FILE - In this combination of images, Ray Romano attends SNL50: The Homecoming Concert on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in New York, left, and Sebastian Maniscalco attends the “About My Father” premiere on Tuesday, May 9, 2023, in New York. (Evan Agostini/Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
Ray Romano and Sebastian Maniscalco share banter while atop Italian Alps in Winter Olympics promo
LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥 NBC is continuing its strategy of infusing the Olympics with pop culture and celebrity appeal to generate momentum ahead of the Milan-Cortina Winter Games in Italy next year.
FILE - In this combination of images, Ray Romano attends SNL50: The Homecoming Concert on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in New York, left, and Sebastian Maniscalco attends the “About My Father” premiere on Tuesday, May 9, 2023, in New York. (Evan Agostini/Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥 NBC is continuing its strategy of infusing the Olympics with pop culture and celebrity appeal to generate momentum ahead of the Milan-Cortina Winter Games in Italy next year.
This time, Italian American comedians and will make their debut during a comical promotion, the network said on Wednesday. The commercial will air during NBC鈥檚 coverage on Saturday.
In the spot, Romano and Maniscalco stand atop the Italian Alps with snowboards in hand, attempting to discuss thrilling winter sports like skiing, snowboarding and luge. But their discussion is repeatedly sidetracked by their shared obsession with Italian food.
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鈥淩ay and I teamed up for the Olympics, two Italian guys trying to figure out winter sports,鈥 Maniscalco said in a statement. 鈥淟et鈥檚 just say, we thought 鈥榣uge鈥 was a type of pasta.鈥
Romano and Maniscalco filmed the commercial in Los Angeles, with the mountaintop backdrop brought to life by Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects company founded by George Lucas and recently known for its work on 鈥淭he Mandalorian.鈥
The network said Romano and Maniscalco were an easy choice to start building anticipation for the Winter Games.
鈥淏oth are instantly recognizable, deeply beloved, and naturally funny,鈥 said Joseph Lee, senior vice president of creative marketing, sports and entertainment at NBC. He said the network is using the same playbook of enlisting entertainers and athletes.
Last year, included , , , , , and .
鈥淲e鈥檙e running the same playbook across the campaign: pairing entertainment personalities with the Olympics (and often Olympians) in fun, unexpected ways,鈥 Lee said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 how we鈥檒l continue to keep the Games culturally relevant 鈥 and genuinely entertaining.鈥
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