Snoop Dogg Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Will celebs get your attention for Olympics? NBC is betting on it

By Zach Wadley | Last updated 7/1/24

What do Snoop Dogg, Peyton Manning and Kelly Clarkson all have in common? Serving as broadcasters for the Olympics. As NBC prepares for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, beginning with the July 26 opening ceremony, the network is increasingly tapping into celebrities as part of its coverage.

Manning and Clarkson will join Mike Tirico for the opening ceremony, and Tirico will be joined by Jimmy Fallon for the closing ceremony. Olympic Highlights With Kevin Hart And Kenan Thompson will be a featured part of the network's coverage on Peacock, while Snoop Dogg and Leslie Jones will serve as correspondents on the ground in Paris.

Besides the celebrities, several former Olympic greats like Michael Phelps, Misty May-Treanor and Dwyane Wade will be part of NBC's coverage.

After Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg provided some viral moments during the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, NBC is hoping the expanded celebrity cameos will lead to higher viewership.

Snoop Dogg commentating the steeplechase is ELECTRIC! #TrackFieldTrials24 @SnoopDogg pic.twitter.com/0Ryvee4fju
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) June 24, 2024

The network is coming off of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, which reached 11.4 million people in primetime on NBC, USA Network and Peacock. That was the lowest-ever American audience for any Olympics, and down 42% from the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018.

The Summer Games haven't fared any better. The Tokyo Summer Olympics averaged 15.6 million viewers per night, which at the time made it the least-watched primetime Olympics on record, Summer or Winter. The Tokyo audience was a 42 percent drop in viewership from the 2016 Rio Games (27 million) and a 50 percent decrease from the 2012 London Games (31.1 million).

An optimist's view is that NBC's struggles have coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, causing the Tokyo Games to be delayed a year, and undesirable time changes from the Games host city. Combining the Summer and Winter Olympics, the last three host cities have all been at least 12 hours ahead of Eastern time. Paris is six hours ahead, meaning it will be easier to watch more events live.

That should bode well for NBC, and with a robust lineup of celebrities, the network is hoping to reverse the viewership trend.

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