Random thoughts on the Olympics television coverage

[Oldster]

1. More hugs than than the routine show on the woman's channel.

2. More human interest stories than are ever shown during any other week of television.

3. More drama and concern over behind-the-scenes matters than Dancing with the Stars. The presence of Bob Costas guarantees this.

4. More coverage of sports we regularly see throughout the rest of the year (basketball, tennis, beach volleyball)

5. Less coverage of sports that we hardly see the rest of the year (weightlifting and wrestling).

6. More gymnastics than anything else.

We finally agree 100% on something!

Along with weightlifting I have been trying to find shooting and archery, something that is promised but very little is shown than highlights and very little of that. I realize that there are so many competitions in so many different sports that it would be tough to show it all. But cut back on all the feel-good behind the scenes make you wanna cry crap and so much more could be shown.

[GHK]

Got my nice little VPN and being watching the Weighliting on iPlayer. Best next time I do not "switch it on for a few minutes" at 12am before I go to bed. Super heavies Class A last night for "five minutes", could not turn it off.

[Dastardly]

I do not even live there anymore and I know that is not true. However, what the BBC do well is that they get it out of the way in the lead up to the games. It helps drive interest in what is to come and frees up broadcast time to the actual competition once they start.

Its true, they did some lead up stuff. But not very much. There was a few episodes of a show called "olympic dreams" which showed the lead up training for olympic hopefuls. But there was only a handful of episodes spread over the past 4 years. And even those were very light on the "human interest" stuff, they focused more on the sporting element.

Close to the cames, there was an hour documentary called "girl power" following three of our weightlifters. A documentary about Victoria Pendleton (female track sprinter) and not much else.

Nothing about our Rowers, Gymnasts, Runners etc.. who have all been doing very well.

[matclone]

The US graphics are definitely US centered since
a) they're in English
b) they preferentially show the positions of US athletes. Like they'll show the top 5 times and then 7, 15, 29 if those are the Americans.

On the broader point... about the "drama"... i have not watched more than 5 minutes of the TV coverage of any event w/o noticing that i want the announcer to shut the heck up. Especially they keep speculating about people's emotional states. How excited they must be or frustrated or how much they want to win a medal...

And of course there's the very American (?) thing where not winning a medal makes you a loser. Although actually that part seems to be a bit better than it was in past years. IIRC (and i may not) it used to be that if you didn't get gold you were a loser, now it seems that you're ok as long as you medal. So i guess that's progress.

Good point about "the American" thing, although I suspect it may be in part a "media" thing. This week I keep hearing stories given in tragic terms about this or that athlete who "bombed" (i.e. did not medal) in a prior Olympics, as if that were the end of the world, and as if their lives have been wholly devoted since then to redemption.