I have now made up my mind that NBC's coverage of the 2000 Sydney Olympics is the worst I have ever seen of any major sporting event. The fact that they delay the events 17 hours is bad enough; I think that the world could stand to lose Jay Leno for a few weeks in order for some of the main events to be broadcast live or even delayed for an hour or two. But 17 hours in stupid. That doesn't mean that the events shouldn't be broadcast at a time that is accessible to most Americans, it just means that some of the more popular events should be shown live so fans can watch them without all the scripted comments of the sportscaster.

What I hate most though is the dramatization. At least every 15 minutes there is this one or two minute special on an Olympic athlete and what he or she went through to go to Sydney-- that is not too bad. But when the commentators do nothing but try and sensationalize the events on camera from a point of view that blatantly shows that the narrator knows the outcome of the event...that is what gets to me. A perfect example is the running part of the Men's Triathalon, shown here on NBC last night America time. All throughout the race, whenever the camera centered on a contestant, a short special-effects-enhanced shots file shots were shown, and the commentators went into a brief, overly dramtized description of the contestant. There was literally no prose in this event. All of it was scripted statements. Anyway, the race was nearing the finish, and a French runner (Marceau or someone) dropped back into 4th place. There was still a good mile or two to go, but right after he was passed by another runner and relegated to 4th, the commentator said: "And his chance for a medal was gone." This is prepostorous!! If this was a live event no commentator would dare say that for fear of being wrong!!! There was no feeling of excitement from the commentators like one hears in a soccer match or even an American Football game.

I am severely dissapointed in the way NBC is covering the Olympics. They are paying for it, however: Viewership compared to the 1996 games is down over 25%.

On a lighter note, listen to Harry Shearer's satire on National Public Radio of one of the NBC short specials that regularly air about the atheletes in the Games. The sad thing is that he does not sound that different from NBC.
The link is:
http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=09/18/2000&PrgID=2 (scroll down about halfway until you see it).

Aaron G.

Yeah, I hate that whole triathalon thing too. Well, at least here on the East Coast we are getting SOMETHING live.....Bob Costas in the studio between taped sports hehehe...and althlete interviews...like Lenny Krayzelburg on right now 1:02am EDT. Poor West Coast, EVERYTHING is taped!!! (oh well, the west coast is still my home!)

What really pisses me off is that in many events they break for commerical before they show us the scores. They were doing this in the prelims for men's gymnastics over the weekend. The coverage is weak, the sappy stories get annoying. I want to see the events with an intelligent play by play. Thank God I have homework to do and exams to study for.

Didn't you yanks know us skips havnt got the technology to broadcast live.. they have to mail tapes to the US via airmail..

In a typical 'lets get those damn yanks' article in the paper last week about NBC's coverage they quoted the president of NBC when he admitted that he was going to try and get SOCOG to reschedule events that the US audience was interested in so that they were on at times that would have suited the US audience as he claimed US audiences did not want to get up early in the morning to see the olympics...

I completely agree with you Aaron!!!

Sounds pretty bad...
Here in Canada; CBC has live coverage almost around the clock. They don't try to sensationalize things. They have been awesome so far.

 

I feel gypped too because I have Newsworld International, an arm of the CBC, on my satellite service!

That's it, I'm moving to Vancouver for a few days.... 

Aaron G.

You're always invited in our comet, my son. 
...and there aren't any obstructions, except sometimes Jupiter gets in the way, my son. 

Regards, My son...
Do 

I Think Matt D Should Do A Topic Of This D

I agree! With today's advanced technology of satellites an event taking place in Sydney at 11.00, can be broadcast on EST (time zone) live at prime-time 20.00 the following evening. Instead we are watching events that took place that day, Sydney time, or the day before EST. It really does suck.

LH423

I completely agree with you Aaron. It is no fun to watch when you already know whose won, and why do they interrupt events, like Triathlon, with other events and saying that we will come back later. NBC's Coverage Truly Does Suck! (Thank god 2002 is in SLC, if NBC doesn't show it live even then, then we all know that NBC is really screwed up.......whoops, they already are!)

Boy do I miss ABC's old coverage....I know Howard is gone now....Is Kurt Gowdy still with us...maybe he could take over.

Boy do I wish I got CBC up here.

I agree!  :DD

Accually CBS has the winter olympic coverage

Didn't they have it in 94 but not 98? I heard somewhere that NBC has the rights to the next five Olympics including Sydney (ugh).

Aaron G.

I agree, I think ABC had great coverage. I especially enjoyed Jim McKay (spelling?).

Nope, CBS does not have the Winter Games anymore...it's NBC all the way exclusive, until like 2008 Summer. CBS's last coverage was Nagano '98.

Kudos to NBC for sniding the officials who let the mismeasurement of the Vault for Women All-Round Gymnastics. After finding out about the vault being short, the NBC commentators mentioning their commercial break added "I just hope we have the break timed right", to add salt to the wound of the huge blunder by Olympic officials.

LH423

Trvlr: I can't say I agree more. They totally need to loose that guy that did the triathalon. He KILLED my with his script and melodramatic tone! NBC has done a horrible job this year!