How do you produce the Kentucky Derby as a television show?
Sports Media with Richard Deitsch
Audacy
4.5 • 757 Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2024
⏱️ 30 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Episode 395 of Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features Lindsay Schanzer, NBC Sports’ senior producer of horse racing and its college football studio coverage. Schanzer will also co-produce the gymnastics coverage of the Paris Olympics. In this podcast, Schanzer discusses navigating appealing to the hard core horse racing fan and the far bigger audience of casual fans who watch one horse race per year; producing a sports event with an audience that is 50 percent female; how much attention gets placed on the morning-line Kentucky Derby favorite Fierceness; the biggest challenges before the show and then show day; a feature on the underdog story of Larry Demeritte, trainer of West Saratoga, among the Derby’s biggest long shots; the best cameras for the race; the challenges and opportunities of producing gymnastics for the Paris Olympics; the prospect of Simone Biles competing and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the sports media podcast. I'm your host, Richard Dodge. My producer is Patrick Antonetti. Our guest in this episode is a good one. Lindsay Shanzer is NBC Sports's senior producer of horse racing, and she will be talking to us from Louisville, |
| 0:23.9 | where the 150th running, amazing, 150th running of the Kentucky Derby will air this Saturday, May 4th at 2.30 p.m. |
| 0:31.1 | on NBC and Peacock, they'll air nine races. |
| 0:35.1 | Lindsay also is the producer of NBC Sports's college football studio show as well as |
| 0:40.1 | co-producing gymnastics at the Olympics. I'm always fascinated by horse racing and just how it's produced. |
| 0:47.2 | It's such a beautiful sport to watch on television. And Lindsay has, you know, I would say the best |
| 0:54.0 | assignment in the world. |
| 0:55.1 | She gets to produce the Kentucky Derby. |
| 0:57.1 | So Lindsay Shanzer coming up from Louisville on the Sports Media podcast. |
| 1:05.2 | So the 150th Kentucky Derby airs this Saturday at 2.30 p.m. Eastern on NBC and Peacock. It's live |
| 1:14.5 | coverage featuring nine races. NBC Sports will do 15 total races across the Kentucky Derby |
| 1:21.4 | and Kentucky Oaks Day over Friday and Saturday. And Lindsay Shanzer is at the head of all this as NBC Sports's senior producer of horse racing. |
| 1:33.2 | She also is a producer for NBC's college football coverage. |
| 1:37.2 | And at the Olympics, she will be producing gymnastics. |
| 1:43.0 | And you don't get the gymnastics job unless they trust you because that |
| 1:48.1 | is a very, very important sport when it comes to the Olympics. And with that, I bring in |
| 1:52.4 | Lindsay Shanser live from Louisville. Welcome to the sports media podcast. Hi, thanks for |
| 1:57.5 | having me. You got it. All right. So here's where I want to start. |
| 2:02.2 | I'm sure you have been asked this question in some form before or you've certainly |
| 2:06.3 | thought about it a lot. |
| 2:07.4 | But to me, like as someone who's written about this, one of the most interesting things |
| 2:11.5 | about the Kentucky Derby as a production is that you have to navigate appealing to, you |
... |
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