In a change from the original plan, NBC’s Bob Costas will not participate in the network’s Super Bowl coverage.
NBC announced Monday that Dan Patrick and Liam McHugh will anchor studio coverage of Sunday’s Super Bowl. NBC’s primary NFL studio host Mike Tirico will miss the event as he prepares to anchor the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Costas, who relinquished his NFL and Olympic roles last year, was originally set to fill in for Tirico.
In a statement released through NBC, Costas said that because Patrick and McHugh have hosted NBC’s NFL coverage throughout the season, it “wouldn’t be right … to parachute in and do the Super Bowl.”
Costas, NBC’s primary Super Bowl host in 2009, 2012 and 2015, has dramatically scaled back his work at NBC over the past year. In addition to ceding the Olympics and NFL studio to Tirico, he is also set to reduce his horse racing duties to the Kentucky Derby only (unless a horse is going for the Triple Crown, in which case he will also work The Belmont Stakes).
If there was any doubt of a changing at the guard at NBC, Costas’ absence during arguably the biggest sports week in network history — its first time airing the Super Bowl and Olympics in the same week — leaves no question.
[NBC Sports, with additional info from NYT 2.9.17]
