Olivia Dunne Goes Full Baywatch Because Gymnastics Wasn’t Enough!

Olivia Dunne has the athlete spirit of going bigger, higher, more aggressive. Even though she didn't win any Olympic medals in her sport, which would be where the going bigger, higher, more aggressive would typically play out.

In her case, she applied that to Social Media content production, virality, brand partnerships, brand ownerships and an MLB boyfriend.

She went as big and as hard as she could with Social Media, from Sports Illustrated swim to Baywatch's new edition.

Will the Baywatch thing work, because there was a time when Baywatch was the most dangerous thing on television.

A red swimsuit.

A beach.

A slow-motion jog.

David Hasselhoff being David Hasselhoff.

That was enough to stop America in its tracks.

Now it's 2026, at least that's what they are telling us and the internet exists.

Olivia Dunne is behind the scenes marketing the new Baywatch project and it isn't whether Livvy can pull off the Baywatch look or get them some views, because obviously she can.

The woman spent years doing gymnastics in front of cameras while launching herself through the air, sticking landings and becoming one of the biggest social-media stars in sports.

Apparently, gymnastics wasn't enough. So now she's going to the beach.

Naturally, she's documenting the experience, because it is such a major win for her.

Dunne has been sharing behind-the-scenes footage from the project, giving fans the usual Hollywood appetizer: the beach, the cast, the hair and makeup, the wardrobe, the lifeguard aesthetic and enough red swimsuit imagery to make someone at the Baywatch marketing department whisper, “Yes... excellent... keep posting.”

It's basically the modern Hollywood promotional cycle:

Make show.
Put Olivia Dunne in swimsuit.
Post Olivia Dunne in swimsuit.
Wait for internet to lose its collective mind.
Repeat.

It's a pretty good strategy, but here's the Problem With Baywatch in 2026

Baywatch was built for a world where seeing an attractive person in a swimsuit on television was an event.

We don't live in that world anymore.

We live in a world where you can open your phone at 11:47 a.m. looking for the weather and, approximately four seconds later, encounter enough bikini content to make the original Baywatch production look like a Presbyterian church picnic.

The internet has completely destroyed the scarcity model.

Back in the day, Baywatch could basically say:

“LOOK! HOT PEOPLE AT THE BEACH!”

And America would go:

“HOLY SHIT!”

Today?

The algorithm has seen your bikini.

It has seen your beach.

It has seen your beach from six different camera angles.

It has probably seen the beach you're going to visit next weekend before you have.

And this is where Olivia Dunne enters the equation because Livvy isn't some random actress being introduced to the audience.

She already understands the attention economy better than most television executives.

She is hired because she has the built in audience already.

She knows how to manufacture anticipation.

She knows how to tease a project.

She knows how to turn behind-the-scenes footage into content.

And she knows that sometimes the promotional material is basically the entertainment.

Which brings us to the great question:

Can Baywatch Still Be Baywatch?

That's actually more interesting than whether everyone looks good in red.

The original Baywatch existed in a very different media ecosystem.

It was outrageous because television was comparatively restrained.

Now the internet has taken that concept, fed it steroids, given it Wi-Fi and removed the parental controls.

The old Baywatch fantasy was:

Beautiful people + beach + swimsuits = television spectacle.

The modern internet is:

Beautiful people + beach + swimsuits + 14 billion cameras + no concept of moderation = Tuesday at work while I am avoiding my inbox.

The new Baywatch has to figure out what the original show didn't have to worry about:

What exactly are we selling that the internet hasn't already given away for free?

That's the billion-dollar question.

Because Olivia Dunne can certainly generate attention.

The red swimsuit can generate attention.

The nostalgia can generate attention.

Livvy Has Already Won the Marketing Battle

If the goal of the behind-the-scenes campaign is to get people talking?

Mission accomplished.

Dunne is practically a walking distribution network.

Her followers don't need a television commercial to discover the project.

They'll see it on their phones.

They'll see the behind-the-scenes clips.

They'll see the cast.

They'll see the beach.

They'll see the red.

And they'll probably see approximately 47,000,000 reaction posts explaining that they have seen the red.

That's modern Baywatch.

The show doesn't have to run toward the internet.

The internet runs toward Olivia Dunne.

Which is considerably more efficient.

Still, Someone Should Call Hasselhoff, because we are DROWNING in Internet Bikini content.

There is something wonderfully absurd about rebooting Baywatch in the age of infinite internet nudity.

The original show had David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson trying to convince the world that a swimsuit was a television event.

Now Olivia Dunne is promoting the new version while the internet has spent the last decade turning swimsuit content into a full-time industry.

It's like trying to make people excited about water after inventing the ocean.

So yes, bring back the slow-motion running.

Bring back the beach.

Bring back the red swimsuits.

Bring back the ridiculous lifeguard drama.

Let Olivia Dunne do what Olivia Dunne does best: turn attention into content.

But whether Baywatch can actually recreate the cultural phenomenon?

That's another question.

Because the internet has become so saturated with nudity and thirst traps that even David Hasselhoff might not be able to save us.

And frankly, if the Hoff can't save Baywatch from the internet...

Nobody can.