NBC Sports Taps Molly Solomon to Lead Olympics Production, Succeeding Jim Bell

The exec started her career at NBC Sports as a researcher in 1990, ultimately working on 10 different Olympic games for the network.

NBC Sports has tapped Molly Solomon as executive producer and president of NBC Olympics production, succeeding Jim Bell, who left the company earlier this month. Solomon also will continue to oversee production for NBC Sports’ Golf Channel, a role she has held since 2012.

Solomon will report to Pete Bevacqua, president of the NBC Sports Group

Solomon started her career at NBC Sports as a researcher in 1990, ultimately working on 10 different Olympic Games for the network in a variety of production roles, including being the coordinating producer from 2006-2012.

NBC is already gearing up for the 2020 Olympic Games, which will be held in Tokyo starting in July.

Bell left NBC earlier this month after having overseen NBC’s Olympic coverage since the 2012 Games. He also was serving as the executive in charge of The Tonight Show.

The Olympics are among the most important rights that NBC holds. In 2014, the network paid the International Olympic Committee $7.65 billion to extend its exclusive broadcast rights deal through 2032.

It is also an incredibly complex event to produce, with dozens of activities happening simultaneously across an entire city or region.

While in the past, NBC would use its primetime and late-night shows to feature the top highlights from the day’s events, the network now also produces many of the events live, which are watched on cable channels and on streaming.

NBC Olympics was once the exclusive domain of Dick Ebersol, who ran NBC Sports since 1989 and produced the network’s Olympic coverage. He resigned in 2011, not long after Comcast took control of the company from General Electric. Bell was tapped to succeed Ebersol as the head of NBC Olympics later that summer, less than a year before the 2012 London Olympics were set to begin.

Solomon begins her tenure with a similarly compressed timeline.

