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Selected work · NBCUniversal · 2016 – 2019

The Shows

Six shows Bryce Kristensen made for the phone, first at E! News and then at the NBCU Digital Lab. On every one, Bryce developed the concept, oversaw production and worked with NBCU's ad sales teams on the partnerships and integrations built into it. Episodes and press below.

E! News · Snapchat Discover · Launched 2016

The Rundown

RoleExecutive in charge of production & creative

  • ConceptFour minutes, tap to advance: an intro, two stories and a Final Word
  • ProductionA six-producer team, scaling from weekly to three a week to daily
  • PartnershipsSponsorships and brand integrations with NBCU ad sales

Pop culture news cut for a phone held upright and a thumb ready to tap. At launch it was one of the first fully produced shows made only for Snapchat Discover.

It started weekly. Four months in, viewership was up 82% and three-quarters of the audience came back every week, so Bryce's team moved to three episodes a week, then daily, and took the show to the Golden Globes, Grammys and Oscars red carpets. By June 2017 CNBC was calling it Snapchat's top show, with more than 7 million viewers an episode and 8.5 million at the peak. It cleared $1M in year one.

Fast Company on The Rundown (2017): how E! News rebuilt itself for a younger audience.
The Rundown playing on a phone: Erin Lim with the E! News Rundown logo
Logo, lower thirds, host: all rebuilt for a 9:16 screen.
Erin Lim on The Rundown, shown on a phone in front of the E! News set
Shot on the E! News set, framed for a phone.

E! News · Snapchat Discover · 2017 – 2019

Face Forward

RoleExecutive Producer

  • ConceptOne woman, one celebrity look, three experts, one final photo shoot
  • ProductionNew episodes every Saturday and Sunday
  • PartnershipsAbercrombie & Fitch as season two's launch partner, with E! ad sales

Beauty creator Patrick Starrr, hair stylist Tiarra Monet and celebrity stylist Johnny Wujek took one woman per episode through a full makeover, with a celebrity's signature look as the brief. Cardi B, Bella Hadid, Rihanna, Demi Lovato. Every episode ended on a photo shoot.

The Cardi B episode passed 12 million viewers, NBCU's most-watched on Snapchat at the time. In season two the Abercrombie & Fitch integration put about 40,000 people through its doors, and Snap came back for a third season, Face Forward: Master Class, as a Snap Original with Patrick Starrr.

Tristina goes Cardi B. Start here.
Aviana as Demi Lovato, the most-watched of these on YouTube.
Kelly needed a look for a family wedding. The team went with Bella Hadid.
Patricia, by way of Camila Cabello.
Mariam's Kim Kardashian West makeover.
Cicely gets the Rihanna treatment.

NBCUniversal · Snapchat Discover · 2018

How Low Will You Go?

RoleGeneral Manager, NBCU Digital Lab

  • ConceptDeveloped for Snapchat with Above Average, Broadway Video's comedy studio
  • ProductionSeven episodes in LA, then a fall tour of college tailgates
  • PartnershipsPartnerships and integrations with NBCU ad sales

Two contestants, one gross dare and a reverse auction. Each bids down the cash they'd take to do it, and the lowest bid has to follow through. Comedian Jared Freid ran the room.

Season two took the game to college football tailgates, from Penn State vs. Ohio State to Georgia vs. Florida. A year later USA Network posted both seasons on YouTube, and Freid played a round on TODAY.

Season one, episode one. How much would you take to set off a glitter bomb?
Episode two: one eyebrow, gone, for the lowest bid.
Season two on the road. Belly button lint, outdoors, with a crowd.
On TODAY, July 2019. Freid runs a round with Jenna Bush Hager, Willie Geist and TODAY fans.

E! · E! News app · 2017 – 2018

E! Live 360

RoleVP, Digital Productions & Development, E! News

  • ConceptPut the viewer in charge of a live 360 camera on the red carpet
  • ProductionTwo live 360 feeds plus a hosted studio feed on awards nights
  • PartnershipsAT&T's exclusive sponsorship, built with ad sales and run with no pre-roll

The red carpet, live, from wherever you wanted to stand. Will Marfuggi, Kristin Dos Santos and Justin Sylvester hosted from the studio and took viewer questions as the arrivals came in.

It launched as part of Live From the Red Carpet and ran through the 2018 Oscars. Six months after its first night, the Television Academy put it up for an Emmy.

Host Will Marfuggi on the 2017 Golden Globes red carpet next to the E! Live 360 camera rig
Will Marfuggi at the 2017 Golden Globes, next to one of the two 360 rigs.
Will Marfuggi beside the E! Live 360 camera on the 2017 Grammys red carpet
Five weeks later at the Grammys, same rig, new carpet.
E!'s promo for the 2018 Golden Globes, presented by AT&T.
Back for the 2018 Oscars.

E! · Snapchat Discover · 2017

Ask Kylie

RoleGeneral Manager, NBCU Digital Lab

  • ConceptA Saturday lead-in to Sunday's Life of Kylie on E!
  • ProductionSix episodes of three to five minutes, from a four-producer team
  • PartnershipsPartnerships and integrations with E! ad sales

Kylie Jenner, answering her fans herself: family, heartbreak, bullying, building a cosmetics company. Khloé Kardashian and Jordyn Woods dropped in.

Each episode hit Snapchat the night before her E! docuseries aired, so the phone did the promo work for TV. With about 175 million followers behind her, Bryce skipped the traditional tune-in campaign and let Kylie's own channels carry the launch. It was E!'s second Snapchat show.

"Her presence is so big you don't need to use traditional tune-in [tactics]."

Bryce Kristensen, in Digiday, August 2017

NBC Sports · Snapchat Discover · 2018 – 2019

Premier League: Extra Time

RoleGeneral Manager, NBCU Digital Lab (producer)

  • ConceptThe weekend in three minutes, every Monday, for U.S. fans
  • ProductionMade by the Digital Lab for the full 2018–19 season
  • PartnershipsPartnerships and integrations with NBC Sports and NBCU ad sales

Premier League kickoffs land on Saturday mornings in the U.S., so plenty of American fans catch the weekend in pieces. Extra Time handed it back every Monday: highlights, storylines and the fans themselves. TYT Sports analyst Francis Maxwell hosted, and the whole thing was meant to feel like a round at a British pub.

It followed Pipe Dreams and Chasing Gold, the Lab's PyeongChang Olympics shows for NBC Sports. Snapchat announced it the same day as its NFL deal, in the middle of a summer push into sports.

The Lab

The Rundown started at E! News, and what the team learned there became the NBCU Digital Lab, the studio Bryce built and ran to make shows for E!, Bravo, Oxygen, NBC News and NBC Sports. When NBCUniversal made a $500M investment in Snapchat, Bryce led the group that delivered NBCU's programming for the platform, and the Lab made NBCU the largest producer of shows on Snapchat. Digiday named it Best Snapchat Discover Publisher in 2019.

Videos play from the official E! News and USA Network YouTube channels, Fast Company on Dailymotion, NBC's TODAY and E! Online, and the embedded players don't load until you press play. Key art and stills © E! Entertainment, NBCUniversal and Above Average, shown here as a record of the work.