NBC Names Hosts For Olympics Closing Ceremony

The international union that governs skating said Tuesday that it was following the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee in banning athletes from Russia and Belarus from its competitions across the sports of figure skating and speed skating. It becomes the latest organization in the sports world to take action since Russia began its military invasion of Ukraine.

John Mulaney just reached a huge milestone – becoming an official member of the five-timers club as he hosted the latest episode of Saturday Night Live.

Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t escape the Saturday Night Live treatment this week. The 69-year-old was spoofed by Colin Jost on the Saturday, Feb. 27 episode, where the ‘Weekend Update’ host got in multiple shots as he spoke about Putin’s current spearheading of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Olympics in the rear-view mirror.The games reached an average combined audience of 11.4 million people in prime time on NBC, the USA cable network and Peacock streaming service, the network said. That's the lowest-ever American audience for any Olympics, and down 42% from the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018.For NBC alone, the prime time telecasts reached an average of 9.3 million viewers, or 48% down from South Korea, the Nielsen company said.The games never really captured the public imagination, and were hurt by COVID-19 restrictions that had most of NBC's announcers working half a world away in Connecticut.In a diminished world for broadcast television, however, NBC beat every other network in prime time during the Games' duration.

The 2022 Beijing Olympics concluded Sunday with icy fanfare,  a spirited speech from International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach and an audience count that pales in comparison to previous Winter games.

A cross-country skier from Finland had a chilling realization in his run at the Winter Olympics in Beijing this past weekend.

Despite all the high-tech tricks, political posturing and pyrotechnics, the best part of the Closing Ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics proved to be the athletes.

Coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics wraps up Sunday with the Closing Ceremony, which will air live from Beijing National Stadium on Peacock, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app beginning at 7 a.m. ET/4 a.m. PT. NBC and Peacock will rebroadcast the finale gala in an “enhanced primetime presentation” beginning Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

The 2022 Winter Olympics, now three Thursdays into competition, are back where they started ratings-wise.

American track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson is RIGHTFULLY calling out what appears to be a major double standard at this year’s Winter Olympics. And we’re here for her take!

Sha’Carri Richardson, the American track and field star who was banned from the Tokyo Olympics last year for marijuana use, has an issue with Russian Olympic Committee figure skater Kamila Valieva‘s participation in the Beijing Olympics. 15-year-old Kamila tested positive for a banned substance in the midst of the 2022 Winter Olympics, but on Feb. 14, she was granted approval to continue competing by the Court of Arbitration for Sports. The CAS said Kimila’s age is the main reason they decided to lift the ban on the teenager, according to Sport’s Illustrated.

Focusing on the positive. After a difficult start at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Mikaela Shiffrin offered a glimpse at how she approached her remaining time at the international sports competition.

A legendary career. Shaun White reflected on his snowboarding achievements after his final Olympic Games ended without a medal.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBC Sports says 16 million viewers tuned in to watch the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, an all-time low for Olympic ceremonies on linear television.That’s around 43% down compared to the 28.3 million viewers that watched the PyeongChang Winter Olympics opening ceremony in February 2018.Friday’s torch-lighting in Beijing aired live on NBC and the streaming service Peacock beginning at 6:30 a.m. ET yesterday morning and was replayed again in primetime.

It’s early days at the XXIV Olympic Winter Games, but NBC must already be praying for some Gold medal glory or the Super Bowl to give them a boost. Right now, coming off record low viewership in the first night of primetime coverage, the billions the Comcast-owned network fork out to broadcast the Games until 2032 isn’t looking like money well spent.

Chinese authorities interrupted a Dutch journalist’s live report on the Winter Olympics Friday, dragging him off-camera and creating confusion as to why his broadcast was halted.

Meghan McCain has slammed the 2022 Winter Olympics, branding them the "Genocide Games" over China's human rights abuses.MORE: Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie share disappointment over 2022 Winter Olympics newsThe 37-year-old took to social media to share an image designed by Chinese artist badiucao, which was created in protest of the host country. It showed an ice hockey player wearing the Chinese flag with blood on their stick and mask as they knocked over a Tibetan monk.WATCH: Meghan McCain announces departure from The View"I will not watch one minute of the @Beijing2022," she captioned her post, adding the hashtag, "#GenocideGames."On Twitter, she expanded on her opinion, writing: "There is no reason to watch a Winter Olympics that is holding up and spreading propaganda for a regime that is committing actual genocide and ethnic cleansing - on top of poisoning the world and killing 6 million people.

Proud family. For Chloe Kim‘s parents—father Jong Jin Kim and mother Boran Yun Kim—their daughter is the definition of the American dream.