‘Today’ Moves Past Geopolitics to Focus on the Sunny Side of Olympics
variety.comDaniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticOn the first day of the Olympic Games, the “Today” show had an unenviable task.The flagship NBC morning show is a key engine for goosing excitement over the Olympics, and its Friday-morning broadcast recapping the just-concluded opening ceremony in Beijing was intended, in part, to boost the Games.
But the show’s flagship talent, Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie, were stuck stateside in light of COVID-19, and the happy chatter about athletes’ prospects in the days ahead was balanced with an unusual volume of conversation about geopolitics.
This contrast was described by Guthrie, reporting from NBC Sports’ hub in Stamford, Conn., as “this awkward juxtaposition” — an area of nuance that the sunny “Today” does not like to live.
The show deserves credit for discussing the complications of a China-hosted Games under “diplomatic boycott” by the U.S. near the top of the broadcast — most notably, the country’s decision to select a Uighur athlete, a member of a group that the Chinese state has brutally persecuted, as the lighter of the Olympic torch.
Read more on variety.com