NBC is opening its Olympics coverage with ‘the worst hand imaginable.’

Last year, NBC Sports executives called the Tokyo Olympics their most challenging undertaking ever. Now, that experience is starting to look like a cakewalk.

For Beijing, NBC confronts an even trickier mix of challenges, threatening to diminish one of the network’s signature products and one of the last major draws for broadcast television.

The list of headaches is long: an event nearly free of spectators, which drains excitement from the arena and the ski slopes; the threat that star athletes will test positive for the coronavirus, potentially dashing their Olympic dreams; and the fact that a vast majority of the network’s announcers, including Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski, are offering color commentary from a company compound in Stamford, Conn., instead of from China.

The rising political tensions between the United States and China, including those related to claims of human rights abuses by China, add a troubling cloud to what is typically a feel-good spectacle.

“My friends and colleagues at NBC have been dealt the worst hand imaginable,” said Bob Costas, who served as the network’s prime-time Olympics host for more than two decades.

The success of the Games is critical to NBC. Even as streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ have lured millions of people from broadcast networks, sports have remained a reliable moneymaker for the traditional outlets. The company has exclusive broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2032, at a cost of $7.75 billion.

Ratings for the Games have dipped in recent years — and fell sharply during last year’s Summer Olympics. NBC has told advertisers to expect the ratings to be lower than the 2018 Winter Games, according to three people familiar with the network’s ratings estimates.