The 2024 Paris Olympics will have a different look for TV viewers.
Casey Wasserman, the chairman of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast last week to talk about a number of issues, including his group’s work on those games. But he also touched on NBC’s plans for the upcoming 2024 Games. NBCUniversal holds the U.S. rights to Olympics telecasts with the IOC through 2032.
Wasserman, a sports agent and entertainment executive, said NBC is giving the games a “reality show” makeover to reflect changing times. After all, the network can’t broadcast prime-time coverage of events that happened hours earlier and act as if no one knows the results.
“NBC is not going to pretend like it’s live anymore,” Wasserman said. “What they’re going to do is treat it like a reality show. So reality TV, the magic is in the editing and telling the story of what you know is happening. … so the three hours of prime time is going to be reality-like storytelling to create the drama and the story to produce the event.”
“At 3 in the afternoon, we might not watch the swimming live in LA, but you’ll still watch that night because of the way it’s packaged, even though we know the result.”
NBC had already announced Snoop Dogg will be part of its prime-time reporting.
Wasserman also said the games are way ahead of schedule in many ways, especially financially. And that’s important, he notes, because, “We are the only country on earth that supplies no public support for its Olympic efforts.”
“The biggest positive … that continues to get validated, is the power of this country’s passion for and willing to spend and support big sporting events,” Wasserman said. “We have more revenue today contracted than Paris will generate total, and we’re four years from the game. So the revenue has done what we thought.
“It has been really great … and people are genuinely excited and genuinely engaged for what it means for the Olympics to come back, especially for a city like LA.”
