Au revoir Paris, Hola LA.
In a nutshell, that was the just completed ceremony of the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad.
It was Tom Cruise leaping off the rim of the Stade de France to take the Olympic flag from LA Mayor Karen Bass and Simone Biles. As the guitar riffs of H.E.R. filled the air, Cruise then exited on a motorbike to deliver the flag to a sunny West Coast. It was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish and Olympic fixture Snoop Dogg getting into the pre-recorded groove down in Long Beach.
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It wasn’t telling of the full scope of Los Angeles and no mention was made of Snoop’s supposed flight from Paris to LA, but it was pure Hollywood.
It was over the top and cliche filled – – as if anything less would have sufficed.
Next to the artistry of Paris, it may have seemed so American – even the handover was produced by Brits Fulwell73. Yet, if the next Summer Games are in America, and in the home of Hollywood ..well, as Jimmy Fallon near screamed on NBC on Sunday: “that’s how you do it!”
When Dr. Dre showed up to reunite with his long-time collaborator and Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show pal Snoop, it was pure LA Love, to paraphrase the N.W.A vet’s 1994 hit “California Love” with Tupac Shakur.
With all that star power, the spectacle of the Paris portion of the three-hour closing ceremony simply dimmed. That was just a fact, even with Gold medal swimmer Léon Marchand bringing a full circle conclusion to the event as he brought the Olympic flame into the French stadium.
Yes, back in France, Phoenix showed up amidst a mosh pit of athletes at the Stade de France, joined by Kavinsky and Angèle, the rock band gave us what would be a mini-Coachella across the Atlantic.
But it was no LA, where real Coachella headliners flexed for their hometown.
As the performance portions of Paris’ farewell began, the glittery Golden Voyager and the return of the metallic horse rider and the mysterious hooded Assassin’s Creed character from the opening ceremony was overshadowed by strobe lights and the stadium-wide tale of the Olympics from antiquity to today from wristbands among the crowd. In short, as the giant rings were raised, it was Cirque du Soleil meets Game of Thrones with more dry ice that a Bjork concert.
Very much like the opening ceremony, which was also the brainchild of artistic director Thomas Jolley, the overly conceptual French portion of the multi-segment closing ceremony stumbled as a small screen event, even if it looked spectacular in the stadium itself.
The first Olympics to achieve gender parity, today’s closing ceremony to the 19-day event was a much more traditional affair than the disjointed July 26 extravaganza on the River Seine.
From the opening song by Zaho de Sagazan and Marchand beginning his journey, transporting the Olympic flame back to the 70,000-packed stadium, all the rumors and leaks were focused on the next games and what would LA bring to its part of the show on Sunday.
In that sense, what shouldn’t be forgotten is what a truly great job NBCUniversal did this time round. From constant live multi-sport coverage and replays on Peacock, the fun of the streamer’s Gold Zone and the wit of send Snoop into uncharted territory, and the hours of daily on linear networks, the Comcast-own company was Gold medal worthy. Yes, there were some bloopers and blunders (guys, need to raise your flag identification game), but in such comprehensive coverage over multiple platforms, NBCU enacted a true 21st century model that just might contain the seeds of new revenue streams that can be skinned on other big events, sports and otherwise – and that’s a win by any metric.
Trying to keep it up-close and personal for viewers in the early portion of today’s closing ceremony, NBC’s main Olympics man Mike Tirico and his newly minted co-host, Jimmy Fallon, pulled off a few tricks. Chatting live with Team USA flagbearers and Gold medalists Katie Ledecky and Nick Mead as they entered the stadium with the Parade of Athletes was certainly a bit of fun. The medal ceremony for the Women’s marathon runners and the athletes’ of Queen’s “We are the Champions” were both a joy to watch.
Otherwise, over on NBC, it was mainly a standard list of stats, names and bullet points about sustainability from the duo and commentators 1998 Olympic figure skating gold medalist Tara Lipinski, two-time Olympian figure skater Johnny Weir and Terry Gannon. Though the “God, the French are cool” remark as a piano vertically played “The Hymn to Apollo” made one wonder if any of them had ever attended a Vegas residency.
Irritating no one but the IOC, NBC cut away from most of retiring Olympic boss Thomas Bach’s speech about the role the Games play in creating a culture of peace speech. While expected to be the last time we hear from Bach in his present capacity, the remarks were, like the closing ceremony itself, fairly tame and boilerplate, all things considered.
Coming off the re-normalization of the Olympics in Paris, the City of Angels and the Casey Wasserman-led Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee made sure to put on a true Hollywood production. Earlier Sunday, Wasserman told NBC’s Tirico that what he learned the most from Paris 2024 was “their willingness to really think outside the box.”
Truthfully, there wasn’t much thinking outside the box with the LA portion of the closing ceremony, but there was a lot of what invented the box.
Paris may have done it their way, as Yseult sang the famed Sinatra tune based on based on the music of ‘Comme d’habitude’ at the very end of today’s event. LA clearly plans to go full bread and circuses in 2028 and give the people what they want.