Molly Solomon

Coordinating Producer, NBC Olympics; Executive Producer and Senior VP, Production and Operations, Golf Channel

By Stuart Miller -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/4/2012 12:01:00 AM

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.