Think it may of been Bracey. When I turned it on, they were showing a replay of the women’s marathon. However, I think I heard him mention that the ceremony was coming up just after the replay, then after a break the commentator’s took over.
Apart from a few things as I have mentioned above, they are doing a much better job than Karl and Ally (Todd was decent though).
Nine have now taken a second ad break just after 6:10am AEST following the thanks to the volunteers segment.
Also more prepared. They’re actually using the notes provided to them to describe what is happening. They didn’t do that at the opening. If you watched the OBS of the opening they used the notes but Karl, Ally and Todd did not and we had no idea what was going on.
Eddie is a good broadcaster. He can be jingoistic at times but I think that’s because he gets over excited. Steve Hooker doing a brilliant job. I had my doubts but he’s proved me wrong.
Nine have now taken a third ad break following The Voyager segment just after 6:41am AEST.
Do we really need to know every ad breakdown?
I’m really liking this so far. Been a great story. That creative segment was excellent.
I like the musicians. Phoenix are a great band and have been around for ages.
lol they’ve managed to get the athletes off the stage.
Worth noting though the commentators went into the opening ceremony blind - they had no rehearsal and minimal information from the organisers. Quite clear they have been much more informed about this ceremony.
I think it was Nick McArdle
This time Nine has some translation of the speeches.
And did it under a tarp, held up by themselves due to the rain.
Sunrise were interviewing people leaving the ceremony seemingly after it had finished while Nine’s broadcast was still to end 
Eddie and Leila work really well together. Maybe they could co-host in 2028
Nine’s Olympic coverage has now finished at 8:15am AEST after 3 weeks of rolling coverage, with Eddie McGuire signing off followed by a montage.
Now time for a poll:
I thought Eddie took the entire coverage pretty professional. Love his passion
Karlos and Sarah would be a bit tired lol
Closing ceremony telecast concluded at 8:15AM (AEST) and went straight to Today show live.
Was overtime. I attended and on my ticket I was told it would conclude at 11:30pm local. It didn’t and finished after midnight. Almost missed my connecting train out to the outer suburbs of Paris where I am staying.
It’ll be interesting to see what today’s Encore involves and tonight’s CC encore. My guess, they’ll save most CC stuff for tonight, maybe just a few of the top moments on this arvo’s and then focus on highlights of Australia’s gold across the games. And tonight an edited full replay of the CC, possibly re-packaged with McArdle’s handover.
And after tonight’s Closing Ceremony repeat airing, and tomorrows final TV ratings for the games, we have to wait for four years til the next games. I’ve enjoyed most of the games coverage talk in this forum across the last two or so weeks.
Us armchair experts can now go back to local sport.
This afternoon will probably include the Opals Bronze Medal win, and some of the cycling highlights + other medal finals not involving Australia.
Reflecting on the coverage, there are some improvements on Seven’s coverage, but there are also some flaws as well.
Firstly, basing the coverage in the host city was overall a good move, although Seven didn’t go to Tokyo in 2021 for obvious reasons. They also had a good line-up of hosts in James Bracey, Dylan Alcott, Nick McArdle, and Sam McClure (the latter two on 9Gem), and it was nice to see some of the less popular sports feature (climbing a notable one). Matt Thompson on swimming was also an improvement from Basil Zemplis, and Gerard Whateley was a good substitute for Bruce McAveny on the track. Even Mark Taylor at some points surprised me as fairly decent on the diving, and Eddie McGuire was actually very good on overnights, and did an outstanding job during the closing ceremony (apart from missing the entrance of the Aussie athletes).
The opening ceremony coverage however, was a bit of mess, however, that is probably down to the fact that the commentators were out underneath a tarp in the rain, which is probably why they weren’t able to read notes while watching monitors, etc. Ally and Karl were also probably not the best choices either. At least Nine made up for it in the end with a decent closing ceremony commentary.
However, one of the biggest flaws is Nine delaying events well after they happen, either for primetime viewing, or because of other events. However, they still acted like it was about to happen live, when it wasn’t. This was particularly noticeable with the track heats. Also there were occasions when 9Gem and Nine would air the same thing, either live or a minute or two behind. Was fine though when Nine just crossed to events when Aussies were on, while 9Gem showed the whole thing. Someone at Nine though clearly has an obsession with golf, given how 9Gem would stay with it for extended periods, and miss some Aussie moments because of it. If they were happy to show things later on delay, they could’ve just shown us the Australian’s when they were up. Also when they negotiate the next NRL rights (if they get them), they should put a clause in that says that the Olympics should remain on the main channel.
Another flaw in the coverage is some questionable host choices. It’s very clear IMO that Leila McKinnon, even though she is barely seen on Nine these days, was only there because her husband is a former Nine CEO, and they needed to give her something to justify her contract. Was very obvious that Dylan, and Bracey in the final few days, were doing the heavy lifting during their sessions - though she did do a decent job for the closing ceremony. Alision Langdon also underperformed IMO, however, she was slightly better than McKinnon. Sylvia Jeffreys is also another random name who they selected - presumably to give her something to do while Today Extra was off air.
An additional flaw is picking news people to do the hosting overseas - they clearly wanted Karl, Sarah and Ally back in Aus today for the return of their shows, so they flew them out early, and changed the hosting rosters around - including using Roz Kelly, who IMO was underutilized. Clearly Nine don’t have much faith in the Weekend Today team to fill in on weekdays given their ratings, unlike the Weekend Sunrise hosts who regularly fill in on weekdays (although Clint was in Paris).
The Today in Paris format was also underwhelming. I understand that since it’s the Olympics, they want to show highlights, replays etc, however, it was a bit flat. Sure, show the shorter events (swimming, relays) in full, but the longer replays should’ve been cutdown to 5-10 minutes max. Also could’ve helped, especially on weekdays, to have the news updates every 30 minutes like the normal show. The format they were doing in the leadup to Paris is a good example of what it could’ve looked like, or NBC Today’s format. Overall it felt like it lacked energy, especially from Karl and Sarah.
News coverage was decent, with a good selection of reporters - however, in Adelaide (and presumably Perth), the 30 minute format each night felt like they had an in-depth look at the games, but rushed through the rest of the days news before sport and weather, and even there, there was a lack of local content (although that seems to be a daily issue for Nine Adelaide). They did however prioritize certain stories in front of the Olympic coverage (Interest Rates announcement, State Opposition Leader resigning, etc)
However, there are still more positives, like Stan offering coverage from international broadcasters (though would have benefited from having a US broadcaster like NBC or CBC, or the BBC), as well as 9Now having all the world feeds available to stream for free, with Stan having them in 4k as well.
Also kudos to Nine’s publicity team, whose graphics and promotion of the games, from the daily promos, to the high quality photo and promo shoots, has far exceeded Seven’s efforts in recent years.
Overall, Nine has put in a very good effort, however, there are still many improvements. Though it should be noted that this is Nine’s first Olympics since London 2012, which was very poor. Hopefully they do a good review at their coverage, and improve on their good effort so far in LA 2028 (and in the 2026 Winter Olympics, and the upcoming Paralympics).
Am I being overcritical? Maybe. I will admit that I am slightly bias towards Seven (and to the ABC). Will everyone here agree with me? Probably not, but there are some points that I have reiterated that have been mentioned multiple times over the past few weeks.
Special thanks should go to @TV.Cynic who will now be able to sleep after almost a month of updating us on schedule changes, channel changes, as well as getting us caps and drinking an unlimited amount of coffee. Also forgot to do this at the time, but thanks to @cmo for providing some insight into the artistic portions of the opening ceremony, and at times, doing a better job than Nine’s own commentators.
Fuck I’ve got too much spare time on my hands 
