“Ghostbusters” and “Saturday Night Live” funny lady Leslie Jones is taking her over-the-top love for all things Olympic to new heights tonight when she appears alongside Ryan Seacrest on NBC’s Late Night Olympic coverage show starting at around 12:35 a.m. ET.
It was just one week ago when Jones’ patriotic enthusiasm while watching the games came to the attention of Jim Bell, the executive producer of the NBC Olympics.
He saw an image she posted of herself wrapped in an American flag toasting the games with the message: “Yep, I love the Olympics it’s the only time all countries come together to compete! I love it!!”
Bell responded with an offer Jones couldn’t refuse: “OK @Lesdoggg you’re officially invited to Rio,” he tweeted.
Jones has been the best Team U.S.A. cheerleader NBC could have asked for. She stepped into the commentator role very quickly, posted about her travel abroad, then immediately jumped into covering the gymnastics and field hockey competitions, as well as historic wins by swimmers Michael Phelps and Simone Manuel.
Jones gave Twitter the brush-off in July following racist and sexist messages sent to her after the release of the all-female “Ghostbusters” reboot.
Bringing the popular comic actress on board for color commentary makes her happy, but since NBC also airs “SNL,” it’s not a bad strategic cross-marketing plan.