Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony Review: A Beautiful But Baffling Italian Buffet With Mariah Carey, Some Taylor Swift, Charlize Theron & Geopolitical Cheers & Jeers

For a 17-day event challenged by climate and featuring the return of NHL stars to the hockey tournament, today’s live opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Games on the Comcast-owned net and streaming on Peacock was one (too) long promo.

Even with the cameo by Swift, the early appearance by Mariah, Wicked stars Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum in the stands, and the now suited and booted Shaun White coupled with Mary Carillo and Terry Gannon in the commentator’s booth, the question is are we buying it?

There certainly was a lot to buy, if you know what I mean?

Now, that’s no sin when it comes to Olympic opening ceremonies, it’s almost the point within the narrative of the host city and nation. This time it was part tourist video for northern Italy, its industries and cultures, with Italian President Sergio Mattarella lending a kindly hand recovering a lost children’s toy. Packed with lot of great outfits (it’s Milan after all), this opening ceremony from veteran Olympics creative director Marco Balich was beautiful to look at. Yet, it never felt like it actually took flight or told a coherent story despite all the Italian and international stars.

Yes, it was way more free flowing and organic than the last Winter Games opener in Beijing four years ago with its ideological rigor and the presence of Vladimir Putin. In a very 1990s ways, there were oversized headed versions of composers Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and Gioachino Rossin, along with Matilda De Angelis of HBO’s The Undoing putting opera center stage.

However, floating paint tubes, a nod to the now deceased Giorgio Armani, and Laura Pausini singing the Italian national anthem didn’t really gel. Put it another way, like a late night scroll through the choices on Netflix, there was a lot there to see. But, like going through the streamer’s selections, at least up to the very end, not much that seemed able to hold anyone’s attention.

The Roman Empire oddly didn’t get much of a shout out in this slick production that leaned hard into Italian history, but there was model Vittoria Ceretti presenting Italy’s flag to armored military guards, and cuts to musical performances in the mountains. Also, in these 2,900 athlete strong and almost gender balanced Games, those quips about Saudi Arabia participating in winter sports and Instagram post promises from a clearly nervous snowboard legend and multi-Gold medalist White in his commentator debut, all added up to make the first hour of the opening ceremony mix together like an awkward and ill-considered playlist.

At the top of the third hour, the 70-year history of the Winter Games themselves got a promo via an overly bright AI generated, or even worse AI looking generated animated translon from the Parade of Athletes with White Lotus and The Paper’s Sabrina Impacciatore. All the cliches of Euro TV and Euro techno took to the fore afterwards with a dance segment in San Siro that had filler written all over it, even though sadly it wasn’t actually filler.

On the flipside, with the exception of Russia and Belarus being banned because ..well they are Russia and Belarus, the parade of snow coat suited athletes from the 92 participating nations being spread out over the separate sites of Milano, Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo moved what can often be a laborious middle part of any open ceremony (Bonjour Paris 2024) fairly briskly.

Also, even though NBC cut to split screen ads for the arrival of the likes of Boliva, putting the entrance of the competitors relatively early in the ceremony was a smart segway. Maybe it was because of the hockey hopes, but the roars and cheers that went up from the 60,000+ in San Siro when the 211 Canadian athletes and later the 46 athletes of Ukraine entered the sites all over Italy may have told America more about geopolitical currents than the dour look on VP JD Vance’s face up in the VIP seats.

Coming in at the end of the Parade, as is traditional for the host country, Italy got the biggest response of all.

Tellingly, where the two athletes that India and Haiti have at this Winter Olympics got props from White, Carillo and ex-skater Gannon, the four athletes of the Islamic Republic were treated like political props by NBC. All that was mentioned when quintet walked out was the “escalating” tension between Iran and the USA, and “thousands of protesters” being “killed over the last six weeks” by their own government. Staying with the volatile Middle East, the vile jeers that greeted Israeli athletes when they appeared was as far from the Olympic Spirit as you can get. A display that left even more of a stink given the history of the Jewish State at the Games and the massacre they suffered at Munich 1972.

Off-site, there wasn’t much to see on NBC of the anti-ICE protests and more outside the stadium and venues in Italy today, but the role and presence of politics looks to be large – as is not that unusual for the Olympics, Summer or Winter.

On Day 1 of these Olympic Games, after this opener, hard to tell right now how that will pan out and how much of that will eventually. if ever, be seen on the small screen. Earlier today, American-born freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy took to social media to display the “F*ck ICE” the now Team GB member peed in the snow. In that context, interesting to see what bells and whistles NBC tacks on for their primetime showing of the opening ceremony tonight now the live show has been rolled out.

Already teased throughout today’s broadcast, the arrival of the 232 athletes of Team USA initially saw an eruption of applause in San Siro. That shifted fast to boos and more from the crowd when Vance was shown on the big screen in the stadium clapping for his fellow Americans.

Fingers crossed, the net doesn’t edit the rambling and anecdote filled White too much as his banter this afternoon had the dual benefit of being amusing and informative once the literal game changer got going. Can’t say the same for the return of Snoop Dogg, whose seemingly scripted and shirt interaction with the Jamaican bobsledding team took all the natural charm out of the Gin and Juice rapper’s shtick. The toss to the latest iteration of the Cool Running crew was later followed by Snoop lamely announcing his (fake) Italian heritage by listing crime families from the Godfather and more.

Speaking of snowboarding, that now staple of the Winter Games is one of the sports that kicked off even before today’s opener. To keep the Games on schedule, snowboarding, hockey, curling and figure skating competitions have already begun.

A very different tone was in the house just before the ceremony began when NBC presenters Carillo and Gannon offered “love and prayers” Savannah Guthrie and her family over the disappearance of the Today host’s mother. Guthrie was set to be in Italy for today’s opening, but the search for the elder Guthrie, who has not been seen or heard from in almost a week,  obviously took precedence. Three-time Closing Ceremony host alum Carillo was hastily drafted to step in for Guthrie. Today’s Craig Melvin, who was supposed to host Olympic Late Nightalso did not end up making the trip to Italy in order to hold down the fort Stateside.

Set to run from today until February 22, the 2026 Winter Olympics will be all over NBC and other Comcast channels for American viewers. There’s also all-to-wall, start to finish multi-sport, multi-cam coverage on Peacock. As everybody and their dog knows, the 2028 Summer Olympics is in LA …or as they used to say when Magic Johnson played for the Lakers: “Showtime!”