NBC Signs Six Sponsors for 100th Birthday Special

NBC has locked in six sponsors for its 100th birthday special, turning its centenary into a showcase for customised adverts.

The three-hour special airs on 10 December from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Allstate, Capital One, Purina Dog Chow, Smucker's, Volkswagen and Xfinity have signed as sponsors, according to Variety.

The deal expands the sponsorship model NBCUniversal used for the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live in 2025. That model pairs brands with shows and stars for one-off spots and vignettes, rather than standard 30-second ad breaks. A presenting sponsor, meaning a brand billed alongside the programme itself, gets its name woven through the event.

Capital One has already started. Its NBC 100 spot stars Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T in character as Olivia Benson and Fin Tutuola from Law & Order: SVU. Benson turns to camera with the bank's line, "What's in your wallet?" The ad ran during NBC's Emmys telecast, straight after a pre-taped SVU spoof with a Taylor Swift cameo.

Two of the six brands tried the same playbook for SNL 50. Allstate backed a vignette that paired its Mayhem character, played by Dean Winters, with the Please Don't Destroy comedy trio. Volkswagen reunited Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig in character from the Californians sketch.

Volkswagen will go further for NBC 100. It will launch a new anniversary-tied commercial in November. It will also rebuild sets from NBC programmes at the L.A. Auto Show in November.

NBCUniversal first said in January it would chase larger sponsorships around the centenary, Variety reported. Alison Levin, a president in the company's ad sales and partnerships unit, is leading the push. The company has named two future tentpoles, meaning big audience events that anchor a schedule, for the same treatment: the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 and the 75th anniversary of The Tonight Show in 2029.

The special is billed as a live variety show, according to NBCUniversal, and sits inside a year-long celebration NBC calls "A Century Together", according to NBC. The network said it would mark the year with retrospectives across its shows, social channels and NBC Insider, according to NBC.

For viewers, this means the ad breaks will sit inside the celebration. Stars appear in character. The birthday speech runs three hours. The sales pitch runs all year.