When you miss your favorite games or shows due to work or events, it’s nice to be able to record them to watch later.
You tell your friends not to tell you the score, or who kissed whom or who was eliminated.
Of course, being able to make that option on your own is even better.
NBC took that pleasure away from Americans this 2012 Summer Olympics.
With London being five hours ahead of the East Coast, a majority of the Olympics were not shown live in the U.S.
Most of the events and games were shown during NBC’s primetime that evening, hoping to earn better ratings.
By doing so, many people heard “spoiler alerts” on the radio and social media throughout the day letting them know who won each event.
Americans were not happy.
I realize this comes a month after the Olympics and many have spilled their hearts out about the meager coverage, but not me.
Like any sports fan would say — let alone any American — watching the Olympics is a different spectacle and only takes place every four years.
The world’s best gathering in one city is to compete for the hardware and more importantly, represent their country.
From the Opening Ceremony to the Closing Ceremony, NBC commentators did a poor job announcing and covering the events.
Live mainstream events such as basketball, soccer and swimming were often replaced with cycling, steeple run and BMX.
During the Opening Ceremony, commentators Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira and Bob Costas analyzed each part of the ceremony on NBC’s broadcast. Many times they would crack jokes about certain countries or discuss London’s current financial problems.
Multiple times, Lauer and Vieira did not come across as professional journalists who did their research, but rather uneducated critics.
“If you haven’t heard of him, we haven’t either,” Vieira said in regards to the honoring of Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.
“Google him,” Lauer chuckled.
On top of that, both Lauer and Vieira would consistently talk over the performances and music throughout the ceremony.
The Opening Ceremony was also taped and played back for Americans to see at a later time, which really upset viewers.
Which makes you wonder, how NBC did not catch the controversial comments made while previewing the tape?
It makes you doubt it was accidental.
While NBC got what they desired — higher ratings — they left viewers clueless and speechless at times.
While introducing many of the countries to viewers as they walked out, Costas would throw in unnecessary information about countries, some which were controversial and caught viewers off guard.
As the Ugandan team entered the stadium, Costas’s only comment referred to the former dictator Idi Amin.
Amin was known as the ‘Butcher of Uganda’ back in the early 1970’s.
That would be like mentioning Adolf Hitler or Fidel Castro when Germany and Cuba walked out.
You just don’t do it.
However, Costas did have a moment of prominence as he took it into his own hands to honor the Israeli athletes killed in the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich.
Overall, Costas is a great commentator and is well known by many Americans for his professionalism and superb skills.
During many of the events, commentators seemed to play ‘favorites’ as they would cheer on a specific person or team.
Some commentators didn’t seem qualified or knowledgeable of the sport they were discussing.
Former U.S. soccer player Brandi Chastain consistently ragged on the women’s soccer team, nitpicking little details.
It didn’t take long for Hope Solo to defend herself and her teammates, so she took it to Twitter.
“Its 2 bad we cant have commentators who better represents the team&knows (sic) more about the game @brandichastain!” Solo tweeted. “Lay off commentating about defending and (goalkeeping) until you get more educated @brandichastain the game has changed from a decade ago.”
Whether the commentators or NBC are to blame for the subpar broadcasting performance is beyond me, but lets hope it does not happen in 2016.
NBC promised full, live coverage of the 2012 Olympics and did not fulfill viewers’ slightest expectations for this year’s games.
Rio de Janeiro holds high expectations for 2016 Summer Olympics for NBC and we will all be watching.
Hopefully live.
Reach the columnist at msterrel@asu.edu
