★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★
★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★
≡ NBC ANNOUNCE CREWS ≡
There will be lots of familiar faces – and voices – on the NBC channels calling the Olympic Winter Games in Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo and elsewhere in northern Italy starting on 6 February.
But only about half of the play-by-play and analyst teams will actually be there.
NBC announced its cast of 82 on-air analysts and commentators for its Winter Games telecasts, with Mike Tirico returning as the primetime show host for the fifth time. Also:
“Rebecca Lowe serves as a daytime host (on NBC and Peacock) for her seventh consecutive Olympics. Maria Taylor hosts Olympic Late Night on NBC and Peacock, marking her fourth Olympic assignment. Craig Melvin (Olympic Late Night, Feb. 7-9) and Ahmed Fareed (daytime on Sat., Feb. 7) will also serve as NBC hosts due to NBC Sports’ Legendary February assignments.”
NBC has divided the coverage into 13 event groups, and the play-by-play for six of them will be at the NBC Sports International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Connecticut and seven will have at least one play-by-play announcer in Italy.
This is possible thanks to the “Olympic Cloud” satellite service created by the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Broadcasting Services team, in conjunction with Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group. Introduced for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – in 2021 – the project allows rights-holding broadcasters to access the Games broadcast signals produced at the International Broadcast Center to be available, in full, in their home studios.
This dramatically reduces the need for play-by-play announcers and analysts to be on-site and has created a welcome reduction in space needed for the International Broadcast Center and fewer accreditations, buses and hotel rooms for broadcaster staff.
Even so, NBC will have a huge team in Italy, but will continue its concept, refined at Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024, to have some announce teams on-site and some at its Stamford, Connecticut studios.
The seven sport teams slated to be on-site in Italy:
● Alpine Skiing: Dan Hicks (play-by-play) and analysts Steve Porino and Ted Ligety.
● Bobsled, Luge and Skeleton: Leigh Diffey (pxp) and analysts Erin Hamlin Hodge, John Morgan and Bree Scharf.
● Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard: Todd Harris (pxp) and analysts Todd Richards, Tom Wallisch and Lindsey Jacobellis.
● Freestyle Skiing/Aerials and Moguls: Trace Worthington (pxp) and Hannah Kearney (analyst).
● Figure Skating: Terry Gannon and Bill Spaulding (pxp) and analysts Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir.
● Ice Hockey: Kenny Albert (pxp) and analysts Eddie Olczyk, Brian Boucher, A.J. Mlezcko, Jen Botterill and Angela Ruggiero.
● Speed Skating: Bill Spauling (pxp) and analyst Joey Cheek.
Commenting from Stamford are another seven sport teams:
● Biathlon: Randy Moss (pxp) and analyst Chad Salmela.
● Cross Country Skiing: Steve Schlanger (pxp) and analysts Kikkan Randall and Salmela.
● Curling: Jason Knapp, Jim Kozimor and Sloane Martin (pxp) and analysts Kevin Martin, Tyler George and Jamie Sinclair.
● Ice Hockey: Brendan Burke and Chris Vosters (pxp) and analysts Anson Carter and T.J. Oshie.
● Short Track: Ted Robinson (pxp) and analyst Katherine Reutter-Adamek.
● Ski Jumping: Paul Burmeister (pxp) and analyst Johnny Spillane.
● Ski Mountaineering: Chris Vosters (pxp) and analyst Max Valverde.
Hicks will be doing his 16th Olympic assignment with NBC and Robinson will be working his 15th Olympics, 14 of them with NBC.
NBC covers interviews and any possible needs for someone on the ground with reporters at every sport, for example, veteran track & field reporter Lewis Johnson for speed skating. In addition, a team of eight “SportsDesk” reporters will be spread out for breaking news in Milan, Cortina and Livigno.
NBC divested itself of cable channels CNBC and USA Network, now part of Versant, but these channels will carry significant parts of the Winter Games. Their hosts will all be in Stamford, as will the “Gold Zone” whip-around coverage.
NBC’s own Peacock streaming channel will have everything – plus some special camera feeds and new games – and some programming will be on the new NBC Sports Network channel.
¶
★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.
For our updated, 45-sport, 910-event International Sports Calendar for 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!
