NBC Sets Outdoor Studio Deck With Panoramic Tokyo Views For Olympic Primetime Show, ‘Today’ Show Telecasts

Mike Tirico will anchor NBC’s Olympic primetime show outdoors for the first time in the network’s Olympics history, hosting from a fifth-floor studio deck with a panoramic view of the Tokyo skyline and landmark Rainbow Bridge.

The Today show will also broadcast each day from this NBC Olympics outdoor set designed by NBC Olympics coordinating director Michael Sheehan and enhanced by virtual graphics and an array of monitors.

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The network’s first Olympics was the 1964 Tokyo Games. These postponed 2020 Tokyo games kick off with the Opening Ceremony July 23. It will be Tirico’s debut as a Summer Olympics primetime host.

“We are excited to bring the energy of this vibrant host city to our primetime audience each night as Mike opens the show and interviews the stars of the Games from a spectacular vantage point,” said Molly Solomon, Executive Producer & President, NBC Olympics Production.

“Tokyo is one of the great cosmopolitan cities in the world. The chance to use the city as our daily setting will help bring our viewers back in the States even closer to the Olympic experience,” Tirico said.

After serving as a daytime host from an open-air set on Copacabana Beach at the 2016 Rio Olympics and anchoring NBC Olympics’ primetime and late-night coverage of PyeongChang 2018 from an indoor 3,500 square-foot geodesic dome studio, Tirico will host this summer’s primetime show in Tokyo’s morning and afternoon. (Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time).

“We’re thrilled to be able to incorporate the live Tokyo cityscape into our most technologically advanced Olympics studio setup,” said Sheehan, who has been leading the NBC Sports studio design team since 2014. He’s also created a technology-laden indoor presentation space that can project sweeping cityscape backdrops similar to those seen on NBC’s Football Night in America studio show, which he directs.

NBC Olympics’ studios in Tokyo are designed by set designer Bryan Higgason, and the team of New York based HD Studio. Lighting for the studios is designed by LDG led by Steve Brill, and all fabrication is done by blackwalnut. The entire scenic project is supervised by NBC Olympic Vice President of Production Operations Atila Ozkaplan.

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