#DIVING COMMENTATOR OLYMPICS NBC RIO CRACKED#

Team USA once again wore aggressively preppy uniforms by Ralph Lauren, this time with logos large enough to be visible in space. The ceremony devolved into a strange fashion show, a parade of athletes dressed like Kenneth the Page on “30 Rock,” with countries like Ghana and Colombia providing the occasional, extremely refreshing burst of color.

#DIVING COMMENTATOR OLYMPICS NBC RIO CRACKED#

Kotb, making her debut as an Olympics commentator, brought some fourth hour of “Today” loopiness to the proceedings, while Lauer cracked at least one groaner of a joke about Vieira’s age (she’s all of four years older than he is). Each delegation was led by a cyclist who looked like a character out of a trippy children’s cartoon and infused the event with a sense of whimsy. There was, inevitably, a lame Djibouti pun. There was a regrettable tendency to either dwell on recent strife (Turkey, France), or to elide it in a way that bordered on tone-deaf (mocha originates from Yemen, it was cheerfully noted). The greatest challenge comes during the parade of athletes, when the commentators lean heavily on geographical fun facts, no doubt compiled by an exhausted team of NBC researchers, to liven up what is a procession of people walking for 2½ hours.Ģ016 SUMMER OLYMPICS: Live coverage from Rio » The opening ceremony is a feat of endurance for the commentators, forced to find something useful (or at least inoffensive) to say for nearly five hours. In what felt like an important milestone for an event that’s usually a nationalistic pageant, Brazil addressed its complicated racial history in sequences about European colonization and the African slave trade, which Vieira awkwardly described as “immigration.” And the first portion of the night ended with a speech about climate change (narrated in English by the extremely British Judi Dench, for some reason) accompanied by frightening graphics showing the effects of rising sea levels on coastal cities around the world. Performances by samba queen Elza Soares and 12-year-old MC Soffia were almost captivating enough to make you forget Vieira’s unfortunate description of Brazilians as “cultural cannibals.”īut the exuberance of the ceremony was balanced by serious themes. Other sequences paid homage to the creativity of the favelas, the slums that dot the hillsides of Rio, and to aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont, who was portrayed flying over the city. Six Californians competing in the Olynpics in badminton, soccer, skeet shooting, archery and water polo talk about their long journey to Rio. Later, Bundchen joined revelers in the stands and proved that if this modeling thing peters out, she’s got a bright future as a bar mitzvah motivational dancer. Tom Brady would appear in a staged mugging, but instead, the world’s highest paid model strutted across the stadium floor as Daniel Jobim sang the country’s unofficial national anthem, “The Girl From Ipanema.” Frankly, Bundchen’s ability to walk in stilettos while not tripping on her long, sequined dress was as awe-inducing as any pyrotechnic display. The show also made use of Brazil’s other great natural resource, Bundchen.Įarly rumors indicated that Mrs. The vast rainforest was re-created using glowing vine-like ropes, twisted in an array of geometric patterns by dancers dressed in indigenous garb. Relying on relatively low-tech innovations, the ceremony traced Brazilian history through the ages, beginning with giant bugs crawling across the floor of the Amazon. In an interview with opening ceremony executive producer Marco Balich this week, Reuters reported the Rio budget for the night’s show was about half of the $42 million that London spent. The real reason, of course, was to draw as many eyeballs and run as many commercials (and women’s gymnastics promos) as possible.

NBC claimed it was delaying the broadcast in order to provide additional “context” for viewers.

Diving commentator olympics nbc rio