Mike Tirico isn’t one to miss a big assignment. The do-it-all man for NBC Sports heads the network’s Olympics coverage, is the lead play-by-play voice of Sunday Night Football, and beginning next season will be the voice of the NBA on NBC.
But on Saturday, the omnipresent Tirico had to bow out of NBC’s Kentucky Derby coverage after symptoms from an allergic reaction kept him off the air. Tirico is doing well now, but the unfortunate timing of the incident gave another NBC host the opportunity of a lifetime.
Enter: Ahmed Fareed.
Fareed is no stranger to big moments. Since joining NBC in 2019, Fareed has hosted such marquee properties as Football Night in America and the Olympics. But nothing can truly prepare you for replacing a legendary broadcaster at a moments notice during one of the most-watched sporting events of the year.
That’s exactly what Fareed was faced with on Saturday as he slid into Tirico’s seat for over four consecutive hours of Kentucky Derby coverage all the way through Sovereignty’s thrilling win. On Monday, Fareed spoke to Awful Announcing about his experience.
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Take us through how you found out that Mike wasn’t feeling well and that you would be taking over as host of the Kentucky Derby.
“I get done [with early Kentucky Derby coverage on USA] at 2:30. I un-mic. I take my IFB [earpiece] out. I’m getting out of that studio…and I see Mike and he stops me. And I can tell he doesn’t look quite the same, I think his eyes were watering a little bit, and he says, ‘Hey, I’m not feeling great. You might have to take over for me.’ Which is a shock because Mike is a machine…
“And so even at that point I’m like, ‘Okay. He’s not feeling well, but there’s no way that Mike’s not going to be able to power through this.’ Which he tried to do for the first 30-45 minutes of his shift. But then I think he just kept feeling worse and worse, and they got in my ear I think around 3:15, and they said, ‘Ahmed, you gotta come back and host the show.’
“And so at that point, I got back there as fast as I could. I tried not to run and be out of breath when I got there, but moved as quickly as possible, and then I sat down at 3:15 and [NBC Sports executive producer] Sam Flood was there and he said, ‘Hey, you’re going to be on til 5:00, we know that for sure. So settle in here, we’ll give you an update after that.’
“And while I was in there, Mike was still in the room and there were people around him. He was sitting down. But what Mike did, though, is I sat down, he got up, and I know he had not been feeling well at all.
“He got up from his chair, probably the medical people in there weren’t happy about it, but he got up from his chair, came over, and made sure I had his notes, made sure I had his iPad that had more notes on it, and then went back and sat down. So even in his moment of distress, Mike was trying to make sure I had everything that I needed to be as successful as possible.”
Did you know what exactly Mike was dealing with or the severity of it?
“I did not, no. All I knew is that his voice sounded congested and his eyes were watering. But I didn’t know. I really had no idea. And once I sat down, of course you’re worried about the well-being of Mike. I knew it was serious enough where he couldn’t do the show, which meant it was pretty serious. But I didn’t know the severity of it.”
Do you prepare for the Derby as if you might host, almost like a backup quarterback?
“It’s in the back of my mind always at these events. ‘Okay, if something were to happen with Mike and he couldn’t do the show for whatever reason, I might have to do it.’ But I never really think, especially with Mike, that it’s going to happen.
“The first Football Night in America I did was because of a COVID situation and they called me the day before and I went and hosted it. So it has happened before in my life. But I have an iPad that I get ready for every show that I host, and in horse racing I have all of the undercard races on my iPad so I can go through them when we’re in one of those races.
“And for one brief second on Friday it went through my mind, ‘Maybe I should put the undercard races for the NBC show on my iPad just in case I find myself in that host chair.’ And I went, ‘Nah, I don’t have enough time for that anyway. I’m not going to do it.’
“So I didn’t do that. So the first thing, when I found out that I was hosting, I turned to my researcher John Furlong and I said, ‘I’m gonna need those research packets on the undercard races ’cause they’re not on my iPad.’ So that was one of the first things he did for me. And I do want to give a shoutout to John Furlong, who I’ve been working with since I started horse racing. Taught me basically everything I know about it.
“Brandon Glass, who is also a researcher for us, wrote all the scripts for the Derby show. Without their help, it is not nearly as seamless. And so when I say the NBC machine took me in and carried me through, it was definitely true, especially with those two.”
At what point did you realize you’d be hosting the entire Kentucky Derby broadcast?
“I think I found out at 5:30, because that was the first time I knew what was happening to Mike was he was having a reaction to a nut allergy that he had. That was the first time I found out. I got a note in the commercial break that’s like, ‘Hey, you can share this news with everyone when we come out of his piece in the next segment.’
“That was the first time that I realized what was happening to Mike and was able to relay that to everyone else. It was also at that time that they told me that, ‘Hey, you’re just going to carry it from now until the end of the show.’
“Luckily, I’ve worked with [NBC Sports horse racing analysts] Jerry Bailey and Randy Moss since 2019. I’ve been doing a lot of the Road to the Derby, I do a lot of the USA shows, the undercard races, Oaks Day I was working with them a lot. So for me, it was not one of those situations where they plucked me off the street and I’m doing horse racing for the first time. I do really feel fortunate that I’ve been thrown into this world over the last six years.
“And Jerry and Randy are two analysts that they have done so much work that they have so much more material to say than time given. And so I was able to just sit back, know that they had plenty more to say on each and every one of these horses, and each and every one of these situations, to where I just needed to prod and needle them a little bit. But if there was ever a situation where I didn’t have much to add, I knew they had a lot to add. And that made it incredibly easy for me.”
Did you think about what you wanted to say immediately after Larry Collmus finished his race call?
“Yes. And I know that Brandon has had things prepared on a note sheet, bullet points and storylines for each horse if they were to win the Kentucky Derby. And so, as we were nearing the finish line…I look over and Brandon is shuffling through his 19 pieces of paper. And so I was like, ‘Alright, there is a chance that I’m not going to get that paper in time here, so I will have to have something to say off the top of my head.’
“But what I’ve always done in those situations is try to encapsulate the enthusiasm of the finish of the race. So if it’s a close race, just be excited myself because we’re all excited watching this finish. And get it to Jerry as quickly as possible so that he can give his analysis. And so I was like, ‘Why would this be any different?’ I’ve been doing that for six years, I’m going to do that for the Derby as well.
“So Brandon did get me the note sheet on Sovereignty in time, so he came through and I was like, ‘Alright, I just need to come through.’ And I don’t exactly remember what I said, but I just tried to put a little button on it. I tried to follow the pictures because we showed a quick shot of Bill Mott there, so I mentioned that Bill Mott won as a trainer. Then I was like, ‘Don’t do too much Ahmed, just get it to Jerry.’ So that’s what I did.”
Does it ever cross your mind how many people are watching an event like the Kentucky Derby?
“Yes, it’d be a lie to say it didn’t cross my mind. But, and I don’t know what it is, if it’s just when you’re sitting there and you’re looking at your analysts, and it’s the TV crew, and nothing looks different whether the show is broadcast to 21 million people or 20,000 people. For me, for whatever reason, it’s easy just to be in the moment, and this is my job to do a TV show regardless of how many people are watching it.
“So yes, you’re definitely keenly aware of how many people are potentially watching. But, I don’t know, for whatever reason I’m able to be in the moment and it doesn’t make me any more or less nervous. It’s not that I’m not nervous, but it’s like, I’m also nervous to do a good show for 10,000 people. …You want to do a good job. You don’t ever want to look like an idiot, so it really is no different.”
Did you do anything to celebrate after getting off the air?
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“I got off the set. I went to our trailer. I got my bag. I had a couple people from our crew invite me out to dinner and I said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to do that. You all did a great job. I think I’m going to go back to my hotel room and decompress.’ And so that’s what I did.
“I went back. I returned texts that I got from friends and people I had worked with in the past and made sure to thank them for reaching out and making me feel good about how it went. But I went back to my hotel, I crashed, I decompressed, and then I could not fall asleep because I was tired and wired apparently.
“So I was just laying there until 1:30 in the morning and then got up at six o’clock for the ride to the plane. Got on the plane, went home. My kids wanted to talk about Fortnite and catching frogs for the summer, and that was it!”