I can’t believe they got rid of the anthems. I think it’s more likely that NBC would simply not air any anthem but the US (or possibly Canada or an unlikely UK anthem). It could be worse- FOX would probably pixellate the flags of other nations.
Every event still has a medal ceremony, complete with anthem (or anthems in the case of the women’s downhill). However, they are all held at an outdoor “medals plaza” in Sochi that (I think) is open to the public. Most events hold them the same day, but figure skating events end at about 11 PM local time, so those medal ceremonies are moved to the next day. (Also, since the men’s ice hockey ends on the last day of the Olympics, the medal ceremony for that event will take place in the arena right after the gold medal game.)
I’ve seen the ones at the end of prime time before as the last item before fade to black. I have seen the ones for Norway and Austria through the app under the live medal ceremony option (just random start during my break at work). I had to catch the US women’s half pipe ceremony through the app under the videos section. Since it took place the day after competition, when did NBC show it?
I could remember they would do more for other countries in its late night show. Now, we either end with the national anthem or a shot of the torch/Sochi sights.
Hopefully the mini-documentary on the US/USSR Space Race they showed in the afternoon today got it out of their system, so we won’t have to sit through one during the closing ceremonies this time.
As for medal ceremonies, I’m perfectly happy to leave them to the mobile apps, or website, or whatever. I’d rather see the free program of the 23rd-place men’s skater that I was watching yesterday than a bunch of people standing there listening to music play.
I’ve been following this Olympic spectacle off and on, and as the guy who’s so astoundingly negative about just about everything, I gotta say…NBC is doing a heck of a job!
There used to be endless suffocating profiles. There aren’t anymore. I’ve caught a grand total of ONE so far (and she was a top contender and even won gold, so it was hardly egregious).
There used to be complete nincompoops in the booth. Aside from a few figure skating commentators, everyone has been at worst tolerable. The skiing team, in particular, has been excellent.
There used to be inordinate focus on the American contenders (and nobody was worse than NBC). Now we’re seeing a full spectrum of contenders of all colors, and the team actually acts thrilled when they win. Heck, Shaun White’s been little more than a footnote.
There used to be eternally tedious, obnoxious chants of “yoo-ess-ay!” The only time I’ve heard it at all was a commercial (which, in fairness, got overplayed to freaking death); if there are fans like that at Sochi, NBC had the good sense to not pay attention to them.
There used to be haphazard cutaways all over the damn place. So far I haven’t seen a single event that wasn’t covered to completion. Tons of commercials, yes, but that’s been the reality for a long time.
There used to be suffocating rah-rah jingoism. We stand an outside chance of taking the medal count an unprecedented two Olympiads in a row, and NBC can barely bother to even inform us about it. Why chest-thump over numbers when there are events to be covered?
My word, it’s like they realized the horrible, horrible mistakes they made in the past and corrected them! I know how astonishingly rare it is that an entrenched corporation shows this kind of common sense, but credit where it’s due.
What? It only happened due to multiple channels and the challenge of the Internet? Fine, whatever it takes.
Just saw somebody I know.
I’m not quite as enthusiastic, but I tend to agree. The coverage isn’t bad at all. Not too rah rah USA. Getting a variety of sports, including ones that the USA sucks at. And they haven’t overdone the glurge too much.
I’m not a fan of figure skating at all but I was listening to it in the background and I was really impressed with Johnnie Wier as a commentator. He really seems to understand every facet of the sport. I’m surprised he hasn’t been tapped as a coach.
Then I look at the screen and think “Dear lord! Who dresses this guy?!” 
NBC announced that the closing night programming will include a story about the 20th anniversary of the Tonya/Nancy Incident, with Mary Carillo interviewing both Harding and Kerrigan about the events (supposedly it’s a big deal that Nancy is talking about it - and, apparently, Jeff Gillooly doesn’t share his side of the story).
Yeah, so much for my hope that we wouldn’t get some crappy documentary this time.
On an amusing note–I was watching this muted on my second screen so it’s possible the text missed some sarcastic inflection somewhere (though I doubt it), but before the US/Sweeden hockey game on NBCSN, there was a discussion between the anchor and a reporter, talking about families in sports and the Olympics.
The anchor, who is a British woman, mentioned a family in which all of the brothers played in high-level Rugby, and all but one of them were selected to their national team.
The reporter then joked about how awkward that must be when the family gathers for Thanksgiving.
Yeah, dude, I’m sure those English people talk a lot about such things at Thanksgiving…
Hey, Costas is back!
I love when Costas said he was filling in for Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera.
Okay, gonna say it right now…having to hear about that soul-numbing Kerrigan/Harding fiasco effin’ again was a definite lowlight. I don’t care what infinitesimal new information’s turned up, this story’s been beaten into the ground and I just plain don’t want to hear about it anymore. We could move past Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, and Mike Tyson, why not this? Hey, NBC, you want a riveting American figure skating story? Two words…Sarah Hughes.
Despite myself, I enjoyed seeing the Jamaican 2-man bobsled team’s run. Sure, they’ll always be also-rans at best, but they’re taking this sport seriously and making a real effort, and it’s nice to see this acknowledged every once in while. (Good to see just how hard these sports are, too…get rid of those delusions of grandeur.) Little disappointed how bland their responses were. “It’s hard. You have to work hard. Nothing worth having is ever easy.” Definitely don’t have to travel that far from the frigid north for that.
Are you watching the same Olympics I am?
I’m with a previous poster. Johnny Wier and Tara Lipinksi have actually made me somewhat interested in ice skating their commenting was THAT good.
Seriously? I’ll ask again. Are you watching the same Olympics I am? You did say you’ve been watching it “off and on”, so I guess you’ve lucked out.
USA Chant is alive and mind-numbingly well, no matter how cliché it is. In fact, the Russians have become so sick of it, they have begun to chant RUS SEE UH in retaliation. I’m not against supporting your home team, but in most circumstances, it sounds just like those obnoxious children and their equally obnoxious parents at little league games (“hey batter batter…swing!”)
If someone you know actually bought a text message USA chant to send to Team USA, slap them. It’s for their own good.
The complete coverage you speak of, well, I’m at a loss for words. Most everything I have seen has been edited down, and cut together to create a most disjointed view of a sport. Start the damn thing, then run it to the end. What’s so hard about that? But apparently that’s against NBC rules.
Everyone’s comment about “hey, it’s online you know” is just a way of saying “why should it be on TV in the first place?” By the way, I went to NBC’s website. It’s almost as if they designed it specifically to confuse. I’ve never seen a nastier rat’s nest of a format. Honestly. All the scrolling in multiple columns and multiple pull-down menus and hyper links all come down to three options. Live, Replays, Highlights. Hell of a mess for three options, isn’t it? Almost every hyperlink gets you the same friggin place. lol.
Between the puff pieces (oh yeah they still do them, pa-lease) and the huge amount of commercials, I feel used when I’m done viewing. (you say it’s standard fair, I say it’s way overdoing it, simply because they are so greedy and outbid everyone and have to recoup the cost by showing more commercials than actual sporting events). ABC’s bid probably was too low because they worked the numbers assuming people wanted to watch more sporting events than commercials.
They should have made msNBC the “interview” channel and left the others for actual events. That would have freed up a few hours.
Anyway, that’s your opinion, and this was mine. At least someone thinks it’s “GREAT”. Mom will be so proud.
The competition is off the charts… more sport and less talking please.
You mention the NBCSN skating commentators, so I assume you’re watching on that channel as well. So you haven’t noticed that you saw every single figure skater? How much more complete do you want?
Today, they showed team Nordic Combined. There was a multi-hour gap between the ski jumping portion and the cross-country portion, but that’s because it was live and there actually is a gap, they showed a full curling match in between. You did miss about 10 minutes of the cross country, as the curling match was the bronze medal match that came down to the last shot in the last end. On no.
Most of the “seperated” events I have seen have been like that–they’ll do run one, then do another sport or a bit and come back for run two, or have a sectional pause between the quarters and the semis, something like that. On NBCSN, where events are mostly live, that’s kind of necessary. Even when it’s on NBC, it’s still fairly reasonable to split them like that.
I understand that NBC needs to focus on sports and wants to avoid offending the host country, but when Pussy Riot is being assaulted with horsewhips by Cossack guards right outside, and NBC is ignoring that violence to focus on the assault on Nancy Kerrigan twenty years ago, they just look totally out of touch.
rckymtn3 - Fine, I’m game.
No, I haven’t seen endless suffocating profiles. I’ve seen one short piece on Tina Maze, maybe 30 seconds of Bode Miller talking (there’s a complete, and quite revelatory, interview on ESPN.com), and, most recently, a little profile of the figure skater with the Russian mother. That’s about it. Remember Lillehammer? An endless, nightmarish flood of schmaltz. Atlanta was almost as bad.
Yes, I’m seeing a lot more of the events than I used to. They’ve shown at least 16 competitors in every skiing event, and pretty much every snowboarder who had a prayer at the top 10 got full coverage. They’re not going to show everything, of course; you need to pay for that kind of service.
So online’s a maze? Guess what, there was a time, not all that long ago, when the option didn’t exist at all. Nor did we have all these specialty channels. Heck, if you just want to read about it, there are all kinds of options.
Do you honestly think ABC would’ve shown appreciably fewer commercials? As someone who used to catch episodes of Wipeout and Dancing With The Stars, I’m going to have to disagree on that point.
Great? Maybe not. But it’s sure a helluva lot better than the debacles I remember, and, in all honestly, probably as good as it’s going to get. Without having to pay.
Do agree that the chant-texting thing is an astoundingly terrible idea (seriously, a bloblike mascot isn’t in the same galaxy as this crap), and that that obnoxious commercial has played about 50,000 times too many by now. Not that I’m cheering that “ruh-see-aww” stuff, though. Talk about the cure being worse than the disease…