Is anybody else watching the Olympics?
I love the Olympics. Any other time, I wouldn’t watch swimming, or cycling, or diving. But when it’s the Olympics…you bet. It’s like football season: you can’t pry me off the couch.
And I do think NBC does a nice job with their coverage, and I think Bob Costas does a great job as the host, and has for the last two or three Olympic Games.
But. One bone to pick, here. Last night, between 7 pm and midnight, NBC ran a little bit of cycling, some synchronized diving, an entire beach volleyball match, then a bunch of swimming races and then gymnastics. They focused almost entirely on a small handful of athletes – the U.S. women’s beach volleyball team and Michael Phelps, mostly.
Which is fine, I suppose. They’re trying to give us stuff that’s happening live on the other side of the planet. Which is fine.
Still: there’s so much going on. The coolest part of the Olympics is that there are so many sports – traditional ones – and so many athletes from so many places. Just look down today’s schedule: there’s wrestling, rowing, canoeing, badminton, fencing, table tennis, archery, handball…
Hey, I’m not saying I want to spend two hours watching high-speed ping pong, but come on! How about breaking from the volleyball game, saying we’ll be back to this in a bit, but right now some scenes from earlier today? Show a wrestling match, a crew race, part of a handball game. Edit stuff!
There’s so much going on! Let us see more of it! More, more, more! In prime time, when people can actually watch!
And I do think NBC does a nice job with their coverage, and I think Bob Costas does a great job as the host, and has for the last two or three Olympic Games.
But. One bone to pick, here. Last night, between 7 pm and midnight, NBC ran a little bit of cycling, some synchronized diving, an entire beach volleyball match, then a bunch of swimming races and then gymnastics. They focused almost entirely on a small handful of athletes – the U.S. women’s beach volleyball team and Michael Phelps, mostly.
Which is fine, I suppose. They’re trying to give us stuff that’s happening live on the other side of the planet. Which is fine.
Still: there’s so much going on. The coolest part of the Olympics is that there are so many sports – traditional ones – and so many athletes from so many places. Just look down today’s schedule: there’s wrestling, rowing, canoeing, badminton, fencing, table tennis, archery, handball…
Hey, I’m not saying I want to spend two hours watching high-speed ping pong, but come on! How about breaking from the volleyball game, saying we’ll be back to this in a bit, but right now some scenes from earlier today? Show a wrestling match, a crew race, part of a handball game. Edit stuff!
There’s so much going on! Let us see more of it! More, more, more! In prime time, when people can actually watch!
posted by Lance Burri @ 6:42 PM
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