{"id":29649,"date":"2014-10-23T18:30:53","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T10:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=29649"},"modified":"2014-10-23T16:33:32","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T08:33:32","slug":"nbc-promoting-johnny-weir-and-tara-lipinski-to-its-top-figure-skating-broadcasting-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/23\/nbc-promoting-johnny-weir-and-tara-lipinski-to-its-top-figure-skating-broadcasting-team\/","title":{"rendered":"NBC promoting Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski to its top figure skating broadcasting team"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tara<\/a>
Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. veooz.com<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK\u2014NBC\u2019s top pairs figure skating couple is in place: Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir.<\/p>\n

After attracting attention for their rapport and fashion sense in an understudy role at the Sochi Olympics, Lipinski and Weir were promoted by NBC on Wednesday to its top figure skating broadcast team.<\/p>\n

With figure skating the marquee sport during the Winter Games, the promotion will make the former Olympians two of TV\u2019s most visible personalities in 2018 in South Korea. They\u2019ll team with play-by-play announcer Terry Gannon, starting their new role Sunday during NBC\u2019s telecast of the Skate America competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive us one minute or an hour, we are going to be up,\u201d Weir said. \u201cThat is all we can be is up.\u201d<\/p>\n

They replace Scott Hamilton, Sandra Bezic and Tom Hammond, who were NBC\u2019s lead figure skating announcers at four Olympics starting in 2002. Hamilton, a 1984 gold medallist who called three other Winter Olympics for CBS, will remain as a special contributor to NBC at big figure skating events, including in South Korea. Hammond will work as a track and field announcer at the 2016 Rio Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe absolutely cherish this opportunity to bring figure skating to people,\u201d said Weir, a three-time U.S. champion. \u201cWhen we talk it is more like a conversation between us and the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weir and Lipinski, the 1998 Olympic gold medallist at age 15, became an instant sensation in Sochi last winter, when they called live daytime broadcasts with Gannon on NBC Sports\u2019 cable network. Many viewers tuned in particularly to see what outrageous outfit Weir would be wearing. Hamilton, Bezic and Hammond handled the tape-delayed prime-time telecast on NBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take skating very seriously,\u201d Lipinski said, \u201cbut at same time you really want to be real about what the sport is. If you call it as you see it, I think that is what the audience likes, and Johnny and I have to keep on that path.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Olympics, Weir and Lipinski contributed to fashion coverage at the Academy Awards and Kentucky Derby.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny additional events are just icing on the cake,\u201d Lipinski said.<\/p>\n

Asked about their announcing influences, Lipinski mentioned Hamilton and Dick Button, while weir joked \u201c100 per cent Kim Kardashian.\u201d Then he spoke about Button, and about how listening to Verne Lundquist call the 1994 Games helped inspire him as a skater.<\/p>\n

Jim Bell, the network\u2019s executive producer for the Olympics, said Hamilton will still have a major role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that given the amount of coverage we do not just of competition but the way the entire company gets behind the Olympics,\u201d Bell said, \u201cthere is no shortage of need for someone who has experience and stature to talk about the sport. We will be able to keep Scott very busy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK\u2014NBC\u2019s top pairs figure skating couple is in place: Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. After attracting attention for their …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}