NBC Sports Group today announced that Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski "have earned an expected promotion to the lead team" for figure skating, according to Richard Sandomir of the N.Y. TIMES. Weir and Lipinski will be NBC's "prime-time voices of figure skating" during the '18 Pyeongchang Games, but will "start in their new roles during the NBC broadcast of Skate America on Sunday." The two will replace Scott Hamilton, who "began calling the Winter Olympics for CBS in 1992, and Sandra Bezic." Hamilton "will become a special correspondent for major figure skating events." Terry Gannon "will take over" hosting duties from Tom Hammond. NBC ice dancing and scoring analyst Tracy Wilson "survived the cast changes." NBC Olympics Exec Producer Jim Bell said that he "had not decided if another team would be formed to call figure skating on NBCSN." He "did not rule out double duty for Lipinski and Weir, who could be calling figure skating for NBC until its Olympics rights deals end in 2032" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/22).
READY TO GET STARTED: The announcement was made on NBC's "Today" this morning, and Lipinski said, "I cannot wait for this adventure to start. ... I'm just honored to be part of the team now." Weir said, "We really were just so excited with Sochi and how things went for us. Getting to enjoy our sport every day and bring people in America back into our sport with us and now that we have this amazing opportunity. We're just completely honored and so proud." NBC's Tamron Hall asked, "I know you're friends off camera but (did you think working together) would be such a dynamic duo, dynamic combination?" Lipinski replied, "I don't think we had any idea. We started that Instagram account just for us. We had so much fun just being ourselves. Right when it started, let's just have fun." Weir added, "Be ourselves." Hall asked, "Why does the chemistry work so well? Is it the fashion?" Weir replied, "Obviously, it's a big part of it." But Lipinski noted, "Hopefully we know a little bit about skating too" (
"Today," NBC, 10/22).
