Move to NBC In 1974, he joined NBC as Director of Weekend Late Night Programming. In 1975, at the suggestion of
Paramount Pictures executive
Barry Diller, Ebersol and NBC president
Herbert Schlosser approached
Lorne Michaels for help in creating a show to fill the Saturday night time slot. Michaels's idea for a variety show featuring
high-concept comedy sketches, political satire, and music performances eventually became
Saturday Night Live. Named as Vice President of Late Night Programming at age 28, Ebersol became NBC's first vice president under the age of 30. After a brief departure, he returned to
SNL in 1981 as executive producer and remained until 1985, spanning the
Eddie Murphy and
Billy Crystal eras. and was promoted to chairman, NBC Sports & Olympics in June 1998. He served as executive producer for the
1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, his first Olympics since Munich in
1972 for
ABC. His early tenure at NBC Sports was highlighted by a string of sports-property acquisitions and renewals, including the
NFL,
NBA,
Notre Dame football and
MLB, through the formation of the joint-venture
Baseball Network. During the 1995–96 television season, for the only time in history, the
World Series,
Super Bowl,
NBA Finals and
Summer Olympics were telecast by the same network. It was following this run in 1996 that
The Sporting News named Ebersol the "Most Powerful Person in Sports." In 1993, he secured the rights to the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. In August 1995, he acquired the rights for the
2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the
2002 Winter Olympics in
Salt Lake City. It marked the first time that rights for consecutive Olympics were awarded at the same time. Later that same year, he spearheaded NBC Sports' acquisition of the exclusive media rights for the
2004 and
2008 Summer Olympics, and the
2006 Winter Olympics. The agreements marked the first time that the same network had been awarded the rights to five consecutive Olympics. In 2003, Ebersol led NBC to acquire the exclusive U.S. media rights to the
2010 Winter Games and the
2012 Summer Olympics. In December 2003, Ebersol agreed to a nine-year contract to continue running NBC Sports & Olympics through 2012. Ebersol produced: • the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 (the most-watched event in U.S. television history with a record 215 million viewers) • the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games in 2010 (second-most watched Winter Olympics in history with 190 million viewers) •
Super Bowl XLIII in February 2009 produced, at the time, the largest-single audience in U.S. television history with a record 152 million viewers. It is currently the second-most viewed program of all time. The Super Bowl milestone was made possible in 2005 when Ebersol spearheaded the effort to return the NFL to NBC by negotiating a six-year agreement that included moving the NFL primetime broadcast package from
Monday night to
Sunday night, flexible scheduling for the first time ever, and Super Bowls in 2009 and
2012. On May 19, 2011, Ebersol resigned from NBC Sports.
The New York Times stated that he intended to stay at NBC through the end of June 2011. It was later reported that Ebersol would return to NBC Sports in time for the beginning of the
2011 NFL season to serve in a senior adviser role.
Alliance of American Football Ebersol served on the board of directors of the
Alliance of American Football (AAF), a professional American football league co-founded by his son Charlie and
Bill Polian. Ebersol and his son were both ousted from the board of directors when
Thomas Dundon purchased the league.
Awards and honors Ebersol has often been in the top 10 honorees on
The Sporting News annual list of the 100 most powerful sports figures, including in 1996 when he was named the Most Powerful Person in Sports. In 2005, Ebersol was inducted into both the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame. In 2008, NBC won the Peabody Award for its coverage of the Beijing Opening Ceremony along with Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, who served as the event's creative director. At the 2009
SportsBusiness Journal awards ceremony, Ebersol won Sports Executive of the Year and NBC Sports won Best in Sports Television. On April 27, 2009, the six "Commissioners of American Sport" –
Roger Goodell (NFL),
David Stern (NBA),
Bud Selig (MLB),
Gary Bettman (NHL),
Tim Finchem (PGA Tour) and
Brian France (NASCAR) – were part of a presentation that concluded with
Muhammad Ali awarding Ebersol the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement from the
National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Ebersol is the 2014 recipient of the
Paul White Award, the highest award presented by the
Radio Television Digital News Association. In 2026,
Molly Solomon, who the
New York Times' Andrew Marchand called "the most successful female sports executive in the history of television", attributed her career success to Ebersol's mentorship. ==Personal life==