Mixed doubles round-robin curling matches in Beijing will start Wednesday morning.
It will begin a record 2,800 hour coverage of the Olympics from February 2-20 across U.S. Rightsholders NBC and USA Network (400 hours of coverage scheduled beginning February 2) and CNBC (880 hours). The coverage is also available on NBCOlympics.com, the NBC Sports App via authentication (2.100 hours), and on the Peacock streaming platform, which is growing from its Tokyo debut. It will broadcast every event from all 15 sports in real-time via its premium tier and offer replays.
NBC’s main coverage launches its primetime coverage on Thursday, February 3, with live team figure skating getting underway along with men’s and women’s moguls, leading into the Opening Ceremony on Friday live in the early morning (6:30 a.m. ET) and in primetime (5:30 p.m.; encore 8 p.m., replay at 12:38 AM PT Saturday). Savannah Guthrie, New York and Mike Tirico will anchor the coverage.
NBC will broadcast more than 200 hours of live coverage on 18 primetime shows across all U.S. times zones starting at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. ET (7 p.m. ET Sundays); Tirico hosts the first week and Maria Taylor the next. With NBC Sports Network no more, USA Network will offer 24/7 live coverage as the Games’ cable home, with CNBC picking up the coverage after its market programming, led again by curling and international hockey.
(Tirico, by the way, will attempt to pull off the rare double of hosting the Olympics and the Super Bowl pregame show on the same day — both events are on NBC this year. The plan calls for him to fly to Los Angeles after his hosting duties Thursday, February 10, host the Olympics on Friday, February 11 from a set outside SoFi Stadium, then host the primetime Olympics show Saturday night followed by hosting NBC’s five-hour Super Bowl LVI Pregame Show on Sunday. He’ll then host Sunday night’s Olympic competition.)
Beijing is 13 hours ahead of the Eastern U.S. time zone and 16 ahead of Pacific time zone, meaning lots of live coverage options in primetime as well as during NBC’s Primetime Plus, which returns to follow late local news in most time zones. All of it will be broadcast live via Peacock’s premium Tier.
In addition to live competition, Peacock will also offer full replays available immediately upon conclusion as well as exclusive daily studio programming, medal ceremonies, highlight clips, and simulcasts of NBC’s nightly primetime show. It will also broadcast four daily shows via the Olympic Spotlight Channel. The Olympics Show (8-10 a.m. ET); Olympic Ice (10-11 a.m. ET) – Figure skating Winter GoldThe recap show will be at 11 a.m. ET. Top Highlights (8 p.m.-8:00 a.m. ET).
The Beijing Olympics live coverage begins Wednesday morning when Australia and the United States face off in mixed doubles curling (7 :05 a.m. ET, NBCOlympics.com, and Peacock The Closing Ceremony will be broadcast on NBC and Peacock.
Commentators and anchors
There are 84 commentators overall assigned to cover the Beijing Olympics. However, not many are in China due to Covid-19 restrictions that limit spectators to invited guests.
NBC’s broadcasting teams for figure skating, Alpine skiing and snowboarding originally were going to be onsite, but the rest were already scheduled to cover events from NBC’s Stamford, Conn, headquarters. NBC kept the majority of its Tokyo Summer Olympics team at home, but had teams in Japan for certain sports like swimming and gymnastics.
Tirico will host Primetime from Beijing and Prime Plus the first half (giving way to Taylor in the Super Bowl). He will also be broadcasting from L.A., where he will take over for Taylor’s NFL duties. Daytime hosts Rebecca Lowe and Craig Melvin are NBC hosts. On cable and Peacock hosts are Ahmed Fareed (following Super Bowl), Jimmy Roberts (following Super Bowl), Lindsay Czarniak, Jac Collinsworth, and Jac Collinsworth for USA Network; Carolyn Manno (following Super Bowl); and Kathryn Tappen. Peacock’s team includes Adnan Virk and Brian Boitano as well as Scott Hamilton, Scott Hamilton, Scott Hamilton, Scott Hamilton, Scott Hamilton, Scott Hamilton, Matt Iseman and Jonny Moseley.
Anne Thompson and Sam Brock are the Sports Desk’s correspondents. They include Lindsey Vonn, a gold medalist skier, Steve Kornacki, a MSNBC Big Board recruit, reprising their Tokyo trip, and Lindsey Vonn who won a gold medal.
Andy Browne, editorial director of Bloomberg New Economy Forum, and Jing Tsu, the John M. Schiff Professor of East Asian Studies & Comparative Literature at Yale, will contribute to coverage of the Opening Ceremony and NBC’s first night of primetime coverage on Thursday.
Here’s a rundown of who’s covering what by sport:
Alpine Skiing
Dan Hicks – Play by Play
Ted Ligety, Analyst
Steve Porino, Analyst
Todd Lewis, Reporter
Biathlon
Bill Doleman, Play by Play
Chad Salmela, Analyst
Tom Abbott, Reporter
Bobsled/Luge/Skeleton
Play by Play, Leigh Diffey
Erin Hamlin, Luge Analyst
John Morgan, Bobsled Analyst
Bree Schaaf Skeleton/Bobsled Analyst
Lewis Johnson, Reporter
Cross Country Skiing
Steve Schlanger – Play by Play
Chad Salmela, Analyst
Kikkan Randall, Analyst
Naoko Funayama, Reporter
Curling
Jason Knapp – Play by Play
Jim Kozimor – Play by Play
Kenny Rice – Play by Play
Kevin Martin, Analyst
Tyler George, Analyst
Jamie Sinclair, Analyst
Corey Robinson, Reporter
Figure Skating
Terry Gannon, Play by Play
Tara Lipinski, Analyst
Analyst Johnny Weir
Tanith White, Analyst
Andrea Joyce, Reporter
Freestyle Skiing/Snowboarding/Big Air
Shane Bacon – Play by Play (Big Air).
Todd Harris, “Play by Play”
Trace Worthington. Play by Play
Kelly Clark, Analyst
Hannah Kearney, Analyst
Todd Richards, Analyst
Tom Wallisch, Analyst
Analyst Seth Wescott
Tina Dixon, Analyst/Reporter
Hailey Hunter, Reporter
Sam Brock, Reporter (Big Air)
Randy Moss, Reporter
Hockey
Kenny Albert – Play by Play
Brendan Burke, “Play by Play”
John Walton. Play by Play
Chris Vosters, Play By Play
Brian Boucher Analyst
Anson Carter, Analyst
Keith Jones, Analyst
Monique Lamoureux-Morando, Analyst
Analyst AJ Mlezcko
Dom Moore analyst
Eddie Olczyk, Analyst
Angela Ruggiero, Analyst
Leila Rahimi, Reporter
Short Track
Ted Robinson, Play By Play
Katherine Adamek Analyst
Andrea Joyce, Reporter
Ski Jumping
Paul Burmeister, Play by Play
Johnny Spillane, Analyst
Naoko Funayama, Reporter
Speed Skating
Bill Spaulding – Play by Play
Joey Cheek, Analyst
Accessibility
NBCUniversal will provide closed captioning for all Olympic or Paralympic events on its broadcast and cable networks. Also, digital livestreams were made available for the first time in Tokyo.
Descriptive Video Works provides audio description services to viewers who are visually impaired or blind via the Secondary Audio Program (SAP). NBC Sports will provide live audio descriptions for all broadcast programming including those aired after primetime hours and all simulstreams.
NBCU also says it is also improving web content accessibility — keyboard navigation, color contrast, support for screen readers, etc. — will be available on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.