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July 31, 2012
A Message from NBC About Its Olympics Coverage
Posted by Andy Borowitz
LONDON (The Borowitz Report)Today NBC Sports issued the following message to viewers of its prime-time coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games in London:
Last night, millions of you were thrilled to see the U.S.A.s Missy Franklin win the gold medal in the hundred-metre backstroke race. That is, you would have been thrilled, except that just before the race we showed promos of Missy Franklin appearing on the Today show with the gold medal she won for the hundred-metre backstroke race.
If youve been watching NBC in prime time the past few nights, youve probably noticed how, night in, night out, weve been wrecking the Olympics for you. All we can say is, our bad. At NBC were just not used to broadcasting things that people want to watch.
But all thats about to change...
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/07/a-message-from-nbc-about-its-olympics-coverage.html#ixzz22PfxFeJ8
Still laughing. I've been thinking all week about how much
I miss the old ABC coverage, you know, the thrill of victory
and the agony of defeat. Oh well. Times have changed
with Comcast in charge of the media. It so sucks.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)Monday night Brian Williams gave away all the results during Nightly News. Why would NBC want to do that?
ABC, bar none, was the best at coverage like this. You saw as many athletes as possible and the commentary for the most part was even-handed. Now it's just USA highlight reels with the occasional foreign athlete thrown in when it can't be avoided. The finals of the women's team gymnastics was complete and utter bullshit, coverage wise.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Jim McKay at the center of it, old pros like Chris Schenkel at the individual events. Top-notch analysts. Short, interesting and unhyped athlete bios when appropriate and a focus on the competition itself. Those were the days.
William Seger
(10,778 posts)I also really enjoyed their series of two- or three-minute spots called Olympic Moments, I believe -- some really great stories, well presented.
This has been the least enjoyable Olympics for me because NBC coverage has absolutely sucked on every level.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)Before that phrase became cliche.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)His coverage of the 1972 hostage crisis, as a sportscaster, puts today's newspeople to shame.
It's a shame that big bucks dictates everything we see and hear anymore -- from politics to sports coverage.
As I said in the Lounge, NBC is rapidly killing my interest in these games.
B2G
(9,766 posts)They have absolutely butchered coverage. Let's recap
1) blowing Franklin's race just before she swam
2) men's gymnastics...where to begin? Were any other countries even competing? Do the athletes receive scores?
3) women's beach volleyball - skipping the 2nd set where Mays/Trainer roared back to life
4) no medal ceremonies
5) non-functional, advertisement riddled, spoiler filled live streams
6) Ryan Seacrest - enough said
7) that idiot chick interviewing all of the swimmers
8) 5 minutes of coverage, followed by 10 minutes of commercials
9) a total blackout of events where the US isn't competing
And that's just off the top of my head...
That "idiot chick" is Andrea Kremer, and she does a very respectable job on one of the best sports shows in TV in my opinion -- "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" on HBO. I don't think on-spot reporting like that is her forte.
I'm hoping that NBC takes a good, hard, and long look at its coverage after this. There has been so much outrage over how they're doing this that they really can't be deaf, dumb, and blind to the criticism. Even NPR had a story about it the other day.
I absolutely went ballistic Monday night when Brian Williams gave away the results of both the men's swimming relay and women's gymnastics team finals. I was looking forward to both, especially the swimming. Then last night the smirky SOB had the gall to say that if we didn't want to see a medal count (which is meaningless to most of us) we should look away.
Their attitude of "we've got the Olympics and we'll cover it however we want" is just bullshit.
B2G
(9,766 posts)just isn't used to airing shows people actually want to watch.
I think they're on to something...
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)They bought it, they broke it.
I'll really be interested to see the ratings for this once it's all over. As people get their fill and find alternative coverage, I think numbers will drop.
Arrogance and blatant disregard for one's audience tends to have a nasty way of coming back and biting one in the ass.
ThatsMyBarack
(7,641 posts)Unless we can get that contract out of their greedy grasp, tear it in a million pieces, and set the pile on fire!
ThatsMyBarack
(7,641 posts)On which I've been watching BBC 1 LIVE coverage of the Olympics:
http://tvpc.com/Channel.php?ChannelID=3
Of course, it's on GMT, so the athletes are all asleep now.