- Veteran host will be back at NBC for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics next month
- Couric will co-host with Mile Tirico on February 9
- The star has hosted three Olympic opening ceremonies in the past
NBC is bringing back Katie Couric to co-host the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics next month after announcing Megyn Kelly will not be heading to the Games in South Korea.
Couric will be co-host with Mike Tirico, who is replacing Bob Costas as prime-time host of the games. The ceremony takes place in South Korea on February 9.
She’s hosted three Olympic opening ceremonies with Costas, the most recent in 2004 in Athens.
Katie Couric will host the Opening Ceremonies in South Korea for NBC
NBC also plans to live-stream the ceremony earlier in the day in addition to the tape-delayed prime-time broadcast.
An industry insider told Fox News said the move is ‘definitely a slap in the face to Megyn’.
‘It was already bad enough that they weren’t sending the star they’re paying $23 million a year to Pyeonchang. But now they’re bringing in a nonemployee to fill a vacancy,’ the insider added. ‘Yeah, one wonders what’s up with that and how Kelly feels about all of this.’
It was announced last week that Kelly will be staying home for the Olympics next month, hosting her 9am show from Rockefeller Center while most of the Today team is in in PyeongChang, South Korea.
That decision does also provide a promotion of sorts for Kelly however, who will be heading up operations in New York City for the three weeks.
That role was left to Savannah Guthrie during the 2016 Games in Rio and Hoda Kotb when the 2014 Olympics were held in Sochi.
It was announced last week that Kelly will be staying home for the Olympics next month. Kelly is seen here in a still shot from her show on December 7