The Olympics is awash in NBC-branded celebrities

The Paris Olympics are underway, and NBC is once again the official broadcaster of the Games’ marquee event: the cross-branded celebrity cameo.

Who’s that carrying the Olympic torch at the Opening Ceremonies? It’s legendary rapper and semiregular NBC personality Snoop Dogg. Look, over there by women’s skateboarding: It’s NBC’s “The Voice” alum Keith Urban. And over there by the table tennis? NBC’s Law and Order legend Christopher Meloni, not litigating.

This isn’t anything new. NBC has been broadcasting the Olympics for decades, and has arguably mastered the art of finding charming celebrities to hobnob with the athletes and entertain viewers. Who can blame them if the celebs they tap to sit around Olympic Village happen to be some of the network’s most marketable faces. Sure, it may at times be “a little cringe,” as the Los Angeles Times says. That doesn’t mean it’s not good TV.

Not all the celebs are NBC celebs, mind you. Celine Dion had no formal affiliation with the network when she ascended the Eiffel Tower during the Opening Ceremonies to give a comeback performance after a debilitating neurological condition sidelined her career. And some VIPs in Paris just seem to be big sports fans (looking at you, Natalie Portman).

NBC did not immediately respond to questions about how they choose celebrities to showcase at the Olympics. Regardless, we’ve prepared a guide to the stars and their network bona fides.

Snoop was all over NBC before it hired him as its “special NBC Olympics correspondent” in January. He has appeared on network staples such as “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” the competition show “American Song Contest” and the newer show “Lopez vs Lopez.”

Now NBC seems to be using Snoop for … everything. He’s literally their torch bearer. He does play-by-play commentary. He’s in commercials, being taught to swim by Michael Phelps. He’s in the stands with gymnast Jordan Chiles’s parents. He’s on “The Tonight Show,” wearing a peacock-emblazoned Olympic track suit with Jimmy Fallon.

He can even do heartwarming. “Snoop Dogg Is the Best Grandpa Tying His Little Granddaughter’s Sneakers in Paris,” reads a recent headline in NBC’s website, which noted in its first paragraph that Snoop will be coaching on the next season of “The Voice.”

The singer Kelly Clarkson is one of the main hosts for the 2024 Olympics, and she has strong NBC ties. She hosts NBC’s “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” a daytime talk show with live musical performances, interviews and a lot of Clarkson. The show was recently renewed for two more seasons. (To further the point, she was also staple of NBC’s “The Voice” for nine seasons.)

Her hosting partner is Peyton Manning, whose NBC affiliations are relatively thin, though he has appeared on multiple “Saturday Night Live” episodes. And many sports fans will recognize Manning from his football playing days where he became a staple of NBC’s “Thursday Night Football.”

Comedian-actors Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson have been co-hosting a recorded highlights show for the Olympics on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock. Thompson has been an NBC darling for more than a decade, mostly through his “Saturday Night Live” casting. He even had his own NBC sitcom show, “Kenan,” that ended after two seasons in 2022.

Hart has popped up for multiple streaming events with NBC, including the Olympics and New Year’s Eve coverage in previous years (he even hosted a show during the Olympics in 2021 with Snoop Dogg). Hart’s production company Laugh Out Loud has had a multiyear deal with Peacock, too.

If anyone drew a crowd for the Olympics, it was Simone Biles. Multiple celebrities with connections to NBC made their way out to Bercy Arena in Paris to see Biles in person Sunday. Several of those celebs happened to be former coaches of NBC’s “The Voice.”

John Legend, who coached on the singing competition show between 2019 and 2024, and his wife Chrissy Teigen (a former briefcase presenter on NBC’s “Deal or No Deal” who has appeared on “The Voice” before) were there and spent some time chatting with Nick Jonas, also a former coach on “The Voice.”

Pharrell Williams was spotted carrying the Olympic torch during the Opening Ceremonies. He boasts a pretty deep NBC résumé, having appeared on “The Voice” for two years, and had a hand in the soundtracks for Despicable Me, a franchise distributed by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBCUniversal.

Keith Urban, who was tapped as a “mega mentor” on the recent season of “The Voice,” watched the women’s skateboarding final with his wife Nicole Kidman on Sunday, too.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo had a few breakout moments at the Olympics. They appeared at the Opening Ceremonies for a brief spell before they were spotted for the Biles competition, greeting Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue.

Grande briefly appeared on “The Voice” as a coach in 2021, but her upcoming film “Wicked” with Erivo has a strong tie to the NBC family given it will be distributed by Universal, which is owned by NBCUniversal.

(Funny enough, their run-in with Wintour has a slight connection to NBC, too. The NBCUniversal-owned E! News covers the Met Gala and other major fashion events frequented by Wintour.)

And, oh yeah, Christopher Meloni — the guy from NBC’s legal drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and its spinoff “Law & Order: Organized Crime” — was seen watching table tennis. He’s apparently been really eager for it.

Of course, not everyone with an NBC gig or two on their résumé is there at the network’s behest, and despite appearances on American TV, the network and the Olympics are not in fact synonymous.

Flavor Flav isn’t far behind Snoop Dogg in Olympic pop-up appearances, though he’s partnered with the U.S. water polo teams, not NBC.

But are any of these VIPs at the Olympics for, you know, their own enjoyment and not some corporate deal? Who can say? But Tom Cruise and Greta Gerwig were spotted near each other at the women’s gymnastic qualifiers on Wednesday with no obvious promotional angle (though Cruise was inducted last Friday as Knight of the Legion of Honor — one of the most prestigious titles in France.)

Mick Jagger’s deadpan face while watching fencing caught the attention of social media, with many wondering if the crowd even realized the singer was there. And Spike Lee was spotted in a (shocker) New York Knicks hat at the USA men’s basketball game against Serbia on Sunday. That all seems fairly genuine.

Then there’s Celine Dion, who wowed audiences during the Opening Ceremonies with her performance of Edith Piaf’s “L’Hymne à l’amour” at the base of the Eiffel Tower in what was her first performance since she was diagnosed with the incurable neurological condition, stiff-person syndrome.

Dion isn’t an NBC employee and doesn’t appear to have any ongoing deals with the network. She did happen to give her first broadcast interview since falling ill to the “Today” show in June — on NBC. But that’s probably a coincidence. If the Paris Olympics have taught us anything, it’s that NBC is hard to avoid.