Ryan Seacrest to join NBC's Olympics coverage

Ryan Seacrest's much-hyped big NBC announcement finally arrived on Wednesday morning, but those expecting a major changing of the guard in morning TV were disappointed.

Instead, Seacrest added yet another job to his stuffed resume, announcing that he's joining NBC's prime-time coverage of the Olympics in London this summer.

The ubiquitous TV face also appeared on NBC's "Today" to quash an ongoing rumor that he would be joining the program, replacing Matt Lauer.

Lauer, who conducted the interview, got to that right off the bat, asking Seacrest, "What kind of conversations have you had with NBC about joining the 'Today' show?"

"Oh, they didn't tell you?" Seacrest answered. He then went on to explain how E! and NBC are in the same corporate family (both part of NBCUniversal) and how he planned to participate more on NBC, including the Olympics, while still serving as host of E! News, E!'s red-carpet host for award shows and as a reality-TV producer of shows featuring the Kardashian sisters.

Good answer? Not for Lauer. "You didn't answer the question," he said. "What conversations have you had with NBC officials about joining this program? I want names and dates."

Seacrest said the conversations were mostly about doing the weather. 

"So Al [Roker] should be doing this interview," Lauer said.

Both men then tried to relieve any tension about the situation by revealing that they've had dinner and joked about the rumors that Seacrest would be replacing Lauer on the morning show. 

"I bought dinner," Lauer said. "Which I thought was completely inappropriate."

Seacrest said Lauer should stay on "Today" as long as he wants. Lauer said Seacrest would be great in his chair.

Meanwhile, Seacrest said he plans to stay on "American Idol" for yet another season, though he stopped short of making the official announcement. 

In addition to his TV hosting duties, he has the top-40 radio show "On Air With Ryan Seacrest" and the internationally syndicated chart show "American Top 40."

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-- Patrick Kevin Day

Left photo: Matt Lauer. Credit: Peter Kramer / NBC

Right photo: Ryan Seacrest. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

As Vancouver Olympics begin, NBC airs footage of fatal luge crash

With less than an hour to go until the start of opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics, NBC telecast a few seconds of video that got the games off to a somber start: The horrifying crash that killed Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili earlier Friday. 

Kumaritashvili's death forced NBC to scramble its coverage of an Olympiad that's already generated negative headlines for the $250 million the network expects to lose on the games, plus a last-minute shin injury that jeopardizes the medal quest of U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn. 

Executives made the decision to air Kumaritashvili's accident on "NBC Nightly News," which pointed to safety questions related to some of the Olympic sports. 

"We have suffered a tragedy here before competition has even started: and it has laid open a huge underlying tragedy about the inherent danger in some of these sports, and at some of these venues," NBC anchor Brian Williams wrote earlier today on his blog. "We will talk about that tonight, as our larger package of coverage gets underway."

The entire clip of Kumaritashvili's run - which is available at nbcolympics.com and intermittently on YouTube - shows the luger zipping along the track at blazing speeds and then, about 40 seconds into the run, coming out of a turn and losing control, spiraling out of his sled and smashing into a support pylon. 

NBC, which usually maintains a tight grip on its Olympics footage, made the clip widely available to other news organizations. 

"We released the footage because this was a significant news event," an NBC Sports spokesman said in a statement.

- Scott Collins

TCA Press Tour: Winter Olympics get tech savvy

Still watching TV in standard definition? That's so last decade.

If you want to fully enjoy the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, which commence Feb. 12, it might be time to switch to high definition. It's the first time coverage of the games will be broadcast "100%" in HD, said Olympics executive producer David Neal.

"We have a wonderful setting in Vancouver. It's one of the great cities in North America," said prime-time host Bob Costas, who has covered nine Olympic Games. "It's going to be completely breathtaking, especially in HD."

And the eye candy doesn't stop there.

"It's a great opportunity to showcase technical innovation," Neal said.

That innovation will include the "superski" technique, which superimposes footage from two skiers for a comparative look at their performance.

But the bells and whistles are only part of the attraction, Neal said. Someone needs to be there to put it into perspective.

"That's our greatest advantage: software versus hardware," he said. "We have great storytellers."

There will be about 825 hours, largely live, of competition, said Dick Ebersol, executive producer and chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics.

Coverage will go head-to-head with the prevailing gold medal winner in prime-time TV, Fox's "American Idol," which it will compete with on four nights. Ebersol, who noted that some networks moved their key blocks of programming to avoid competing with the Olympics, said the live nature of the games will help boost viewership.

"Will we beat them?" Ebersol said. "I don't know."

-- Yvonne Villarreal