NBC News’ Willie Geist and NBC Sports’ Maria Taylor, recently joined the Variety Studio presented by Canva, at Cannes Lions to discuss the collaboration between their separate divisions for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Geist and Taylor attended the festival to discuss NBCU’s upcoming broadcast and streaming events; the two divulged audiences should look forward to the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live” and the continuation of “Sunday Night Football,” in addition to revealing tidbits about the upcoming international multi-sport event.
As sports and news programming stand as focal points of the broadcasting industry, Geist and Taylor revealed how as viewers, as well as anchors, the programming remains a vital part of their everyday lives and facilitating community.
“I watch sports as an escape, and I think that’s why live sports, or sports you can go access on Peacock — I don’t know if this is borne out by research — but I think it’s better than ever and more important than ever as a place where we can go, in our divided political world and everything else,” said Geist. “I think sports, for me anyway, are just such a refuge and a place to go. And there’s no bigger example of that than the Olympics, because it’s not just me watching the Yankees and the Red Sox. It’s the entire world feeling unified and good about itself for a month.”
Taylor added, “I think there’s a reason why Sunday Night Football is the most-watched show in television, people come together. They want to get their friends together in a house, watch a game that they all know and love, watch ‘characters’ — and the team is really the ‘character’ that you’ve grown up with — it’s familiar. I think that’s why sports is such a powerful driving factor.”
Taylor noted how NBCU has transitioned to incorporate sports programming on the company’s streamer, Peacock, because it “drives up subscriptions.” Taylor added, “Because people don’t want to live without it. You can give up a lot of things — but it’s hard to give up ‘NFL Sundays.’”
As audiences can’t seem to part with sports programming, Geist spoke to the rise in news consumption. Acknowledging, much to his dismay, how the U.S.’ continuous political strife has contributed to the rise if viewership. “I’d rather not have it, frankly. I’d rather have the country be in good shape. But I think especially in cable news, where you’re speaking to a specific audience, it either outrages you or makes you happy, whatever’s going on in the news that day. It goes in waves in terms of ratings, but frankly, I’d rather have us be a country that’s healthy than ratings.”
Giest added that although “Morning Joe,” and his role in the political arena dominates his on-air time, he has been able to provide an “escape” within news programming, during “Sunday Today With Willie Geist.” Geist explained, “I think our Sunday show represents, in a similar way to sports, an escape from the week. [Viewers are] like, ‘We get it. Everyone’s divided. Everyone’s fighting. Can we have something else on Sunday morning?’ They sit there with a mug of coffee and their slippers and hopefully get that for an hour.”
Watch the full conversation above.
