The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics opening ceremony was broadcast from three separate locations across northern Italy.
NBC’s broadcast featured Mary Carillo, Terry Gannon, and former snowboarder Shaun White as hosts.
NBC’s coverage was noted for being an improvement over the 2024 Paris broadcast, despite logistical challenges.
LIVIGNO, Italy — Nothing will quite top the spectacle that was the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where not even a significant rainstorm withered the parade down the Seine River.
The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics have a much different reality to confront. With three separate clusters and six total competition sites across northern Italy, from the Alps to the Dolomites to Milan, these Games are the most spread out ever, which NBC made clear at the top of the broadcast, and made the show, naturally, difficult to conjoin.
The network was looking to bounce back after Peyton Manning and Kelly Clarkson stepped all over the Paris opening ceremony broadcast and made a mess of it, clouding what was a special scene. This time, there were no celebrity guest hosts, as the network had to look at its talent bench with most of its sports broadcasting group, including Olympic host Mike Tirico, in Northern California for NBC’s Super Bowl 60 production Sunday.
Savannah Guthrie was scheduled to co-host alongside Terry Gannon but had to step aside as she and her family deal with the disappearance and suspected kidnapping of her 84-year-old mother, Nancy.
Mary Carillo filled in admirably on short notice. She and Gannon adequately addressed Guthrie’s absence during the 20 minutes between NBC going on air and the ceremony starting.
‘We are certainly without a loved member of our team,’ Gannon said.
Joining Gannon and Carillo was three-time Olympic gold-medalist Shaun White, who represented the U.S. at five Winter Games as a snowboarder. He was in the booth for a brief introduction at the start of the show and bowed out until the Parade of Nations, when air time needed to be filled, a wise move by NBC executives. Certainly qualified, White had his moments and provided insight into the snowboarding athletes because he knows them. Every country that walked though became a chance to tell a personal story, though.
We get it, Shaun. You’ve traveled the world twice over. Whoever got in his ear at the start of his set to encourage him to lay off the number of times he said ‘amazing’ was keen.
White, for his faults, is natural on television and his inclusion is sensical, unlike Manning and Clarkson were in Paris. He excelled in adding a former athlete’s perspective, complete with an amusing anecdote about not being told to walk during the opening ceremony because of his competition schedule, only to return to the athlete’s village in the wee hours of the morning. He left plenty to be desired when he transitioned into sportwashing on behalf of Saudi Arabia. His promotion of the Snow League, White’s winter sports circuit in its first year (which of course has a deal with NBC), was mildly irritating.
Carillo at least tried to keep the trains on the track by talking about Lindsey Vonn. She asked questions that advanced the conversation. There was a lightness to her interjections that matched the event. She tried to supply humor. At times, Carillo sounded like she was analyzing an actual sporting event, and it kind of worked.
Gannon mentioned protests in Iran and the Carillo followed up by pointing out the third act of the ceremony is about peace. They fawned over the Ukrainian athletes. Yet there was no mention of Israel receiving boos inside San Siro Stadium.
The Parade of Nations lacked luster because athletes marched in separate places – inside San Siro, around Cortina and at the snow park in Livigno. The graphics department should have been busier and informed viewers which cluster they were watching as the broadcast canvassed each one. Having a camera in U.S. flagbearer Erin Jacskon’s family’s home in Ocala, Florida, created a heartwarming moment.
NBC threw it to special correspondent Snoop Dogg early but only returned to him for the Jamaican bobsledders and an interview with U.S. flagbearer Frank Del Duca. After his talent became an epic success for NBC in Paris, it was interesting to see the network not give him a bigger role throughout the show. Perhaps there’s an element of not wanting to shoot all of the Snoop bullets at once, but how many people at home would complain about more Double-G?
What has made Snoop indispensable beyond his entertainment value and camera presence is that it appears he actually does his homework and conveys a legitimate investment in the athletes. NBC deserves kudos for maintaining the partnership.
It’s not like NBC didn’t lean into the celebrity angle. Twelve minutes into the broadcast, Taylor Swift appeared and gave her props to the athletes representing America. It felt random until learning she dropped a music video for ‘Opalite’ on Friday.
Another lowlight for NBC was its interview with Chloe Kim, as reporter Tina Smith left plenty of meat on the bone when it came to asking about her injured shoulder and instead acted more like a fan.
The ceremony began with a montage of what we the world loves about Italy, and what Italy has given the world: opera, music, literature, Renaissance art, espressos, vino, natural beauty and architecture.
The ceremony’s theme, in Italian, was ‘armonia,’ which translates to harmony. There was a self-aware paparazzi skit that morphed into somewhat creepy mascot-heads of famous Italian composers Rossini, Verdi and Puccini.
Gannon was solid with the narration, complete with a Jim Valvano – his former basketball coach at North Carolina State – shoutout that would have made the late paisan proud. Carillo was never heavy-handed with additions.
Mariah Carey sang, in Italian, Domenico Modugno’s ‘Nel Blu, dipinto di Blu,’ followed by one of her most iconic songs, ‘Nothing Is Impossible’ (in English). She hit the falsetto notes – no lip-syncing controversies this time.
The introduction of Italian president Sergio Mattarella was tasteful. NBC didn’t overdo it by lingering on U.S. vice president JD Vance’s presence two spots from IOC president Kirsty Coventry, and only briefly lingered on him and wife Usha with a mention from Gannon during the Americans’ parade entrance.
Much of what ailed the NBC coverage was beyond its control. Tragic, in one sense. The network deserves credit for realizing its error two years ago, being nimble given Guthrie’s situation and juggling another massive sporting event. It wasn’t perfect, but much like these Games portend, it was perfectly disjointed.