Ebersol has been cutting new paths in the television industry for nearly 30 years, from Saturday Night Live to NBC’s historic Olympic partnership, through which NBC Sports has the exclusive broadcast and cable rights for every Olympic Games through 2008. In 1968, while Ebersol was still a student at Yale University, ABC’s Roone Arledge hired him to become the first Olympic TV researcher. After graduation, he became Arledge’s executive assistant and then a producer for Wide World of Sports and the 1972 Summer Olympics. In 1974, he joined NBC as the director of Weekend Late-Night Programming. The next year, he hired Lorne Michaels and helped conceive and develop Saturday Night Live. Named the vice president of Late-Night Programming at age 28, Ebersol became NBC’s first vice president under the age of 30. In 1983, he formed his own production company, No Sleep Productions, and created Friday Night Videos, Later with Bob Costas and Saturday Night’s Main Event. On May 1, 1989, he became the president of NBC Sports, and he rose quickly to a position of dominance in sports TV. In 1992, Ebersol was awarded with the Olympic Order, and, in 1996, The Sporting News named him the Most Powerful Person in Sports in America.

In December 1995, Ebersol was the driving force behind NBC’s acquiring the exclusive broadcast and cable rights for the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2006 Winter Olympics, and the 2008 Summer Olympics. Four months earlier, he orchestrated NBC’s obtaining the rights to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. In the fall of 1999, Ebersol added the popular NASCAR to the NBC’s lineup, with a six-year agreement to televise 20 races per year, starting in 2001.

Ebersol began NBC Sports’ turnaround with the 1989 acquisition of NBA broadcast rights in a deal that set a standard for relationships between rights holders and broadcasters. In 1993, Ebersol worked with NBA commissioner David Stern to construct an unprecedented four-year broadcast agreement that assured network profitability and allowed for revenue-sharing between the partners. On the heels of that successful deal, Ebersol crafted yet another four-year agreement in November of 1997, keeping NBC as the exclusive over-the-air broadcaster of the NBA through the 2001-2002 season.

In the 1995-96 television season, for the first time in history, the World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals and Summer Olympics were telecast by the same network. Still an active producer, Ebersol served as executive producer of NBC’s coverage of the last three Summer Olympic Games. He is also co-executive producer of the NBA on NBC, with executive producer Tom Roy.

Ebersol is married to Susan Saint James. Together they have five children.

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