NBCUniversal is testing a new game for the Paris Olympics.
The Comcast-backed media group has for years launched each Summer Games with prime-time coverage of the opening ceremonies typically featuring a prominent sportscaster like Mike Tirico or Bob Costas alongside a popular news anchor like Savannah Guthrie or Katie Couric. In 2024, the company will explode this format.
Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning will co-host the glitzy launch of NBC’s 17-day Olympics coverage alongside Tirico, with Guthrie and her “Today” show co-host, Hoda Kotb, reporting on the spectacle — a parade of boats on the Seine River — side by side. The Road. The move adds some celebrity power to broadcast at a time when more TV networks are trying to broaden the appeal of their sports portfolios and attract new audiences to games and competitions of all types — and amortize the costly rights fees required to show them in the process.
“We all bring something different to the table,” Clarkson says, sitting on the couch between Manning and Tirico on the set of “The Kelly Clarkson Show” Tuesday afternoon. “I’m a fan of the group.”
Organizers of the 2024 Olympics in Paris are “really rolling out the rules of the game,” Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production, said during an interview at NBC headquarters in Manhattan on Tuesday. Opening ceremonies “no longer exist in a stadium with all the pomp and circumstance. Instead, they’re trying to do what would be a unique presentation.” Solomon says that prompted NBC to try what is a radically new concept for the Olympics. “It’s like a Macy’s Thanksgiving parade or a New Year’s Eve parade,” Solomon says. “More than a traditional celebration.” “Let’s have a lot of different voices here.”
NBC has many reasons to experiment. Comcast and NBCU are in the midst of a $7.75 billion deal that gives them U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics between 2021 and 2032. But those dollars are spent as viewer behavior changes. NBC will stream all the Olympics events live on its Peacock streaming hub as they happen, but then must also gather a large crowd to watch a coordinated prime-time presentation. To do this, the company is enlisting Snoop Dogg to add to the night’s proceedings, and is expected to unveil other developments that will make the Olympics an event that will appeal to more than just sports fans.
Others have followed the same path as the cost of sports rights has risen. Paramount Global’s CBS affiliate has offered three different spin-offs of Super Bowl LVIII this year — one aimed directly at kids on the Nickelodeon cable network. ESPN and Disney’s ABC have come up with two ways to cover the NFL Draft. The ESPN broadcast is for die-hard fans, while the ABC version provides entertainment along with inspiring stories for college hopefuls.
NBC is betting that Manning and Clarkson will help build a high-volume crowd from the start. The duo offers “Grand Slam Connections” to viewers watching the celebrations in the United States. Tirico says.
Producers expect Clarkson to provide human interest stories and details. The musician and presenter says she’s interested “first and foremost in how people overcome circumstances, how they get to where they are, especially at this level,” she says. “I love being a fan of that and being able to experience that with them, not just the single most important moment when they’re playing volleyball or playing whatever sport or event they’re a part of, but also how they got there, and what it took to get there. I’m the one Who sits at home and cries with everyone touched by his energy. Feels their loss if they don’t get what they wanted to do.
Manning says he expects to give viewers insight into the athlete’s competition process. He expects to spend some time over the next few months visiting sports tryouts and watching aspiring American players, such as shot putter Ryan Crozier, to learn about their strategies and struggles. “In the sports I’ve played, if you have a bad year, let’s bounce back and start the next year,” he says. When it comes to the Olympics, he says, athletes may never get another chance to compete. “I have great respect for these athletes, and I’m interested in getting into the mind of the athletes, what they’re thinking.”
NBC has been working on this concept for months. Tirico first brought the idea to Manning while they were attending events around the Kentucky Derby last May. The sportscaster told the football great that executives were “kind of shaking things up at the opening ceremony,” Manning recalls, and were going to reach out to Clarkson to pique her interest.
Manning, whose presence in popular culture has expanded significantly in recent years, says he’s excited about what he sees as a new challenge. In recent years he has taken over the so-called “ManningCast,” a chatty companion to ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” while hosting a new version of Peacock’s “College Bowl” as well as co-hosting ABC’s broadcast of the annual CMA. Awards in 2023. He launched his own company, Omaha Productions, which is gaining traction with a variety of unscripted and sports-themed programming.
But he’s eager to try out concepts that embody some of his interests, including comedy and country music. “I enjoy taking on different projects that take me out of my comfort zone,” he says. Maybe he and Clarkson will shake NBC out of its usual routine, too.