I've been a faithful Olympic Winter Game watcher since I can remember. That means since some time back in the 1960's. Our family sat together watching the daring Ski Jumpers, speed-demon Bobsled Teams, fearless Downhill Skiers, and most of all, the breath-taking, beautiful Olympic Skaters.
The morning people on Today were fine. Hoda Kotb, Savannah Guthrie, and Al Roker were perky and excited and entertaining. It was the rest of the day and evening coverage that felt awry. I've never been so un-engaged, emotionally void, confused, and exhausted from trying to stay up late for the ever-promised Skating Events that never seemed to be on until near midnight. Yes, I know cable television allows you to view things after the fact, but come on! Some of them I'd like to see now.
The lack wasn't only because Mike Tirico had to handle being the Anchor Host alone. He was fine, and looked amazingly fresh and upbeat with what had to be a minimum of sleep. Tirico has great credentials, but unless you're a huge long-time NFL fan, he's not that familiar.
So they left it to just Mike Tirico. Really NBC? He's good, but with all the eager young "wanna be on camera" personalities, they couldn't find one other upbeat, somewhat informed, enthusiastic co-person to add a little more pizzazz or contrasting viewpoint? That's basic sportscasting folks: one host has the facts, and one has the pizzazz.
After a while I was able to forgive Bode Miller his monotonous technical specs drone, and his "marriage ruins you" remark. His co-host was desperately trying to inject as much personality as possible into their commentary. Even Ryan Seacrest would have added a little sparkle and familiarity to the nightly introduction with Mike Tirion.
I know it wasn't because Matt Lauer wasn't there to salaciously interview the athletes. It was not because of the athletes themselves, or lack of compelling stories. The weather was a little bit of a factor, but that didn't affect everything. The newly retired Bob Costas left an enormous gap. Again, no disrespect to Tirico, but someone else was needed as well. Perhaps Mary Corillo? Or sprinkle in Al, Hoda and Savannah?
I did notice there was plenty of coverage of Women's Olympic Events. Huge victory by the U.S. Women's Hockey Team over Canada. And men finally proved you can be middle-aged and overweight and still win a Gold Medal, as long as your sport is Curling. There was plenty of "coverage", but often seemed to have no rhyme or reason. Sure, we know South Korea is about 12 hours ahead of us. We've dealt with tape-delay before. Networks would let us in on the medal count on the 6:00 pm news, and if we didn't want to know yet, they told us to "turn away from the television set".
I really like Snowboarding, and the spontaneous young people that do those crazy tricks. But why did we see so much of it? Why not more Ski Jumping? That really gets my pulse racing. Sure I like it when the United States wins a medal, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the incredible achievements and success of other countries. It's just as exciting to see an Italian Ski Jump for his life as an American.
Perhaps the best conclusion I can draw is that even with all the time the network had to work it all out (every four years folks), it was not at all well-organized. If you're familiar with the ins and outs of your cable company's menu and sub-menus, you could seek out most of the "missing" performances after the fact. But not all of them, particularly for me (the skating choices), had the commentary of familiar and well-liked voices like Scott Hamilton, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir.
And yes, I know younger generations are more used to time-shifting what they watch, but I suggest the bean-counters check the age ranges of those watching at home. In a way I was lucky. I'm at home recovering from surgery and have limits on my outside activities. At the same time, I was out of luck because I had the time to watch nearly everything, but it was patchwork quilted out over the air in what seemed like a completely random manner.
And please, don't focus on one or two "celebrity" Olympians. That adds an interminable kind of pressure both on the athlete and those of us at home. I'm surprised Lindsey Vonn would agree to any interview by the end of the Olympics. Her story and expectations were told over and over again, to the point where I began to wonder if there were other athletes to talk about? Thank goodness she won a Bronze Medal or we all would have wanted to crawl into a hole.
Luckily Nathan Chen's nerves got to him early in the week. Otherwise he would likely have been subjected to the same ad nauseum attention as Lindsey Vonn. Chen is only 18 and will have a chance to come back, probably two or three times.
I'm sure the network will get plenty of feedback - positive and negative. Since most of the world is now used to being able to give feedback, anonymous or not. The folks in charge have four more years to plan for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games broadcast. Here's hoping they've already started.
