Leslie Jones Might Give Up One Of Her Most Famous Gigs

It's a sad day in the Twitterverse when a beloved (albeit unofficial) commentator decides to hang up their microphone. Besides being an actor and comic, co-star of the 2016 "Ghostbusters" reboot, and a former "Saturday Night Live" cast member, Leslie Jones is also well known for her social media commentary, particularly on "Game of Thrones" and the Olympics. As Jones sits in her home watching, she films her television and adds her personal commentary about just how frequently ludicrous (in the best way!) the games can be.

"Ok, what sweet madness is this?" Jones asked of the 2022 luge runs in Beijing, mirroring what many viewers have wondered aloud, as well. "How the f*** does this not go wrong?" she said, watching the athlete blindly fly down the track. It's an excellent, insightful question to which many viewers would love to know the answer.

Many Twitter fans call her "the voice of the people," as she speaks from the heart in her uncensored, unbridled, hilarious manner. She even caught the attention of NBC, the official Olympics broadcaster, when she started her commentaries back in 2016 for the Rio games. In response to her enthusiastic tweets, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Jones was invited to be an official contributor at the 2018 Pyeongchang games by NBC's president of Olympics production, Jim Bell. 

But, not only has Jones not received that invitation in 2022, she's now considering quitting her personal commentaries. And it's also due to NBC's response.

Though Leslie Jones' hilarious commentary on the Olympics gained her many positive responses in the past, both from everyday social media fans and from officials at NBC (her longtime home while at "Saturday Night Live," by the way), NBC now seems to have changed their tune, and Jones feels she should stop live-tweeting. 

"I'm tired of fighting the folks who don't want me to do it," Jones wrote in an Instagram statement. "They block my videos and they get folks who think they can do it like me. And I'm tired of fighting them." Curious about who "them" refers to, and concerned it was more hate from internet trolls, as happened in 2016, Jones responded in a tweet, saying, "It's not the hate, it's NBC."

Instead of celebrating the new viewers and free publicity NBC has received thanks to Jones' commentary, NBC apparently asked Jones to cease her tweets, flagging her videos with copyright infringement. "This is outrageous," Mike Sington, a senior executive at NBCUniversal tweeted. "[Jones'] commentary is the most attention these Olympics are getting. TV ratings are in the dumpster." 

Ironically, in its report on the situation, NBC put the onus on the International Olympics Committee, who reportedly said, "Rights Holding Broadcasters (RHBs) have the exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympic Games." They also said social media users "cannot post competition content natively," and "should that occur, the removal of such content from social media platforms happens automatically." But who exactly are these RHBs if not NBC?