NBC is responding to actress Leslie Jones after she seemingly suggested that the network doesn’t want her to recap the Olympics anymore.
The network denied they were trying to stop the comedian’s recap and cited a third-party error as the issue and said it has since been resolved.
“This was the result of a third-party error, and the situation has been resolved. She’s free to do her social media posts as she has done in the past,” said an NBC spokesperson. “She’s a super fan of the Olympics and we’re super fans of hers.”
Jones has been living-tweeting the longstanding sporting event over the years and was even invited by NBC to be a part of its 2016 Olympics coverage in Rio and 2018 broadcast in Pyeongchang. However, on early Monday morning, on Feb. 7, the former “Saturday Night Live” star took to her social media page, where she aired out some frustrations over her beloved hobby.
“I’m starting to feel like this should be my last olympics I live tweet. know, another celebrity b-tching,” the 54-year-old wrote in a memo. “But I’m tired of fighting the folks who don’t want me to do it. They block my videos and they get folks who think they can do it like me. And I’m tired of fighting them.”
Elsewhere she added, “I love the athletes and they love me doing it. And I know y’all love it. But now it’s just gotten too hard. And no ne is fighting for or with me. Soooo i guess I’ll leave it to the professionals. But thank you for all the love. #uptoyallnow.” In the caption of her post, she wrote, “Leslie Jones does not stay anywhere I’m not welcomed. #uptoyallnow.”
While the “Supermarket Sweep” host didn’t say who the “folks” were in particular, she alluded to issues with NBC, the official broadcaster of the Olympic Games, for allegedly restricting her videos. She even tagged the network in response to some commenters.
Jones has been noticeably absent from NBC’s 2022 Winter Olympics coverage in Beijing. Viewers have also pointed out the network’s digital platform Peacock has been featuring comedian Kevin Hart, and rapper Snoop Dogg in its Olympics highlights commentary since the Summer Games in Tokyo.
Fans showered the actress with support and, in the comment section, urged her not to discontinue doing her sports clips. “What? You have to be the voice of the people none of us are experts at Curling but the sh-t is funny as hell to watch,” wrote one Twitter user. “Please keep your joy and make people laugh, forget the hate.” Jones replied to the fan stating, “It’s not the hate it’s nbc.”
Another person wrote, “What is the Twitter account of NBC? We need you. I will fight for you to stay…keep commentating.”
Hours before her post about quitting, Jones was sharing her commentary on figure skating with her 1.1 million TikTok followers. “I do this because I really enjoy watching the Olympics,” she said in one clip. “I really love you guys’ reactions … this is like everybody coming together, no matter what’s going on. … When I’m doing this, my spirit is totally in it. … I do this with real passion.”
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