By David Melly
June 26, 2024
When Snoop Dogg showed up for multiple segments of the Sunday broadcast, we were reminded of a pop-culture truth: every 30 Rock parody always eventually becomes real.
Well folks, it seems as though we’ve been SeinfeldVision’d.
During portions of Sunday’s Olympic Trials broadcast, track fans were treated to the musician and producer behind Doggystyle, the best tracks on The Chronic, and that one verse of “California Gurls” chopping it up with athletes’ parents, running an impressive 34.44 200m at age 52, and describing the chaotic scene around the steeplechase’s water pit.
Is he providing the sort of incisive commentary that track & field deserves if it’s to be taken as more than an amusing, quadrennial sideshow? Nope. But is he providing the Trials with the sort of click-bait-y spectacle that garners press attention from outlets like Rolling Stone and CNN? Absolutely.
The suits at NBC have made a simple calculation. Diehards are gonna watch the Olympic Trials and Olympics no matter what. The broadcast could cut to a 20-second ad break in the middle of the women’s 400m hurdle final and, while we’d tweet angrily about it, they know we aren’t going to close out the Peacock app. But they think there’s a much broader swath of the American population who might be more inclined to tune in if promised a few minutes of onscreen hijinks from a face they know.
It’s not a new strategy, but it does work. Fans loved Leslie Jones’s infectious Olympic enthusiasm so much in 2016 that NBC brought her in as a correspondent. And the network has gotten plenty of mileage already out of pairing Cardi B with Sha’Carri Richardson. Whether coincidental or not, Snoop’s appearance coincided with the biggest television audience for track & field on NBC in 12 years – 5.2 million viewers – per Ato Boldon.
Eagle-eyed viewers would also notice that it seems like NBC has been trying, at least a little bit, to build more storytelling into the broadcast. Monday night’s television package included a segment on Team USA athletes going through team processing, a long interview with Athing Mu, and a post-race chat show trackside with Noah Lyles, Rai Benjamin, and Grant Holloway live on the air. Human interest stories have long been part of the Olympic marketing package, but it does seem like the television overlords are trying to beef up their efforts before the actual Games rolls around.
Will it sometimes be corny (to borrow a Lyles buzzword)? Absolutely. Will it get on the radars and newsfeeds of new fans? Highly likely. The biggest sin in the sports media world has never been cheesiness; it’s laziness. And this time around, the people with the keys to the kingdom of TV Land are actually stepping up their game.
David Melly
David began contributing to CITIUS in 2018, and quickly cemented himself as an integral part of the team thanks to his quick wit, hot takes, undying love for the sport and willingness to get yelled at online.
