As Team USA athletes work to bring home accolades at the Olympic Games, the 2024 Paris Olympics have set records for viewership across NBC platforms back home in the United States. Oftentimes, viewership is tied to success. More people will view NBC’s coverage if there are more American athletes to be proud of in the Olympics.
However, while Team USA continues to put up another dominant showing at the current Olympics, they are not any more or less remarkable than they have been in the past. NBC is just doing things differently.
Athletes becoming more and more reliant on individuality and personal brands is playing a role as well. Team USA has found the athletes they want to build their marketing campaigns around and has pushed the likes of Simone Biles, Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Katie Ledecky accordingly. But the eyes of American broadcast and streaming platforms are firmly on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. So, NBC made three major moves to bring in a younger audience.
The Gold Zone
If you are an NFL football fan, it may have come as some kind of shock to see Scott Hanson on your screen in July. Hanson, one of the most beloved hosts in American sports, is the anchor of NFL Red Zone, which airs on Sundays in the fall. For over a decade, Red Zone has provided the ideal football-watching experience to NFL junkies. The show bounces from game to game without commercial breaks, promising viewers a look at every touchdown from every game.
NBC has taken the concept of the Red Zone, as well as its illustrious host, and applied it to the Olympics. Instead of “seven hours of commercial-free football,” the Gold Zone provides ten hours of bounce-around style Olympic coverage (with commercials) on Peacock. The coverage emphasizes American athletes for the American audience and does not miss a gold medal moment. Hanson is one of four hosts: Andrew Siciliano, Matt Iseman, and Jac Collinsworth. The four of them rotate throughout the ten-hour period.
Why Gold Zone?
The Gold Zone is a stroke of genius by NBC. It takes away all decisions that the viewer has to make. There is no need to prioritize one event or athlete over another. Just have a Peacock subscription and let Hanson, Siciliano, Iseman, or Collinsworth show you what you need to be shown. Not only does the Gold Zone make viewing easier, but it also makes the viewer watch events they otherwise would not consider watching. This exposes American audiences to a maximum number of Olympic athletes, creating more buzz for the LA Olympics in ’28.
The newness of all of these athletes and events coming at you at once, combined with Americans’ familiarity with the Red Zone format, provides an ideal viewing experience. You can just have the Gold Zone on in the background and never miss a thing as the program moves quickly enough to keep up with Gen Z’s short attention spans.
Alex Cooper
Another major move NBC made was hiring renowned podcaster Alex Cooper to host “Watch with Alex Cooper” on Peacock. The host of one of the biggest podcasts in the world, “Call Her Daddy,” Cooper hosts a watch-along show that takes a more informal approach to the Olympics. The show is filmed in Paris and features social media reactions and guests.
Fans of “Call Her Daddy” and sports fans don’t have much overlap in terms of interests. But that’s exactly the point. Cooper has curated a mostly female fanbase that will follow her on whatever endeavor she takes on. “Call Her Daddy” is more of a, shall we say, lifestyle podcast. But, if Cooper wants to dive into the Olympics, millions will follow.
If you were to choose one person to bring in an entirely new audience to Olympic viewership, Alex Cooper would have to be one of the top choices. It can’t be overstated how valuable it is for a legacy broadcasting network like NBC to have incoming viewership from a primarily young and female demographic. Cooper is also a great interviewer and has no issues sitting down with famous and prominent people. She has the intelligence and charisma to hold an audience. Cooper also brings enough personality to her show that athletes and other guests will want to talk to her. She speaks the language of Gen Z, and that is crucial for NBC.
Snoop Dogg
One of the most famous musicians of all time, Snoop Dogg, was a prominent feature on Peacock’s coverage of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. He hosted a reaction show with world-famous comedian Kevin Hart. Due to his lovable nature and ability to shatter the unintentional comedy scale, NBC has brought Snoop back in a greater role in 2024.
Whereas he was streaming from a studio in 2021, Snoop is now boots on the ground at the Paris Games. He has been NBC and Peacock’s utility man. Snoop has popped up at every event imaginable and has been the focal point of so much content. He has tried French food with his good friend Martha Stewart and hung out with the US Men’s Basketball team. He’s even lent a hand and broken down complicated sports for the layman with Mike Tirico.
What makes Snoop such an asset to NBC is his positive energy. He shows nothing but love to all of the athletes he comes across and is always open to new experiences. His outlook on life is one that viewers aspire to have. He is recognizable to seemingly every athlete he meets. And yet, Snoop seems just as excited to meet them as they are to meet him.
LA28
Despite seeing his musical prime in the 1990s, young people love Snoop. However, now they know him more as a personality than a musician. Similar to Hanson on Gold Zone, there is a familiarity that comes with Snoop. Americans who are new to the Olympics trust that he will guide them safely on a journey through Paris. That familiarity will likely be harnessed again when the Olympics head to Los Angeles, Snoop’s homeland.
NBC has long had the broadcasting rights to the Olympics in the United States, which has led to some of the most iconic moments in sports history being broadcasted on their network. Yet, in order to attract youth and prepare America for LA28, NBC had to search outside of the games themselves for viewers. The results speak for themselves, and we can’t wait to see how a new audience carries over into 2028.
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