“I knew Bob wasn’t going to stay in the job for 20 more years,” Mr. Tirico said in an interview,
“but I didn’t know if they were going to choose me or when it would happen.”
Mr. Costas’s long run as the prime-time host calls to mind that of Jim McKay, who covered or hosted 10 Olympics for ABC Sports.
“It just felt to me like the right time and it’s felt like the right time for a while,” Mr. Costas
said in an interview this week, in advance of NBC’s scheduled announcement on “Today” on Thursday.
When NBC televises next year’s Winter Olympics from Pyeongchang, South Korea, a familiar face will be gone from the prime-time
anchor seat: Bob Costas, who held the job for 24 years, will be replaced by Mike Tirico, who joined the network last May.
Mr. Costas was NBC’s late-night host during the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea, when Bryant Gumbel was the prime-time host.
It had moments that felt like closure to me, and this felt like a good time to step aside.”
He said that in his 24 years, the job of hosting the Olympics had changed.
“The 11 prime-time Olympics may never be touched,” said Mr. Tirico, 50, who declined
to discuss the streak he might have if he kept the prime-time position through 2032.
“I’m just focused on South Korea.”
Mr. Costas, 64, decided before the Rio Games that it would be his final Olympics as the prime-time host.
