NBC sticking with Mike Tirico on Olympics despite past allegations of sexual harassment

With the Matt Lauer sexual misconduct controversy hanging over its head, NBC is moving forward with its plans to feature Mike Tirico as lead host for 2014 Winter Olympics coverage.

Tirico was suspended by ESPN in the early 1990s for alleged sexual harassment, incidents chronicled in two books – “ESPN: The Uncensored History” by Michael Freeman in 2000 and “Those Guys Have All the Fun” by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales in 2011.

NBC stresses that it knew of Tirico’s alleged transgressions before he was hired and that it’s comfortable with him in prominent on-air roles. Tirico takes over primetime Olympics hosting duties from Bob Costas beginning in February at Pyeongchang, and he also calls NFL, Notre Dame football, golf and horse racing for the Peacock Network.

"When we hired Mike in 2016, we were aware of the incidents from more than 25 years ago, which had been addressed in 1991-92 by ESPN, his employer at the time, and for which he has apologized," an NBC Sports spokesperson said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. "Mike has repeatedly assured us that this behavior is long in his past, and we have no evidence of anything to the contrary in his tenure at NBC Sports."

NBC wanted to pull Tirico away from ESPN for some time but decided to wait for the buzz from the Miller/Shales book to blow over before hiring him, according to the report.

“They were waiting until he got some distance from the book," an unidentified source told the Hollywood Reporter.