We don’t know how the weather will be in France over the next couple of weeks while the Summer Olympics are unfurling there. But we do know there will be a deluge in the United States in terms of coverage of the Games across NBCUniversal’s many platforms.
Carrying the bulk of the load is streaming service Peacock, which already has shown events that predate the official opening of the Games and is set to end up with more than 5,000 hours of live coverage before things wrap up with the closing ceremony Aug. 11.
But the showcase outlet for the Olympics as usual is NBC (KSDK, Channel 5 locally), which will have its signature storytelling prime-time coverage. And that could reach new melodramatic heights this year. The network will focus even more on the theatrical and entertainment aspects than in many previous Olympics, when it already had a heavy dose. That’s because the time in Paris, where the bulk of the competition will be held, is six hours ahead of the East Coast — seven hours ahead of ºüÀêÊÓƵ — so almost all competition should be over during U.S. prime time.
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Mike Tirico will anchor what NBC is calling “Primetime in Paris†on a set that has the Eiffel Tower and Seine River in the background. It will be Tirico’s fourth time in the lead host role that Bob Costas occupied for 11 Games before stepping aside after the 2016 event in Rio de Janeiro. Entertainer Snoop Dogg will be part of the show most nights, providing reports from events he attended, his visits with athletes or from his trips into Paris neighborhoods to capture the local flavor.
Snoop Dogg (Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr.) is best known as an iconic rapper and was asked on a conference call this week how he is approaching this assignment.
“My preparation for prime time is being me,†he said. “Google me. Look me up, dog. I’ve done fighting a bit. I’ve done sporting events. This is what I do. I’ve been doing this since y’all have been goldfish. What they’re going to find out is I know the sport, I know the angle, I know the conversations. Tune in so you can be a part of it.â€
The plan is to feature a gold-medal event in the first 10 minutes of the prime-time show, which usually is set to begin at 7 p.m.
“’Primetime in Paris’ will be unlike any previous Olympic prime-time show in U.S. television history,†Rob Hyland, who is producing the programming, said in a statement. “We are going to be highly imaginative in our approach, distilling the best-of-the-best from each day’s events and telling those stories in a unique way.â€
Unlike in some previous far-away Olympics for which NBC wouldn’t show key events on any platform until prime time, asking viewers who didn’t want to know the outcome to go to all measures to stay in the dark, times have changed. So with everything being shown live on some outlet, the traditional NBC prime-time slot adjusts.
“You may know what happened, but we’ll tell you how and why it happened, and complete the stories each night with additional context beyond the action,†Hyland said.
The show-biz theme kicks off with the opening ceremony at 11 a.m. Friday on NBC and Peacock. It will be held on the Seine River, not in a stadium. The telecast is to open with a four-minute film titled “Land of Stories,†which is narrated by Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg. The network says the film “showcases the Olympics as the perfect template for telling an epic story.†Entertainer Kelly Clarkson and Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning join host Tirico, with reports from “Today†show regulars Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb. The opening festivities will be replayed at 6:30 that night on NBC and Peacock.
“This opening ceremony is going to showcase the city,†Molly Solomon, executive producer of NBC’s Olympics coverage, said on the call. “... There’s 12 stages. It’s all across 4 miles of the Seine River, and the whole opening ceremony is embedded in the heart of the city. So we’re going to kick off with almost a tutorial, a very artistic tutorial on the city, and it promises to be just magnificent.â€
NBC and Peacock will be the anchor spots for coverage of the athletic competition, with both set to have more than nine hours of it during the daytime when the action is live. NBC (KSDK) starts at 8 a.m. most days, and of course, the biggest ratings draws of the Summer Olympics will be featured: gymnastics, swimming and track and field. A detailed list of events and where they are being shown is available at
Both outlets have the U.S. men’s basketball team’s opener against Serbia at 10:15 a.m. Sunday. The American women’s basketball team gets going at 2 p.m. Monday against Japan, and that will be on USA Network and Peacock.
Peacock will have the most extensive array of programming. It will stream every sport and event, which it says will be an Olympics first, including all 329 medal competitions. Also available will be replays of events as well as video clips and other offerings. Last week, Peacock raised its monthly subscription price from $5.99 to $7.99, a 33% jump, and its limited-commercial offering leaped from $11.99 per month to $13.99.
Peacock also will offer a “Gold Zone†channel, where coverage will bounce from event to event in a manner similar to what the “RedZone†outlet does with NFL games. To that end, “RedZone†host Scott Hanson will be one of the “Gold Zone†anchors. So will Andrew Siciliano, who was in the same NFL role as does Hanson when DirecTV had its own version of that football whip-around show.
Nuts and bolts
While NBC is the anchor of the television side of the array of coverage options, events also will be sprinkled across NBCUniversal cable outlets USA Network, E! Network, CNBC and Golf Channel. Counting those networks and other platforms, NBC outlets are set for more than 7,000 hours of combined coverage. Here is the breakdown of where to generally find various sports:
- USA Network: It’s the primary spot for U.S. team sports as well as long-lasting events including swimming, track and field, soccer, basketball, beach volleyball, rugby, cycling, volleyball and water polo.
- CNBC: Boxing, cycling, rugby and skateboarding will be in the spotlight on this outlet and has the first gold-medal event of these Games — in the mixed team air rifle competition at 4 a.m. Saturday.
- E!: Its fare centers on track & field, gymnastics, canoeing, diving, equestrian, artistic swimming, breaking, fencing and water polo.
- Golf Channel: Guess what sport this outlet features? Men’s coverage begins at 2 a.m. Thursday, with the women not teeing off until 2 a.m. Aug. 7.
- New channels: Customers of Comcast, Cox, DirecTV/DirecTV Stream, Dish/Sling, Fubo, Hulu Live, Verizon and YouTube TV will be able to watch two additional stations devoted to the Olympics around the clock with live coverage as well as replays. Paris Extra 1 focuses on team sports such as basketball, handball, water polo, field hockey, and more. Paris Extra 2 will revolve around combat and racket sports such as judo, tae kwon do, badminton and table tennis.
Local line
Channel 5 plans to have an extensive amount of its own coverage of the Olympics that concentrates on stories of local interest.
Rene Knott, co-anchor of the station’s early morning weekday newscasts and a former sports director there, has been sent to Paris and will file reports on athletes from the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area in the 6 a.m. hour of the show.
Then at 6:30 p.m. nightly other than Sundays, KSDK will devote a half-hour to competitors from the region. Those programs will be hosted Sundays-Fridays by sports director Frank Cusumano and news anchor Anne Allred as well as on Saturdays by Channel 5 staffers Corey Miller and Annie Krull.