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NBC surprised live TV viewers with guest appearances from the network’s icons Al Michaels and Bob Costas for their coverage of the Paris Olympics.
Michaels, 79, and Costas, 72, were alongside NBC’s Mike Tirico while in NBC’s studios in Paris.
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The 2024 Paris Olympics concluded on Sunday after Team USA’s women’s basketball gold medal win over France.
The victory pushed the Americans’ gold medal tally to 40, which tied China, and their total medal count to 126 which led all countries.
Following the contest, NBC broadcasted a pre-recording of Tirico with Michaels and Costas to add to their Olympic coverage.
The two legends spoke about their previous Olympic Games hosted by US cities as the next Summer Olympics takes place in Los Angeles.
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There was even a hilarious sequence when Tirico pitched Costas to send the broadcaster to a commercial.
“Hey, I know you’ve hosted a few of these. Can you still throw it to a break?” Tirico asked.
Costas answered, “I’ll try. “Are we ad-libbing the break? Do we know what comes up next?”
“More,” replied Tirico to which Costas then told viewers, “More to come, from Paris. And the games of — what Olympiad is this?”
Costas also shared optimism about the upcoming Olympics as the Paris event drastically increased its viewership compared 2020 Tokyo Games.
“This is the time for the Olympics to get its groove back, and it’s turning out that way,” he said.
Front Office Sports had previously reported that Michaels and Costas would make a guest appearance on NBC’s Olympic broadcast.
Before the report, NBC hinted the two would be part of the Olympics coverage when the network revealed an X post of Michaels and Costas together with rapper Snoop Dogg while at an Olympic event.
Michaels has had numerous Olympic roles during his years as a broadcaster.
He served as NBC’s Sunday Night Football play-by-play commentator for more than a decade before leaving the job in 2022.
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Michaels currently has the same role for Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football coverage.
However, he still holds an “emeritus” title with NBC, and the network’s streaming platform Peacock used Artificial Intelligence to recreate his voice as part of their Olympics coverage.
Costas was the host of NBC’s primetime host of the Olympics from 1988 to 2012.
He officially left the network in 2019.
Since 2022, Costas has been a play-by-play announcer for TBS’s coverage of the MLB.
He also performs the same role for MLB Network and also appears on CNN for his political takes.
