Aug 17 2008
A Look At - The Olympics
For the last week, the eyes of the world have turned to Beijing as the Summer Olympics have been underway. NBC has covered the event, but their coverage of the events half a world away have not been perfect. Live coverage is only live if you are on the east coast. West coast viewers like myself are not given the opportunity to watch events as they happen. I know I’m not the only one that has found out the results of certain events before they air.
It happened the other night when Phelps won his seventh gold, and when he won his eighth I’ve heard NBC had its focus on another event, letting us wait an hour to see this truely amazing Olympic moment. I found the rant of one viewer who is now tuning off of NBC for the rest of the Olympic games, and she might not even watch NBC’s new fall season. With all the televised coverage of the Olympics, one would think it would be easy to have the whole country in line time wise to show events together. They do it with the Oscars, why not with the Olympics?
This is why I will be completely honest here. I have sat down to watch one bit of these Olympic games. I flip through and stop for a few moments if an event is on that I enjoy, but I have not sat down for hours to watch the events live like I have done in previous year. Before I would. I would get up early, and I would stay up late just to watch every single event. In this day and age, you can find out what happened at the Olympics before it is even televised here in the US.
The Internet has changed the outlook of the Olympic games, much like it has done with other things in our world. Now they are saying with Phelps done conquering the swimming world, less people will be tuning in to watch the Olympics. You tell me. Will you still be tuning in?
Yes. In fact, I’m watching them now.
I didn’t tune into the Olympics merely to watch swimming, although my wife is a fan of Michael Phelps and wanted to watch each race.
Conversely, I am a fan of the Olympics. The whole thing. Ceremonies, track and field, gymnastics, new commercials, watching humans overcome their own records and better themselves…. The whole thing.
I’ll be watching until they put the torch out.
Sadly it looks to be live for east coast viewers and not live on the west coast. That is the problem people seem to be having.
Honestly, I haven’t watched the Olympics in years, but this year I found myself watching things like Beach Volleyball and Basketball in addition to swimming. I was most interested to see Phelps, Dara Torres, the US Men’s basketball team and the track & field events. The end of the women’s 26 mile marathon was pretty gripping. If I can catch any track & field, I’ll continue to watch. The biggest problem for me is that my kids get bored & insist that I change the channel!