NBC sportscaster Mike Tirico admitted he wished he had been the one to come up with the idea to include Snoop Dogg as part of the network’s Olympic coverage for the 2024 games.
Tirico, 57, was a guest on Monday’s episode of the “SmartLess” podcast hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett when the origins of the famed West Coast rapper being part of the broadcast team came up.
The genesis of the idea came from the last Summer Olympics hosted in Tokyo in 2021 when Snoop Dogg was helping with Olympic highlights on Peacock — the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service — with comedian Kevin Hart, and the pair had a moment commenting on equestrian that went viral.
“They did a couple of nights during the games, and it’s a great YouTube clip of Snoop and the equestrian and [ he describes] it like a crip walk,” Tirico explained of the now famous clip. “That’s where the relationship started and then the conversations continued and he’s going to be part of it.”
Snoop Dogg’s role as a special correspondent for NBC’s 2024 Olympics coverage is part of a broader push by the network to boost its ratings.
“Call Her Daddy” podcaster Alex Cooper will be part of the prime-time program and other celebs include Leslie Jones, Hart and Kenan Thompson.
“At night you’re going to be shown everything that happened, so we’re going to try to do a little bit of the storytelling, a little bit of the behind-the-scenes,” Tirico explained. “Give you a little bit of flavor of Paris and who better to snoop around Paris than Snoop.”
During a media conference call with the NBC broadcasters, Snoop — who will be one of the torchbearers at the opening ceremony — told reporters that he has been “sliding into the practice facilities” of different teams and that he might even try some of the events himself.
Snoop Dogg also teased the possibility of getting into the water with American swimming legend Michael Phelps to learn how to swim a 25-meter sprint.
“It’s going to be a great experience because the way I speak it, you tend to want to pay attention to it because it’s going to be something different, and it’s going to be a little bit more insightful because I have spent time with these athletes and some of their family members as well,” the rapper said.
NBC is coming off the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics where the network averaged 11.4 million viewers across all platforms, which made it the least-watched Olympics in the modern era.
The summer games in 2021 averaged 15.6 million.