Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski, whose critical, entertaining and fashion-conscious figure skating analysis on NBCSN drew praise during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, have earned an expected promotion to the lead team for the sport on the NBC Sports Group.
NBC will announce the change Wednesday.
“Tara and Johnny are a very authentic team,” Jim Bell, the executive producer of NBC Olympics, said in a telephone interview. “They’re fun and fresh. They’re not afraid to offer strong opinions and come back and take a selfie on Instagram.”
He added: “You look for their kind of chemistry. You can’t make it up.”
Lipinski and Weir will be the prime-time voices of figure skating for NBC during the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, but will start in their new roles during the NBC broadcast of Skate America on Sunday.
They are replacing Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic men’s ice skating gold medalist, who began calling the Winter Olympics for CBS in 1992, and Sandra Bezic.
Tracy Wilson, NBC’s ice dancing and scoring analyst, survived the cast changes.
Terry Gannon, who hosted the NBCSN coverage with Lipinski and Weir, will take over for Tom Hammond. Hamilton will become a special correspondent for major figure skating events, like the Winter Olympics and the United States nationals.
Weir, Lipinski and Gannon were on the air from Sochi for hours at a time on NBCSN, calling every figure skating routine except for those in the new team competition. The NBC crew called far fewer routines for the prime-time evening broadcast.
Since then, NBC has been grooming Weir and Lipinski for wider roles within Comcast, its parent company. They were fashion commentators for the Kentucky Derby and Access Hollywood’s Academy Awards coverage.
On Wednesday, Weir and Lipinski will appear on NBC’s “Today” show.
Weir and Lipinski’s ascent was first reported last month when Hamilton, Bezic and Hammond told The Chicago Tribune of the changes.
Bell said he had not decided if another team would be formed to call figure skating on NBCSN. He did not rule out double duty for Lipinski and Weir, who could be calling figure skating for NBC until its Olympics rights deals end in 2032.