Olympic Opening Ceremonies 2012 Start Time, NBC TV Broadcast Schedule

We are one hour away from the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games 2012 which is scheduled to kick off at 4pm ET and 9 PM GMT  at the Olympic Stadium in London.

Viewers are waiting in anticipation for the opening ceremony, which will kick off the biggest athletic event in the world.

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The ceremony is expected to wow viewers, and will feature 10,000 performers, 900 children performers,  nearly 13,000 props and more than 160,000 square feet of staging, the equivalent to 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

London Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos

Over a billon people are expected to watch the ceremonies live. In the United States, the broadcast will be played on delay at 7:30 pm EST (6:30 p.m. CST) and 7:30 pm PST on NBC.

The ceremony titled "Isles of Wonder" and directed by Danny Boyle, was inspired by Shakespeare's play "The Tempest."

The Oscar winning director ("Slumdog Millionaire") has kept the event highly secret and was reluctant to confirm the appearance of Queen Elizabeth and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney Thursday. However he told NBC's "Today" show  that the event was going to be of an unimaginable scale.

"Nothing can prepare you for the scale," Boyle told TODAY's Meredith Vieira Thursday.

"The way you experience it on television, will feel, I hope, much more immediate and visceral than you normally get. And there'll be more close-ups, for instance, which is a way of conveying emotion," Boyle told Vieira.

'Countryside' Set, Parade, Olympic Flame

The show will open with the ringing of the largest harmonically-tuned bell in the world that weighs 23 tons and a very key character from Britain's  history speaking words from 'The Tempest': 'Be not afraid; the isle is full of noises."

The opening scene of the Ceremony is called 'Green and Pleasant' which will represent a traditional and idyllic view of the British countryside, according to the Official Site of the London Olympics.

The set will be complete with meadows, fields and rivers, and featuring families taking picnics, playing sports and farmers tilling the soil. Real farmyard animals will be featured including 12 horses, 3 cows, 2 goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, 9 geese, 70 sheep, and 3 sheep dogs.

Each of the four nations will be represented by their national flower- the rose of England, the thistle of Scotland, the daffodil of Wales and flax from Northern Ireland.

"The Ceremony is an attempt to capture a picture of ourselves as a nation, where we have come from and where we want to be," Boyle said in the past.

Boyle hinted today that the show may feature some of Disney's famous characters such as Cruella de Vil, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, which originally came from British books.

The Opening Ceremony will also feature:
-Reception of The Head of State of the Host Country by the President of the IOC. For the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony, Her Majesty the Queen will be greeted by Jacques Rogge.

-The participating teams will make a parade in the Stadium, nation by nation. Teams enter in alphabetical order, according to the language of the Host Country, apart from the Greek team, which enters first for the Olympics, and the team of the Host Nation (in this case Team GB), who march in last.

-Once all the nations have arrived into the Stadium, LOCOG Chair Seb Coe will give a speech, followed by Jacques Rogge. They will end their speeches by inviting the Head of State to officially declare the Games open.

-Once the Games have been declared open, the Olympic Flag will be carried into the Stadium and hoisted into the air as the respective Anthem is played. The Olympic Charter states that each flag must fly for the entire duration of the Games - placed in a prominent position in the main Stadium.

-A participating athlete, judge and coach from the Host Nation stand on the rostrum and, holding a corner of the IOC flag in their left hand and raising their right, will take an Oath, vowing to compete and judge according to the rules of their respective sport.

The show will end with the entrance of the Olympic Flame into the Stadium. It is passed through the athletes to the final Torchbearer, who will light the Cauldron, indicating the beginning of the Games. The Flame will continue to burn for the whole of the Games from July 27th through August 12.