Winter Olympic TV

NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics has proven that the network has expertly honed its skills in broadcasting the both the winter and regular Games since it started doing so on a regular basis at Seoul in 1988, adding the Winter Olympics in 2002. Ironically, the network may soon lose its broadcasting rights for the Olympics soon, as the rights to the 2014 and 2016 Games are up for grabs (London in 2012 is already settled for NBC). ESPN and Turner are interested, but NBC may still have the upper hand.

Anyway, the fabled National Broadcasting Company has done a good job (I think) covering Vancouver - no sob stories (the death of Joannie Rochette's mother doesn't count here, as that was a legitimate news story), more insightful interviews with athletes, fewer human interest stories about local traditions. Mary Carillo, for one, did an informative piece about the evolution of snowboarding. There was still content that didn't belong in the coverage - Tom Brokaw's piece on how a Newfoundland airport helped passengers on U.S.-bound planes forced to land there on September 11, 2001 belonged on a news magazine show and had nothing to do with the Olympics - but on balance, it's been very good.

There haven't been many annoying commercials, with the exceptions coming from - you guessed it - fast-food restaurants. Subway's ad for its foot-long sandwiches have a mindless jingle that gets in your brain and stays there, but this is nothing compared to the McDonald's ads. One ad notes that a new sweet sauce for its Chicken McNuggets made for the Olympic village in Vancouver is now available at all McDonald's restaurants. The commercials say you can now eat like an Olympian.

Guess what: If you eat at McDonald's, you're not eating like an Olympian. You're not even eating like a Little Leaguer.

Another McDonald's ad shows a husband and wife fighting over who gives their son a Happy Meal and gets bragging rights for it, each one taking it from the other on the way home. The husband gives the kid the Happy Meal, but the wife gets the credit. ("Thanks, Mom!") Will he thank Mom for his obesity and diabetes when he's eighteen?

And don't get me started on the Coke ad in which a snowball fight starts in the Olympic village.

But you're not going to hear me complain about NBC's coverage; I have plenty of other things to complain about. Overall, it's been fun.

Those curling matches were really fascinating. ;-)

But there's still a little more competition left. If anything important happens (*cough cough*, men's hockey, *cough cough*), I'll be sure to comment on it.

The closing ceremony is tomorrow. If Rush doesn't play in it, I'm going to be ticked off. :-D

Meanwhile, I caught the tail end of one of those celebrity "news" shows that people with no life watch, and he was broadcasting from Vancouver. He signed off saying he hoped to be at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, "wherever that is."

Note to overpaid TV show host: Sochi is a Russian city on the Black Sea, near the Caucasus Mountains in the southeastern corner of Europe.

Nimrod.