LOS ANGELES – Gold medal winners aren’t the only celebrities expected at this year’s Olympic Games. Snoop Dogg, Kevin Hart, Kenan Thompson, Kelly Clarkson, Leslie Jones, Peyton Manning and Jimmy Fallon will be part of the contingent NBC puts in the venues to tell the story of runners, gymnasts, swimmers and other athletes hoping to make history. The action begins July 24 with coverage of soccer games on USA.
The additions are expected to add new reasons to tune into the primetime broadcasts, when NBC and Peacock have already shown the events live during the day. Snoop Dogg, left, and Mike Tirico will be part of the broadcast team for the 2024 Olympic Games on NBC. The three-hour nightly “curated presentation,” as Executive Producer Molly Solomon calls it, will recap each day’s top performances on NBC and include a host of extras.
“We’re going to be blasting off with ‘Gold Medals’ at 7 p.m. and then we’re going to infuse our storytelling with more behind-the-scenes access, more athlete-generated content and more onscreen technology that will help the viewer appreciate these magnificent athletes,” Solomon says.
“You may know what happened but we’re going to tell you why it happened and advance the story in primetime.” On Peacock, viewers will get “every moment, every medal, every network and cable simulcast,” Solomon says. “Peacock will be the greatest single Olympics destination in U.
S. media history.” Snoop Dogg will be a roving reporter at the Olympic Games.
Translation: That will be the place for hardcore Olympics fans. Snoop, meanwhile, will serve as a roving reporter, dropping into venues and talking with athletes and families. “It’s a time where the whole world can come together and cheer for their countries, cheer for certain athletes,” says the award-winning rapper.
“At the same time, we come together as one as America. A lot of times in the world, it’s always division and separation but this is a chance for the world to be on one page. It’s like a peace offering.
” Because Snoop has a wide fan base (and a beat of his own), he plans to shake up something that’s very traditional, “bringing my flavor. We’re just having fun.” Rowdy Gaines, an Olympic gold medal winner in swimming and longtime NBC commentator, says the Games are a way to give athletes who don’t have a Super Bowl or World Series a bit of the spotlight.
“It’s a four-year journey,” he says. It represents “the pinnacle of our success.” Snoop, he adds, may spend years producing a record “and when you put a record together, you’re all in.
” Snoop Dogg, "The Voice" and special correspondent for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games visits with Donna Langley, chairman, NBCU Studio Group & chief content officer. The key, Snoop Dogg says, is to work hard. “To be an Olympic athlete takes a lot.
I look forward to being around them. I’ve been working out myself,” he jokes, “so in case they need a hand or a foot or an arm, I’m available.” While professionals like Gaines will handle the calls (many of them at the venues, not at U.
S. locations), the celebrities will get to share their reactions to the results. A group of social media influencers, Solomon says, will help tell the story in a different way.
“We’re going to have a lot of different flavors of our social coverage. Each night, it'll be pushed to primetime.” If a story breaks during the Olympics, Solomon’s team will be ready to react quickly.
“We have like 10 ENG crews just ready to respond to the next great story,” she says. “We’re ready to pivot, but it all starts with a great plan.” While live coverage is exciting, “it don’t matter where you’re at,” Snoop Dogg says.
“You got the spirit...
you do what you do, from the living room, from the broadcast booth.” From left, Molly Solomon, executive producer and president, Olympics Production; Snoop Dogg and Rowdy Gaines, swimming analyst. Because of the six-hour time difference between the United States and Paris, most events will occur during the afternoon here.
From 1 to 4 p.m. central time, marquee events will take place.
Then, in the evening, viewers who aren’t home during the day will get the recaps. “We’re going to be at 243 live hours on NBC,” Solomon says. “That lets us make sure we’re going to reach the broadest possible audience with this Olympics.
” The three hours of “turnaround time,” she adds, will let producers talk to families, coaches and athletes to “advance the stories. Imagine if Snoop was also at the venue. We can weave all that into the storytelling.
” Complete coverage of the Summer Olympics begins July 26 on NBC and Peacock. Bruce Miller is editor of the Sioux City Journal. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!.
