I feel my quadrennial bout of (Summer) 'Lympic Fever coming on. I absolutely love the Olympic Games and I'm looking forward to the spectacle of China hosting these games. I'm also preparing myself for the quadrennial disappointment of bad TV coverage. I know that NBC using their seven or so channels (CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, NBCU, Telemundo, Oxygen, and of course good ol' NBC) claims that this will be the most coverage of any Olympic Games. I have no doubt that that's true, but I do have a few pieces of advice:
Show the darned sports! Please, I know everyone in the Olympics, particularly the U.S. athletes, has a hard luck story of how she almost didn't live to see these Olympics... show the darned sports! Put these stories on your Web site and refer people there.
Show the guy from Lichtenstein who's two minutes slower than everyone else! Too often during a live event we see profiles while the live action is going on. We only are shown the top few people in the event and of course the Americans. Show as many competitors as possible... live. When you see the top competitors and can compare them to the not so elite, you really get the sense of how exceptional the medalists are.
Show it LIVE! There's a 180 degree phase shift between Beijing and the Eastern Time Zone. That means that prime time in the US is from 7am to 11am in Beijing and conversely, the evening events take place in the morning in the U.S. I don't care; I'll stay up. My frustration will almost assuredly begin tomorrow morning -- the Opening Ceremonies. It starts at 7am ET. Show it in its entirety during the Today Show; don't wait until prime time. People will watch it again in prime time. When I was growing up in Western NY, we had the advantage of getting the CBC coverage from Toronto. There's an outfit that knows how to cover the Olymipcs. I checked their schedule and sure enough, they are showing the ceremonies live tomorrow morning.
Maybe I could go home for two weeks...
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