Costas, Lauer and Vieira Host NBC's OLYMPIC OPENING CEREMONY Today, 7/27

NBC's Olympic primetime host Bob Costas will host the London 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES OPENING CEREMONY from Olympic Stadium alongside co-hosts Matt Lauer, NBC's 'Today' co-anchor, and NBC News Special Correspondent Meredith Vieira, today, July 27 - at a special early start time 7:30 p.m. ET/PT. Costas and Lauer anchored the Opening Ceremony together at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Olympic primetime correspondent Ryan Seacrest and NBC News Special Correspondent Tom Brokaw will contribute interviews and reports.

NBC's opening tease of the London Olympics, which highlights the big stories of the Games and London as the host city, will air during the Opening Ceremony. The tease is voiced by British actors Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, and is produced by the NBC Olympics features unit.

The 2012 London Olympics will be Bob Costas' 10th for NBC and his ninth as primetime host. After serving as late night host in 1988 from Seoul, South Korea, Costas earned acclaim for his work as primetime host from Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Salt Lake City, Athens, Torino, Beijing and Vancouver. Costas, who has the longest tenure of the network's sports commentators, joined NBC in 1980.

The 2012 London Olympics will be Matt Lauer's ninth Olympics for 'Today' and his third in a role on the primetime Opening Ceremony broadcast. Lauer has served as co-anchor of 'Today' since 1997; he joined the show in 1994 as news anchor.

While the Opening and Closing Ceremonies will not be streamed live, NBCOlympics.com will distribute some clips from the Opening Ceremony before the event airs in primetime. The clips will also be promoted across NBC Olympics' social media partners, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. As previously announced, every Olympic sporting event will be streamed live on NBCOlympics.com.

NBCUniversal, presenting its 13th Olympics, the most by any U.S. media company, will make an unprecedented 5,535 hours of the 2012 London Olympics coverage available across NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Telemundo, NBCOlympics.com, two specialty channels, and the first-ever 3D platform, an unprecedented level that surpasses the coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics by nearly 2,000 hours.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II TO OFFICIALLY OPEN THE GAMES: The Games of the xx Olympiad begin in grand and royal style as London, the first city to host the Olympics three times, welcomes the world, and Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the Games. Other members of the Royal Family, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, are scheduled to attend.

NBC OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY FACTS

· Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney has announced that he will perform;

· First Lady Michelle Obama will lead the official U.S. delegation;

· British filmmaker Danny Boyle is the chief director of the Opening Ceremony. He is best known internationally for the film Slumdog Millionaire, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and earned Boyle the Oscar for Best Director, in 2008;

· A cast of more than 15,000 will take part in the spectacle.

Parade of Nations: The 2012 London Olympics will welcome more than 10,000 athletes from 204 countries, plus one group of athletes who will march under the Olympic flag as "Independent Olympic Athletes." These are athletes whose countries don't have National Olympic Committees (NOCs) - South Sudan, a new country with no NOC, and athletes from Netherlands Antilles, which no longer has its own NOC.

In the Parade of Nations, the teams will enter the Olympic Stadium in London in alphabetical order. According to Olympic tradition, Greece marches first and the host nation, Great Britain, enters last. Team USA will march 195th. NBC's broadcast of the Opening Ceremony will include every country's delegation during the Parade of Nations.

Cameras: 92 total: NBC has 25 unilateral cameras (including a camera mounted on a blimp) and access to an additional 67 host broadcaster cameras.

Spotters: More than 20 spotters will be used by NBC to help identify athletes during the Parade of Nations.

OPENING CEREMONY CREDITS:

Executive Producer - Jim Bell

London marks Bell's first Olympics as executive producer. Bell has worked on every Olympic Games NBC has broadcast since 1992 in either sports (1992, 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2004) or news (2006, 2008 and 2010). Bell also serves as executive producer of NBC News' 'Today.'

Director - Bucky Gunts

Gunts has directed every Opening Ceremony since Salt Lake City in 2002, and has been honored with four Primetime Emmy Awards for his work as director of the Opening Ceremony: Salt Lake City (2002), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and Vancouver (2010). He is the head of production of NBCUniversal's coverage of the London Olympics.

Producers - Molly Solomon and Joe Gesue

Solomon, who is also the producer of NBC' Olympic primetime show, is working her 9th Olympics for NBC. She began her Olympics career for NBC in 1990 as one of two researchers for the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Gesue is working his 8th Olympics for NBC. He began his NBC Olympics career as a researcher for the 1996 Atlanta Games, and also serves as the executive editor for NBCUniversal's coverage of the London Olympics.

NBC's Award-Winning Opening Ceremony Coverage: NBC won a Peabody Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards for its coverage of the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as well as a Primetime Emmy Award for the Opening Cermony of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. The Peabody organization called the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony broadcast, "an exponential magnification of what was once known in television as a 'spectacular.'" This marked the first Peabody Award ever won by NBC Sports, and the first for an Olympics in 33 years. Previously, the 1972 Summer Games and the 1976 Summer and Winter Games had been honored (ABC).

Photo credit: Dave Hogan/NBC

To post a comment, you must register and login.