Report: Peyton Manning joining NBC to participate in 2024 Olympic Games coverage in Paris
Peyton Manning, the Pro Football Hall of Famer, will try his hand at other sports, in fact, lots of them, when he co-hosts NBC’s coverage of the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics.
Manning will host with Mike Tirico and singer Kelly Clarkson as the Olympics kick off in Paris.
Manning, Tirico and Clarkson started doing media interviews about their new assignment Tuesday night. They spoke with Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. And then the trio made the official announcement with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show.
Paris is doing something unique this year when it comes to the opening ceremony. Rather than do the massive production from a stadium, like all other host cities have done, the ceremony will incorporate some of the best sites of the City of Lights.
Fans will line the banks of the River Seine. They will watch as 90 boats, carrying all the athletes from 200 countries, will float past them. The boat parade of nations, with a a 3.7-mile route, will end at the Eiffel Tower.
Peyton Manning is a long-time fan of Olympics
So why Peyton Manning, the former NFL quarterback? Why would NBC consider him for an assignment like this where you need to know both Olympic and French history, a smidge of world politics, and a little something about all the sports and athletes? Well, he obviously is good on the Manning Cast with brother Eli. And Manning has co-hosted with Luke Bryan for the Country Music Awards.
He told The Athletic that the Olympics idea had its genesis at last year’s Kentucky Derby. Tirico, the lead play-by-play broadcaster on Sunday Night Football, also hosts all Olympic coverage for NBC. He approached Manning about joining the team.
“I kind of argued with him as to why he and NBC thought I was worthy,” Peyton Manning told The Athletic. “He said they were bringing in Kelly Clarkson to kind of give the perspective of a fan and wanted me to share the perspective of what these athletes are thinking about it.”
Now, Manning also is a fan of the Olympics. He attended the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta as a fan, back when he still was in school at Tennessee. He also had plans to attend the Tokyo Games in 2020. But the Covid pandemic postponed the spectacle. When it returned in 2021, the normal fan could not attend.
Manning has started to do all the research he will need to be able to talk about what he sees in the opening ceremony.
“So far, I’ve been so impressed because, not surprisingly, he’s a maniac for research and preparation,” Molly Solomon, the president of NBC’s Olympic productions, told The Athletic.