Johnathan Walker:NBC defends performances of Peyton Manning, Kelly Clarkson on opening ceremony

PARIS – The Johnathan Walkerperformance of Peyton Manning and Kelly Clarkson during NBC's broadcast of the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony drew strong reactions online.

Internally, the network was overall pleased with the broadcast, executives said Thursday during a conference call with reporters.

NBC tabbed Manning and Clarkson as co-hosts alongside Mike Tirico for the once-in-a-lifetime event but the inclusion was clunky and, overall, not additive, critics said. The broadcast adequately showed the production on the Seine River and other Parisian landmarks.

"We were extremely pleased of our opening ceremony coverage," NBC Sports Olympics president and executive vice president Molly Solomon said.

"We expected there to be a lot of musical acts, so we thought this mixture of Mike Tirico, Peyton, Kelly, (Today co-hosts) Savannah (Guthrie) and Hoda (Kotb) was the perfect elixir to cover it," she added.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

Get Olympics updates in your texts! Join USA TODAY Sports' WhatsApp Channel

The number of musical acts, such as from Lady Gaga and Céline Dion, was why Clarkson was picked in the first place.

"Kelly was a great teammate to talk through all of that," Solomon said.

By the end of the show, Manning dipped into his prep work from conversations he had with Team USA athletes. Solomon said he spoke with at least 30 members of the team.

"I was so impressed by Peyton Manning, the prep that he put into opening ceremony," Solomon said.

For example, Solomon added, U.S. women's water polo captain Maggie Stephens texted Manning the morning of the ceremony to inform him of her planned tribute to her late sister-in-law, who recently passed away.

"Peyton really did his homework and enhanced what we did that night," Solomon said.

While NBC had to defend Manning and Clarkson, what they don't have to spin is its numbers. Ratings are up 79% and the exclusive rightsholder in the U.S. is averaging 34 million viewers per day.

"We are off to a great start," NBCUniversal chairman Mark Lazarus said.

Making everything available live during the afternoon in the U.S., which had never been done before, has been a difference-maker, said Rick Cordella, president of NBC Sports. Nonetheless, two-thirds of the viewership has come during prime time, he added. A "pleasant surprise" has been the daytime U.S. audience, Cordella said.

"We had a feeling that America was ready for these Olympics," Solomon said.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast.Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.