Molly Solomon’s life is “a little chaotic”
right now. Of course, any working
mom might say that…especially if she has
triplets…and especially if her family is about
to relocate…and especially if it’s an Olympic
year and she is producing the television coverage
for NBC…and especially if she was just
named executive producer of the Golf Channel
(the first woman to be executive producer
for a national sports network) and is doing
that job while producing the Olympics.
OK, so if there was an Olympic medal for
understatement, Solomon would have earned
the gold with her “a little chaotic” description.
“Right now, we’re in the last 100-day
push planning for the London Games, so that
is my primary focus. But when decisions have
to be made for Golf, I am dealing with them,”
she says, adding with a laugh: “My staff is
getting a lot of emails between 5 and 7 a.m.,”
which is often the only free time she has.
While she has “incredible respect” for what
the Golf Channel has been doing and does
not plan any kind of extreme makeover, she
will make her mark. “Oh, do I have some
ideas,” she says.
Solomon’s move to Golf Channel is not as
surprising as it might sound for an Olympics
maven. After working as an Olympics researcher
for NBC in the early 1990s, she spent
two years as a production associate on NBC’s
golf tour coverage and took up the game in
earnest. Her husband, Geoff Russell, happens
to be the editor of Golf World magazine. (Solomon
is a 20 handicap and hopes working for
the Golf Channel will help improve her game.)
What isn’t surprising for someone who
tackles NBC’s always expanding Olympics
coverage every other year is that Solomon
“loves a new challenge.” Speaking of which,
she says she was able to quickly dissolve the
tears of her three 8-year-olds, who didn’t
want to move from Connecticut, by pointing
out their new home—in Orlando—has
a pool. “They think we’re moving to Disney
World,” she says.
Another considerable challenge—dealing
with the pace of a cable network. “It’s an incredible
frenzy,” Solomon says. “There’s always
a decision to be made immediately.”
It’s something she has always dealt with
in spurts during the crush leading up to
and during the Olympics—but this will be
24/7/365. “I relish the idea of it,” Solomon
says.
