'Spotlight on Paris' is NBC's latest bid for Gen Z Olympic attention
"We're trying to reach everyone in the United States," Josh Noval, the SVP of Olympic Sales at NBCUniversal, told Mashable.
The network's latest bid to draw in viewers to the 2024 Paris Olympics is Spotlight on Paris, a roughly one hour TikTok Live show debuting daily throughout the Games at 4:45pm ET.
Presented in partnership with Toyota and hosted by Savannah Sellers, the co-Anchor of NBC News' Morning News NOW, and TikTokker and radio host Josh "Bru" Brubaker, the show goes live Saturday.
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"Our entire distribution strategy, whether it's linear streaming or social, is to make sure that we're reaching every American that we possibly can and giving them content on platforms in a voice that they're accustomed to hearing from," said Noval. Spotlight on Paris is just one piece of that. It's also hitting all its bases by sending 27 creators, known as "The Paris Creators Collective" to capture content in partnership with Meta, Overtime, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.
"In the last few years with the different games, [NBCUniversal] has focused on putting content out where young people already are. With [Spotlight on Paris], we want to bring the Olympic Games to them on [TikTok]," Sellers told Mashable.
Sellers says the episodes will be made with the idea that the show may be viewers' only engagement with the Olympics. "We want to make people feel like they're getting a slice of Paris, in addition to getting them to understand what's happening within the games and the events." Episodes will be filmed in front of a live audience of American fans and athletes' family members at Team USA house.
Past social partnerships, like a show run on X, weren't filmed on location but in NBC's studios in Stamford, Connecticut. Spotlight on Paris will lean heavily into the experience of being on the ground in Paris with an emphasis on culture, nightlife, food, and fashion.
Brubaker said he was brought on to bridge the gap between traditional broadcasting and the people who use their phones as their main screens. It's both Brubaker and Sellers first time covering the Olympics, and they say they are very excited about the opportunity.
"It's the Olympics, so it's gonna be gold medal standard," said Brubaker.
Elena is a tech reporter and the resident Gen Z expert at Mashable. She covers TikTok and digital trends. She recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in American History. Email her at [email protected] or follow her @ecaviar_.
