Erik Brady

USA TODAY Sports

The opening ceremony at any Olympics is more Broadway show than sporting event, a made-for-TV spectacle that takes on the personality of the host country. And this one pulsed with a samba beat.

But NBC carried its broadcast on a one-hour tape delay in the Eastern time zone, and a four-hour delay in the Pacific time zone. That meant images of Gisele Bundchen sashaying on the catwalk proliferated on Twitter long before she showed up on the NBC broadcast. Worse, the delay gave NBC plenty of time for commercial breaks, which gave the ceremony a disjointed feel on TV.

NBC’s hosts for the night — Matt Lauer, Hoda Kotb and Meredith Vieira — offered commentary to make sense of the impressionistic depictions of Brazilian history for an American audience. Wisely, they often allowed the video to tell the story.

Bundchen, the Brazilian supermodel who’s married to Tom Brady, appeared in a glittering gown to The Girl from Ipanema, a bossa nova jazz standard that is as familiar around the world as Bundchen herself.

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Even when her star turn was done, the cameras found Bundchen in the stands as she boogied and sang along with other spectators. She is ever a star, never just a face in the crowd.

The broadcast periodically offered pre-taped commentary from the Brazilian producers of the show, sometimes appearing in small inset boxes, at other times full screen.

Fernando Meirelles, creative director of the ceremony, explained coming out of one commercial break that what was coming next was the core of the show. What followed was a stylized explication of global warming.

He’d said earlier, just as NBC’s coverage began, that opening ceremonies in Athens, Beijing and London “were about their own country, like talking about their bellybuttons,” whereas “here in Rio we decided to create a ceremony for the world. So we have a message, and it’s not about Brazil — it’s really about the world, about mankind.”

Gisele Bundchen takes a long, final public sashay to roars of Rio Olympic crowd

Coming out of another break, NBC offered a preview of the USA’s women’s gymnastics team, and then back to another commercial break.

The march-on of the athletes is always the heart of any opening — the shining faces of the world on joyous, boisterous display. As each country appeared, NBC offered sleek, unobtrusive graphics along the bottom of the screen with flag, population, number of athletes and telescoping map to show where in the world each country is.

Michael Phelps, history’s most decorated Olympian, led the U.S. delegation — and NBC’s cameras lingered on the smiling American faces. Lauer, Kotb and Vieira were pleasantly comfortable in their roles, offering fun facts as each country got its moment on the world stage.

The crowd offered a standing ovation for the refugee team, marching under the Olympic flag. And Brazil, introduced last, got the biggest roar. All that was left was celebration. That’s “something they do very, very well,” Lauer said.

Fireworks … confetti … samba … and the flame. Brazilian marathoner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lit the caldron. By then, it was about 12:25 a.m. ET on NBC. Let the Games begin. Please.