Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira Host Tonight's Opening Ceremony for RIO OLYMPICS

NBC Olympics presents coverage of the Opening Ceremony for the Games of the xxI Olympiad tonight, Friday, August 5, at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, and Hoda Kotb serve as hosts, while Bob Costas, NBC's primetime Olympics host, opens the telecast on Friday night. Michele Tafoya and Ros Gold-Onwude report from Maracana Stadium.

NBC Olympics correspondent David FEHERTY joins the show to discuss golf's return to the Games after a 112-year absence and airs a portion of his interview with President Barack Obama. An extended interview will run on Golf Channel's Morning Drive this Saturday morning and will be available via NBCOlympics.com and GolfChannel.com.

From the Parade of Nations to the lighting of the Olympic cauldron, Matt, Meredith and Hoda guide viewers through the spectacle and pageantry that occurs when the world comes together at the Olympic Games.

NBC's coverage of the Opening Ceremony will be streamed on the NBC Sports app and on NBCOlympics.com simultaneously with the local over-the-air telecast.

Day 1 of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games begins Saturday, August 6 on NBC at 8 a.m. ET with live coverage of rowing, men's cycling, and men's water polo as the U.S. faces 2012 Olympic champion Croatia. Live coverage continues on NBC with swimming qualifying heats at 10:30 a.m. ET, followed by men's beach volleyball when Casey Patterson and Jake Gibb of the U.S. take on Jefferson Pereira and Cherif Younousse of Qatar at 3:30 p.m. ET. Daytime coverage concludes at 4:15 p.m. ET as the U.S. women's volleyball team begins preliminary-round action against Puerto Rico.

NBC's primetime coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET/PT with the men's gymnastics team competition, followed by gold medal finals in swimming. Primetime coverage also features women's beach volleyball as Kerri Walsh Jennings and new partner April Ross of the United States make their debut as an Olympic team against Mariafe Artacho Del Solar and Nicole Laird of Australia.

NBCSN's live Saturday coverage begins at 9 a.m. ET with men's archery and also features women's soccer as the top-ranked United States takes on France at 4 p.m. ET, and men's basketball as Kevin Durant and the U.S. face China in preliminary action at 6 p.m. ET. Please see the below listings for additional information regarding Saturday's coverage.

Powered by Playmaker Media, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app will live stream 4,500 total hours of coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games - including all Olympic competition for the third consecutive Olympics - for authenticated pay TV subscribers via TV Everywhere to desktops, mobile devices, and tablets, plus connected TVs for the first time.

For more information on live streaming, please go to: NBCOlympics.com/Live-Stream-Schedule

For the full schedule of NBCUniversal's Olympic coverage, please go to: NBCOlympics.com

For press information, bios, photos and releases, please go to: NBCSportsGroupPressBox.com

For NBC daytime, primetime and late night during the 2016 Rio Games, all times listed are ET/PT unless otherwise noted. For NBCSN, Golf Channel, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Telemundo and NBC UNIVERSO all times listed are ET.

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