Maybe it would have been better if Mariah Carey had just belted out “All I Want For Christmas is You” at the 2026 Winter Olympics Games opening ceremony Friday, taken a bow and left it at that.
Yes, it would have been the shortest kickoff to any Olympics of the modern age, but it wouldn’t have been half as baffling as today’s commemoration from Italy.
Long review short: The more than three hours and three acts of the Milan-Cortina opening ceremony lacked cohesion beyond a devotion to aesthetics. Full points for honesty to Organizing Committee chief Giovanni Malago for calling today a “historic spectacle” in his thankfully short speech.
Starting off slow in San Siro Stadium with an angel-winged dance performance that drew from Milan’s iconic La Scala opera house and concluding with a drawn-out lighting of the Olympic flames, the multi-location and fashion-centric rite was as much gimmick as glamour.
For one thing, sticking the much-hyped multi-platinum icon Carey way up front in the shimmering shindig was almost as confusing as the sign-language segment later mocking the microphones not working. At least with (not Italian) Mariah, you got where she was coming from as the Glitter star plugged her newish “Nothing is Impossible” song, and singing Dean Martin’s old hit “Volare” in Italian.
Even though afterwards Carey called the experience “a dream come true” on social media, organizers could have really ratcheted it up had she joined Andrea Bocelli for some of “Nessun Dorma” at the end as the flame was brought out. Yet, really, how many divas can you have on one stage?
Even the two great singers and pianist Lang Lang would have had a hard time matching the sheer star power of Charlize Theron quoting her fellow South African Nelson Mandela on the power of peace in the middle of the giant stadium.
Besides the nod to Madiba from the Oscar winner and UN Peace Ambassador, perhaps the giveaway was how the whole pageant and its theme of “armonia” (harmony) was preceded on NBC with a lo-fi almost hostage video from Taylor Swift wishing the athletes “all the best of luck,” on the very day the marketing master’s “Opalite” music video dropped. In today’s media environment, in sport, music and everything else, someone’s always selling something.
For a 17-day event challenged by climate and featuring the return of NHL stars to the hockey tournament, today’s live opening ceremony on the Comcast-owned net and streaming on Peacock was one (too) long promo.
Even with the cameo by Swift, the early appearance by Carey, Wicked stars Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum in the stands, and the now suited and booted Shaun White coupled with Mary Carillo and Terry Gannon in the commentator’s booth, the question is are we buying it?
There certainly was a lot to buy, if you know what I mean?
Now, that’s no sin when it comes to Olympic opening ceremonies — it’s almost the point within the narrative of the host city and nation. This time it was part tourist video for northern Italy, its industries and cultures, with Italian President Sergio Mattarella lending a kindly hand recovering a lost children’s toy. Packed with lot of great outfits (it’s Milan after all), this opening ceremony from veteran Olympics creative director Marco Balich was beautiful to look at. Yet, it never felt like it actually took flight or told a coherent story despite all the Italian and international stars.
Yes, it was way more free-flowing and organic than the last Winter Games opener in Beijing four years ago with its ideological rigor and the presence of Vladimir Putin. In a very 1990s way, there were oversized headed versions of composers Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and Gioachino Rossin, along with Matilda De Angelis of HBO’s The Undoing putting opera center stage.
However, floating paint tubes, a nod to the now deceased Giorgio Armani and Laura Pausini singing the Italian national anthem didn’t really jell. Put it another way, like a late-night scroll through the choices on Netflix, there was a lot there to see, but at least up to the very end not much that seemed able to hold anyone’s attention.
The Roman Empire oddly didn’t get much of a shout-out in this slick production that leaned hard into Italian history, but there was model Vittoria Ceretti presenting Italy’s flag to armored military guards, and cuts to musical performances in the mountains. Also, in these 2,900-athlete strong and almost gender-balanced Olympics, those quips about Saudi Arabia participating in winter sports and Instagram post promises from clearly nervous gold-medal-winning snowboard legend White in his commentator debut, all added up to make the first hour of the opening mix together like an awkward and ill-considered playlist.
At the top of the third hour, the 70-year history of the Winter Games got a promo via an overly bright, AI-generated (or even worse, appearing to be AI-generated) animated transition from the Parade of Athletes with White Lotus and The Paper’s Sabrina Impacciatore. All the cliches of Euro TV and Euro techno took to the fore afterwards, with a dance segment in San Siro that had filler written all over it, even though sadly it wasn’t actually filler.
On the flip side, with the exception of Russia and Belarus being banned because … well, they are Russia and Belarus, the parade of snow-coat-suited athletes from the 92 participating nations being spread out over the separate sites of Milano, Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo moved along what can often be a laborious middle part of any open ceremony (Bonjour Paris 2024) fairly briskly.
Also, even though NBC cut to split-screen ads for the arrival of the likes of Bolivia, putting the entrance of the competitors relatively early in the ceremony was a smart segue. Maybe it was because of the hockey hopes, but the roars and cheers that went up from the 60,000-plus in attendance in the San Siro when the 211 Canadian athletes and later the 46 athletes of Ukraine arrived may have told America more about geopolitical currents than the dour look on VP JD Vance’s face up in the VIP seats.
Coming in at the end of the parade, as is traditional for the host country, Italy got the biggest response of all.
Tellingly, while the two athletes India and Haiti have at this Winter Olympics got props from White, Carillo and ex-skater Gannon, NBC treated the five athletes of the Islamic Republic like political props. All that was mentioned when the quintet walked out was the “escalating” tension between Iran and the USA, and “thousands of protesters” being “killed over the last six weeks” by their own government. Staying with the volatile Middle East, the vile jeers that greeted Israeli athletes when they appeared was as far from the Olympic Spirit as you can get. The display left even more of a stink given the history of the Jewish State at the Games and the Munich 1972 hostage massacre.
Offsite, there wasn’t much to see on NBC of the anti-ICE protests and more outside the stadium and venues around Italy, but the role and presence of politics looks to be large – not that unusual for the Olympics, Summer or Winter. After Day 1 of these Olympics, it’s hard to tell right now how that will pan out and how much will eventually, if ever, be seen on the small screen.
Earlier today, American-born freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy took to social media to display the “F*ck ICE” the now-Team GB member peed into the snow. In that context, it will be interesting to see what bells and whistles NBC tacks on for the primetime showing of the opening ceremony now that the live show has been rolled out.
Already teased throughout today’s broadcast, the arrival of the 232 athletes of Team USA initially saw an eruption of applause in San Siro. That shifted fast to boos and more from the crowd when Vance was shown on the big screen in the stadium clapping for his fellow Americans.
Fingers crossed, the net doesn’t edit the rambling and anecdote-filled White too much as his banter during the telecast had the dual benefit of being amusing and informative once he got going. Can’t say the same for the return of Snoop Dogg, whose seemingly scripted shirt interaction with the Jamaican bobsledding team took all the natural charm out of the “Gin and Juice” rapper’s shtick. The toss to the latest iteration of the Cool Runnings crew was followed later by Snoop lamely announcing his (fake) Italian heritage by listing crime families from the Godfather and more.
Speaking of snowboarding, that now staple of the Winter Games is one of the sports that kicked off even before today’s opener. To keep the Olympics on schedule, snowboarding, hockey, curling and figure skating competitions have already begun.
A different tone was in the house just before the ceremony began when NBC presenters Carillo and Gannon offered “love and prayers” to Savannah Guthrie and her family over the disappearance of the Today host’s mother. Guthrie was set to be in Italy for the opening, but the search for the elder Guthrie, who has not been seen or heard from in almost a week, obviously took precedence. Three-time Olympics closing ceremony host alum Carillo was hastily drafted to step in for Guthrie. Today’s Craig Melvin, who was supposed to host Olympic Late Night, also did not end up making the trip to Italy in order to hold down the fort Stateside.
Set to run from today through February 22, the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina will be all over NBC and other Comcast channels in the U.S. There also will be wall-to-wall, start-to-finish, multi-sport, multi-cam coverage on Peacock.
As everybody and their dog knows, the next Olympics are in summer 2028 in Los Angeles … or as they used to say when Magic Johnson played for the Lakers: “Showtime!”
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