Instead of having, say, two former Olympians join sportscaster Mike Terico as commentators for the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Paris, NBC enlisted Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning.
Clarkson, of course, is a pop superstar and a seasoned TV host, but she isn’t known for sportscasting. And Manning is a retired NFL star and a two-time Super Bowl champ, but he has never competed in the Olympic Games and has little emceeing experience.
Viewers weren’t thrilled with either star’s job during the opening ceremony on Friday, July 26.
“NBC is doing a great job of dumbing the #OpeningCeremony down,” X user @tfinferno86 wrote. “Peyton Manning and Kelly Clarkson?! WTF?”
@KevinKaduk said, “I don’t know who thought putting Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning on an Olympics broadcast would be good television. Neither person seems to know why they’re there either.”
And @liprap wrote, “This attempt to make Peyton Manning and Kelly Clarkson the summer Olympic version of Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski is falling flat.”
USA Today reporter Chris Bumbaca also criticized the Clarkson and Manning, saying they were “distracting at best and brutal to listen to at worst.”
Bumbaca added: “Olympics fans watching at home aren’t tuning in to hear a talk-show host (Clarkson) and football analyst (Manning) discuss things outside of their spheres of influence. They want substantive information about the countries and international athletes’ stories.”
Both Clarkson and Manning and in-house talent for NBCUniversal: She hosts The Kelly Clarkson Show, which is produced by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, and he hosts the Capital One College Bowl on NBC.
NBC Olympics producers expected Clarkson to provide human-interest stories, while Manning planned to provide insight into the minds of athletes during high-level competitions, as Variety reported in March, when the duo’s hosting gig was announced.
But they fell short of those ambitions, according to some spectators watching from home. “The cool thing about this Olympic opening ceremony,” X user @PapaBearsTweets wrote, “is how Peyton Manning and Kelly Clarkson apparently did no preparation.”
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