Tea from Paris: Day One

The coolest opening ceremony ever period in this special edition of Amy and t J.

That's right. French style and flare and history and of course the unbelievable production prowess. We just saw. Wow, it was on full display, all happening at the opening ceremonies of the twoenty twenty four Paris Olympics. They are underway and it was a ceremony where for the first time we saw just the athletes entering away. They never have in the opening ceremonies. They were floating down the Seine instead of walking into a stadium.

Yeah, but before we saw all that history, we had chaos, a coordinated transit attack just before the ceremony caused fits at the time, travel fits, but it's going to cause travel fits for some days.

To come, that's right. And also in this very special episode, sex is back at the Olympics. It was gone for a while in case you didn't know. And COVID unfortunately is also back at the Olympics. A gold medal coach has already been kicked out of the Olympics.

Also, the trend spin makes its debut at the Olympics. We will be break dancing at the Olympics and what's with the commercials for the Olympics.

That's right, Well, yeah, we're going to talk about all of that and more. Welcome to our first Olympics edition of Amy and TJ. You can check in here. We're going to be on every single day during the Olympics on iHeart for all the Tea from Perry. That's what we're calling in and it's everything you want to know about the game.

I'm still not married to that title, you know, as long as I don't have to say it while am I complaining? But first impression, I don't know if it's just I don't think there's much of a debate about it being the best opening ceremony we have ever seen, but this was actually one of the best television productions I've ever seen.

I was blown away the entire time, from start to finish. I know that you and I have covered these we've actually been in the stadiums, and as exciting and as amazing as that is, they get a little boring sometimes. I mean that's just it just goes on and on and on. To put on a three plus hour sensation is tough to do. It drags a little such it was for though four right, and it was. I mean I was riveted from start to finish. I thought it was jaw dropping Lincoln.

We slowed down a little bit now, as as great as it was, Yes, you are right, I get what you're saying, but there was a little point. We'll get into a little bit here for a second.

But you can't help.

But in a four hour broadcast somewhere it has to slow down. But from start, when they started rolling down the river, if you will, the sin the river sin, I should say, it goes right through Paris. That's when the show really really began. We heard about this being something ropes that they had never tried before. We're always used to seeing athletes walk into a stadium Olympic stadium. This year they literally put these folks on a river.

Pull it off in blinding rain too, I mean, to see the weather, it did not cooperate. And yet we saw not just the unbelievable pomp and circumstance, but we saw acrobatic acts that you'd think would be very dangerous in blinding rain. And yet they pulled it off. I mean, the unbelievable shows that were going on over the bridges along the banks of the Sein. It was all coordinated, perfectly timed, just the production value from the cameras. And

I guess a couple of seasts were did I guess the rumors were true?

Right? Lady Gaga showed up.

She was very kind of kicked off the show in a lot of ways, and I love it, even when I guess she'd been rumored for so long, and even when we saw the production start is raining and she's coming down these steps, they kept those whatever.

You call them, the feather fans, the feather.

Fans in front of her, and it kept the mystery still going, even though we had a good idea of who was going to be. I thought that was a great reveal in a great moment, and she's always a great performer.

I couldn't believe what it would be like to be her. You know, you're walking down the steps into this sine. All of Paris in the world is watching you. By the way, I think they were estimating over one billion people watched opening ceremonies, So to perform on that kind of a stage in the middle of Paris, I just thought, Wow, this has to be one of like the pinch me moments, even for someone like Lady Gaga.

And as they're rolling down you you comment, I wish we would have had a separate camera on that would have just been like a fashion can on you. Because listening to your commentary as the athletes were rolling down the river, that's gonna be my thing now down the river, your commentary about each of the delegations and how they were dressed was just fantastic.

I said that leading up to see the.

Excitement and how cool it was to see the athletes on all of those boats having I mean parties as they were coming by. Of course, the US delegation the largest one there five hundred and ninety plus athletes. That boat was packed and it was a party the whole time. But then some of the smung with that delegations that have three athletes or seven athletes having.

To share a boat with other delegations. It was cool. It was cute. That was the biggest moment they're probably going to have.

It was awesome, What a great idea it was. Watching it was like watching a parade, but in the coolest of ways. And I loved it. And some boats were more fun than others. Let's just be honest, but it and even in the raid, I mean they soaking wet. If you all watched and saw these athletes had big smiles on the face, but they were soaked to the bone.

The broadcast, I don't understand how the timing of it went the way it did. As far as watching it at home, everything seemed perfect. This went off without There wasn't a single hitch, and I was watching very closely, even the simplest of things when you think about the rain being added into it. Nobody even slipped down a flight of steps, which you would assume was a possibility.

At times they depicted a menagatoire and that I started laughing. It was all of the different things that France has produced and that stick with us, that we forget we could attribute to France. I wasn't thinking Manajatoa, but they went there.

They it was kind of like they they were winking at us when they did it. They just got it. Yeah, well we know what you're thinking.

I appreciated it. I thought that was very clever. And of course one of my favorite moments was when they brought in Lema's rob I just thought it was so well done and beautiful, and then it turned into this heavy metal band and Marie Antoine. I mean, it was like watching an unbelievable Broadway musical. Paris is your stage, and they just pulled it off unbelievably well.

And obviously we were waiting. We got the Lady gagat surprise, and then the Celine Dion. It was I don't know how you would do this ceremony without her, but I mean, given what we know she's been going through health wives for the past several years, to see her step out on this stage like this felt like a comeback of sorts in the biggest of ways, in the most iconic of places. It was the most perfect way to wrap up the ceremony.

I mean I have honestly, so you look, I have chills right now reliving the moment when she sang under the Eiffel Tower, or right there on the Eiffel Tower, and that white beaded gown and her voice, as always, despite everything she's been through, was flawless, pitch perfect, and just what a what a comeback? What a comeback?

A lot of people are.

Going to say that, how can you not say that was their favorite moment of the ceremony. I couldn't believe that one of the most beautiful moments I saw. I don't know the young lady's name, I'm sorry I don't remember, but it was the black woman who was standing on top of the building singing. It wasn't the national anthem,

I mean, I just I have never seen a country, a host nation pull off an event like we saw and I can't wait to watch more. I mean it. And this is a long time coming. You know, the last two Olympics there haven't been fans, there hasn't been fanfair. It's it's been a little sad. And so what a way to come back from COVID and from these Olympics where it just didn't really feel like the Olympics. It the Olympics is on, I mean in a big way.

All right, Los Angeles. I bet they're ripping up their plans.

Cannot imagine how you you better start over because you all got to do something.

France has now set the absolute bar. Yep, that was incredible what they were able.

To pull off. Now they pull this off.

But just would you believe you wouldn't know this from watching the ceremony. But just hours before the game started there was a scare was a reminder of the intense security situation around France as they coordinated attack on French rail lines. French officials saying arson attack targeted high speed rail lines caused all kinds of chaos across France. There were fires that were set to destroy cables that control the train signals. Of course, if you don't have a

Excuse me, Paris, Paris.

Yeah, and there were even two German athletes who were on one of the trains to Paris wanted to take part in the opening ceremonies and they had to turn back in Belgium because of the closures, So they actually missed the opening ceremonies because of this. So yeah, that's such a like, this is your opportunity, this is your moment, and because of that they had to turn around, which was incredibly sad, but thank god it wasn't worse than it was. Yes, the opening ceremony was the best opening

This is and you know this, and I know this from covering Olympics in the past, but it's the Olympic Village can be notorious if you will. For you no, I mean, you've got some of the most beautiful people in the world physically speaking, and youth and young and yeah, you got a lot of downtown sometimes Olympic village. So

They even passed out condoms.

And I think hundreds of thousands, there's an exact numbers.

I saw that. It was.

Yeah, okay, so we've gotten passed of course, the worst of COVID. But there have been at least now five cases of COVID reported among members specifically Worlds of the Australian Olympic team.

All right, I'm sure we'll keep our tabs on that as well. And wow, this was stunning. Even before the opening ceremony, already we've got an Olympic controversy. The head coach of the Canadian women's soccer team has been suspended, kicked out of the Olympics over a cheating scandal. Bev Priestman is her name. She was sent home. She stepped away first and they said, yeah, no, we're sending you home after a member of her staff was caught using

Of course, we know never fails. It's always a controversy of comment at the Olympics. Came a little early this year.

Perhaps he won't be the last, maybe it will. Maybe this will be the big one. Wouldn't that be great? That would be We don't look confident.

Yes, we just saw the opening ceremony that marks the official start of the games, but the games have actually been going on for several days now. We got sports like rugby soccer, they've started the early stages of their tournaments, and the US men and women, two soccer teams have already been in action this week.

It went really well for one of them.

That one is the US women. Well no surprise probably to you there, but they won three nil over a Zambia in their first match they played on Thursday. The first goal for the US women in the Olympics was scored.

By Trinity Rodman.

Now Trinity Rodman, A lot of people will know now that her dad is Dennis Rodman, the NBA Hall of Famer. But Trinity Rodman scored on If you haven't seen it, I mean google it'll look it up on social media. A fantastic but ridiculous spin move. And of course Robes, you and I were watching this live when it's happened. We watched every second of this game. But she proudly calls this.

The trend spin and it was effective.

You will be hearing a lot more about Trinity Rodman and the trin spin. And the women are going to continue their group play on Sunday again. This is a must see game against Germany.

That's gonna be find one.

I'm so excited. It was amazing. I don't know why, I don't remember anything, you know that once I see it, it's like out of my head. But I remember Trinity Rodman scored at minute seventeen, and then it is it Malory Swanson she scored two in a row a minute twenty four and minute twenty five, and I just it was, it was unreal. By twenty five minutes into the game, USA already up three to Oho and that ended up being the score. So it was I thoroughly enjoyed watching that.

I think that just to think about pop culture, hip hop culture, I should say specifically here that something that kids were doing in New York City all those years ago is now an Olympic sport. Is really really really cool.

To see that doesn't get going. I think we got a week to wait until they do start breakdancing, so we have to wait on that for a little while. But if you haven't seen it before, this is gonna be. This is gonna be like the thing like curling. You remember that when curling became a thing in the Winter Games, and it became a fad and we all had to watch it because we were curious about it.

This might be the new star.

I'm still curious about curling. It's fascinating. It's like I'm watching people sweep really fast. I don't understand, but.

It became kind of all all the rage. But I'm looking forward to break down.

I can't wait. I wish there were more than sixteen competitors. But they go head to head, right, and.

They've got these one on one yeah yah, and.

They've got these set rules and judges. And some people argue this is such a subjective art form and athletic form of art basically that it's tough to judge.

But will figure skating that's yeah, you know what, that's a good point.

That's a really good point. Anyway, that's exciting, and there are like, do you have any anything you're really looking forward to?

Oh, my good gracious, of course I am. I think the big ones are always everybody agrees, swimming, track and field. We look look forward to basketball, of course, Gymnastics gymnax is probably number one. Gymnastics and swimming when you're gree the two biggest sports.

Yes, and oh diving. Diving is so fun to watch too. I say that, and you know what, was unexpectedly really fun to watch. And so I encourage people because a lot of times when the commercials come up, you get up, you leave, you say, I'm going to go get some food or a snack. Watch the commercials during the opening ceremonies. We actually found ourselves weeping. I was weeping. I don't do that Uber commercial. And you had a tear. You

I didn't have a tear, mind you over a commercial.

You had a tear over a commercial. What commercial was that?

It was sporting bog?

It was a Dick's Sporting goods and you know what it was powerful?

Okay, no, no, let's not. I mean were joking about crying?

What?

No, No, everybody needs to understand what we're saying here. The commercials were impressive, right, we're laughing at but what we're saying we're actually giving compliments. Yes to Uber, to Nike and to dick Sporting Goods. I know, the Super Bowl is the super Bowl of commercials. These were such good quality, moving inspiration. They nailed it on the head.

Powerful commercials and they're from full. I couldn't even wait. I got to the end of a Dick Sporting Wait, Dick's sporting goods.

You were kind of embarrassed that you were so moved.

You should really stop saying that.

I know I am complimenting the commercial for what it was able to do with Nike William Dafoe.

I don't need to look up who that was voicing that. We all know that was Williem Dafoe. Uber. I don't even know why.

I couldn't even make the connection between what the message was and then Uber they brought it home some kind of way.

I can't remember how they did it.

Whoever were whoever was responsible for those commercials brilliant because what it was it captured your attention, it brought in your emotion, and then it brought it home back to what the branding was. And I just I was blown away. So I can't wait. If that's what we saw, I actually will be excited about watching commercials more so than the Super Bowl. Like you said, those were better than anything I saw in the Super Bowl.

I am really trying to remember the Uber message. My good I could probably try to google it.

It's something about it it was like.

You know, showing up. Showing up matters, yep.

So we're gonna, we're gonna come, we're gonna get, we're gonna come to you so you can get where you need to go. Something like that. But it was about showing up. It really was uber.

Well done on that commercial.

Whoever put these together, Nike, you'all nail it all the time with those commercials.

But that's off.

Another part you're going to be hearing a lot about if you haven't already, and you might have an opinion about it all already already.

We talked about the broadcast and we applaud.

Can't imagine the work that went into from the NBC folks to the NBC staffs and NBC all those technical folks that put that together.

We know what that's like.

But of course the production, the French folks who actually produced the show and put all the elements together, we applaud. But so much of the broadcast is in the hands of the broadcasters. The main anchors in this time, it was Mike Turico, it was Kelly Clarkson, it was Peyton Manning and one of the three of them, I suppose robes At this point is being talked about more than another, and no, this is part of it.

Sometimes.

Look, Kelly Clarkson, she was being herself. She was not trying to be someone who was a sports fan or someone who had sports vaccine figures. She just was reacting like a human. And so she made a lot of comments throughout the broadcast, and then there were a lot of comments on social media about how she was reacting

It just isn't, especially if you have to do it for four hours, four hours straight. And from what our understanding, they carried a heavier load than anticipated because the weather cost issues to it. They couldn't toss to a lot of other talent that they thought might be able to help them out. So, yep, I need to point that out, but it's part of it. You're on this kind of a stage and if people are going to say what they want to.

Say, I give her credit for.

Not trying to be something else. We're used to broadcasters and they broadcast there's almost sort of wordying we're and maybe we're just accustomed to doing that. And if somebody sees that that, you know what, we're used to broadcasters probably in a lot of ways, robes not even noticing them. Sometimes right right, you're supposed to be You're not supposed to feel a certain way about the broadcaster.

They're just supposed to do a.

Thing, and maybe you reacted to her, and people don't like reacting.

You know, And look, she is not she's not necessary. She's the host of her own show, but she's not somebody who's been trained professionally as a journalist to do any of this. And look, you know, anytime we went out to go cover the Olympics over the last twenty years, and we have that huge binder that you would take with you on the plane, that would sleep next to you in your bed each day because you had to

And you know what, to each their all. I respect anybody who has an opinion about it. Don't respect any boy was being mean about it when it comes to her, But not respect anybody who has an opinion. But I enjoyed watching I always appreciate obviously Mike Turcos, that's fantastic, but he's amazing.

Appreciated a breath of fresh air. And Paton is a wonderful broadcaster.

Yeah, he was great. He was great. I thought he had a nice just it was a warmth about it, and they were having fun. I think that's the thing. Kelly Clarkson was enjoying the heck out of herself, as were we sitting on the couch watching it. Oh yeah, Snoop he speaking of enjoying his time. Yes, he seemed to be having a blast.

Yeah, unlike those other times.

He isn't right, he was. He was just classic Snoop dog.

That might be one of those dudes if you could switch to my add you could switch lives with anybody. Just give me one weekend as Snoop DOGG a Tuesday as Snoop dog It.

Just give me a day.

But at this point, hats off to NBC, Hats off to that team that's off to a just a resounding start. I cannot applaud them enough for the show they pulled off today at the Olympics.

It was so thrilling.

It did slow down, That's what I'm okay. That was the point where once you get through, once the it was a very very very cool shot. The mechanic horse, mechanical horse that was going.

Said the horse wasn't going quickly enough when it first started.

You remember, I was like, wow, that is awesome.

Okay, the horse needs to speed up.

Now, wow, that horse is still running.

And it seemed like it took forever because it took the same three point seven mile trek. As the athletes in their boats comes off it, it stops and then we see a real horse right with the same person riding, if you will, like kind of a seamless transition.

But then the horse was walking really slowly.

I think that's when I went and got the French bread and the bree cheese out beat that our iHeart team sent us.

Okay, well, while you were gone, I kept my eyes on this horse. Then the person got off the horse and walked very slowly, very well.

It was wet and rainy, so that was to make it pretty smart.

I applaud them with the boots walking up the steps. But it was just, yes, it just I got dragged out. And then there were speeches that made it feel like, oh, that.

Was that was the low point. I'm sorry that sounds bad, but that was a low point for me. Listening to you know, McCrone speak and uh and Peter Box.

I think they would admit that it was the low point of the show too long. They weren't trying to top that stuff. But you then you have I didn't even know Serena Williams into up playing a role and carrying the torch, and they finally light the cauldron, which they didn't even we didn't even know where the cauldron.

Was, right, and the thing floats up in the air with the hot air.

But this was so it was so cool and I looked it up because I had to know. I was like, is this going to be like this, like floating suspended. I think they said it was sixty meters up in the air, but it's pretty cool. Basically after sunset until two am every night that is going to float up and when it's on the ground. I think they set up to ten thousand people a day can come visit it and take a look at it. And it's cool

Well.

They are also a good start things to look forward to on this day as you're hearing this Saturday now in Paris and around France. Yes, the US men will start up again as they are in group stage right now of in soccer.

They really really need a result or they could be at risk.

Of going home really early from these olymp But this is going to be the most helpful tip and the most useful tool we give you in this episode. Hear this now Nbcolympics dot com. You need to know this website Nbcolympics dot com.

This is so weird. I mean, I couldn't imagine, right, not too long ago promoting another.

Nav'm promoting NBC. But I'm telling you this because when you go to that website at the top left corner, plain as Day, you will see a tab that says schedule.

Click on that.

They have the entire schedule of events laid out in a way that you can understand and read it. You can pick a day that you want to choose today, tomorrow, the next day, the next day, and it will have the schedule, and it will also give you a tab that tells you which events are TV only and which ones are on digital and TV, which is very helpful right now because you need to have Peacock the app if you want to watch a lot of stuff. The rest of it you have to wait for Primetime or

Indeed. All right, and we talked about the big events that we're looking forward to. But you know, when you start really diving in to see all the different thirty two different sports, is there a little known one or a smaller one that you're curious about that you want to check.

Out table tennis.

That's what I was gonna say. Ping pong aka ping pong, Yes, love it.

Love table tennis because it's unreal what they do, so it's just you don't get a chance to watch it like this often.

Absolutely I want to watch that.

And the other thing I'd like to see is the surfing because they're doing it in Tahiti, and I think I just want to watch just for like, I don't know, vacation candy, just to see what it like. I've never been. I want to and that is such a stunning sport, so I would like to check that out too, But table tennis right on my list.

The other one is fencing because that's something you don't get to watch a lot, so you take the opportunity. But just it takes so much discipline to do that, it's all I'm always impressed.

And beach volleyball is fun to check out.

What are they saying they're doing that in the backdrop of the tower. That's unreal, so cool, it's unreal.

So congratulations NBC, Congratulations Frankly Paris for what you all pulled off on an international on the biggest stage.

With the opening ceremony all right, well, keep checking us out. We're going to be coming to you every single day at nine am with all the latest Olympic news, all the tea from Perry