Where is ‘Today’ broadcasting from at the Paris 2024 Olympics?

By Michael P. Hill July 30, 2024

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NBC News‘ “Today” is broadcasting from a temporary setup inside what is normally a restaurant for its coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, which is being helmed by Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker and Craig Melvin.


Café de l’Homme, located northwest of the famed Eiffel Tower at Trocadero Square gives “Today” and other NBC broadcasts multiple vantages of the tower and surrounding cityscape, including some of the venues for the games themselves.

Café de l’Homme is located within the Palais de Chaillot, a multi-building complex featuring a large stone courtyard built for the 1937 Exposition Internationale. 

A centerpiece of the outdoor restaurant area is a statue of Hercules and the Cretian bull by sculptor Albert Pommier, which remains visible amid the “Today” setup.

 

The show is using the restaurant’s outdoor dining terrace as studio space and portions of the interior for a control room and other support functions.

Plans call for “Today” to use the space along with select parts of NBC’s primetime and dayside coverage. 

“Today” also broadcast a portion of its show from the first level of the Eiffel Tower Monday, July 29, 2024, before moving back to the restaurant set.

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NBC set up home base for “Today” under a green trellis on the west side of the eatery’s terrace, which is slightly elevated from the surrounding public spaces.

“Today” uses a rounded glass desk with an intricate metal base inspired by French grillwork of similar design.


The green shade of the trellis also appears to be inspired by “Paris Green,” the name given to a compound of pigments first invented in 1814 that is sometimes compared to emerald green. The shade has also been used by French artists in several famous works. 

NBC also created a more enclosed space with French design elements on the opposite side of the “Today” anchor desk. 

Here, a curved sofa with a view of Paris and a similar view of the Eiffel Tower is framed out by sheer fabric curtains.

The space uses also includes a video wall with a wrought iron frame. as well as wall-mounted versions of the NBC 2024 Paris logo. 

Opposite this is an alcove designed as a place for athletes to gather before appearing on the show, including a large faux green wall with the network logo installed over it.

With Paris, NBC is continuing the tradition of using outdoor studio spaces for its “Today” Olympics setups.


For the delayed 2020 games, it took over the top of a hotel in Tokyo (the outdoor setting was planned before the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the games to 2021 and the outdoor air circulating ended up being a bonus once the games did go forward). 

For 2022, the show sent Savanah Guthrie to Beijing, China, anchoring from a standard outdoor standup-style setup. Hoda Kotb remained in New York, where the network built an Asian-inspired space outside of Studio 1A.

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Back in 2018, the network brought along its half-circle portable studio with movable glass walls to PyeongChang. This studio, which can be disassembled and stored before being shipped in pieces to where it’s needed was used for multiple games prior to this. It was also used in New York as a temporary home for the show during Studio 1A renovations.

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