Speaker 1: I told these guys, you know, get that out of there.
Speaker 1: But I made the inadvertent comment of shoot the the item,
Speaker 1: so the director immediately panned over and shot it, and
Speaker 1: you get rid of it, shoot it, said no, no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: get off that shot. And unfortunately, once it appears on television,
Speaker 1: it lives on Google and YouTube and places forever. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm John Miller, President of Programming for NBC Sports, and
Speaker 1: I can't wait to be on Off the Beat. Hello everybody,
Speaker 1: and thanks for joining us here today on another episode
Speaker 1: of Off the Beat Sports. As always, I am your
Speaker 1: host Brian Baumgartner. Today one of my oldest friends at NBC.
Speaker 1: I am bringing on the person who has currently been
Speaker 1: at NBC the longest forty four years, most of which
Speaker 1: at NBC Sports, John Miller, one of the most influential
Speaker 1: voices in sports and of course at NBC, and one
Speaker 1: of the only people in the world who can say
Speaker 1: that they have literally changed sports television. I mean, have
Speaker 1: you ever turned on the National Dog Show on Thanksgiving?
Speaker 1: John invented that? Have you ever watched the Winter Classic
Speaker 1: from the NHL? Well, John invented that are you happy
Speaker 1: that the US Open coverage was back on NBC. Have
Speaker 1: you ever watched the American Century Championships from Lake Tahoe. Well,
Speaker 1: John invented that to one man, and he's here today now.
Speaker 1: When I saw John a couple of weeks ago in
Speaker 1: Lake Tahoe, I just knew that I had to bring
Speaker 1: him onto the podcast. In fact, I started doing background
Speaker 1: research with some of the golf analysts there at NBC.
Speaker 1: I wanted to do my research because I wanted John
Speaker 1: to be able to effectively tell his story. You know,
Speaker 1: there is truly a little more inspiring to me than
Speaker 1: hearing the journeys of people who have risen to greatness
Speaker 1: in their field. So sit back, take a listen. I
Speaker 1: am very happy to introduce to every one of you
Speaker 1: my good friend and someone I can honestly say that
Speaker 1: I admire in the world of entertainment, John Miller. Bubble
Speaker 1: and Squeak. I love Bubble and Squeak, Bubble and Squeaker
Speaker 1: Cookie at every month left over from the nub before.
Speaker 1: Hi John, Hi Brian, how are you. I'm so good. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm so happy that you're here. You don't know this,
Speaker 1: but before you agreed to do this, almost inadvertently had
Speaker 1: a background research session on you with Steve Sands one
Speaker 1: day after the tournament. Um, John and I were just
Speaker 1: in Like Tahoe for the American Century Championship, one of
Speaker 1: his many babies, which we're going to talk about in
Speaker 1: a little bit. Uh, my favorite week of the year.
Speaker 1: How was the week for you? First off? It was
Speaker 1: Now that I'm a little more than a week away
Speaker 1: from it, Brian, it it all starts to sink in
Speaker 1: when you're in there and you're living in the moment,
Speaker 1: you kind of lose sight of all the things that
Speaker 1: are happening. And because the team does such a good job,
Speaker 1: you know, led by Gary Quinn and David Muller, you
Speaker 1: it's all become so seamless. But I tell a few moments,
Speaker 1: you know, on the way home or the day after,
Speaker 1: and think about everything and realize just how far we've come.
Speaker 1: This was far and away our best event ever on
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of different metrics. Um. You know, this
Speaker 1: is our thirty third year and we had over sixty
Speaker 1: seven thousand people to show up in Lake Tahoe over
Speaker 1: four days. UM. By way of comparison, for those people
Speaker 1: who remember when we started this event, this was gonna
Speaker 1: be a one and done, and we lost a lot
Speaker 1: of money our first year, and we had thirty people
Speaker 1: people over the four days we let people in for
Speaker 1: free Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and we charged I think ten
Speaker 1: dollars for the weekend. And we were so excited, we
Speaker 1: were so proud of ourselves that we got people. And
Speaker 1: now you know, thirty three years later, with this has
Speaker 1: become But we also got the highest ratings on television
Speaker 1: that we've gotten since two thousand nine. But the other
Speaker 1: thing is the social media reach was multiple billions with
Speaker 1: a B. We've never had that before either. And that's
Speaker 1: due in large part to people like you and Steph
Speaker 1: Curry and Justin and and Pat Mahomes and Travis Kelsey
Speaker 1: all contributing in such a big way, but then turning
Speaker 1: around and posting stuff on social media sites that get
Speaker 1: picked up that. But you know, to answer your question,
Speaker 1: it was it was a great week. Yeah, it certainly was.
Speaker 1: I want to talk some more about that, and it's
Speaker 1: it's inception and its history and a little bit. I
Speaker 1: wanted to start by going back in your history. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like you're only like fifty two years old,
Speaker 1: but you've been at NBC now for what forty four years?
Speaker 1: I mean, it feels like your entire life in uh
Speaker 1: in October, it will be forty five years. I started
Speaker 1: when I was in sixth grade, but now that's that's
Speaker 1: just what i've uhm, it'll be forty It'll be forty
Speaker 1: five years. And I've really had this front row seat
Speaker 1: to watch the business, you know, change and evolve and whatnot.
Speaker 1: So it's been a lot of fun. You know, when
Speaker 1: I first started with NBC, it was just NBC, CBS
Speaker 1: and ABC. You know, the people who I work with
Speaker 1: love to say that I was around when it was
Speaker 1: just black and white television, not quite but close. But
Speaker 1: there was no cable, there was no satellite. There was
Speaker 1: certainly nothing like streaming or any of the things that
Speaker 1: we have now. But you know, you get to watch
Speaker 1: all this stuff unfold and have a front row seat
Speaker 1: for it, and it's and it's fun. And what it
Speaker 1: what you learned is that content is still the most
Speaker 1: important thing, and if you have a good product, people
Speaker 1: will find it and watch it and and do all that.
Speaker 1: So that, to me is is a lot of fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you grew up in Bethesda, is that right? Bethesda, Maryland?
Speaker 1: Bethesda Maryland. My my mom was originally from Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: When my dad was from New York who moved down
Speaker 1: to the d C area in the mid fifties and
Speaker 1: and they got married in fifty five. And I have
Speaker 1: a brother and a sister. But that's where our family
Speaker 1: was from. So growing up in the d C area
Speaker 1: my whole life until I went to college. Were you
Speaker 1: interested in sports? Were you interested in entertainment or both? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. I was a sports junkie as a kid.
Speaker 1: You know, I I followed, you know, at that time,
Speaker 1: I followed the Washington Redskins. The Washington Senators were my
Speaker 1: baseball team that got taken away from me when I
Speaker 1: was thirteen years old and was at that final game
Speaker 1: at RFK Stadium where we stormed the field and got
Speaker 1: tear gassed and the Senators lost in a forfeit. We
Speaker 1: didn't have a hockey team, the Capitals didn't come until
Speaker 1: much later, um, and we didn't really have a basketball
Speaker 1: team to the Washington Wizards were the Baltimore Bullets. But
Speaker 1: I wasn't really in the basketball. The sport I actually
Speaker 1: played a lot as a kid was tennis, and I
Speaker 1: was at this junkie and spent a lot of time,
Speaker 1: you know, following pro tennis, never really followed golf much
Speaker 1: at all until I met my wife, and her father
Speaker 1: and her brother kind of turned me onto golf and
Speaker 1: basically said, if you're going to ever succeed in business,
Speaker 1: you better learn this game. So but that's I was
Speaker 1: a big sports junkie as a kid growing up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but never, I'll be honestly, Brian, I never thought that
Speaker 1: my career would lead me to this. I mean it
Speaker 1: was This has been such a great ride. It's been
Speaker 1: so much fun. You you mentioned this. I I did
Speaker 1: not know this story until some some research was done.
Speaker 1: You and your little brother, you were taken away by
Speaker 1: security after storming the field. You just mentioned that how
Speaker 1: old were you at this point? So this is nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy one, So I was like thirteen or fourteen years
Speaker 1: old and my little brother was ten. And it was
Speaker 1: the last Senators home game against the Yankees, and the
Speaker 1: Senators had this great big star named Frank Howard who
Speaker 1: was known as the Washington Monument. He was six ft
Speaker 1: eight and he waved a baseball bat like a toothpick.
Speaker 1: Senators were down I think three to two in the
Speaker 1: bottom of the seventh or whatever, and they groove to
Speaker 1: pitch to Howard. He hits a three run home run
Speaker 1: and the place goes crazy and we stormed the field,
Speaker 1: and you know, the game never finished, and they had
Speaker 1: police come out on horseback and herded us all to
Speaker 1: the right field bullpen and held us all there. And
Speaker 1: there was no subway or anything like that. We lost
Speaker 1: the guys who we were with, So you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't get home until two o'clock in the morning. Needless
Speaker 1: to say, my dad was not too happy with me
Speaker 1: because I was responsible for my little brother. But that
Speaker 1: was that was a very fond memory. Yeah, you head
Speaker 1: off to Ohio and go to Miami University and your
Speaker 1: degree is a business at illustration. When does your interest
Speaker 1: start turning to entertainment to media? So when I was
Speaker 1: in college, I went to Miami. I did all four
Speaker 1: years there and I um. I was involved my junior
Speaker 1: and senior year, well senior year really with a program
Speaker 1: that was an advertising and marketing based program that really
Speaker 1: opened up my eyes to the marketing and advertising world.
Speaker 1: We handled two different brands. The first semester we worked
Speaker 1: on boarding foods or the Cromorra Brand, and the second
Speaker 1: semester we worked for Wendy's. And I was really fascinated
Speaker 1: with the advertising and marketing world, and when I got
Speaker 1: out of college, I knew I wanted to come back East.
Speaker 1: I had a cousin at the time who was representing
Speaker 1: television for Metromedia, and he was selling local advertising for
Speaker 1: those television stations, but he was based in Chicago, and
Speaker 1: that to me sounded like a lot of fun. You
Speaker 1: could sell advertising time, So I pitched a bunch of
Speaker 1: jobs in d c um didn't get any of them.
Speaker 1: Finally got an offer from Channel four w r C,
Speaker 1: which was an owned NBC station, to become what was
Speaker 1: called the Maven, which was somebody they would train in
Speaker 1: all the different aspects of local television. And I was
Speaker 1: twenty one years old and I took it, and I
Speaker 1: spent time learning sales, service and research and all the
Speaker 1: different things that go on behind the scenes in the
Speaker 1: television station. And then I wanted to sell. I got
Speaker 1: kind of bored with doing all that, and they already
Speaker 1: had a salesforce, so I said, give me the Yellow
Speaker 1: Pages and let me have the city of Baltimore. Because
Speaker 1: nobody ever wanted to go up to Baltimore to call
Speaker 1: on potential advertisers and the Yellow Pages, and I kind
Speaker 1: of created my own list and I did that for
Speaker 1: three years and then eventually, you know, took that and
Speaker 1: moved to New York to sell for NBC in New York. Wow.
Speaker 1: So w r C. That was your first job out
Speaker 1: of college. Yeah, pretty much. When I was in college,
Speaker 1: I was involved in importing a game that you play
Speaker 1: on the each called smash ball with two big wooden
Speaker 1: paddles in a lot bit ball, and I did that
Speaker 1: in summers to kind of put my myself through school.
Speaker 1: But yeah, my first real job with you know, a
Speaker 1: serious weekly paycheck was was working for NBC starting in
Speaker 1: October of nine. Wow. So you I understand there you
Speaker 1: cross path with George Michael and I don't know if
Speaker 1: this this is the story that I hear that that
Speaker 1: you were playing kind of a precursor to to fantasy
Speaker 1: baseball with your friend at this time. Well, you've really
Speaker 1: done some homework, Brian. I mean these are well, listen,
Speaker 1: I've got a great team. And this was occurring to
Speaker 1: me too because I think a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 1: think of sports Center and ESPN as being the first
Speaker 1: like highlight show, stats shows or whatever. But George Michael,
Speaker 1: which ultimately became the Sports Machine started and part of this,
Speaker 1: as I understand, it started out of your playing fantasy
Speaker 1: baseball and there was no way to get stats, right,
Speaker 1: that's right. I had two really good friends down in
Speaker 1: d C. And this is in nineteen. We would go
Speaker 1: to Orioles games and we would come back, and this
Speaker 1: is really a precursor to fantasy baseball. We would play
Speaker 1: Strato matic base Strata Matic Baseball was this board game
Speaker 1: and we would play for hours and hours and hours
Speaker 1: and we had a blast doing it. And then we
Speaker 1: obviously followed Major League Baseball very closely. We were all
Speaker 1: baseball junkies and the only way we could get scores
Speaker 1: would be to call King Wally's sports phone in New
Speaker 1: York and it was like a nine number and every
Speaker 1: time you called it cost you fifty cents. And I said,
Speaker 1: this is nuts. So George Michael comes to work at
Speaker 1: w r C as the local sports anchor in Washington,
Speaker 1: and you know, I was the youngest guy on the
Speaker 1: staff by a lot, and it comes to me as
Speaker 1: his and you help and find ways to drive new
Speaker 1: value here, and so we wanted to create our own
Speaker 1: version of a sports phone, and we were told that
Speaker 1: w r C was not licensed. You had to have
Speaker 1: special permission from the FCC to do a sports phone.
Speaker 1: So what we decided to do is create a fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes Sunday night highlight show, and we piggyback the highlight
Speaker 1: show and basically set the phone up that way so
Speaker 1: that you could almost hear the broadcast on the sports phone.
Speaker 1: We finally got permission for it, and it became George
Speaker 1: Michael's Sports Line to go along with George Michael's Sports
Speaker 1: Final and we would do a fifteen minute highlights show.
Speaker 1: And that's quite honestly, George Michael was so far ahead
Speaker 1: of his time because he was doing highlights of NASCAR
Speaker 1: and wrestling and bull riding long before anybody really followed
Speaker 1: these sports along with your regular baseball, basketball, NFL highlights
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. And then our phone, our phone,
Speaker 1: we had a phone bank of a hundred lines, and
Speaker 1: we saw it. We couldn't sell advertising on the phone,
Speaker 1: but we sold it for the show, and then we
Speaker 1: branded people on the phone, and that's how it all
Speaker 1: got started. And that really was the precursor to what
Speaker 1: Sports Center is now. It was all the George Michael
Speaker 1: Sports Final, which became the Sports Machine. That is crazy.
Speaker 1: I mean, this seems like such a long time ago.
Speaker 1: In two thousand five, even the only way to get
Speaker 1: ratings from the night before was to call a hotline
Speaker 1: phone number and from the makeup trailer. Every morning, I
Speaker 1: would call the line and we would find out where
Speaker 1: we did the night before, and I would try to
Speaker 1: offer just like George, I would try to offer analysis
Speaker 1: as to why we were up or down the night before.
Speaker 1: As I said to Mike, sure like, well last night
Speaker 1: there was an NBA a very special Lakers Celtics came on.
Speaker 1: So that's why our number might be a little up anyway.
Speaker 1: That But it's crazy now when you can access everything
Speaker 1: with just you know, your finger on your phone. That
Speaker 1: that that's where we started. But yeah, I mean people
Speaker 1: people give it to Sports Center or think of Sports
Speaker 1: Centers as the first, but really that Sports Machine that's
Speaker 1: for you. George Michael was that was the first. You know,
Speaker 1: highlights show was weekly Sunday night, and he had these
Speaker 1: big fake tape machines that he would stand in front
Speaker 1: of the pretended to push the button. Had the widest
Speaker 1: knot on his tie that you would ever see. Um,
Speaker 1: but he was crazy. But a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 1: Lindsay Zarniac, who's now you know, all over television, was
Speaker 1: on ESPN and does some stuff for NBC. She started
Speaker 1: out there. A lot of really bright young stars got
Speaker 1: their start working for George Michael at w r C
Speaker 1: in Washington. Well, clearly you have an innovative spirit and mind.
Speaker 1: You join NBC and seventy eight, how how are you
Speaker 1: hired by NBC? So I was jobs and I finally,
Speaker 1: you know, I got into uh see the people at
Speaker 1: w r C, and the head of sales, you know, said, look,
Speaker 1: we don't hire anybody who doesn't have experience, but they're
Speaker 1: starting this new program called the Maven Program. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: send you up to New York and let you interview
Speaker 1: for the Maven Program. So I drove to New York
Speaker 1: City and stayed in a hotel and went in and
Speaker 1: interviewed with a man named Bud Hirsch, who at the
Speaker 1: time I didn't know much about, but it turned out
Speaker 1: he was a legend in the business. And I went
Speaker 1: in and pitched him on why he should hire me,
Speaker 1: and I brought him a smash ball set and we
Speaker 1: played smash ball in his office. He happened to love tennis,
Speaker 1: so he enjoyed that and he said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a shot. So he hired
Speaker 1: me as the first NBC maven, and basically that was
Speaker 1: to learn all the different aspects of how a local
Speaker 1: television station runs in our rates, with an idea that
Speaker 1: I would eventually grow up through the ranks and become
Speaker 1: a general manager of an NBC owned television station. And
Speaker 1: that was what my initial career path was supposed to
Speaker 1: be when I started with NBC in nineteen seven day
Speaker 1: and then in one you moved to New York. Why
Speaker 1: go to New York? How did the path change for you? So?
Speaker 1: I was selling locally for the NBC station in Washington,
Speaker 1: which is where I worked with George, and then I
Speaker 1: realized that if I wanted to grow my career, I
Speaker 1: needed to get to New York. So I was twenty
Speaker 1: four and I moved to thirty Rock, and I sold
Speaker 1: national advertising for all of the NBC owned television stations,
Speaker 1: and at that time, NBC owned five television stations New York, Chicago,
Speaker 1: l a Washington and Cleveland. So I sold all the
Speaker 1: all the local advertising to national advertisers that were based
Speaker 1: in New York UM. And I did that for about
Speaker 1: three three years and enjoyed it, but realized that spot
Speaker 1: television and the station's business was really not where I
Speaker 1: saw my career heading. And I saw other opportunities out there.
Speaker 1: And I found out about these guys who sell network sports,
Speaker 1: and I thought, Wow, what an incredible job that must be.
Speaker 1: You know, if you love sports and you like television,
Speaker 1: and you're and you enjoy selling, that's the perfect combination.
Speaker 1: And so I there was a man named Jim Burnett
Speaker 1: who was a legendary sports sales figure who I was
Speaker 1: introduced to, and I basically stalked him. And I'm not
Speaker 1: kidding you, Brian. He would take the bus in and
Speaker 1: I would arrange to be on the corner when his
Speaker 1: bus would let out in the morning. I would three
Speaker 1: or four busses would go by, and then Jim Burnett
Speaker 1: would get off the bus right at the corner of
Speaker 1: fifty and sixth Avenue, right at thirty Rock, and I
Speaker 1: would walk in the building with him. I would go
Speaker 1: up to the commissary on the seventh floor. We would
Speaker 1: sit and have breakfast and I would pitch him and
Speaker 1: pick his brain. And for three months I would do this,
Speaker 1: you know, two or three days a week, until finally
Speaker 1: I think he got tired of me badgering him and
Speaker 1: he said, I want you to come work for us,
Speaker 1: which did not go over very well with the group
Speaker 1: that I was currently working for, but I made the
Speaker 1: decision that that was the way I needed to go.
Speaker 1: So I ended up going and working. I went to
Speaker 1: work for NBC Sports sales in and that's how I
Speaker 1: got into the sports side of the business. And was
Speaker 1: that tied to that childhood passion for you for sports?
Speaker 1: Was that the most fun thing that you could think
Speaker 1: about doing. Yeah, I mean I you know, at the
Speaker 1: time in so that was the year that the Bears
Speaker 1: had this dominant NFL team that was you know, Jim McMahon,
Speaker 1: Walter Payton, you know, Chicago Bears. The Redskins still had
Speaker 1: a strong team, and the Giants. So the NFL was
Speaker 1: very strong. And I was a big baseball fan. And
Speaker 1: here's NBC Sports that has the a f C package
Speaker 1: in football that has Major League Baseball and the World Series,
Speaker 1: which they alternate with ABC. They have Wimbledon, they have
Speaker 1: the French Open, they have a modest golf package. They
Speaker 1: don't have the Olympics yet. The Olympics didn't come along
Speaker 1: until but they had a big college basketball offering, and
Speaker 1: they had a bunch of New Year's Day Bowl games.
Speaker 1: And to me, this was what a great thing to
Speaker 1: be able to go out and sell all these different
Speaker 1: properties that I fill. It is a fan that I
Speaker 1: could talk passionately about and hopefully get other people excited
Speaker 1: about it as well. So I did that for about
Speaker 1: three three and a half to four years UM, and
Speaker 1: then I moved over into programming. Fast forwarding a little bit.
Speaker 1: You created the Sports Ventures unit uh at NBC. Can
Speaker 1: you can you? Can you describe to me and to
Speaker 1: our listeners a little bit about about what that was
Speaker 1: and how that was fairly unique. I would love to
Speaker 1: tell you that it was a moment of brilliance and inspiration.
Speaker 1: That wasn't it at all. In nineteen nine, actually we
Speaker 1: lost Major League Baseball UM in what was an incredibly
Speaker 1: disappointing and hard pill to swallow. Because baseball had been
Speaker 1: in the walls at NBC for forty years. We had
Speaker 1: done the game of the Week, you know, with Tony
Speaker 1: Kubeck and Joe Karagio. Uh, you know, it's where Bob
Speaker 1: Costas got his start, etcetera. But CBS came in and
Speaker 1: made a bid and kind of knocked us out of
Speaker 1: the baseball business. And so in the spring of nine,
Speaker 1: knowing that that was gonna be our last year doing baseball,
Speaker 1: NBC had been sold to General Electric. They were owned
Speaker 1: by our c A. They've been sold to General Electric,
Speaker 1: and General Electric decided to put a new head of
Speaker 1: NBC Sports in and they replaced my boss guy named
Speaker 1: Arthur Watson, with Dick Eversol. Now, Dick Eversol was a
Speaker 1: legendary figure and entertainment. He created Saturday Night Live with
Speaker 1: Lauren Michaels, he created Friday Night Videos. He's really a
Speaker 1: a television impresario. UM. And they put him in charge
Speaker 1: of NBC Sports and I remember he came into UH
Speaker 1: to meet with us and he UM, he basically let
Speaker 1: a lot of people go. And he basically brought me
Speaker 1: into office and said, I can't let everybody go. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a year, but you have to
Speaker 1: replace thirty weeks of baseball. Um, but you have no
Speaker 1: money to spend. So it was, you know, on the
Speaker 1: one hand, so my wife and I we had a
Speaker 1: three year old son at home and my wife was
Speaker 1: five or six months pregnant with our next son, and
Speaker 1: I was sure I was going to be at work.
Speaker 1: So I came home and I said the jam, Well,
Speaker 1: the good news is I'm not losing my job. The
Speaker 1: bad news is I've got to find thirty weeks of
Speaker 1: programming and I have no money at all to spend.
Speaker 1: And so we created this Sports Ventures unit um and
Speaker 1: we did things like the NFL Quarterback Challenge and the
Speaker 1: NFL Run to Daylight and the NFL's Fastest Man and
Speaker 1: the Escape from Alcatraz. And we made a deal with
Speaker 1: Miller Lite to bring the a VP Pro Beach Volleyball
Speaker 1: to television. And one of the things that we decided
Speaker 1: to do was to create our own golf tournament that
Speaker 1: we would own. And that's how the NBC Sports Ventures
Speaker 1: Unit came about. Now NBC Sports Ventures is still around
Speaker 1: and we own obviously the American Century. We are partners
Speaker 1: on the p n C Championship in December that Tiger
Speaker 1: and Charlie Woods plays in. We on the National Dog
Speaker 1: Show on Thanksgiving Day and other events. We created the
Speaker 1: All American High School Football Game in January and San Antonio,
Speaker 1: so we have a bunch of different properties that fall
Speaker 1: under that umbrella. But it was all started because we
Speaker 1: had to come up with programming and we didn't have
Speaker 1: any money to spend. So that's how we got sponsors
Speaker 1: to underwrite the shows, and that's how we did it.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is where I think probably likely right,
Speaker 1: your sales experience and expertise from early on coming to play.
Speaker 1: So you not only have to acquire event or or
Speaker 1: create events, but because you have no money, you have
Speaker 1: to marry sponsors with those events, people that will pay
Speaker 1: for it in order to just get it made and
Speaker 1: then and then hope it does. Right. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's that's the entire that's exactly right. And you know,
Speaker 1: I my father was a salesman. His father was a salesman.
Speaker 1: I've always you know, kind of feel nothing happens until
Speaker 1: you sell something. And my feeling is if you have
Speaker 1: a product that you believe in and you can deliver
Speaker 1: good value, UM, you should never be ashamed of of
Speaker 1: of going out there and asking people to support it. UM.
Speaker 1: And there have been things that I've had to sell
Speaker 1: that I didn't love, obviously, but the stuff that you
Speaker 1: create that you feel passionate about, you you you know,
Speaker 1: you go all out to make it work, and that's
Speaker 1: how you know, Tahoe kind of got started. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: I mean, certainly. One of the other properties we haven't
Speaker 1: mentioned much is the National Dog Show. Um, I want
Speaker 1: to start by reading what Pure Dog wrote about this event.
Speaker 1: John Miller, president of Programming at NBC Sports, is the
Speaker 1: mind behind what's been called one of the most perfect
Speaker 1: pieces of television programming ever. I mean, I haven't read that.
Speaker 1: It's dogs and it's Thanksgiving, it's family. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a couple of NFL games on that day and
Speaker 1: other than that, I mean, I don't know how many
Speaker 1: times I've done it. You watch the Dog Show and
Speaker 1: you pick a dog and you argue with your family
Speaker 1: about it and it's a lot of fun. And the
Speaker 1: research indicates that jan your wife brought home best in show.
Speaker 1: Is this true? Yeah, It's it's absolutely true. Brian So's
Speaker 1: January of two thousand two, and it was a really
Speaker 1: nasty January Saturday night and we had some friends coming
Speaker 1: over for pizza, and we had a couple of bottles
Speaker 1: of wine, and Jan had gone to Blockbuster. I don't
Speaker 1: know if anybody remembers Blockbuster, but she brought home the
Speaker 1: movie Best In Show. I'm a big Eugene Levy fan.
Speaker 1: I'm ahead of the Sid Dialers fan club for those
Speaker 1: of you who watched SCTV. But so we watched Best
Speaker 1: in Show. I thought it was hysterical. Everybody goes home.
Speaker 1: I stay up. I watched it a second time. I
Speaker 1: thought it was so funny. So on Monday, I go
Speaker 1: into work and I grab one of our interns and
Speaker 1: I said, hey, Danny, find out for me what the
Speaker 1: second oldest dog show in America is, because I had
Speaker 1: obviously thought that Westminster in New York was the oldest
Speaker 1: dog show in America. Right. She comes into the office
Speaker 1: about forty five minutes later, and he says, well, the
Speaker 1: second oldest dog show in America is the Westminster Keunel Club.
Speaker 1: I said, well, what's the oldest? He says, well, the
Speaker 1: oldest is the Kennel Club of Philadelphia. It pre dates
Speaker 1: the Westminster show by five years. And I said, wow,
Speaker 1: I've never even heard of that. Does it still exist?
Speaker 1: And he says well, there's a phone number and a
Speaker 1: guy named Wayne Ferguson is listed as the president of
Speaker 1: the Kennel Club of Philadelphia. So NBC had lost football,
Speaker 1: and we lost football at that time, and we were
Speaker 1: kind of in the wilderness on Thanksgiving Day, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was you know, I didn't know that we were
Speaker 1: gonna end up that day, but so I called. I
Speaker 1: called called Wayne Ferguson, and I introduced myself to him
Speaker 1: over the phone, and I think he thought it was
Speaker 1: probably a crank call. I said, this, John Miller, I'm
Speaker 1: with NBC. I'd like to talk to you about your show.
Speaker 1: And he kind of laughed and he said, well, we
Speaker 1: have a bench show. He's got a very deep voice,
Speaker 1: you know, he's very very deep. Well, John, you know
Speaker 1: we're a bench show, which is I didn't know what
Speaker 1: a bench show was. A bench show is a four
Speaker 1: day show and the dogs who show up have to
Speaker 1: be there all four days. So I said, well, we
Speaker 1: don't want all four days. We'd just like to take
Speaker 1: one of your days. And he says, well, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit more complicated. I said, well, can I come
Speaker 1: down and see you. So Kevin Monaghan, who worked with me,
Speaker 1: at NBC, and I went down to Philadelphia and we
Speaker 1: took Wayne Ferguson to lunch and we told him that,
Speaker 1: you know, did he ever have any interest in having
Speaker 1: his dog show on television? Now I'm doing this all freely.
Speaker 1: I don't have permission to do this. Now told me
Speaker 1: to do this. I'm just doing this right. You'd watch
Speaker 1: Christopher guests this movie twice and now it's like, oh no,
Speaker 1: this is what we're gonna I love this. Okay, keep going, Sorry,
Speaker 1: go ahead. So he said, yeah, if you want to
Speaker 1: take one of the days, you can, if as long
Speaker 1: as you cover the cost of doing the show that day.
Speaker 1: I said, that won't be a problem. So then so
Speaker 1: we kind of make it. We shake hands, and we
Speaker 1: come back to New York and I called Michael Crawford,
Speaker 1: who Michael Crawford I knew from his days at Nestley
Speaker 1: had gone to run He was the CMO, the chief
Speaker 1: marketing officer Purina, and I knew that Purina was shut
Speaker 1: out of the Westminster show because that was owned by Pedigree,
Speaker 1: which is a competing dog food brand. So I called
Speaker 1: Michael up and we connected and I said, hey, Michael,
Speaker 1: if we ever put a dog show on NBC. Do
Speaker 1: you think Purina would sponsor it? And he said, John,
Speaker 1: if you could put a dog show on NBC, we
Speaker 1: would absolutely be there. So now I have a dog
Speaker 1: show and I have a sponsor. So I go in
Speaker 1: to see Dick Eversol and Dick, to his credit, had
Speaker 1: heard me come up with some crazy ideas, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously Tahoe and all this other stuff. And I go
Speaker 1: in to see him and I said I have an
Speaker 1: idea and he says what is And I says, I
Speaker 1: want us to do a dog show. And he points
Speaker 1: to his door and he said get out, and said,
Speaker 1: what do you mean? He said, I'm not We're not
Speaker 1: doing a dog show. We've lost the NFL, there's a
Speaker 1: good chance we're probably not going to renew the NBA.
Speaker 1: We're out of the baseball business. People are gonna write
Speaker 1: that NBC Sports is going to the dogs. That was
Speaker 1: his line to me, and I said, well, Dick, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to brand it as NBC Sports were branded
Speaker 1: just as NBC. He said, I don't know, John, you
Speaker 1: think people would ever watch a dog show. I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they would. He said, when do you want
Speaker 1: to run it? And I said, and I thought about it,
Speaker 1: and I said, why don't we put it on Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: Day after the parade we're running. It's a wonderful life.
Speaker 1: Everybody's seen it a million times. We're doing one rating maybe,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of in the public domain, so let's
Speaker 1: try something different. He says, Well, give Jeff Zucker a
Speaker 1: call and go up and see him and see what
Speaker 1: he thinks. So I go up to see Zucker and
Speaker 1: I present the idea and I tell him when I
Speaker 1: want to do it, and he says, well, let's try
Speaker 1: it for a year and see if it works. So
Speaker 1: we did it that first year. We got John oh Hurley,
Speaker 1: Remember the phone call I made do a hurly? He
Speaker 1: answers the phone, I go wolf Wolf and that's a
Speaker 1: running joke today, and he uh agreed to do it.
Speaker 1: And we got David I, who was a unbelievable expert
Speaker 1: on dogs, to be our host and co host. So
Speaker 1: we get it done. January November of twenty two of
Speaker 1: two thousand two was our first year UM and the
Speaker 1: show runs. I'm actually out in Canton, Ohio, because that's
Speaker 1: where my wife's family is from, and it's Thanksgiving weekend
Speaker 1: and I've taken the boys to go see the movie
Speaker 1: jackass Uh that Friday morning, to stay away from the
Speaker 1: shopping malls, right and to get him out of the house.
Speaker 1: And my phone ring and it's ever So it's Dick
Speaker 1: and he says, where are you. You have a good Thanksgiving?
Speaker 1: And I'm saying yeah. I said, why is he calling
Speaker 1: me on the Friday after Thanksgiving? It's usually not good
Speaker 1: when your boss calls you on a Friday morning at
Speaker 1: like eleven eleven thirty. He said, John, have you seen
Speaker 1: the numbers from the Dog Show yet? And I said no, Dick,
Speaker 1: I don't have my computer here and I haven't seen
Speaker 1: any overnights. He said, okay, just sit tight, Jeff Sucker
Speaker 1: is gonna be calling you. So I'm now out in
Speaker 1: the lobby of this theater. And if anybody listening has
Speaker 1: ever been in one of these big ten plex movie theaters,
Speaker 1: you know, the carpeting has all these crazy patterns on
Speaker 1: the floor. I paced that carpeting for what seemed like forever.
Speaker 1: I memorized the pattern on that carpeting at that theater,
Speaker 1: and sure enough, like four minutes later, the phone rings
Speaker 1: and it's Zucker and he said, hey, John, How are
Speaker 1: you doing? I said, I'm good. Jeff, how are you
Speaker 1: happy Thanksgiving? Happy Thanksgiving? It? He said, um, you see
Speaker 1: the numbers on your dog show and I'm thinking to myself,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this thing bombed. I said, no, I
Speaker 1: haven't seen it. And it says, what were you? What
Speaker 1: did you think it was gonna do? I said, well,
Speaker 1: it's a wonderful life. Was doing a one rating. Research
Speaker 1: came back and told me that maybe we would do
Speaker 1: like a one four or one five. He said, remind
Speaker 1: me to talk to the research folks. So I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is not good. I said, what did it do?
Speaker 1: He said, it did a seven and a half rating.
Speaker 1: Other than the parade and some NFL playoff games, it's
Speaker 1: the highest rating on NBC for the How much longer
Speaker 1: do we have it? I said, what do you mean?
Speaker 1: He says, well, how long a deal did you make?
Speaker 1: And I said, Jeff, we created it. We didn't We didn't,
Speaker 1: you know? We we made it up. He said, you
Speaker 1: mean the National Dog Show hasn't been around forever. I
Speaker 1: looked at that logo. It looked like it had been
Speaker 1: around forever. I said, well, at the Countel Club of Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: has been around forever, but this show, this was the
Speaker 1: first year, and he laughed and so so twenty someone
Speaker 1: years later, you know it's um here. We are regularly
Speaker 1: over twenty million viewers watched the National Dog Show. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: We talked a little bit about before. I certainly want
Speaker 1: to hit it again. The American Century Championship, as you said,
Speaker 1: UM created when you you lost baseball and needed to
Speaker 1: fill thirty weeks. UM. It has morphed into an enormous success.
Speaker 1: A fuel good story, UM for you. Your most fun
Speaker 1: week of the year. Oh, easily. Yeah, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of fun, it's a lot of work. I'll tell a
Speaker 1: couple of little anecdotes or stories about the event. So
Speaker 1: if you notice you see the same faces working the
Speaker 1: driving range, the putting green, the bag drop, the facilities secured,
Speaker 1: the whole thing. You see the same faces every year.
Speaker 1: Most of those guys are my former interns who have
Speaker 1: worked as interns at NBC Sports and have gone on
Speaker 1: to really big jobs, but always take a week off
Speaker 1: and come back and work this event. Mike Millthorpe Um
Speaker 1: runs the event for US and has been involved with
Speaker 1: the events since day one. Has been the tournament director
Speaker 1: for thirty two years, does a spectacular job. I don't
Speaker 1: think there's anybody who runs as tight as ship running
Speaker 1: an event as Mike Millthorpe does. But you know, that's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons that runs so well. I have
Speaker 1: there are a couple of rules that we have. You
Speaker 1: can have as much fun as you want. You can
Speaker 1: stay out and do whatever you want to do. But
Speaker 1: we have a six fifteen am meeting every morning and
Speaker 1: you better be there and be ready to go. And
Speaker 1: nobody ever misses misses it, and guys are ready to go.
Speaker 1: And you know, most of the guys are in bed
Speaker 1: by not at ten o'clock at night. I'm not one
Speaker 1: of them. But but it's uh, but but it's I
Speaker 1: think one of the reasons why it runs so smoothly,
Speaker 1: and because everybody has everybody else's back. And I think
Speaker 1: the thing that you notice when you're in Tahoe, everybody
Speaker 1: is smiling, everybody is having a good time. One of
Speaker 1: the things that I've started to notice more the past
Speaker 1: four or five years is how many young boys and
Speaker 1: girls show up. You know, I love nothing more than
Speaker 1: to see a family show up with their young kids.
Speaker 1: And this is their first introduction to golf, and they're
Speaker 1: they're not because they know anything about golf, but because
Speaker 1: they're an Aaron Rodgers fan, or they're at Pat Mahomes fan,
Speaker 1: or they're Travis Kelsey or Steph Curry or Justin Timberlake
Speaker 1: or Nick Jonas or whoever it may be. But they
Speaker 1: get to see their idols or their their superstars very
Speaker 1: close up. The guys all are nice. We don't allow
Speaker 1: any jerks. We have a no jerk policy. Um. And
Speaker 1: they see these guys playing golf and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: for them, Wow, if Justin timber Lake is playing golf,
Speaker 1: if Pat Mahomes is playing golf, Steph Curry is playing golf,
Speaker 1: golf must be pretty cool. Maybe I should try to
Speaker 1: play golf. And I think that helps grow the game.
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, NBC has an
Speaker 1: enormous interest in golf, not only with the Golf Channel,
Speaker 1: but all of our PGA Tour, U S g A,
Speaker 1: r AN A, lpg A, you know, writer cop relations ships.
Speaker 1: So for us, that's a good thing if we can
Speaker 1: help grow the game. Yeah, you know, look during an
Speaker 1: NFL game or NBA game, where you're focused, you have
Speaker 1: to perform in a certain way, and this is your
Speaker 1: job and means a lot. There's something about the game
Speaker 1: of golf that strips all of that stuff away and
Speaker 1: it becomes just a group of people who are trying
Speaker 1: their best to play this game that is so difficult.
Speaker 1: There's no booing that there really isn't. It's really like,
Speaker 1: we're happy to be out here. We're happy to see
Speaker 1: you struggling, and we are ready to celebrate a great
Speaker 1: shot you know that you hit because we acknowledge this.
Speaker 1: You aren't a pro, right, That's that's exactly right. And
Speaker 1: everybody there, I think everybody cheers for everybody, and it
Speaker 1: becomes a golf tournament on the back nine on one
Speaker 1: day and we all get that. And we've got really good,
Speaker 1: highly skilled golfers like Tony Romo and Mark Mulder and
Speaker 1: who can play and play at a very high level.
Speaker 1: But for for everybody else there, they're doing something that
Speaker 1: you're right, is not natural to them. It's very hard.
Speaker 1: They're doing it on a big stage. I am so
Speaker 1: impressed with the guys who show up, you know, eight
Speaker 1: to twelve handicaps, put their games on display and for
Speaker 1: the first time that Fairway is lined with five thousand
Speaker 1: people on either side. That's a lot different than a
Speaker 1: Sunday morning five dollar nassau at at your country club. Yes, no,
Speaker 1: for sure, Well I love it. It certainly is a
Speaker 1: part of your your legacy and major celebrity events, major
Speaker 1: sports events that everybody knows about. Everybody knows about the
Speaker 1: American Century Championship and Lake Tahoe, and I get asked
Speaker 1: about it all year long. You talked a little bit
Speaker 1: ago about some guys that we've talked about on this
Speaker 1: podcast in a different context, Jeff Sucker, Dick Ebersol. I
Speaker 1: will share with you briefly a story in case you
Speaker 1: haven't heard it that Kevin Riley talked about when the
Speaker 1: office numbers started coming in. He remember, he tells the
Speaker 1: story of Dick Ebersol, with his hands pounding on the table,
Speaker 1: wanted the office killed early on. Kevin obviously convinced Dick
Speaker 1: and the aforementioned Mr Zucker to keep it around a
Speaker 1: little bit longer. Were you aware of the show? Oh, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I was. I was a fan early on. I've been
Speaker 1: a you know, I've been a watcher. I mean, it's amazing,
Speaker 1: how how much bigger it's gotten since it stopped. You
Speaker 1: know that that feeling about the office initially. You know,
Speaker 1: in television there are two things that everybody's got a
Speaker 1: quick trigger. If it doesn't work right away, it's done.
Speaker 1: There is a trophy room at thirty Rock, and if
Speaker 1: when you're back in New York, I will take you
Speaker 1: to it. In this trophy room are some of NBC's
Speaker 1: great mistakes. And by that I mean there is a
Speaker 1: letter from Steven Spielberg asking to become an intern, where
Speaker 1: he's rejected. There's Bob Hope wanting to do a television
Speaker 1: show and he's told no, there's not a space for you.
Speaker 1: But my favorite, my favorite of all of them, is
Speaker 1: that the guy who was head of research at NBC
Speaker 1: in the late eighties early nineties was a man named
Speaker 1: George Hooper and Bill Rubens and these guys very smart guys,
Speaker 1: and they had been pitched a show by a guy
Speaker 1: named Rick Ludwin, you know, innovative guy. And he brought
Speaker 1: this concept to NBC called the Seinfeld Chronicles, and they
Speaker 1: tested it a few times and the research came back
Speaker 1: and said, this show will never make it. This is
Speaker 1: we don't waste our time don't put any more effort
Speaker 1: into it. And Rick Ludwin, to his credit, was like
Speaker 1: a pit bull, and they continue to push for it.
Speaker 1: And obviously we now know the story of Seinfeld. But
Speaker 1: in this trophy room is the research letter that was
Speaker 1: written to all the different senior executives at NBC after
Speaker 1: the screening and after the testing, where they strongly recommend
Speaker 1: that they not go forward with this show. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I have not you are you are the first person
Speaker 1: who has told me about this. I want the tour there.
Speaker 1: I'll give you the tour. There's some great stuff at
Speaker 1: their luck that you'll get a kick out of. Um.
Speaker 1: Something that I talked to Steve Sands about the important role, John,
Speaker 1: that you've had in the acquisition of some of NBC's
Speaker 1: biggest sports franchises. My understanding as you have led the
Speaker 1: acquisition of NASCAR, Formula One, U s G, a Premier League, UH,
Speaker 1: n h L. In fact, you can talk about it
Speaker 1: or not, but I understand and if they'd let you
Speaker 1: get more involved with NBC, would still have the NHL today.
Speaker 1: Well that's you know, you can't you can't look back
Speaker 1: on that. But you know, one of the things I'm
Speaker 1: proud of. With the NHL. We had a great run
Speaker 1: with the NHL for almost sixteen years. We first acquired
Speaker 1: it in two thousand and six and two thousand twenty
Speaker 1: one was our last year. But one of the things
Speaker 1: that I was able to create was the NHL Winner
Speaker 1: Classic on New Year's Day, which still exists even though
Speaker 1: it airs someplace else. So that's my gift to Gary
Speaker 1: Bettman NHL fans. I guess, um, but yeah, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: being in the role I'm in, I've had a chance to,
Speaker 1: you know, be part of acquiring and also losing properties.
Speaker 1: I mean, we had Formula One. It's now on ESPN.
Speaker 1: ESPN recently renewed it. They do a terrific job with it.
Speaker 1: It's a great sport. But you know, I was involved
Speaker 1: in acquiring Notre Dame football back in when we first
Speaker 1: got it. Um, the U S g A is obviously
Speaker 1: some thing I'm very proud of, and the Ryder Cup,
Speaker 1: and obviously our PGA Tour relationship has been something that's
Speaker 1: been ongoing that is just before I got there. But
Speaker 1: I like to think that our team really helped enhance
Speaker 1: our golf presence and relationship. And then Obviously, when Comcast
Speaker 1: acquired NBC in two thousand eleven and they brought the
Speaker 1: golf channel along, that really elevated our golf investment to
Speaker 1: where it is now. So it's that that part has
Speaker 1: been a lot of fun. And then I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that I'm most proud of is that,
Speaker 1: you know, we brought the English Premier League to NBC
Speaker 1: back in two thousand twelve, and we just recently this
Speaker 1: past winter renewed it for six more seasons. And that's
Speaker 1: a great property that we really feel is continuing to
Speaker 1: grow and thrive, and I've been very lucky to be
Speaker 1: involved with that. Notre Dame Football. Should they stayd independent
Speaker 1: and keep their contract here with NBCOR Should they join somewhere, John,
Speaker 1: I certainly hope so, I mean, they like being independent.
Speaker 1: They've certainly shown that they're probably the only school out
Speaker 1: there they could survive as an independent. They have tremendous
Speaker 1: leadership with father Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick. They have a
Speaker 1: great new young coach and Marcus Freeman who's doing a
Speaker 1: spectacular job of recruiting. We've enjoyed a thirty two year
Speaker 1: relationship with them that has been you know, as good
Speaker 1: as any partnership we have, and I certainly hope they
Speaker 1: maintain their independence. I know there's a lot of noise
Speaker 1: in the college football space with the super conferences being
Speaker 1: formed with the SEC and the Big Ten, and Notre
Speaker 1: Dame is going to have some decisions. But that's the
Speaker 1: nice thing about Notre Dame is that they've put themselves
Speaker 1: in position where they have choices. Yeah, and the and
Speaker 1: the other thing about Notre Dame that I have found
Speaker 1: in dealing with them, they will always do the right thing.
Speaker 1: That's what's great about Notre Dame. Yeah, that's awesome. Obviously,
Speaker 1: at the American Century Championship, when we finished on Sunday afternoon,
Speaker 1: everybody got on a plane and had to fly over
Speaker 1: to Scotland and immediately begin working and broadcasting live from St. Andrews.
Speaker 1: What an incredible tournament, and certainly laughed. I was so
Speaker 1: proud Tommy Roy and his team and Tom Randolph who
Speaker 1: produces Tahoe, and you know Joe Martin, the director, and
Speaker 1: Molly Solomon and Mark Loomis who run that part of
Speaker 1: our business. They did such a great job and you know,
Speaker 1: it was such compelling television. I'm a huge huge Roy
Speaker 1: McElroy fan. I think he is an exceptional golfer and
Speaker 1: an even better person. I think the way he stepped
Speaker 1: up into this leadership role has been so impressive. And
Speaker 1: I've watched him. I remember following him when he won
Speaker 1: the US Open at at Congressional in two thousand eleven,
Speaker 1: um and uh, you know, and I was rooting hard
Speaker 1: for him. But Cam Smith, I mean shooting thirty on
Speaker 1: the back nine with how many one putts, I mean
Speaker 1: we all would love to be able to put like
Speaker 1: that under pressure at the biggest moment at the home
Speaker 1: of golf. I mean that that that's a performance that
Speaker 1: will go down, you know, in history. You know, this
Speaker 1: has been a great year for majors with Scottie Scheffler
Speaker 1: winning Augusta and Matt Fitzpatrick, you know, winning the US
Speaker 1: Open at Brookline where he won the Amateur in thirteen.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're a golf fan, there's really good, good,
Speaker 1: high end golf out there to watch. So it's it's
Speaker 1: great PGA tour. These some of these young players are outstanding. Yeah,
Speaker 1: It's it's really fun. And I know that you and
Speaker 1: I have talked about I play in the event on
Speaker 1: the corn Ferry Tour in the BMW in Greenville, South Carolina,
Speaker 1: and I remember, you know, you play with those guys
Speaker 1: and you you you leave shaking your head, going how
Speaker 1: are these guys not on the big tour? And then
Speaker 1: you realize, like fifteen seconds later, they are, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, playing with guys who are immediately and you're like, Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: this is just part of the process and part of
Speaker 1: the work that they have to put in to get there.
Speaker 1: The state of golf after the pandemic, it's as strong
Speaker 1: as ever. Are you optimistic about golfs future? I am. Look,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of noise out there about about live golf,
Speaker 1: and I have my own personal opinions about about it um.
Speaker 1: But I think that the PGA tour um has great leadership.
Speaker 1: I'm a big j Monahan fan. I think that the
Speaker 1: quality of of of good golfers out there, between Roy
Speaker 1: McElroy and Justin Thomas and Jordan's speech and John rom
Speaker 1: And and and guys like that. I think that this
Speaker 1: is obviously a difficult time that that everybody is navigating.
Speaker 1: But I I feel very good about the product and
Speaker 1: the quality of the product. I feel strongly about our
Speaker 1: US Open. I still feel very bullish about the game awesome,
Speaker 1: and the ratings for the PGA Tour, the ratings for
Speaker 1: the Open this past weekend, ratings for American Century. I mean,
Speaker 1: people are watching and following golf, So I feel really
Speaker 1: good about that. Yeah, well, it certainly feels like whenever
Speaker 1: you're trying to get a tea time anywhere, golf is
Speaker 1: is is as big as big as it's ever been.
Speaker 1: I want to close, John, I want to talk go
Speaker 1: back to Tahoe one time in the story that you
Speaker 1: told me this last weekend and the kind of pressure
Speaker 1: that John is under even an environment where we're we're
Speaker 1: trying to have a little fun. Um the seventeenth hole
Speaker 1: at Lake Tahoe. It's it's on along the beach and
Speaker 1: by the way, there are now multiple thousand people on
Speaker 1: this little part three hole. And uh, you told me
Speaker 1: about the time you started getting word John's plugged into
Speaker 1: the broadcast we're going live on NBC. UM where there
Speaker 1: was a there was a certain doll that was there
Speaker 1: in the in the crowd. There was an inflatable um sex.
Speaker 1: There was an inflatable sex doll. Right, it was about
Speaker 1: uh six to seven ft in length and probably two
Speaker 1: ft in diameter, and it appeared on the on THEE
Speaker 1: Green on Saturday afternoon. Uh In during the Michael Jordan's
Speaker 1: Jerry Rice I believe Ray Allen match and I noticed it.
Speaker 1: Somebody pointed it out to me and I um told
Speaker 1: these guys, you know, get that out of there. But
Speaker 1: I made the inadvertent comment of shoot the the item.
Speaker 1: So the director immediately panned over and shot it, and
Speaker 1: you get rid of it. I said, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: get off that shot. And unfortunately, once it appears on television,
Speaker 1: it lives on Google and YouTube and places forever. So
Speaker 1: the next morning they had patrols out there with armed
Speaker 1: guards looking to make sure that we didn't have an
Speaker 1: incident like that. Again. The young lady who had brought
Speaker 1: the item up to the mean immediately jumped on it
Speaker 1: and swam out to a bachelorette party where she was
Speaker 1: chased by the Lake Tahoe Coast Guard and they took off.
Speaker 1: But you know, those are the kind of things you
Speaker 1: don't expect. They don't. That's never put in the job description.
Speaker 1: So no, it's it's not live TV. Uh. John. I
Speaker 1: want to thank you so much for coming and talking
Speaker 1: to us. Your career starting in the sixth grade, uh
Speaker 1: NBC and now being at NBC for forty four years. Um,
Speaker 1: it speaks for itself. Are you the longest tenured NBC employee? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I am. I'm you old man, I'm the
Speaker 1: old man of the building and I keep my head down,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I'm I'm I'm the longest serving senior executive there.
Speaker 1: So as long as they keep me around, I don't
Speaker 1: want to go anywhere. So I'm very happy there, so
Speaker 1: hopefully they'll keep me around a little while longer. One
Speaker 1: of my favorite people by far, well certainly my favorite
Speaker 1: person who is still at NBC, John mell Er, Um, well, Brian,
Speaker 1: thank you. You've become such a big part of the event,
Speaker 1: so it's great having you there. I always get that
Speaker 1: big hug when I see you. It makes the whole
Speaker 1: week get off to a great start. Great. Thank you, John,
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for coming on my pleasure, Brian. Take care. John.
Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for dropping in today and
Speaker 1: having a conversation with me. It was a pleasure as always,
Speaker 1: and I personally will be looking forward to what you
Speaker 1: come up with next for n b C. Thank you
Speaker 1: all out there for listening and uh for coming back
Speaker 1: week after week. You're the greatest. Well maybe not say
Speaker 1: the Grand Puba of NBC Sports greatest, but you're the greatest. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: I'm joking, I get because I love Next week we're
Speaker 1: gonna be back with another fantastic guest that well, you're
Speaker 1: just gonna be so excited about How do I know that? Well,
Speaker 1: I just know, and you're just gonna have to trust me.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time. Off the Beat is hosted
Speaker 1: an executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive
Speaker 1: producer Langley. Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris,
Speaker 1: and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary,
Speaker 1: and our intern is Sammy Katz. Our theme song Bubble
Speaker 1: and Squeak performed by my great friend Creed Bratton, and
Speaker 1: the episode was mixed by seth Olandski m