Olympics 2024: NBC Sports relieved to have buzz of fans back for Paris Games

Televising an NFL game in an empty, COVID-era stadium was one thing. Viewers still knew the players and history, and they still could bet or play fantasy football.

But for NBC, the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and Beijing in ‘22 were an impossible creative challenge, a party with no guests and muted sounds and colors.

The atmosphere was the opposite of what traditionally attracts casual sports fans to the Games.

That is what has made the runup to Paris 2024 such “a relief and a tremendous amount of excitement,” as NBCUniversal Media Group chairman Mark Lazarus said on Wednesday.

This was at an event at Studio 8H, the famed home of “Saturday Night Live” at 30 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, to promote NBC’s coverage of the Olympics in France, one month out from the July 26 Opening Ceremony.

NBC did what it could in ’21 and ’22, focusing on connecting athletes with their families back home via video. But there was no getting around the downer of those empty, pandemic-era stadiums.

“It lacked buzz, vibe and fans in the stands,” NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said. “Paris changes all that in a big way.”

Olympics host Mike Tirico told Newsday one of his favorite moments in 2021 was the reaction to swimmer Lydia Jacoby winning the 100-meter breaststroke from her family and friends back home in Seward, Alaska.

He remembered thinking “how cool that was, but how sad it was” that she could not share the triumph in person.

“Now at the [Olympic] trials to see real hugs, people running to their families,” he said, “that’s real.”

Tirico added, “To have sat in a speedskating venue in China and been one of 63 people in the venue who were not competing, it’s going to be such a difference . . . For us, personally in production and broadcasting the games, that energy will make all of us better.”

Lazarus said the coverage in Tokyo and Beijing was further compromised by the inability of NBC personnel to get up-close access to the athletes themselves.

“Now we have people sitting down and getting real emotion and understanding,” he said. “That’s a big part of the Games for us and always has been – introducing people to athletes who maybe they didn’t know before the Games.”

The fact the Games are in Paris figures to add to the festive mood, assuming all goes well with logistics and security.

“I think we can’t underplay the impact that people in the building are going to have, especially in Paris,” Tirico said, “because I think Americans will be there, Europeans will be there. People can get there. So it’s going to add to it.”

This will be the first Olympics in Western Europe since London in 2012, which while it is attractive for American tourists brings with it time-zone challenges.

Paris is six hours ahead of New York, so events in prime time there are in the afternoon here, and prime time here is in the wee morning hours there.

NBC hopes to give viewers the best of both worlds by showing major events live, then coming back at night with a carefully produced show that adds elements to the earlier live coverage for prime-time American viewers.

Molly Solomon, president of NBC Olympics production, called it a “two-pronged approach.”

“The competition day will be complete [by evening here], but that’s giving us an opportunity to create the greatest three-hour curated show every night,” she said.

Viewers will have two ways to watch everything at the Games live.

Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, will carry every event, plus additional original programming.

NBCOlympics.com will have every event live also, for viewers who authenticate through their TV provider.

Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, NBC’s parent company, introduced a new tech wrinkle in the form of a daily highlights package that can be generated for an individual consumer, right down to using their name.

It is voiced by Al Michaels, or at least an artificial intelligence-generated version of his voice.

NBC will send about 1,100 people to France, including 75 commentators and 90 video crews. Another 1,800 will work out of its Stamford, Connecticut, facilities, including some announcing crews.

“COVID accelerated out of necessity our capability and confidence in production from our headquarters,” NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel said.

But the biggest events will be called on-site – where the athletes, and now the fans, are.

“I think it will change the entire tone of the competition,” said gymnastics analyst Laurie Hernandez, who competed before fans in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

“The energy is fed off the cheers and the excitement and the passion that each country has for their own athletes that they’re watching . . . I’m excited we get to witness that energy again this summer.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.