If Olympics coverage were a sport, we'd give Canada the gold; would NBC even medal?
Guest author Philip Michaels lives in the Bay Area, but this week he is in Canada and files this report to TV Barn on watching the CBC's Olympic Games coverage.--AB
Until I arrived in Vancouver this past weekend, I thought the Olympics had been pared down to four sports. Whenever I turned on NBC's prime time coverage, I would either see swimming (which I love), gymnastics (which I detest), beach volleyball (which I feign having little interest in so that I may preserve domestic tranquility), and synchronized diving (which I am surprised to discover is a competitive sport). And that was that -- unless enduring one of Cris Collinsworth's grin-filled, content-free personality profiles has been elevated to an Olympic-level sport. If it has, I ain't medaling, that's for sure.
Yeah, yeah, I know: There's plenty of coverage elsewhere on what have been imperialistically dubbed The Networks on NBC. You've got coverage on MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Telemundo, and -- if you hate sport -- Oxygen. But unless you've got 24 hours of free time each day and a color-coordinated spreadsheet outlining exactly what's on when, you're pretty much dependent on what NBC's showing between eight and midnight. And that, for the most part, has been four sports, some of which may not have involved Michael Phelps.
Now, in just the past day or so up in Canada, I've flipped on CBC's coverage and seen, in no particular order: rowing, synchronized swimming, triathalon, track, trampoline, gymnastics, diving, baseball, softball, and beach volleyball. Admittedly some of these sports, I'm not particularly interested in. But I feel like I'm getting a better flavor of the entire Beijing games instead of the handful of sports NBC deems worthy of prime time coverage.
How else is CBC's coverage superior to what NBC has stuck on the air? Let me count the ways.
Greater depth. Yesterday, in the midst of CBC's coverage, the network aired a lengthy report on doping at the games, followed by a roundtable discussion on the issues raised by the story. It was a stark contrast to NBC's features, which tend to be light and frothy ("Cris Collinsworth hangs out with Michael Phelps' mom! Turns out, she cheers enthusiastically during his races!") or something else of the all-is-well school of reportage.
Less mawkishness. At the conclusion of one of the diving competitions, the CBC spotlighted a Canadian who finished just outside of medal contention and mentioned, almost off-handedly, how her brother had passed away just before the Games. Now, perhaps this is an unfair question, but how many times do you think NBC might have mentioned that if the network found itself in a similar situation? Ten times? Twenty? From the start of the competition until several days after it concluded? That you are taking the time to calculate a number suggests that NBC tends to overemphasize the sentiment. And this is an Olympics where NBC has dialed down the sap.
Better analysis. My lasting impression of Tim Daggett, NBC's analyst for the gymnastics competition, will be him bellowing "Wow!" when something impressed him or expressing disdain when something displeased him. What I never really heard was him explaining why one performance in a sport that's entirely subjective was better than a seemingly similar performance. I caught a few moments of CBC's coverage in the men's vault, and the analyst there (a former vaulter) was able to explain why certain landings were scored certain ways in such a clear, concise manner that I almost cared about gymnastics. (Another friend of TV Barn writes that the female diving commentator on NBC "sounds like Nancy Grace (and not in a good way)." And a good way would be...? --AB)
And if that weren't enough... Watch the CBC's Olympic coverage long enough and you might be lucky enough to see this Wonder Bread commercial.
Really, NBC needs to dispatch someone north of the border tout de suite so that we can learn from our Canadian betters. Then, when 2010 rolls around, the coverage on NBC might measure up to what the CBC is putting out there -- especially if we go the extra step and stash Dick Ebersol in a meat locker for three weeks in February.
Philip Michaels works for Macworld and Macworld.com, contributes to Television Without Pity, roots for the A's and recently enjoyed fine barbecue at Arthur Bryant's.
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