I watched the Opening Ceremony of the Rio Olympics on Friday. I was really looking forward to it, because the Parade of Nations is one of my favorite things in the world, and because I do enjoy fireworks. All in all, I thought Rio did a good job, and Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles – who directed the Opening Ceremony – did the best he could within budget. There were some WTF moments (Judi Dench’s voiceover on that global warming video?!?) and some bummer moments (I cried at the team of refugees), but Rio did a lot right: fun music, lots of dancing, great colors, interesting set pieces, and they didn’t try to whitewash their history, they dealt with it head-on. Considering the multiple reports that everything was utterly shambolic during rehearsals, they pulled it out just in time. Here’s a video of the very beginning:
The ribbons were one of the coolest features of the Opening Ceremony.
Unfortunately, the ratings were pretty dismal even though Rio managed to put on a good show. The Hollywood Reporter says that the Opening Ceremony’s ratings were down 28% from the London Opening Ceremony. Which is weird, sort of – we had that crazy time delay with the London Olympics, and I also didn’t think the London Opening Ceremony was all that great (it had some good moments, but it was crazy uneven). I also think the ratings were awful this year because NBC’s coverage SUCKED. It sucked so hard. The combination of Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira and Hoda Kotb was mind-numbingly clueless and, at times, pretty offensive.
Here’s Team USA entering. We have a historic number of women competing this year, and we have the largest team of any nation. U-S-A! U-S-A!!
I’m covering the Gisele stuff in a separate post, but I just wanted to take a moment to recognize the true star of the Opening Ceremony: his name is Pita. Pita Taufatofua. He was the flag-bearer for Team Tonga. And Pita is AMAZING. Pita is competing in Taekwondo and I hope he wins #AllTheMedals. He’s getting a crazy amount of attention after his shirtless, oiled-up appearance. As it should be.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
YES!!! We were screaming when he came out. Uncontrollably screaming.
Lol. I’m sorry I missed the moment. It’s so cool that he’s getting so much love.
@lilacflowers
HAHAHAHAHA 🙂
Although I find his face less than (sorry, but, I need a good face….didn’t find him hot, but, yeah he was fun compared to the rest), I DO appreciate your enthusiasm!!!!!
🙂
ETA: Ugh…did this post show up in the wrong place again?
Right place! I think it was just the fun of it all. Nearly everyone else was in blazers and rather drab ensembles and then Oiled-up Tonga!
LL, Agree that he’s not hot but the whole thing was cute. Funny when someone unintentionally steals the show. Although with all that oil it may have been a calculated move.
I’m always underwhelmed by these opening ceremonies but I’m always underwhelmed by things that are supposed to be spectacular. It beats me why people put New Year fireworks displays on their tellyboxes, too. I just yawn. I am a bore.
But I need your enthusiasm here today, Lilac.
I have multiple tweens doing ‘lympics watching, including a couple of girls who are perving over the GB swimmer who got a world record and Max Whitlock, one of the GB gymnasts.
The assembled cohort of boys are AGHAST. ‘lympics aren’t for perving! Girls shouldn’t be allowed to watch! This is an outrage! Make them leave!
I am, therefore, loudly perving over any bloke that counts as even barely presentable just to annoy them further. Allies welcome!
Also, I thought the U.S. outfits looked French, even though the tops weren’t bleu, blanc, rouge….they should have been blue, red, white, red, white, red, white ,red, etc..
@Sixer, ha! Women and girls watching and perving over the Olympics are why they always score high ratings. Swimmers and divers are always ideal for perving
Fireworks do not belong on tellyboxes. They are to be experienced first hand. There can be no virtual fireworks watching.
And now, back to perving. They’re promising me badminton this morning. I can actually play badminton.
Lol, Sixer, check out the men’s water polo players. And perv away!
We are on table tennis, currently. So I’m annoying them by shouting PING PONG PING PONG.
I will give Sixlet Minor this much: he may be monopolising the remote control and switching between sports in an annoying fashion, but he has made everyone sandwiches, including me.
Won’t stop me aiding the little girls by perving with my leather lungs at top decibels, though.
ETA: The girls have just disallowed any watching of beach volleyball (women’s). HAHAHAHAHAHA. I’m liking these two: they’re asserting like there’s no tomorrow.
Oh, water polo players tend to be the hottest athletes. Definitely perv on the water polo players.
Beach volleyball should be disallowed! Watch real volleyball. More power to those girls who have taken over the Sixlets! And it sounds like Sixlet Minor, although aghast at the perving, is smitten.
Seriously: these gals are woke! They’re only 13.
“You can shut up. Just because it’s the way boys like things, doesn’t mean it’s the best way.”
They’re cheering me right up! And they are winning, even though there are two of them and eight boys.
ROFL yea, as D-listed said, everyone looked like flight attendants (paraphrasing)
Although he’s not my type, he’s attractive for his type, and hey, gotta love the enthusiasm.
Oiled-up Tonga!
The way the Olympics are supposed to be! Like the Greeks! The original Olympics!!!!!!!!!! (but, where was the sand?)
I only caught part of Friday’s broadcast, during the parade of nations, so I didn’t get the full effect. But I thought it looked beautiful and festive. I also watched events pretty much all day yesterday — cycling, rowing, water polo, handball, men’s basketball, men’s gymnastics and swimming — and things seem well organized and the backdrop of Rio is just breathtaking.
Looking forward to more today…Rooting for Teams USA and LTU! 🙂
Watch the Canadian network coverage. Much better than anything NBC will do
Thanks for the tip, NBC is crap for sure.
CBC aired the opening ceremony live and it finished by 11pm eastern. I flipped over to NBC and they were still showing the parade of nations. NBC needs to air things live, especially because that is the point of the Olympics, watching sport worldwide at one time. With social media they can’t pretend that things are live when they aren’t anymore.
I always enjoy CBCs coverage! They did some great side interviews with althletes from other countries as well which were very interesting. The commentators always have great things to say. Once the CBC coverage was complete I did flip over to NBC to compare & I did notice that there were WAY to many commercial breaks!
I’ve heard the NBC coverage is poor – they didn’t even show the London 2012 opening ceremony live, just an edited version.
BBC coverage is great, extensive, and no commercials. There are several live streams of each sport and if you miss something you can catch up on I Player.
Yes, if you have a VPN, BBC has live coverage all day on two channels which you can watch via iPlayer.
Sadly, no red button for internet users though.
Sixer, there are live streams on the BBC Sport website, most sports for the sessions today.
Gotsta love the BBC for things like this, dontcha?
Just a reminder that CBC in Canada has all day around the clock coverage on multiple channels and online for anyone with a VPN as well.
(I have seen some of the NBC coverage and I feel so bad for my American friends. It’s TERRIBLE!)
Please DONT encourage people outside the UK WITHOUT a TV licence to use the BBC
Christ, I could understand if it was a money grubbing outfit like Amazon , but the Beeb is paid for by poor people like me who live in the UK, people who cant really afford the license, barely make use of it the rest of the time the Limpics isnt on, but pay it all the same, we could lose the BBC because of all the people abusing iplayer when it frankly needs the cash.
How would you lose the BBC because people outside the UK are watching online? And if there was a serious cost implication wouldn’t they just limit the stream to UK territory anyway? Also, as someone who streams the World Service for background noise pretty much every day and listens to callers ringing in from the most obscure parts of the world, I can tell you for a fact that this is your greatest cultural export and by far your best diplomatic tool. I really think that were it not for the BBCs global popularity, Britain’s decline would be much further along now. It’s a worthwhile investment is all I’m saying
It’s the people INSIDE the UK who don’t buy licences, you need to worry about, Layla. People outside the UK can’t buy a licence to enable them to watch the BBC. The BBC will continue to sell programmes and formats to foreign networks regardless of VPNs. In fact, you might find that otherwise unsold shows might go viral and get bought in this way.
And even then, you don’t really need to worry. Did you know that 1 in 10 of all magistrate court cases is for non-payment of TV licences? Did you know that approximately 2x the cost of unpaid licences is spent chasing and prosecuting unpaid licences? And in some cases, on prison stays for non-payment of licences?
Costs for the CPS for a magistrates court case are £85-£160 for a guilty plea, and that’s without the cost of Capita for getting them to court in the first place. There were 180,000 prosecutions in 2015. The licence cost is £145.50.
I’d agree that the BBC is using a 20th century funding model that needs replacing. Netflix-style subscription for a specified number of devices, or even simple central government funding would be better, as the Greens have in their manifesto.
But Americans sneaking onto iPlayer via a VPN have absolutely no cost consequences for you.
If that’s the best (?) the worst was the poor French gymnast with that awful leg fracture. It was horrible to watch – and hear – so god knows what’s it was like to experience it. What an end to his Games. Go Andy Murray and Rafa Nadal (yeah, I know only one of them can win…).
Then the paramedics dropped the poor guy…and did you see the Dutch woman who crashed her bike yesterday? I honestly thought she might be dead, it was that awful. Amazingly she “only” has a concussion and some small vertebral fractures and is expected to make a full recovery. What a relief.
I teared up when Team Refugee came out. I’m glad they got such loud cheers. The NBC coverage is truly awful. I wonder if a lot of viewers gave up and just started watching online.
By the way, those who are squeamish should not watch the coverage of French gymnast Samir Ait Said’s injury. It’s pretty gruesome. Best wishes for his recovery.
“By the way, those who are squeamish should not watch the coverage of French gymnast Samir Ait Said’s injury. It’s pretty gruesome. Best wishes for his recovery.”
Can’t watch. Not only gruesome, but, all that work to get to this point. Feel so bad for him.
Gotta say, the diving always scares me. You never know if someone’s gonna get hurt.
yeah…Team Refugee
The refugee teams entry was by far the most moving moment of the opening. Could care less about the greasy Tonga dude.
Yea, it was horrid 🙁 I’m a gymnastics fan, so it wasn’t something I just checked out for the shock effect.
NBC always does a horrible job of covering the olympics.
Eh, he was too shiny. I’ll stick with my boy Jaime Espinal.
Is it true that some events were pushed back to midnight local time because the US wanted to broadcast it in prime time? Cam they do that? Why does he US get such preferential treatment?
I loved the walk of nations, but our uniforms were pretty bad. Personally, I think our chequers are pretty amazing, but the designer went overboard. They looked like they were wearing tablecloths. The Indian saris looked amazing. My favourite costumes.
Anyway, go TeamCro and TeamRefugee.
Also, the American basketball players went to a brothel. The first scandal happend pretty fast.
It gets worse. The Olympic boxer from Morocco has been arrested for sexually assaulting two waitresses.
I also read that the USA basketball players are staying on a cruise ship instead of being forced to mix with the masses in the Olympic Village.
Given the problems with the Olympic Village, I’ll give a pass on anyone who finds a way to avoid it but going to a brothel is at cross-purposes to that so I’m going to hurl my Chuck Taylors at them. And arrogance on their part is unnecessary. It would serve them right to lose. And basketball is the event we should always win. It is ours.
I will give Melo points though for attending the opening ceremonies. Some NBA players have been known to skip it.
I’m not exactly sure what the problems are with the Olympic Village but if every other athlete has to endure it, why shouldn’t they? It just struck me as very entitled. Not to mention the fact that they could probably have skipped the brothel by staying in the village, from what I hear about it, lol.
I watched them destroy China yesterday, I don’t see how they can possibly lose. I would love for Lithuania to give them a run for their money but their bench is nowhere as deep. Nor is anyone else’s, I’m guessing.
The Olympic Village is not in good shape by all accounts. Apart from construction difficulties, apparently the wifi and TV are down. And Juan Martin del Potro got stuck in a lift there for 40 minutes today and had to be rescued by Argentinian handballers.
“And Juan Martin del Potro got stuck in a lift there for 40 minutes today and had to be rescued by Argentinian handballers.”
Raise your hand if you’d like to be rescued by Argentinian handballers. Just so you can say that dozens of times. “Stuck in a lift but it turned out okay. I was rescued by Argentinian handballers!”
Argentinian handballers or Delpo himself, I’m easy. 🙂
Locke, yes that’s true, it was mentioned on the BBC coverage this morning. The swimming schedule has been moved back to US prime time. This always happens, I guess it’s either NBC clout or their advertising revenue
Yeah i’m pretty annoyed about that. I love swimming but the evening session doesn’t start now until 10pm there, which means it’s the middle of the night shown where I am. All because of the Michael Phelps US factor I heard, so NBC can make their ad revenue. Can’t imagine it’s great for the athletes competing. It’s disappointing the IOC bows to such pressure.
I heard they went to the brothel because it’s called a club in its website or advertising (something like that). I can’t believe they would knowingly be so stupid as to go to a brothel intentionally. But, maybe so.
Well, to be blunt, it’s not just Thailand that has an underground culture of sex tourism.
it’s not what the only thing people go to either country for but quite a few people travel to both places specifically for that.
And they’re claiming they didn’t know it was a brothel, they though it was a spa! I’d love to ask them – so, what was your first clue that maybe this place doesn’t offer facials and pedicures?
I LOVE the parade of nations!!! it is ALWAYS my favorite part of the Opening Ceremonies 🙂 I am also hating NBC coverage, a lot of the things I want to watch aren’t covered so I need to go online.
So I let my 8 yr old daughters stay up and watch the Parade of Nations with me, when Tonga came out they were like “why is he so shiny?!” LOL It was funny. I don’t find him hot either, but I love that he got all of this attention haha and yes, I hope he wins all the medals!!
I read an interview he gave. He said it was traditional practice to use coconut oil, but a lady was rubbing him down as he was holding the flag preparing to go out. He had to make her stop because he was starting to slip out of his sandals as she had put way too much oil on him. But it was too late at that point, obviously. I think you can tell be the way he is walking carefully and awkwardly in his sandals and the face he makes. He knows it’s an odd situation but the show must go on. Good for him!
Yes= it is a tradition for several Polynesian cultures to suit up in oil! I got oiled up too when I wore a traditional samoian outfit to do a kava preparation dance . he’s not trying to be a cheesy guy, he’s just being tongan- lol
I can’t stand Matt Lauer. He is the most irritating combination of insipid and condescending behaviors roles into one bland package.
I find Bob Costas even worse.
Did you see how Costas was standing last night? Some weird version of the Jolie leg. They’re all awful.
When I first saw the red and white flag, I said ” Wow, is that Canada’s flag bearer?” to my daughter. She turned to me and said” You need to put your glasses back on”
NBC’s coverage was horrible and amateurish, but I did perk up when either Meredith or Hoda said with childlike glee, “he’s so shiny!”
I read that a woman was oiling up Pita while he was getting ready and she got so overzealous that he had to ask her to stop. Girl, I feel you.
Shiny, yes, but when he isn’t training he works with homeless youth. Lovely.
Thanks for making me feel awful about my comment about his face. 🙁 🙂
I take it back.
Looking at his Instagram Pita does a lot of volunteering work when he’s not training.
I read that his job is working with homeless youth. Very admirable.
I also read that he had a Go Fund Me page to help fund his Olympics trip and had only received $6,200 out of a goal of $100,000. I’m guessing those numbers will be climbing if they haven’t already.
NBC is trying to cater to the minivan majority. They believe that women don’t actually want to watch samba dancing or, you know, a competition is at it is happening.
If Matt Lauer is involved, I’m not. He’s a schmuck.
The parade of nations is everything. Love it.
Beyond that, i’m watching everything EXCEPT women’s beach volleyball. I don’t need to be assaulted by a gratuitous parade of bottoms. Why are their uniforms still a thing? Didn’t we leave this level of sexism in the previous century?
Especially compared to the men, who wear tank tops and baggy shorts. Apparently there are some other options for the women, to accommodate teams from places like Egypt. Why the women wear those ridiculous bikinis is beyond me.
The samba dancing was AWESOME!
Thank the Gods foe BBC coverage- live, no ads, discreet and informative commentaries. It was spot on. I choked up seeing the team of ‘displaced and refugee’ athletes. They looked so proud.
And when Gugga walked in with the flame. As a Frenchie I have a special place in my heart for Gugga. He looked so proud and moved. Also as I posted somewhere else that spinning sun flame was the most beautiful I have ever seen.
Straight out of the Oldtown library in Game of Thrones. 😉
I watched NBC ‘s coverage, I love the parade of Nations too, but
NBC cut out Team Canada’s entrance! I had it recorded so I rewound it to check, no Canada. What gives??
I was pretty annoyed about that, too. The next day, Canada got the highest marks for having the best opening ceremony outfits. I had to Google them, to see what they looked like. NBC really failed.
Refugee team FTW. Their individual stories are amazing.
Serena Williams’ flag scrunchie is the best part of the Olympics so far.
Not finding him hot, but hey, I’m glad some people were excited.
I thought the guy looked like a total tool, but that’s just me
Pita was in my year at high school! He was a boarder at our school (in Australia). He was very nice, quite quiet… And definitely always clothed and non-oiled! I don’t think anyone realized back then what a hottie he was!! 😉
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Huh, I wonder why it has low ratings?