Another high profile NBC on air personality is out

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Just a week after finally shedding Megyn Kelly, NBC and one of its highest profile sports broadcasters have announced they’ve split up.

• The New York Post confirmed that Bob Costas has left NBC Sports.
• NBC later confirmed Costas’ departure.
• Costas was a high profile face on NBC for nearly 40 years.
• In addition to covering a wide range of sports coverage, he was perhaps best known to most Americans as the primetime face of NBC’s multibillion dollar, multiyear television rights contract with the Olympics for 11 games from 1992 to 2016.
• He was replaced as primetime host for the 2018 games in PyeongChang, South Korea by Mike Tirico, who NBC hired from ESPN in 2016.
• Tirico had appeared in NBC’s coverage of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
• According to reports, Costas and NBC began discussing an exit in August 2018, even though he reportedly had three years left on his contract.
• NBC and Costas were reported to have been struggling to find a role for Costas that matched his interests.
• According to the Post, Costas and NBC negotiated an early end to his contract, but terms were not disclosed.
• Costas will continue his deal with MLB Network, which NBC parent Comcast has a minority stake in.
• Former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw, who continues to serve as a special correspondent for the network, tweeted a farewell to Costas.

bob costas, my dear friend – broadcasting brother, really – is leaving NBC after 40 years of hall of fame work.
it’s like hearing his hero mickey mantle decided to leave the yankees.
the master is leaving the building.
godspeed, robert

— Tom Brokaw (@tombrokaw) January 17, 2019