It's been a rough week for Bob Costas. The NBC sportscaster has been saddled with a painful eye infection that has forced him away from anchoring the network's Winter Olympics coverage. Costas had been working though the discomfort with a sense of humor, cracking jokes about the glasses he wore instead of contacts.
"Unfortunately for me, the eye infection is not getting any better, so for the time being I'm still stuck with Clark Kent's glasses," Costas said on Saturday evening.
On Monday night, he and fellow NBC Olympics reporter Mary Carillo shared glasses of Russian vodka. Costas remained upbeat about the infection, which, by then, had spread to both eyes.
"I'm not really that much of a vodka guy," he said. "I'm looking at it this way though: my eyes can't get any redder no matter what I do. Down the hatch!" He and Carillo clinked glasses.
Despite his good spirits, things have not gone in Costas's favor.
On Tuesday, he awoke with practically swollen eyes, and NBC made the call to have "Today" (1952-present) host Matt Lauer fill in for Costas -- a veteran sportscaster who has hosted 157 consecutive Olympic primetime broadcasts. Costas's uninterrupted run ended Tuesday night.
Twitter has had somewhat of a field day with Costas's infection, comparing his red, puffy eyes to everything from the monster in "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006) to Mad-Eye Moody from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2005).
The one bright spot: NBC's Olympics coverage has been receiving stellar ratings while other networks falter. Although numbers are slightly below what they were in 2010, it must be a nice change for the perennially ratings-challenged Peacock to see such high viewership.
