I don’t care for your channel, NBC.
Ah yes, another post about how the coverage of the Olympics sucks. Or is it? No, the coverage has been great. I have been able to see sports I didn’t even know existed (air rifling anyone? Dressage?) and see my favorite pros do battles on the slopes and descents whenever I wanted to. I have also been able to avoid swimming and gymnastics like the black plague because I hear enough from my peers about how awesome so-and-so are.
So what am I complaining about? NBC has fantastic coverage, but why focus on two disciplines? Sure, America loves to watch teenage girls bend in ways that just look inhuman. And sure, America loves to watch the beast that is Phelps destroy his competition on a truly Olympic conquest. But these are just two sports out of the hundreds being played in Beijing.
Perhaps it would shock NBC to find out that there are millions of bike riders out there just dying for any coverage at all. That many of us stayed up for the full 6 hour road race just because we like to see every single pedal stroke of our heros. We thank NBC for the ability to do this, but wish they would give sports like cycling, archery, football (soccer), field (shotput, javelin, discus anyone?), and trap shooting, more on-TV coverage.
We like to hear Paul Sherwin discuss the strategy of the teams and some of us love to hear Phil drabble on about the sunflowers and how they always point towards the sun. There are many of us who wish NBC would give honor to those who deserve to be honored whether they be American, Chinese, Spanish, or Martian. Let us see them triumph over us. Let us see more than just two sports. Show the United States that the Olympics is more than just the sports we care about. That there is a world outside of America. You owe us that much after running spots for Visa that end up saying “Go World!” What they really mean is “Go World, except for anyone who isnt a gymnast or swimmer and a US athlete.”
I bet you didn’t even know that the U.S. won the gold medal in the women’s time trial and that we took bronze in the men’s time trial! Congrats to Armstrong and Leipheimer.
Cycling, General | John Sedlak | 
August 15, 2008 6:49 am
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By malfunct, August 15, 2008 @ 9:41 am
You should try watching UHD and USAHD as I’ve seen both channels give additional coverage beyond what you see on NBC. Also this year the http://www.nbcolympics.com has totally awesome coverage of ALL the sports giving HD streams of everything live. You can thank Microsoft for that as they helped NBC put together the video site. Anyways I say ignore the TV and watch via the internet and maybe the networks will start to understand how we want content. I personally think the on demand streaming is the only way to please everyone when it comes to sports coverage at something like the olympics when so much is happening all at the same time.
BTW, gymnastics and swimming coverage will start fading soon to be replaced by track and field events if my memory serves me correctly.
By John Sedlak, August 15, 2008 @ 9:47 am
Yeah, the online coverage is exactly what I was talking about when it came to great coverage. The total/overall coverage has been more than I could ever want. The problem I have is NBC’s primetime channel is so devoted to two or three sports that it only drives Americans to care about those sports. They don’t get to see us winning other sports nor do they get to see other countries excel at other sports.
The USA channel has been a mixed bag. It is good sometimes, but most of the time it is standard programming. The third channel seems to be boxing 24/7… don’t know what is up with that.
By Fivel, August 16, 2008 @ 12:43 am
Love this post, bro
By Fivel, August 23, 2008 @ 1:14 am
When’s your next post? Inquiring minds want to know.