Thursday, February 15, 2018

Disappointing So Far

You wouldn't know it if you've been watching NBC over the past week, but there are more than three sports in the Winter X-Games...sorry, I mean Winter Olympics.  So, if you were tuning in to watch something other than snowboarding, figure skating or a weather delay at alpine skiing, you would've been better off watching NBCSN.  Because the coverage on the broadcast network has definitely left something to be desired.

This is an odd position for me to be in.  I'm usually the one defending NBC for their programming decisions during the Olympics.  And they have done some things that I like (more on that later).  But, overall, their coverage of the PyeongChang Games has been incredibly disappointing.  At least in prime time.

Prior to the Games, NBC wouldn't shut up about the fact that they were going to have live coverage every night and that the entire nation would see the prime time show at once.  That decision was a good one.  It's 2018.  We've reached a point where they were no longer able to get away with making the West Coast wait three hours to watch stuff on TV, especially when those events are live.  It also didn't make much sense to make them wait when they're used to the early start times for the Super Bowl, World Series, etc.

As for the live thing, that wasn't particularly difficult to achieve.  South Korea is 14 hours ahead of the East Coast, so NBC was able to use its incredible influence within the Olympic Movement to get certain events scheduled for the morning local time, which is prime time the night before in the U.S.  They did this 10 years ago in Beijing, and they'll likely do it again at the next two Olympics as this tour of the Far East continues.  I don't particularly blame them for their choice of events, either.  The picked the ones where they thought there was a chance at an American gold medal (where, for the most part, they've been right) or they know people are going to watch regardless (figure skating).

But, they've been a bit preoccupied with the live thing, which I think is my biggest problem with the coverage.  Nothing but live events means a lot of down time, and, for some reason, NBC has struggled with filler.  Instead, we get extra commercials or nonsensical pieces/interviews (cough, Adam Rippon, cough) that serve no purpose other than to kill time.  And, the weather delays at alpine skiing have been a double whammy for NBC.  They've forced them to find a way to fill all the time they'd allotted for skiing while also screwing up their plans for the days when those events were rescheduled.

It's also felt like the broadcasts have been catered towards West Coast viewers.  Not only is the prime time show live coast-to-coast, the Pacific time zone ends up getting an extra half hour while the rest of us are sent to local news.  And the late night show, which has been renamed "Primetime Plus", is essentially just an extension of prime time coverage.  The nice thing about the late night show, though, was that it was always a bit lighter and a good way to wind down at the end of the day.  If you missed it, big deal.  Now they essentially have prime time coverage going until 1:30-2:00 in the morning...and people have to go to work the next day!

NBC has shown some tape-delayed events in prime time (as well as on the entire daytime show), mainly as filler before the live events start.  However, sometimes the taped events they plan on showing end up getting bumped by skiing or figure skating or snowboarding that runs long.  And, if an American didn't win, good luck seeing them.  Case in point, the other day, they showed the quarterfinals of a women's event in short track because of Maame Biney.  Just the quarterfinals.  Not the semis.  Not the final.  Only Mike Tiricio going "by the way, the Italian won the gold medal" after they kicked it back to the studio.  Or yesterday, when they left Nordic Combined in the middle to got to NBC News coverage of the shooting (which obviously was the right call), and just left us hanging regarding what happened in the event.

In past Games, complaining about NBC's coverage seemed to be an unofficial Olympic event (although, sometimes that was complaining for the sake of complaining, I think).  I think the "problem" people had wasn't so much the taped events (in London and Sochi, for example, there wasn't much NBC could do about that since prime time here is the middle of the night there) as it was their inability to watch them live and not having a choice about it.  Which, in hindsight, was a legitimate gripe.

For years, NBC resisted streaming events live if they planned on showing them later on TV.  It wasn't until London 2012 that they started showing every event live online.  In Rio, they added prime time coverage on NBCSN opposite the prime time coverage on NBC, obviously showing different events.  But, oh, how times have changed.  Now, they're actively encouraging people to watch stuff online and on cable.

The coverage on NBCSN has been a stark contrast to the coverage on NBC.  And by that I mean it's been tremendous.  They've had several days of 24-hour coverage on NBCSN, which obviously can't all be live (and nobody seems to have a problem with that).  The NBCSN coverage hasn't just featured sports like cross country and biathlon and short track, either.  They've shown entire events, not just edited portions.

My favorite thing about NBC's use of NBCSN, though, is that it's essentially their overflow channel during prime time when there are multiple live events taking place (another benefit of time-shifting your coverage).  That's also where the stuff that gets bumped off NBC ends up being shown and where coverage picks up if they run out of time on NBC (which happened during women's snowboard qualifying).

And the decision to have full coverage of the figure skating on NBCSN was very smart.  They started this in Sochi, which is when Tara & Johnny were unleashed on the world, so that people could watch it live in the afternoon before NBC's delayed coverage at night.  By doing it again in PyeongChang, they've been able to appease the figure skating audience by showing them every skater, but still show another marquee event (also live) on NBC.

That decision was a good one.  So was Mike Tirico.  When he was hired by NBC, it was pretty clear he was the heir apparent as Olympic host whenever Bob Costas decided to step away.  And that transition has been incredibly smooth.  He has a different style than Costas, but is a perfectly capable host and will only get better as time goes on (and he gets more to do beyond throwing it from one event to another).

Has NBC's coverage of the PyeongChang Olympics been serviceable?  Yes.  Has it been great?  No.  Are the higher-ups at the Peacock Network satisfied?  Most likely.  I just personally wish the nightly show on the broadcast network was a little bit better.  Because, the cable coverage, like the PyeongChang winds, has been blowing it away.

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