I'm tired of these fake Olympics from 15 hours in the future
Our Opinion Talk blog tackled some of the issues that came out yesterday:
- Such as the cinematic device used for the helicopter shot of fireworks that looked like footprints as part of the Opening Ceremonies.
- And the huge shocker that the cutest Chinese girl in all the land didn't have that great of a voice -- turns out some not-so cute little Chinese girl actually recorded the song.
Then I read reports about counterfeit tickets and merchandise. But the topper for me wasn't the midgame lollygagging by the U.S. men's basketball team during the Angola match, but what I saw last night.
Haven't caught too much of the coverage since Friday's artistic masterpiece that was the unbelievable opening ceremonies. But I heard that Michael Phelps was gonna be swimming two gold-medal events -- LIVE from Beijing! -- during NBC's primetime coverage Tuesday night. In fact, throughout the multi-hour block of Olympic programming, there was an NBC logo (with the little Olympic rings and the peacock) that said "Live" to the left of it.
Well, I got news for NBC -- it wasn't live when I watched it.
Now, I understand it's really happening 15 hours in the future. But we're getting the feed, and I'm all excited to see this swimmer dude become the all-time greatest Olympian ever -- and I'm gonna get to see it LIVE. But the coverage opens with men's beach volleyball (boh-ring), so I switch around to CNN, Comedy Central, whatever is on my DVR, and then to ESPN -- where I learn that Phelps has already won the gold in both of his events.
That's right: breaking news scrolling across the bottom of my screen on one channel telling me one thing that another channel is telling me hasn't happened yet.
Wait ... how's that possible? Apparently, The Bee ran an article 10 days ago that answers that very question:
"It's live on the East Coast and in the Central time zone, which is roughly 81% to 82% of all the households in the United States. Historically, we have always shown the Olympics on tape on the West Coast," says Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics and the executive producer of the network's Olympics coverage."We have done significant testing or polling on the West Coast," Ebersol says. "The viewers have repeatedly told us that the vast majority of them, well in excess of 80%, want to see the Olympics when they're available to see the Olympics.
"They don't want to see the key events of the day happening at 4 or 5 o'clock their time."
Well, you didn't poll me, Dick. And it wouldn't have been at 4 or 5 o'clock, it would have been at, like, 7 or 8 o'clock -- I don't know when it would have been ... but god forbid West Coasters miss out on "Dr. Phil" and men's beach volleyball.
From what I understand, it was happening -- history was happening. Live. But we didn't get to see it live. We got to see men's beach freaking volleyball.
I've never been a huge Olympic guy, but this is the sort of make-or-break moment that makes someone a fan for life. And I gotta say, the moment was little ruined when I knew what was gonna happen.
Sigh.
Big, fat sigh.
Comments:
...now you know how I feel when I return here from 'home,' every year... and folks are watching the ball drop (here) on New Years Eve... --and I've already been called and wished a happy new year, like earlier in the afternoon from folks who are there, and legitimately freezing their tuckus' off back were seasons actually mean something...
(and... WHY do people, in the modern world INSIST on using the nickname 'Dick' when their first name is Richard???
Hath the last 60 years of Jr. High taught us nothing???)
Posted by: wet towel at August 13, 2008 3:45 PM
Remember the Salt Lake games? It pissed me off we didn't get anything live here even though the fricken games were an hour ahead of us.
Thanks Dick. You sure are living up to your name.
Posted by: Michael at August 13, 2008 3:45 PM
"key events"
Eff you Dick. Eff you. Maybe some of us would like to turn on our televisions once every four years and see a different sport at the world class level. Maybe we should get to see some fencing or curling or something that some of us don't get to see that often. But no, let's watch the U.S. blow out China or Angora in basketball, a sport I just finished putting up with for 8 months.
Eff your ratings. You wouldn't know what the "spirit of the Olympics" was if it fell out of your ass.
Posted by: adam at August 13, 2008 4:59 PM
OK... I was up at 4 AM Friday looking around the internet for a live broadcast. Tried many sites... including Canadian and Australian broadcasting sites who were carrying it live. Well, because my IP was American... I was actually blocked from watching it. (Yeah, so much for the freedom of information from the "internets".) Sure I could have "diverted" my IP... but it was 4 in the morning.
That being said... the official NBC Olympic site has a streaming video feature where you can actually catch stuff live... even with a "control room" thingy. A lot of the events there are NOT shown on TV. Couldn't they have allowed us 4 AM nerds the option of watching the opening live that way?
Even though I had to wait... that opening was pretty amazing. Even finding out about the recently reported "enhancements" didn't make it less so in my book.
Posted by: marcel at August 13, 2008 10:32 PM
The olympics are live for the central and eastern time zones.
GO USA!!
Posted by: Paul at August 13, 2008 10:43 PM
You bunch of crybabies. This happens every time the Olympics come around. Everyone knows to avoid sports news if you want to see the results on TV first.
The games do seem to be on way too late this time though. But if that means they'd be on even later in actual real-time, screw that.
Posted by: Borablity at August 14, 2008 9:16 AM
Adam, I'm SO with you!
I'm a huge Olympics fan, but I don't need to see prelim hoops games when the only other choice is NBC repeating for the THIRD TIME what they showed in primetime, and MSNBC being the only channel to show something nifty like greco-roman wrestling.
I've been up til 6am each night, trying desperately not to watch baseball (shouldn't be in the Olympics) and tennis (I do not, repeat DO NOT want to watch Roger Federer whom I can see any week of the year!!!).
Jeebus, where's the judo? I barely got to see any rowing. Archery? Modern Pentathlon??
I seriously want to see it all, and while Marcel (as always) is one step ahead on the technology, I don't really wanna watch the Olympics on my computer.
I get the prime-time telecast of the big names and big sports, but after that? Let's go back live, can't we??
Posted by: Stephen at August 14, 2008 11:45 AM
wait, i'm supposed to be surprised/upset that the olympics are tape delayed? and that they show the sports that the most people want to watch?
i realize i complain about so much coverage of crap i don't want to see (gymnastics in the summer games, ice skating in the winter) but i realize that there are a large number of people that do want to see it. and, they don't care about curling, don't want to see archery. so, you live with it.
and, if you're not so spendthrifty, you can get cable with it's 5 different networks covering the olympics and there are tons of options and coverage. or, like marcel said, teh internets has stuff on it, too.
Posted by: ed at August 14, 2008 12:06 PM
Post a comment
(read the comment policy before posting)