NBC hopes the Olympics’ return to Paris will get fans to return to watching

NEW YORK — When was the last time you cared about an Olympics?

Not just knew they were happening, or watched a little when you had time, but really cared. The way millions of Americans did for so many years when they turned on NBC in prime time, greeted by that grand old music and views of the host city’s skyline.

If it feels like it’s been a while, it’s not just you. It’s a lot of people, and NBC knows it.

“As habits have changed, as society has changed a little bit, it’s hard to ‘go away’ for four years and expect people to come back with that same level of passion,” Mike Tirico, NBC’s top Olympics host, told The Inquirer on Wednesday at the network’s preview event.

“The top of the marquee for about a decade [was], give or take, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt — two of the best all-time, the likes of which we hadn’t really seen in this kind of televised, modern era, [a] star-making era,” Tirico said. “So that was an adjustment. And then the second part was, three Games in a row in Asia, the last two with COVID and no fans [in attendance], really just took the joy and energy out of it.”

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Those were, in order, the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the 2020-turned-2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The time-zone difference to Asia never helps, but the last two really did feel like something was missing.

That makes it eight years since 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and that does feel like a long time.

NBC hopes this summer will be different. Paris, which previously hosted the Olympics in 1900 and 1924, is the site of Europe’s first Olympics in 12 years, with scenes that will be familiar and special in one of the world’s great cities.

“I think it’s the perfect time for Paris, because Paris is one of two things: either you’ve been there and can’t wait to go back, or you’ve always wanted to go there,” Tirico said. “I think the ability to have 17 days and nights of that as a background is going to create a connection and will maybe get more people back in the tent. … I think it needs a boost, and I think it’s in a pretty good position to be boosted.”

NBC’s main studio set will be near the Place du Trocadéro in the heart of Paris, right across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower. But the unmissable backdrop isn’t the only reason that’s the site.

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“You never get sick of that view, so we knew we wanted to be there,” NBC Olympics executive producer Molly Solomon said. “But we also wanted to be there because it’s the heart of the Olympics: [the] opening ceremony stadium there, all the road races are going to finish right there, so is beach volleyball. So we definitely wanted to put our hosts that were in Paris at the heart of the action, and that’s the Trocadéro area.”

It also won’t be the first time American TV viewers see a network set up shop there for a sports event. Fox used the same location as its studio base during the 2019 women’s soccer World Cup, and former Fox World Cup executive producer David Neal used to work with Solomon on NBC’s Olympics production.

“I had watched what they did, and I knew it was a beautiful spot,” Solomon said. “So I called David and asked him about it, and he told us about everything we would have to do to get this spot up and running. He was very helpful to help us navigate all this, and I think it’s going to be a beautiful set.”

There will be more than 7,000 hours of coverage across TV and online streaming, from seven traditional channels to NBC’s Olympics website and Peacock. There will be celebrity correspondents from Snoop Dogg to Philly native Kevin Hart to Newtown-born Instagram and podcast star Alex Cooper.

There will even be a customizable highlights feature in Peacock with the voice of famed broadcaster Al Michaels generated through artificial intelligence.

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For the first time, NBC’s big broadcast network will have all-day live coverage on weekdays, not just weekends. And you won’t have to wait until prime time to see the headline events from gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and so on. NBC has pledged to air them live instead of holding them for the traditional prime time show.

“We’re going to have more hours on broadcast television than we’ve ever had before,” NBCUniversal Media Group chairman Mark Lazarus said on stage. “That’s maybe surprising, but not new to us, [as] broadcast is such a big and important part of what we do.”

Track in particular could get a boost from that coverage. It’s been a centerpiece sport of the Olympics since the Greeks started the whole thing centuries ago but has badly lacked star power since Bolt’s retirement.

Now here come American sprinters Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles, full of talent and charisma. And in Richardson’s case, a huge storyline: She was controversially barred from the Toyko Games when she tested positive for THC, the main ingredient in marijuana, after winning the 100 meters at that year’s U.S. Olympic trials.

“It’s still one of the great events at any meet,” said Tirico, who hosted coverage of this year’s trials in prime time on NBC since last week. “I think to have not just great talents, but also big personalities in those two events is additive, and I think they’re the real deal in both of those regards. … It feels like that kind of leads the way for America’s interest in the sport.”

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As for the rest of NBC’s outlets, USA Network will have Olympics coverage live or delayed 24 hours a day throughout the Games, and events will also be televised on CNBC, E!, and Golf Channel. Spanish-language coverage will air on broadcast network Telemundo and cable channel Universo.

Everything will be livestreamed on Peacock, NBC’s subscription streaming service, and free on NBC’s Olympics website for authenticated cable and satellite subscribers. If you have a Comcast Xfinity X1 box, you’ll be able to go straight to specific events within that, and this time similar functions will be built into other companies’ boxes.

At the last summer Olympics, three years ago in Tokyo, NBC promised to put everything on Peacock but backtracked on doing it all live. This time, Lazarus said, it all really will be live — and he made a surprising admission about the last time.

“In Tokyo, frankly, we didn’t do a very good job for our customers,” he said. “We didn’t exactly deliver what we said we were going to deliver, and we have learned a lot from that. This time, everything will be available on Peacock, including some bonus shows and specialty shows.”

One of those shows will be a four-events-at-once multiview, curated by NBC to pick the top action going on at any given hour.

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