The Olympics

"Brian Williams is what can be best described as 'awkwardly' co-hosting the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on NBC," an e-mailer critiqued last night. "Bob Costas is smooth as ever, interpreting the heavy symbolism of the perenially goofy opening ceremonies. Newsman Brian Williams -- thrust in to this NBC Sports/Entertainment program -- is trying to maintain some semblance of journalistic integrity by keeping his exceedingly rare comments focused on 'newsy' topics.

At the top, he was trying to talk about how the Olympics are a global event and quickly jumping deep in to the North/South Korean conflict -- those comments aren't as compelling when there is a dancing cow on stage in the background."

While Costas talks about the meaning of the colors of the Italian flag, Williams chimes in with 'Italy is the third largest contributor of troops to the coalition forces in Iraq.'

During the parade of nations as Denmark entered the stadium, as if to remind everyone why he's there, Brian Williams used the phrase 'they find themselves in the news...' not once but twice in regards to the Danish cartoonists/Muslim controversy. I'm sure Katie Couric would have said something about cheese danishes."

> Also: A couple Daily Nightly commenters also weigh in...

Insiders are still buzzing about the news that Katie Couric won't be co-hosting the Opening Ceremonies alongside Bob Costas on Friday. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who flew to Italy yesterday, is taking her place.

"When were the last Opening Ceremonies at the Olympics that Katie didn't anchor?," an e-mailer asks. Couric hosted the ceremonies in Sydney (2000), Salt Lake (2002) and Athens (2004).

A press release on Sunday said she is "unable to take part in the Torino Opening Ceremony as she will miss this week's Opening Ceremony rehearsals in Torino due to her live anchoring of the TODAY show from Rome, Florence and Milan" beginning Monday."

"Is this the beginning of her farewell? Is NBC sending her a message about what CBS can't offer her? Does she care? That's all anyone is talking about," the e-mailer says...

> TVNewser asked on Dec. 27: "Why isn't [Katie Couric] anchoring the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in February?"

"NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams will co-host NBC's Turin, Italy, Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony coverage Friday night, instead of Today's Katie Couric. Mr. Williams' co-host for the kickoff extravaganza will be Bob Costas, who split hosting duties with Ms. Couric during the opening ceremonies in Sydney, Australia; Salt Lake City; and Athens, Greece," TV Week reports.

"An announcement over the weekend attributed the switch to Ms. Couric's travel schedule for Today -- she will be in Rome for Monday's episode, followed by Florence and Milan. Her schedule precludes her being in Turin in time to rehearse for the Opening Ceremony broadcast, whereas Mr. Williams will be anchoring Nightly News from Turin starting Tuesday."

(And NBC just realized this recently?!?!)

"In one of two cost-saving experiments, 'Curling-At-Home,' both the curling-venue control room and the daypart control room" for CNBC's Olympic curling coverage "will be run out of CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. The announcers and camera operators will be in Torino, but the producer, director and production staff will be in the Garden State," Broadcasting & Cable reports.

"We will be moving four camera feeds to them, and they will push two video feeds back to us [for announcers to voice over],” explains Dave Mazza, senior VP, engineering, NBC Olympics. “We have two Tieline commentary codecs, and we also have Miranda's iControl system for remote control, so the technical director in New Jersey changes the route on what goes home on the feeds..."

Highlights from the long press release:

The Today Show: "Leading up to the Opening Ceremony, during the week of February 6, [Katie] Couric will report live for a special split-show broadcast of Today with co-anchor Matt Lauer in Studio 1A and Couric from Rome on Monday, Florence on Tuesday and Milan on Wednesday. On Thursday, February 9, Lauer and Roker will join Couric in downtown Torino to debut their Olympics' set located in the Piazza San Carlo." Campbell Brown and Natalie Morales will also contribute to the coverage from Torino. The anchors will participate in a "daily video blog from the Games."

NBC Nightly News: "Beginning February 8, Brian Williams will anchor Nightly News live from Torino, with all the latest news and information on the games."

Correspondents: Richard Engel, Hoda Kotb, Kerry Sanders, Mike Taibbi and Kevin Tibbles will report from the games.

MSNBC: "Will offer special live programming leading into and out of its Olympic coverage." Chris Jansing and Alison Stewart will anchor the pre-Olympic coverage from Torino. Tucker Carlson will anchor the daily post-event coverage from MSNBC headquarters and will take a look at the day's events with contributions from Jansing and Stewart. Also, "U.S. Olympic gold medalists Sarah Hughes and Natalie Coughlin will join as on-air contributors."

MSNBC.com: "Has dedicated a special Winter Olympics news section that covers event results, medal winners, rosters, schedules and more. Subsections dedicated to major sports and multimedia items also provide in-depth coverage. MSNBC.com writers offer original and insightful commentary, including an exclusive on-site blog, a daily, non-sports diary and a Q&A from Olympic fans..."

NBC News analyst Bob Hager, who retired from the network in November 2004, is coming back to cover the Olympic Games as a "sports desk reporter" covering news around Torino, Italy. "Sounds like an odd assignment for someone who is basically retired and whose beat included aviation," an e-mailer said today. I thought so too -- but it turns out this will be Hager's fourth Olympics. According to NBC:

"Hager provided news reports during both the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics and the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games. Hager's Olympic broadcasting debut came as NBC's reporter based in West Germany during the 1972 Munich Games, where he covered the events associated with the Black September terrorist attack on the Israeli athletes in the Olympic Village. In 1996 he was scheduled to cover the 1996 Atlanta Games for NBC News when TWA Flight 800 crashed off Long Island and he was dispatched to cover that story."

Hager popped up on NBC and MSNBC last week covering the miners in WV...

> Update: 7:03pm: "Bob Hager is from the old school," an e-mailer says. "He's a classy and hardworking reporter who can do anything he's handed. It will be great to see him back on the air."

NBC Universal has announced its programming lineup for the Olympics. The coverage on MSNBC and CNBC will begin on Monday, February 13.

MSNBC "will provide 71 hours of Olympic coverage from Torino highlighted by 24 live hockey games, including quarterfinal, semifinal and medal round competition. On weekdays, MSNBC will be "The Hockey Channel" with all day live coverage of the men's and women's tournaments. MSNBC will also provide extensive curling coverage including medal round games."

The schedule will apparently fluctuate everyday. For example, on day four MSNBC will air live hockey from 7am to 2:30pm ET. On day five hockey will air from 5am to 4:30pm. On day seven Olympics coverage will only air from 3 to 5:30pm. The full TV listings are accessible here, and they are subject to change.

CNBC "will be home to 61 hours of Winter Games coverage from 5-8 p.m. ET on weekdays following the "Closing Bell" and featuring curling, the "cult hit" of the Winter Olympics. CNBC will provide extensive live hockey coverage on weekends."

MSNBC "nearly quadrupled" its regular ratings during the 2002 winter games. CNBC "almost tripled" its normal delivery in 2002...

> Bill Clement will host the cable hockey coverage and Fred Roggin will host the cable curling coverage.

> NBC's sports desk reporters will include Weekend Today co-anchor Lester Holt, correspondent Kevin Corke, analyst Bob Hager, and terrorism analyst Roger Cressey...