Matt Lauer To Join Costas For Opening Ceremonies

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Watching Football the other night it was pretty weird to hear Collinsworth call himself a "friend of Bob", but I guess I'm going to have to get used to it. Your newest friend of Bob will be Matt Lauer as he'll co-host with Costas for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics this Friday night....

NBC Olympic primetime host Bob Costas will host the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony alongside co-host Matt Lauer, NBC's 'Today' co-anchor, this Friday, August 8, 2008 – 8.8.08 – at a special early start time announced yesterday, 7:30 p.m. ET/PT. Costas and Lauer will be joined by reporters from NBC Sports and NBC News: NBC Sports reporters Andrea Joyce and Bob Neumeier and NBC News' Richard Engel, Chief Foreign Correspondent; and Peter Alexander, Correspondent. The announcement was made today by Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics and Executive Producer of NBC Universal's Beijing Olympic coverage.

"In addition to the off-the-charts spectacular Opening Ceremony that the organizers have planned, what will become immediately apparent to an American audience is that these Olympics are so eagerly anticipated here in China."- Bob Costas

"In many ways the Opening Ceremony sets the tone for the two weeks of competion and celebration that will follow. There is obviously a lot at stake for the Chinese, and I'm I thrilled to have the chance to be a part of a broadcast that will bring this story back to all the viewers at home."- Matt Lauer
I don't think I'm going to go out of my way on Friday night to check out the Opening Ceremony, but I am a little intrigued by its potential weirdness. Nothing can top the crazy flipping guys from Super Bowl XLI, or the closing ceremony of Euro 2008, but I'd love to see the Chinese try.

(Via NBC PR)

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 9:28 AM

3 Comments:

The Chinese can make anything weird.

//any arena in which Yao Ming plays

GMoney said...
Aug 5, 2008, 10:43:00 AM  

I don't know how much you were paying attention at halftime of SNF the other night AA, but did the Beijing Olympics set remind you of a warehouse? I hope that's not what they plan to use for Costas and his FOBs for the next two weeks.

Anonymous said...
Aug 5, 2008, 12:05:00 PM  

Great point Anon. I'm assuming that they're going to setup different areas for Costas to report from around the space. Maybe a sitdown area on the side for the Friends of Bob.

The place is f'ing huge though.

Aug 5, 2008, 12:10:00 PM  

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