Paris Olympics’ Smash Hit Will Return for 2028 Los Angeles Games
By Joe Lago
Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Stephen Curry were among the stars who shined the brightest at the Paris Olympics. NBC also got to bask in Summer Games glory with its exceptional work broadcasting the spectacle in France and the resulting two-week-plus ratings windfall.
Basketball play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle was a breakout star for NBC. The company also celebrated another new Olympic darling on its Peacock streaming service.
"Gold Zone" — the whip-around show modeled after the NFL's "RedZone" channel — became a bona fide breakthrough success with the way it kept viewers updated on must-see moments and every gold medal awarded during its daily 10-hour broadcast window.
The show quickly became a daily staple for Olympic fans. Jac Collinsworth and Matt Iseman teamed up for the 7 a.m. ET start with the rest of the day handled by "NFL RedZone" icons Andrew Siciliano and Scott Hanson.
After ranking as one of Peacock's top-five Olympic titles, "Gold Zone" will be brought back for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and maybe even the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, according to The Athletic's Richard Deitsch, who confirmed the show's return in an interview with Molly Solomon, the executive producer and president of NBC Olympics production.
“We’ll definitely bring it back in Los Angeles,” Solomon said. “We’re also going to go wipe the whiteboard clean and start to think about how it works in a Winter Olympics and what that best presentation could be. But how could you not have a returning ‘Gold Zone’ in Los Angeles, and it may even be more hours a day.”
With 32 sports in the Paris Olympics program, the "Gold Zone" was the only way to keep tabs on what was happening in real time. It became essential to the viewing experience, much like "NFL RedZone" on Sundays, so the incentive is there to make it even better for the L.A. Games.
Solomon credited the production staff as the real heroes of "Gold Zone" for keeping Collinsworth, Iseman, Siciliano and Hanson informed.
“I think it’s a good example of experimenting with the Olympic presentation," Solomon said. "Take a whip-around concept and give it personality. The Summer Olympics just lends itself to ‘Gold Zone.’"