Olympics Broadcast Summer 2024 (so far)

We've been having fun watching the Olympics.  Gymnastics, soccer, basketball, and beach volleyball are my main things to follow.  But I've been all over the map checking out everything from Equestrian to Fencing (did you see that venue?  Holy cats.)  

Hot tip:  US soccer looks good!  Also both women's beach volleyball teams.  And I think we have really good teams for both basketball squads.

Men's gymnastics was a show stopper Monday evening.  Really good stuff.

I'm Gen-X, so my memory of the Olympics from growing up - really starting with the 1984 LA-based games - was that you essentially got 3 or so hours of coverage in primetime.  There was definitely daytime coverage on the weekends, but I can't recall if they showed daytime games during the week.  Viewers were more or less at the mercy of what the networks wanted to show.  And they showed swimming, women's gymnastics and then some track (I remember Carl Lewis and FloJo very well).  

I think it was 1992 that someone cooked up the idea to make the Olympics pay-per-view and that went over like a lead balloon.  For you kids, it's somewhat like renting a movie in Amazon Prime, but imagine having to place a phone call and pay someone $15 over the phone - and it's showing in real time.  Apparently viewership slipped and the carriers were criticized for trying to make profits *this way*.

But, yeah, the old broadcast model was partly great, partly irritating.  I got to see some amazing moments - I watched Mary Lou Retton live!  But every Olympics, you'd know there were dozens of other things happening you could be watching, but - instead - you'd have to sit through package after package about athletes who would then, inevitably, not do very well.  Or you'd be watching swimmers stand around for ten minutes - and then NBC would say "oh, and by the way, this amazing thing happened in Pentathalon, but you'll never see it.  But we did, and it was greeaaat.  Oh, well.".

I didn't and don't understand the self-fulfilling prophecy of "Americans like only these four things" they used to/ somewhat continue to do every Olympics.

Eventually, NBC/ Universal owned so many channels, you could flip around and watch Dressage on USA or Air Rifle on CNBC.  And with the cable channels involved, we certainly got more daytime Olympics programming.  

For a long time, there were no spoilers because - no internet and no social media.  Even the news, when it went online, knew not to publish til after the events aired.  

I recall around the 2008 games seeing posts on facebook from people who were in the US, but when twitter hit...  it was a free-for-all.  In a lot of ways, these days, you just plan on getting spoiled if you're online.  Heck, sometimes from people in the stadium for whom it is not 3:00 AM.

Since the 2020 Olympics, NBC/ Universal launched Peacock, and - really - it's the ideal answer to watching the Olympics.  The app features an Olympic hub with sub-hubs for each sport, plus hubs for Primetime - essentially the evening NBC broadcast.  There's feature stories and athlete hubs if you want to see a piece on Simone Biles or Noah Lyles.  You can plan ahead, set matches and games to record, go back and see things that already played...  it's really, really good, and intuitive.  

I spent the weekend popping around watching some things live (ex: US Women's soccer) and some things on delay.  Or just checking some things out, like Air Rifle.  Which is really weird, y'all! 

NBC has also clearly taken the note that we, the audience, don't like it when post-game interviewers phrase every question to the athletes as "you must be reeeeaaaally disappointed in your performance since you don't have a Gold Medal, just a crummy Silver.  Right?  RIGHT?  What does it feel like to LOSE?"  The network finally figured out we're all pretty happy with a Bronze and we can celebrate that!  Those athletes did something remarkable.  Personally, I want them happy about that, and I want to be happy for them.  

I always wondered what kind of psychopath thinks its good TV to tell someone who just won 3rd in the world that they fell short of America's expectations? We knew damn well that what they fell short of was NBC's terrible predictions and packaged content.

Anyway, that bit seems to have been remedied.  The interviewers seems as excited to just be there as you or I might be.

What NBC may need to do, however, is start showing some of their senior commentators the door or sit them down and give them a course on "how not to sound like the weird relative at Thanksgiving".  Some of them are clearly experts with decades of knowledge at their fingertips, but they need to learn a few things:

• Shut up sometimes.  Just... shut up.  We don't need someone talking literally every second.  Silence is okay.  It makes what you do have to say more meaningful and it keeps you from saying weird things to fill the time.
• Stop trying to coin a sports phrase.  This Olympics I've heard some terrible, terrible similes and metaphors.  "He stuck it like a toothpick in a deli sandwich!" is not going to happen, my dude.  Just be normal.
• Stop trying to make a narrative happen.  Athletes get injured.  Athletes have non-sports things happen.  But it's not all grist for your mill.  I don't think bringing up dead parents with athletes non-stop is the win you want it to be.
• And continually asking an athlete about how they messed up the day before is a *terrible* idea from a sports psychology perspective.  Now you're in their head, and they know "NBC is telling America I screwed up."  That is bad.  You want to know why Simone Biles took herself out in Tokyo?  She knew.  And she knew you'd be brutal.
• Along those same lines - the hopes of the nation do not rest on any one athlete, NBC.  If we can remember any athletes a month from now, it'll be a small miracle.  And - no, no matter how fast they run or high they jump, it does not change the price of milk.  So calm down.
• Talk about what is happening, what we can see on screen and explain things like we've never seen Air Pistol before.  Just pretend.  I'm amazed how many of these commentators think viewers already know how Air Pistol works, how it's scored, why they're wearing weird jackets, etc...  This is a chance to make your sport more than a curiosity!
• On that train - don't be a weirdo.  I know you live, oh, say, synchronized diving, but some of you sound like you live with your cats and have OPINIONS that have gone unchallenged.  
• Just say "Japan is doing great."  Not "The Japanese are doing great."  "The Japanese team" is also fine.  I don't know why it sounds better, but it does.  
• If you keep saying you're cutting to Heather Cox, cut to Heather Cox for whatever she has planned.  Don't just go silent on us while the camera pans around.  It's spooky.  
• I had this on here and then took it off - but here it is again: there's also some mild thirsting from the commentators sometimes, and...  it's always weird.  Even if I totally get it (these are fit people they'd base statues of the gods upon), don't.  It's a bad vibe.
• And then there's just being an old school sexist

By the way, Mike Tirico is a national treasure and a great host.  He never does this stuff wrong.

I know that's a big list, but if NBC can make the vast improvements it's already seen (fewer packages, no long, boring interviews) I believe in them.  They can keep on this trend.