From NBC Sports Researcher to Executive Producer of The Olympic Games, Molly Solomon Talks Paris 2024
July 16, 2024
As Executive Producer & President, NBC Olympics & Paralympics Production, Molly Solomon is responsible for all day-to-day editorial production of NBCUniversal's coverage of the Games. Molly began her career at NBCUniversal as one of two researchers for its Emmy-winning coverage of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Following eleven years as executive producer at the Golf Channel, she came full circle to her current role. The Paris Olympics will be Molly’s 14th Olympic Games.
Tell us about NBCUniversal’s unique history with the Olympic Games?
This summer in Paris marks NBCUniversal's 19th Olympic broadcast. This will be our 10th Summer Olympics and boy, there have been some great ones. This year will continue to build on our company’s 88-year legacy with the games. The first Olympics covered was in 1936 over the radio - it reached 41 countries while our first tv broadcast of the Games had just 14 hours of coverage. This year, we will present more than 7,000 hours of content. So, we’ve come a long way.
What is it about the Paris 2024 Games that is garnering so much excitement?
I think after two COVID impacted Olympics, we haven't had an Summer Games in their full glory with full stadiums, friends and families in attendance since 2016. I think the world's ready for what we call a full-throated Olympics in Paris. And when you think about the Summer Olympics, is there any city better than Paris? Paris is inspirational, aspirational.
They're going to use the historic landmarks of the city as venues. You combine all of that with the romanticism, the artistry, the flair of Paris. What an amazing backdrop for an Olympics.
As viewing habits have changed, how are we meeting audiences wherever they are with the Olympics?
The breadth of the Olympics requires that we use the expansiveness of NBCUniversal’s portfolio to showcase the Games. Audiences will be able to watch on NBC everyday with at least nine hours of live daytime coverage and at night with with our re-imagined Primetime in Paris – which will deliver in-depth storytelling every single night. You may know what happened, but we'll tell you why it happened.
Peacock will be the U.S. streaming home of the 2024 Paris Olympics, providing fans with the most-comprehensive Olympic destination in U.S. media history. In a Summer Games first, the service will stream every sport and event, including all 329 medal events. Our cable networks like USA Network, E!, CNBC, GOLF Channel, and two specialty channels will present live action and programming throughout the Olympics as well.
Marking 20 years of Olympic coverage on Telemundo, the network will present the most extensive Olympic coverage in Spanish-language media history with more programming hours than ever before across Telemundo, Universo and Peacock.
Fans can head to the theatre with unique experiences watching the Opening Ceremony at IMAX theatres or live daytime programming at AMC theatres. So truly everybody comes together to support the Olympics, showcase the Olympics, and it really gives the fan, the viewer everything that they want.
How does NBCU use their production expertise to broadcast the ultimate live event such as the Olympics?
What I love about the Olympics is what I love about sports television, is that it's about a team. And three years ago, we started to put together this vision on how to present the Paris Olympics. This year, we will be producing more than 7,000 hours of coverage across linear and streaming.
The games require a real bicontinental effort – we will have a team in Paris, but we’re also going to be in the U.S., mostly in Stamford, CT at our state-of-the-art production facility. We’ve learned so many lessons throughout the years about remote technology and how we can do this. It is a very complex operation, but we are really putting all our resources together where viewers will see it come to life on the screen.
From a production standpoint, I'm most excited about the Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 26th. It truly is a moving parade down a river. We're going to be covering more than 90 boats of athletes, and all the entertainment is going to be happening on the river, on rooftops, on bridges. It's truly a moveable feast, and I think it's the most complex television event ever staged.
The team is going to be 3000 people strong in July. I'm so proud of the ups and the downs and it's never perfect, but in the end, it's meaningful and there's not that many events in the world that are meaningful to the entire country.
NBCUniversal has incredible talent partnerships from Alex Cooper to Snoop Dogg, and more. Why is it important for NBCU to collaborate with talent from both within the organization and outside to bring the games to life?
When you think about what the Paris organizers are doing, they're really throwing the world's biggest party with the Opening Ceremony on the river Siene.
You'll also see that in our presentation we're thinking differently. When we started thinking about the kinds of announcers and the new voices we wanted to have in our coverage, the first thing we thought about is who can really appeal to so many different generations? How can we entertain you and tell you the stories of the athletes?
We looked at Kelly Clarkson, Peyton Manning, Mike Tirico, let's band them all together. Jimmy Fallon. Leslie Jones. Maria Taylor. Michael Phelps. Alex Cooper. Let's bring Savannah and Hoda and of course, our newest correspondent, Snoop Dogg. So really, we're thinking about all these different groups. And of course, you do know that Sesame Street is coming too, right? I think it's really going to be an entertaining way to bring the stories of the athletes to life.
Can you walk us through how NBCUniversal is partnering with the creator community to bring the games to life on social platforms?
Continuing its efforts to reach Olympic fans of all generations, NBCUniversal unveiled its first-of-its-kind “Paris Creator Collective” for its coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. NBCUniversal, in partnership with Meta, Overtime, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, has developed a multi-platform social creator program that will empower 27 engaging creators to tell the stories of the Games through their eyes with unprecedented on-the-ground access in Paris.
What moments are you most excited for?
This is the most stacked U.S. team in recent memory. I mean, the first week we are going to be watching the return of Simone Biles. Watching her is like watching a legend and you want to be a part of it -- it reminds me of watching Michael Jordan when he played basketball in Barcelona. If you like to watch greatness, you've got to watch Katie Ledecky. She could emerge from these games as the greatest female swimmer of all time.
The second week of the Olympics is when track and field takes center stage and Team U.S.A. is probably the best in a generation. I know I'm throwing around superlatives, but the U.S. has two of the fastest people on the planet in Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson. I can't wait to see if they can win the Olympic 100m during that medal weekend.
And of course, the second week is also about teams. In basketball, the U.S. men's basketball team has LeBron, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry who is making his Olympic debut which will be can’t miss television. Don't sleep on the U.S. women's basketball team either who are the most accomplished team in the Games. They are going for their eighth straight gold medal. No team in any sport in Olympic history has ever been able to achieve that, so it's remarkable.
I could go on and on and on, but you know what my favorite part of the Olympics is? That athlete you never knew anything about that emerges and kind of steals your heart.
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