NBC’s Coverage Plans for The Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

This will be the first of several press releases you’ll see during the 17 days of the Olympics in Vancouver. And it’s nice not to write “Communist China” as I did in 2008 to remind everyone of the atrocities in that country. Anyway, I have an affinity for Canada having lived in Montreal as a young child and it’s why I always try to find Canadian sports media links as well.

Here’s is the press release from NBC in regards to the Opening Ceremony to be held at BC Place, the first time it will be held indoors.

COSTAS & LAUER TO HOST NBC’S COVERAGE OF VANCOUVER WINTER OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY

Michaels, Williams, Brokaw, Collinsworth, Patrick, Carillo and Cantore Contribute 

Special Early Start Time 7:30 p.m. ET/PT Tomorrow on NBC

Vancouver, British Columbia - February 11, 2010 - NBC Olympic primetime host Bob Costas will host the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony alongside co-host Matt Lauer, NBC’s ‘Today’ co-anchor, tomorrow, February 12 - at a special early start time 7:30 p.m. ET/PT.  Costas and Lauer first anchored the Opening Ceremony together at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. NBC Olympics Daytime and Weekend host Al Michaels will join Costas and Lauer from the studio. ‘NBC Nightly News’ Anchor Brian Williams, NBC News Special Correspondent Tom Brokaw and NBC Olympics Late Night host Mary Carillo are contributors. NBC Olympics correspondents Cris Collinsworth and Dan Patrick will provide interviews and the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore will provide weather updates. 

NBC Universal, broadcasting its 12th Olympics, the most by any network, will present more than 835 hours of Vancouver Olympic Winter Games coverage - representing the most total hours ever for a Winter Olympics, more than the last two Winter Olympics combined, and the most live hours ever for a Winter Games.

The 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games will be Bob Costas’ ninth for NBC Sports and his eighth as primetime host. The 20-time Emmy Award winner is one of the most respected and honored broadcasters of his generation. Costas has won acclaim and Emmy Awards each year for his work as primetime host from Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Salt Lake City, Athens and Beijing. He served as late night host in 1988 from Seoul. Costas hosts NBC’s “Football Night in America,” a complete recap of each Sunday in the NFL. Costas, who has the longest tenure of the network’s sports announcers, joined NBC in 1980.

The 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games will be Matt Lauer’s seventh Olympics for ‘Today’ and his second in a role on the primetime Opening Ceremony broadcast. Lauer has served as co-anchor of “Today” since 1997, he joined the show in 1994 as news anchor. 

NBC OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY FACTS & FIGURES:
PARADE OF NATIONS: The Vancouver Olympic Winter Games will welcome more than 2,500 athletes from 84 countries competing in 86 gold medal events. In the Parade of Nations, the nations will enter BC Place in Vancouver in French alphabetical order. According to Olympic tradition, Greece marches first and the host nation, Canada, enters last. Team USA will march 82nd.

AWARD WINNING OPENING CEREMONY COVERAGE:NBC Sports won a Peabody Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards for its coverage of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. The Peabody organization called the broadcast “an exponential magnification of what was once known in television as a ‘spectacular.’” This marked the first Peabody Award ever won by NBC Sports and the first for an Olympics in 33 years. Previously, the 1972 Summer Games and the 1976 Summer and Winter Games had been honored.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics
David Neal, Executive Vice President, NBC Olympics 

DIRECTOR: Bucky Gunts, Head of Production, NBC Olympics

Looking forward to the coverage and you can rest assured I’ll have plenty of Olympic linkage during the two and a half weeks of competition.