“We’re wasting our money,” NBC executive producer reveals how he ended Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s aspiration to become a GREAT broadcaster
Dale Eranhardt Jr. is the poster boy of NBC’s NASCAR coverage.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Credits: IMAGO)
NBC executive producer and president of the production Sam Flood has revealed how the media giants got the best out of Dale Earnhardt Jr. as an analyst by putting an end to his aspirations. When the NASCAR Hall of Famer joined NBC’s NASCAR booth as an analyst six years ago, he had some big plans that included becoming a great broadcaster.
But it wasn’t what NBC wanted out of NASCAR’s most famous driver of all time. They signed the authentic Dale Jr. many fans enjoy watching and listening to. But if the JRM co-owner went to fulfill his dream of becoming a great broadcaster, he would lose what made him special, authenticity.
So, while discussing Dale Jr. in the recent episode of Dale Jr. Download with Kelly Earnhardt and Mike Davis, Flood revealed one of the first conversations they had about Dale joining the crew. He said that Jr wanted to learn everything there is about broadcasting and become great at it. Flood then explained to the two times Xfinity series champion that they need Dale Jr., not Dale the broadcaster, as his transformation will be a wasted investment that fans don’t want.
“And I remember we’re talking to him about, he said, ‘I want to learn how to be a broadcaster… I want to learn all the lessons that I need to be great.’ And I said, ‘The only lesson you need to learn is to be Dale Jr. The minute you’re not Dale Jr., you become a broadcaster. We’re wasting our money. We shouldn’t hire you. We want you to be Dale Jr,” Flood said.
“We need to bring your authentic self to the TV in whatever you do. Yeah, we’ll teach you how to when to talk to the camera, when to talk to your coworkers, and how to get to commercial, and do the little things. But most importantly is never lose you.’ Because that’s what the fans are in love with and you see things that are [in a] really unique way,” Flodd added.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the crossover man at NBC
The media giants are using NASCAR’s richest drivers’ presence to the full extent as he isn’t an exclusive NASCAR analyst. Dale Jr. has covered Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Kentucky Derby, the Super Bowl pregame show, and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The are multiple reasons behind assigning Jr. these duties. Oe is his big fan base and the viewers he can attract, and the second part is his charm in front of the camera. It also helps them to attract fans of other sports to NASCAR, with Dale Jr. as the poster boy.
“And when we made the proposal to junior, we had a list of things that we wanted him to do. We wanted to be, go beyond motorsports, because we want him to take the fans that get to know him at the Kentucky Derby or at the Olympics and say, ‘Hey, that guy’s pretty cool. I wanna hang with him. Oh, he’s the NASCAR guy’,” Flood admitted.
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Justin P Joy
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