I Hate NBC

The Olympics comes around every 4 years. If you're a sports fan, it's something to look forward to, something to be cherished. It's the one opporunity for most of us in this international sports deprived country to get a look at bobsled, speed skating, luge, ski jumping, cross country, biathlon. All these incredible sports that essentially do not exist for Americans outside of the Winter Olympics. These events need to be covered and covered well. They need to be live. LIVE LIVE LIVE. I know it sounds insane, but I want to have to wake up at 2am to watch fucking curling live. I want to wake up at 3am to take in the Nordic Combined.

If it's not live there is no drama. Simple as that. It's too easy to find out the results. I hear it on the the NewsHour. I see them on the ESPN scroll. I even see them on NBC's damn website. NBC has covered a few events live, notably hockey, which has been excellent, but not nearly enough.

The games should not be in the hands of NBC. They are just such a goddam joke as as sports network. The Olympics should always and ever more be covered in the US by ABC. And the day that ABC recovers the games, will be happy day in my life.

Let me give you an example of how fucked up NBC is. Last weekend NBC was pumping the 4x10KM cross country. It's a huge event in Europe, and for a good reason. There's a massive rivalry between that has developed between Italy and Norway since 1992 when Italy, a huge underdog, eeked out a victory over the powerhouse Norwegians in Lillehammer. Norway returned the favor and won the subsequent 2 events in Nagano and Salt Lake City but only by the tiniest of margins. NBC played a a great retrospective of the 92 race narrated by Sam Waterston. I was pumped to watch the race. This is cross country and I'm so stoked to see this event.

What does NBC do? First mistake - they don't show the race live. Second mistake - they don't even show the race tape delayed in it's entirety. What do they do? They break up the legs of the relay with Ice Dancing performances. Ice Dancing. ICE DANCING,for god's sake!?!$#% I mean, shit, how the fuck do they come up with this? Do the programming execs sit in a room and try to see how they can piss off as many of their viewers as possible? I'm sure the people (I mean women) who tuned in to watch the Ice Dancing weren't all that thrilled to see their event broken up with Cross Country.

Do you think ABC would pull that shit? I think not.