STAMFORD, Conn. — Chloe Kim, Jordan Stoltz and Elizabeth Lemley trained hard for the 2026 Winter Olympics. So are Andrew Siciliano and Scott Hanson. Even though much of their work was not done near ice or snow.
On a recent Sunday afternoon, Siciliano was tucked away in a corner of a production studio here at NBC Sports’ sprawling headquarters, helping the streaming service Peacock’s Olympic viewers navigate between men’s hockey, women’s ski jumping, men’s curling and the high-speed sled sport known as skeleton. Each sport has its own display within one video square, and at any time Siciliano may tell viewers to focus more on one or the other. If something particularly interesting or important happens, one of the squares may take up the entire screen. At another moment, NBC Sports producers display a “Cheers.” This means that when a viewer clicks, an on-screen element appears that allows them to watch a particular sport without other distractions.
“We didn’t invent America’s short attention spans,” Siciliano says. “It just came at the right time.”
Welcome to the Gold Zone. NBC Sports’ “Running” show takes its cues from the NFL’s red zone. Red Zone is a one-hour Sunday format that takes fans from one pro football game to the next, checking out key plays and notable moments. At a time when many major media companies are desperate to connect with young, digitally savvy audiences who watch something that interests them and then quickly move on to something else of interest, many believe that Gold Zone is just the first product of a new application of this concept.
“Viewers may not want to watch an entire curling game, for example, but if the game was good until the final stages, and/or if interesting countries or competitors are featured, this format makes it much easier to focus on the pivotal moments,” says Max Fuller, assistant professor of sports media and journalism at Ithaca College. He added that while sports are a natural fit for quick-fix structures, “this type of format could also be useful” in other areas, such as election coverage or events where multiple elements all happen at the same time.
Hosts like Siciliano are already considering it. A sportscaster came up with the idea of a debate with about a dozen candidates who wanted to address the nation. “I’ve always joked that all 15 people should talk to one camera at the same time, and then I’d be happy to host,” he says jokingly. “You can say, ‘Let’s go to the California senator because he said some great things to us.'” Like, ‘Let’s go to the former Texas governor.’ ”
Before you get distracted by the future, why not take a trip to the past? Gold Zone first gained significant attention at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but NBC has actually been offering Gold Zone for years. The concept was available to watch during NBC’s coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics from London, but did not gain much traction with viewers via digital sites.
The streaming era has changed everything. NBC put a gold zone on Peacock for the 2024 Paris Olympics, and suddenly people found out. “My sister texted me and said, ‘You’re trending on Twitter. The Gold Zone is trending on Twitter,'” Amy Rosenfeld recalled. The veteran NBC Sports producer will oversee production of The Gold Zone. “As a TV producer, those are the last words you want to hear. And I thought, ‘Oh my God, my career is over. This is dog. It’s going to be tough.'” And it made some headlines. And it kind of became a freight train. ”
In the production studio, she says, “sometimes eight or nine things happen at the same time. But Paris was more than that. L.A. would be crazy.”
Others have already joined. CBS News has announced a new “whiparound” format for its streaming properties in 2024. Viewers are taken to the breaking news and moments happening across the regions covered by the company’s local stations. The red zone format was the inspiration for the concept. FanDuel Sports Network, a group of 15 regional sports outlets formerly operated by Sinclair and Fox, introduced “FanDuel Sports Network Countdown Live” as part of its evening lineup last year. The new hour-long show, hosted by former ESPN executive Stan Verrett, will give viewers an inside look at the preparations for key games across the company’s portfolio.
Scott Hanson, who has hosted NFL Red Zone since its inception in 2009, says the appeal is easy to understand. “It’s not that people have short attention spans,” he says. “No, we just want to shorten the time between the moment of interest and the dopamine hit.” More media consumers are asking for such things, he says, especially as people spend more time on Tik Tok and other short video viewing platforms. “No matter who I’m looking at, show me that you’re looking everywhere so I don’t have to waste time doing nothing. Cut the fat for me.”
But working in the Gold Zone is tough both in front of the camera and off. The announcer says the fans know what’s going on in the red zone. They’re soccer fanatics, so they don’t need you to teach them the basics of curling spoons. “When we go into a red zone game, I say, ‘Why am I watching this? First and goal. It’s 14-14. There’s a minute left with no timeouts,'” Hanson explained. “When we go into a Gold Zone event, I talk about why we’re going there. But we also have to explain what we’re looking at, what we’re looking for, and who we’re looking for. We don’t need to identify Dak Prescott to the Red Zone audience. We need to identify Chloe Kim as one of the racers or competitors.”
Announcers need to study hard and learn more about not only the athletes, but what a particular sport means to the people of a country halfway around the world. They need to memorize facts about specific competitors and explain to the audience why upcoming moments should be watched. Is there a medal on it? Will time pass? Is this for the record book? “Preparation is extreme,” Hanson says. “It’s like learning another language,” Siciliano says.
At times, Hanson says, “I feel as if I’m flying over northern Italy in a dirigible with the most powerful telescope in the world.” “And from the airship, you could see everything that was going on from a distance, and the telescope would tell you when to zoom in to watch figure skating, luge, and curling.”
Sports viewers, and perhaps even general TV viewers?—there may be more formats available in the future. Based on a recently signed deal between ESPN and the NFL, the Disney sports media giant will be able to launch a new type of red zone format. Hanson believes this could work well for college football, perhaps baseball, and possibly golf as well. But how do you isolate key moments when the movements in basketball or hockey are more fluid? That can be difficult, Hanson says.
There may be some amazing applications in the future, especially in an era when viewers are looking for continuous stimulation and distraction even while watching an hour or two of television. “I’ve had people come up with all kinds of red zones. Political red zones on election night. Weather red zones when there’s a big snowstorm in the Northeast. Reality TV red zones. Show them pulling each other’s hair or throwing wine in each other’s faces,” Hanson added. “If anyone’s reading this, if any network executives or power brokers are reading this, I’m open for business any time.”
