Bob Costas and Al Michaels, legendary broadcasters across sports media coverage for many years with NBC Sports and various other entities, are reportedly going to appear on coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Both commentators have been on the air for Olympics coverage in the past, with Costas hosting 12 Olympic Games in prime time and Michaels calling the United States’ victory over the Soviet Union in hockey from Lake Placid, N.Y. in 1980. Costas and Michaels are both in London where they took part in a panel that was conducted by CNBC, and reports of their involvement in the Olympic broadcasts was first reported by Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports.
Costas departed NBC Sports in 2019 after he had worked for the network for four decades, during which he hosted Olympics coverage and called games for various league telecasts, including Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League. Michaels joined NBC in 2006 as the voice of Sunday Night Football, a role in which he served for 16 years before moving to Amazon’s Prime Video to call Thursday Night Football. Upon his departure, Michaels was given an emeritus title by the company and called a playoff game for NBC during the 2022 season. Michaels has allowed the company to use an artificial intelligence version of his voice to narrate Olympic highlights customized for Peacock users.
NBCUniversal has the U.S. media rights for the Olympic Games through 2032, ensuring that the contests remain on its platforms through that time. Within the first three days of broadcast coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, NBCUniversal averaged 34.5 million viewers across Paris prime time (2-5 p.m. EST) and U.S. prime time (8-11 p.m. EST) broadcast windows.
