NBC Plans Incredibly Silly Stunt During Paris Olympic Events Coverage

NBC isn’t missing a beat in trying to lure viewers who aren’t hardcore Olympics watchers.

The network plans to equip the parents of athletes with heart-rate monitors to gauge their excitement and anxiety as their children compete in the Paris Olympics, Variety reported Wednesday. The results of the five monitors will be shown on-screen as the competition unfolds.

Test audiences ❤️ the concept, and NBC is pondering a sponsor for the segment, according to the show business daily.

“We are talking about it,” NBC ad sales exec Dan Lovinger told Variety.

The wacky segment seeks to help maximize engagement for NBCUniversal’s $7.65 billion payout for the rights to the Olympic Games through 2032.

The network is reaching out to audiences that might not tune in to traditional event broadcasting. In January, weed-loving rapper Snoop Dogg was officially hired as a “special correspondent” to boost viewership.

NBCUniversal has scheduled about 7,000 hours of competition coverage and related programming for this summer’s games, which officially begin July 26 in Paris.

“We’ve got to be innovating, trying things differently, trying to match where the media world is in 2024,” NBC Sports President Rick Cordella told Variety.

Perhaps that will result in heart-stopping television.

But not for the parents hooked up to the EKGs, we hope.

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