NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 12: Honoree / television and sports executive Dick Ebersol speaks at the Tom … [+] Coughlin 8th Annual “Champions For Children” Gala in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Talking to Dick Ebersol, the “most powerful person in sports,” is like getting a masterclass in the art of storytelling.
Ebersol recently joined me on video from his home in Telluride, Colorado, to talk about his new book, From Saturday Night to Sunday Night.
Ebersol’s memoir takes readers behind the scenes as he co-created Saturday Night Live with Lorne Michaels to pioneer Olympics and sports coverage on NBC. I contacted Ebersol after being struck by how often “storytelling” appears in his book.
Although Ebersol’s book offers an interesting history of televised sports, it also provides valuable insights for professionals in any field who need to create content and present ideas that engage, motivate and move their audiences.
“My priority was story, story, story.”
Televised sports are very different today than before Ebersol put his stamp on NBC’s sports and Olympics coverage. For most viewers, it’s hard to fathom that college football games were once broadcast from a single camera positioned in the announcer’s booth. On the same subject : Amazon Announces New ‘Thursday Night Live’ Jobs. That began to change under Ebersol’s first boss, ABC president Roone Arledge. Ebersol credits Arledge with pioneering the reinvention of televised sports as a storytelling medium.
Arledge reimagined sports broadcasting in 1960 with a now-famous memo that said, “We must add show business to sports.”
“Each game would be an epic story to tell,” Ebersol says. “The way to capture the audience for unfamiliar sports was to tell the stories of competing athletes: to arouse their curiosity and give them a rooted interest.”
ABC Sports’ mission was to tell viewers a story. To do so, Arledge added cameras mounted on risers to offer different angles. Meanwhile, hand-held rotating cameras captured the action on the sidelines and huge boom microphones captured the sounds on the pitch.
“He [Arledge] wanted the audience to see and hear the cheers in the stands, the players celebrating their touchdowns on the sidelines, the coaches yelling at the referees for bad calls,” Ebersol writes.
Memoir of Dick Ebersol, From Saturday Night to Sunday Night
Ebersol played a role in creating these epic stories when he accepted his first job at ABC as an Olympics researcher, a position that did not exist at any network. The year was 1967, and the Internet didn’t exist yet. It meant that Ebersol would have to travel across the United States and Europe to find the best stories for announcers like Jim McKay to share with the public about the Wide World of Sports and the 1968 Olympics. Ebersol has interviewed athletes, coaches and their families to learn as much as possible about their personal stories, stories that appeal to more viewers.
“You couldn’t ask for better masters of storytelling than Jim and Roone,” recalls Ebersol. “They were my mentors. I was blessed.”
The lessons Ebersol learned from those teachers came back to him years later when, in 1989, NBC asked him to lead the network’s sports division. Ebersol called a meeting of about a hundred people and articulated his vision: “from now on, NBC Sports will put a premium on storytelling.”
He said viewers should get to know the athletes, their backgrounds, and the challenges they had to overcome to play on the big stage — whether it’s the NBA, the World Series, the Super Bowl, or the Olympics.
“Storytelling was not a course they taught at NBC,” Ebersol recalls. “My priority was history, history, history.”
Storytelling is collaborative.
Ebersol’s experience and insights should remind leaders that storytelling is collaborative, “a team sport. This may interest you : Haslam Sports Group welcomes four fellows to the 2022 HSG Diversity and Opportunity Fellowship Program.”
Storytelling plays a vital role in any organization. Universities share inspiring alumni stories to attract high caliber applicants. Startup entrepreneurs share origin stories to attract investors and motivate teams. Companies of all sizes are sharing customer success stories to attract more customers.
As a leader, you can be the one to share stories in presentations, memos, articles and interviews. But since storytelling is a team sport, the task of finding and compiling those stories into compelling narratives must be everyone’s responsibility.
Yes, marketing and advertising departments can turn these stories into assets to share across all platforms, but executives need to help identify stories from their travels and salespeople need to come back from their meetings with fresh stories from the clients and case studies.
According to Ebersol, the Olympics is “the crossroads of storytelling” because most viewers only tune in when they care about the athletes and once they hear stories that touch their hearts. A similar formula is played for any business – customers and employees are more likely to connect with a brand if they are moved by the story.
Build a storytelling team to race ahead of the competition.
How old is Susan St James now?
Why did Susan St James leave McMillan’s wife? Both Susan Saint James and Nancy Walker left the show at the end of the 1975-1976 season. Saint James because of a contract dispute, and Walker because he had just signed a contract with ABC. See the article : FS1 presents the new line-up of the fall studio. Part of the original “Sunday NBC Mystery Movie” that ran with the series McCloud (1970) and Columbo (1971).
What is Susan St James doing now?
She works with the Special Olympics and other causes. Now that Saint James isn’t doing much acting, he has time to dedicate himself to various causes, including the Connecticut Special Olympics.
Did Susan St James and Rock Hudson get along?
It seems co-stars Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James didn’t get along so well, but you’d never know it from this ’70s version of Nick and Nora Charles. In real life also in San Francisco the police commissioner is an administrator of a large agency.
What is Charlie Ebersol doing now?
In March 2018, Ebersol announced the creation of a new professional football league called the Alliance of American Football.
Did Sally McMillan have a child? Trivia (4) Sally McMillan gave birth (as Susan Saint James in real life). But the only reference to the baby comes first, when Mac’s mother asks how the baby is doing.
Is Susan St James still married?
Now retired, the former Hollywood actress – who is married to Dick Ebersol and the mother of four – lives a much quieter life and says she’s never had the “bug to get back” into the business.
Why did Ebersol plane crash?
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What caused the crash of flight 587? The NTSB report explained that excessive use of the rudder mechanism by the captain caused the aircraft’s vertical stabilizer (tail fin) and both engines to detach from the aircraft; an unlikely scenario. Without the vertical stabilizer, the plane spun out of control and crashed in the Queens neighborhood of Belle Harbour.
What caused the plane crash in Yellowjackets?
What made the plane explode? Unfortunately, a fire in the cockpit causes an explosion, and Laura Lee is the first person to die from the crash. This could be a technical fault caused by years of inaction, however, it seems mystical sabotage is more likely.
Why did the Brazilian plane crash?
The official report of Colombia’s civil aviation agency, Aerocivil, found that the causes of the accident are the exhaustion of fuel due to an inappropriate flight plan by the airline, and the error of the pilot regarding poor decision-making as the situation worsened, including a failure to declare an emergency. after the fuel levels have become…
Did the pilots of tuninter flight 1153 survive?
Sixteen of the 39 people on board died. The accident resulted from running out of fuel due to the installation of fuel quantity indicators designed for the ATR 42, in the larger ATR 72. It was also Tuninter’s first fatal accident in the company’s 14-year history.
