Seems like the folks at NBC have finally figured out what Canadian viewers have known for 30 years now.
You can't have an Olympics without Brian Williams.
While it's a new gig for the NBC news guy -- he'll co-host American TV coverage of today's Turin Games opening ceremony with Bob Costas -- our version needs no introduction to Olympic watchers.
Simply put, it's almost impossible to think of one without the other.
Just call him Canada's Mr. Olympics.
"You can't separate the two," said Terry Ludwick, CBC's executive producer for the Turin Games. "Brian is very much linked with the Olympics."
Everywhere he goes, Williams feels the connection.
Doesn't matter when or where.
"I'll come to Ottawa for a CFL game and people will stop me at the airport and ask me about the Olympics," said Williams. "They'll say, 'we miss the Olympics.' That (passion) is the reason I like it and have enjoyed it."
FAMILIAR SIGHT
So it is that Canadians will again see Williams and CBC National news anchor Peter Mansbridge guide them through tonight's opening ceremony.
Starting tomorrow, Williams will be in his familiar prime-time anchor position, regaling viewers with the news of the day, Olympic anecdotes past and present, lively interviews and, of course, those constant reminders about the time.
It's the Williams we've come to expect: A walking encylopedia about all things Olympics, but someone who takes great pains to stay remarkably current.
"Brian loves the past and pays tribute to it often," said Ludwick. "But he doesn't live in the past when it comes to the athletes of today. He very much wants to celebrate the athletes who are performing now
"He is one of the biggest athletes' advocates there is."
Williams also truly gets it about the viewership for the five-ring circus, that it isn't your traditional sports crowd.
"It's more than just a sporting event," he said. "I get a lot of mail about it, and what I hear a lot is people saying 'I normally don't watch sports, but I watch this.'
"The thing I have to do is respect the hardcore sports fan, but explain things well enough for the fringe audience. You can't be a jock here. You have to be a journalist."
Turin is Williams' sixth Winter Olympics, No. 12 overall. It might be his most interesting challenge. While he's in Italy for today's ceremony, Williams will spend the rest of the Games working from CBC's broadcast centre in Toronto, along with two-thirds of the network's 225 personnel covering the Games.
Yes, there's some serious cost-saving at play here. But Williams, whose shift begins at midnight Turin time, said it also makes sense logistically in a lot of ways.
"With the exception of figure skating, hockey and speed skating, everything is out in the mountains. I'd be doing interviews by satellite anyways," he said. "Anchoring from here is no different than anchoring in the middle of the night from there.
"I'll be telling people where I am ... We're not trying to con Canadians."
Said Ludwick: "(Viewers) don't care where our control room is or where our studio is, as long as they are getting the Olympic coverage they expect. There's no reason why it shouldn't be successful."
With a Bell Globemedia/Rogers consortium taking over Canadian Olympic broadcast rights in 2010, it's quite possible these might be Williams' final Winter Games. For the record, he won't speculate on his future involvement with the Olympics or look upon Turin as some sort of swan song, saying only there's another Games to cover in 2008 in Beijing.
Another round of preparation to savour. Another chance to celebrate the Olympians he so admires, and to rattle a few chains among "the fat cats who run it."
"I'm 59 now. I know I've only got a few more years left at this," said Williams. "I look back now and say 'God, what I didn't know back then.' "
"I love the preparation, the fact that this is the ultimate live event."
ICE, SNOW ... AND GOLD? Given our history and the sports involved, the "Games of ice and snow" have always been a bigger TV hit with Canadians than the Summer Olympics. The heightened prospects for Canuck gold have Ludwick thinking this might be one of CBC's best audience grabbers in years. "Every day, there is something to look forward to," he said. "That's very refreshing compared to other Olympics, when you didn't have that spike each day. There will be a really good buffet of Canadian performances every day." Said Williams: "I can't remember an Olympics, including Montreal (in 1976) and Calgary (1988), that has been as anticipated as this one."
FIVE-RING CIRCUS: CBC plans to replay figure skating in the same time slot each evening, somewhere between 9-9:30 p.m. ... TSN will be the place for curling fans to turn, with all Canadian games airing there until CBC picks up the finals (sound familiar?) ... CBC Country Canada, the digital channel curling fans loved to hate last winter, will be a haven for nordic skiing fans. Country Canada will air more than 50 hours of cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski jumping and nordic combined events ... NBC daytime/late night host Jim Lampley is working his 13th Olympics, surpassing the legendary Jim McKay ... 1988 Olympic silver medallist Elizabeth Manley of Gloucester is covering figure skating for Westwood One Radio.
BRIAN'S FAB FIVE
CBC's Brian Williams offers up his favourite memories from the five Winter Olympics he has covered:
1984, Sarajevo: Canadian speed skater Gaetan Boucher wins two gold medals and one bronze.
1988, Calgary: The battle of the Brians in figure skating - Brian Boitano (U.S.) and Brian Orser (Canada). And since we are heading to the Games in Turin, who can forget the performance of Italian skier Alberto Tomba, who captured two gold medals?
1992, Albertville: Kerrin Lee-Gartner captures Canada's first-ever downhill skiing gold medal.
1998, Nagano: Elvis Stojko is awarded a silver medal for men's figure skating; Catriona LeMay Doan takes one gold medal and one bronze in speed skating; For the first time, curling is included in the Games and the late Sandra Schmirler wins gold for Canada.
2002, Salt Lake City: Canadian men's and women's hockey teams capture gold; LeMay Doan becomes the first Canadian athlete to defend her gold medal; Jamie Sale and David Pelletier survive the judging controversy in the pairs skating competition and are finally awarded gold; The courageous performance of Canadian cross-country skier Beckie Scott, who wins bronze but is later awarded gold after two rivals fail dope tests.
