NBC's Tirico coming back from Beijing earlier than planned

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.

NEW YORK -- There were many reasons to think NBC made a savvy business deal in 2014 when it locked up the American media rights to the Olympics through 2032 for $7.75 billion.As the Beijing winter games come to a close, it's harder to see them now.These Olympics were a disaster for the network: a buzz-free, hermetically-sealed event in an authoritarian country a half-day's time zone away, where the enduring images will be the emotional meltdown of Russian teen-agers after a drug-tainted figure skating competition and a bereft Mikaela Shiffrin, sitting on a ski slope wondering what went wrong.Many American athletes underperformed, and arguably the most successful — freestyle skier Eileen Gu — competed for China.Viewers stayed away in alarming numbers, and NBC has to wonder whether it was extraordinarily bad luck or if the brand of a once-unifying event for tens of millions of people is permanently tainted.“Given the investment, they've got to be disappointed right now,” said Andrew Billings, director of the sports communications program at the University of Alabama.Network executives say there are no plans to try and adjust or escape from its rights deal. Several experts say that would be unlikely, given how live sports are increasing in value and represent one of the few ways advertisers can gather large audiences to sell automobiles or beer.

“We have reason to believe the Russian forces are planning to and intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week, the coming days,” Joe Biden said unequivocally Friday for the first time after weeks of looming crisis in the former USSR.

EXCLUSIVE: NBC has revealed the hosts for its coverage of Sunday’s Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics — and two of them have been in the news this week.

EXCLUSIVE: NBCUniversal, amazingly, is now in its fifth decade of carrying the Olympic Games. With this month’s Beijing Winter Olympics, though, all of that accumulated institutional knowledge is colliding with a media landscape in massive flux.

An NBC Olympics executive said Thursday that the network has not made a request to interview Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai after the tennis star at the center of speculation over her well-being attended the Beijing Winter Games.

NBC’s primetime Olympics host will return to the U.S. from Beijing after Monday night’s broadcast, earlier than was originally planned.

Naman Ramachandran U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 has revealed a disabled presenting team for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games, who will present on the ground in China.

kicked off their opening day, tweeting her thoughts about the city’s alleged human rights violations.“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,” she claimed. “On top of poisoning the world and killing 6 million people.

With the first full day of games tucked away, NBC posted some early numbers from the Beijing Winter Olympics and the glass seems to be half full.

Wyatte Grantham-Philips editorShaun White has announced his official retirement from competitive snowboarding, with Beijing 2022 marking not only his last time on the Olympic stage, but also in any official competition.“It will be my last competition, which is pretty special,” White told a news conference in Zhangjiakou, China on Saturday, according to the official Olympic website. “It’s been a beautiful run.

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.

health, and I love what I do.“The time is coming now where after the Super Bowl where I will think about a lot of things. I’ve got a couple of people very close to me who I trust their judgment, insight and what they’ll say in terms of what is next.”This is Michaels’ 11th Super Bowl, and his fifth for NBC.NBC signed Mike Tirico in 2018 to take over as Olympics host and eventually succeed Michaels on “Sunday Night Football.” With NBC having the Super Bowl in Los Angeles and Michaels’ contract ending, this upcoming offseason may be a transition point.Tirico, who has called some NFL games the past couple of seasons, will do double duty next weekend — hosting NBC’s prime-time coverage of the Beijing Games as well as the Super Bowl pregame show.

Ellise Shafer A Dutch journalist was interrupted and pulled out of frame by a Chinese security guard while covering the Beijing Olympics on Friday.As can be seen in a video that quickly went viral on Friday, NOS correspondent Sjoerd den Daas was reporting outside of the National Stadium in Beijing during the Olympics’ opening ceremony when he was stopped by a security guard and pushed out of frame.Onze correspondent @sjoerddendaas werd om 12.00u live in het NOS Journaal door beveiligers voor de camera weggetrokken. Helaas is dit steeds vaker de dagelijkse realiteit voor journalisten in China.

The opening ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics has happened and we have tons of great photos from the event.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticTwo hours of parading nations later, IOC president Thomas Bach stood on the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony stage and did his best to justify the Olympic ideal in 2022, a year more surreal than most. “Division, conflict, and mistrust are on the rise,” Bach said.

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details of this morning’s Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony live on NBC.