The RedZone Channel is coming to the Olympic Games.
Scott Hanson, Andrew Siciliano, Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila will serve as hosts of the “Gold Zone” whip-around show, which will stream for the first time live on Peacock during NBCUniversal’s coverage of Paris Olympics, NBCUniversal announced Thursday. Hanson and Siciliano, of course, are well known for their respective work as Sunday guides of NFL coverage. Hanson has served as the host of “NFL RedZone” since its inaugural season in 2009. He is also an NFL Network host. Siciliano is currently a host and play-by-play announcer for NFL Network and served as the host of the “RedZone Channel” on DIRECTV from 2005 to 2022.
NBC said “Gold Zone” will stream live as a daily show on Peacock from 7 a.m.-5 p.m. ET from July 27-Aug. 10. This is significant because NBC Universal is betting big on Peacock as a hub for Olympic coverage. NBCUniversal plans to stream all 2024 Olympics events live on Peacock, including all 329 medal events, a first for the Summer Olympics. The awareness of Peacock, which now has 30 million subscribers, is significantly higher than it was for the Tokyo Olympics,
Hanson, in his first Olympic assignment, will serve as the morning host of “Gold Zone” while Iseman and Gbajabiamila, co-hosts of “American Ninja Warrior” on NBC, will co-host each day’s closing “Gold Zone” coverage following Siciliano.
Olympic viewership has tumbled mightily in the United States since Rio in 2016. Those Brazil-based Games averaged a massive 27 million viewers in prime time, but since then, the key viewership arrow has been heading south. Per Sports Media Watch, the Tokyo Games were the first Summer Olympics to average fewer American viewers than the preceding Winter Games since Athens in 2004, which followed Salt Lake City in 2002. The Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022 were the least-watched Games in prime time on NBC ever, averaging 10.7 million viewers per night on television, with that number rising slightly to 11.4 million including all other viewing platforms.
Much of this, of course, was out of NBCUniversal’s control. The Tokyo Games were delayed a year because of the coronavirus pandemic and the run-up to those Games was joyless given the state of the world. Complicating matters was the time zone — Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of the East Coast of the United States.
“I see Paris as a chance for the Olympics to get its mojo back,” Bob Costas, who hosted NBC’s prime-time Olympics coverage 11 times, told The Athletic in February. “The real problem … came with the two COVID Olympics, one of which was postponed. With the absence of crowds and family and friends on hand, a lot of things that make the Olympics a great television show were missing. The absence of crowds for any sports event diminishes it greatly.”
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(Photo: BERTRAND GUAY / AFP via Getty Images)
