonated with fans, making it likely to return for future games, even if they are in a more favorable time zone (no one can watch 40 events at once, after all.
Julian Finney/Getty Images
“I’ve had more people say, I don’t really watch the Olympics, but I’m watching this, and I really do wonder if this is the evolution of where sports productions go,” says Amy Rosenfeld, senior vp Olympic production for NBC Sports.
The other piece of the Paris puzzle that is all-but-guaranteed to be present in L.A.: The star factor. Celebrities like Tom Cruise, Tom Brady, Ariana Grande and Flavor Flav were heavily featured in NBC’s coverage, even if they were just watching events in the crowd.
“So many celebrities are attending, sports figures are coming, and we’ve integrated that into our presentation,” Solomon says. “It’s the fact that everyone wants to be there, and that’s reflected in what we’re doing.”
Suffice it to say, L.A. will bring plenty of star power.
NBC has also done its best to bring its own celebrities into the fray, from Peyton Manning and Kelly Clarkson co-hosting the opening ceremonies, to Snoop Dogg, who is working as an NBC correspondent during the games.
Could Snoop return in his hometown four years from now? NBC executives don’t rule it out.
“Everybody wants to meet Snoop, take a selfie with Snoop and just be around Snoop,” Solomon says. “You never ever underestimate Snoop Dogg. He’s this wonderful mix of swagger and positivity and just the charisma and vibes are so positive. And he’s got this curiosity about the Olympics that is undeniable.”
The one thing that is certain is that there will be new experiments in future games. Anything to keep people engaged.
“We’re going to change the times. Look at 2024, look at 2028, moving forward to 2032, we’ll change along with it,” Cordella says. “We may have the same conversation in 2032, ‘Why did you do what you did back in 2024?’”
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Rick Porter contributed to this report.
A version of this story appeared in the Aug. 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.