The Critique of NBC | Golden Skate

The Critique of NBC

Joined
Jul 11, 2003
What happened to NBC who always supported Ladies Figure Skating and for the Olys would have it in prime time? It's supposed to have the highest ratings of any Oly event. Instead we got it in a time slot competing with late night television shows. To make it even worse, NBC boasted we will see the last group of skaters without interruption. Wow. I suppose that meant there would be no Nordic Combined and Women's Slalom after their events were completed. What happened to Groups 1-4? Oh yes, we got Tugba live at 7:20pm. The final group after 11pm. I thought for sure we would get the final 2 groups of the event. Why not? We had so in the past Olys.

I also expected to see the first 3 groups on Universal Sport (a subsidiary of NBC, I think). Unisport was busy with speed skating.

I also enjoy watching those other Winter Sports. I think they could have better been served if they were shown on Unisport. After all, there was nothing Live about their comps, they were all on tape from the afternoons.

I don't think there is anything we can do about this. I can't believe another network would want to take on such a huge undertaking. There should be no problem at the upcoming Worlds. It's only Figure skating and Ice Dance which all have there own separate time schedules. NBC could show at least the last two groups LIVE of Mens and Ladies on two separate nights.

btw, does anyone know how I can see laura lepisto from last night and all those other young ladies which NBC barred from showing?
 

Nadine

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 3, 2003
I don't know about you, Joe, but I did see the last group without any commercials/interruptions/et al. I couldn't believe it, I was in awe that there were *no* commercials. Shock! Lol, seriously it was good to see. As regards the other groups I didn't bother to watch, so I don't know if they showed them. I only tuned in during the last 1.5 hours of coverage wanting to see the final group.

Hope you get what you're looking for. :)
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
Interesting points and I thought NBC would show the last two groups Live last night. What a disappointment to miss so much and with it a big part of the feeling of the event as a whole.

In addition to the skaters just mentioned i missed seeing Sarah, Kiira, Akiko, Alena and Caro.
I have Direct TV so I can't get Universal but I am surprised they didn't cover the skating either.

It makes little sense to me for NBC not to show the Ladies which get higher ratings than Bobsled, Nordic Combined and other sports that are not really tradtional N. American sports.

I guess in the next few days some of the programs we missed will pop up on YouTube but it's not the same as seeing the competition as it unfolds.
 

dlkksk8fan

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I hated NBC's coverage. One skater then commerical, will be back later. Then another skater, commerical, back later. The final six with no interruption was fine, but the overall coverage of the skating was awful. At least let us see the top 10-15
skaters without so many breaks. Why did they have to show a segment on logging instead of skating?!!! NBC's overall grade for skating coverage a D+.
 

iluvtodd

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
United-States
I really wanted to see more of the ladies, particularly Sarah Maier, Akiko Suzuki, Alena Leonova, laura Lepisto, etc. Back in 1996, 1997, ABC showed the top two flights of men. That's the kind of coverage I prefer!
 

kappa_1

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 2, 2003
I hated NBC's coverage. One skater then commerical, will be back later. Then another skater, commerical, back later. The final six with no interruption was fine, but the overall coverage of the skating was awful. At least let us see the top 10-15
skaters without so many breaks. Why did they have to show a segment on logging instead of skating?!!! NBC's overall grade for skating coverage a D+.

D+ at best, F at worst.

No Lepisto, Suzuki, Kostner, Meier= major fail.

Would rather have live coverage of the 2 final groups instead of uninterrupted coverage of the final group. The (taped!) coverage of the Men's Nordic combined sucked the suspense out of the competition. Thankfully everyone delivered and skated so well, and thus uplifted my mood.

I'm sure a lot of people tuned in, saw some random outdoor winter sport or Mary Carillo logging, and then promptly went to bed.

Shame on you, NBC!
 

Penny

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 12, 2005
It's as if Lepisto did not exist. At the end, NBC listed the top 5 winners, then Flatt at number 7. So who was number 6? I guess they didn't want people saying, "Hey, why didn't we see the number 6 finisher?"

I think all the performances are on the NBC website somewhere...
 

ARipp42014

Medalist
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
I'm just glad of Eurosport/BBC/Foxtel/Russia 2's coverage because NBC's coverage really was bad!

On the bright side, glad nbcolympics.com let you watch all the performances again in its entirety.
 

LongTimeLurker

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
I found NBC's coverage to be dismal. Even though I live near Vancouver, broadcasts were delayed (and I don't buy their excuses, either). The opening ceremonies weren't broadcast until ~three hours after they really started (I finally turned it off and went to sleep). After watching the men's LP amidst many commercials, I gave up and watched everything else online.
 

MissCleo

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 27, 2005
Hasn't that been the case for every Olympics/Worlds that NBC has covered? It was pretty bad, but something is better than nothing.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Aside from the fact that it was late at night on a work night, I had no problem with it.
 

tilak

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 14, 2005
I was most upset trying to watch the Ladies Free skate. I don't understand - NBC also has MSNBC, CNBC and USA channels and all they could manage to show was the last 6 ladies??? :scowl: I was especially annoyed as I repeatedly had to refresh poor online feed from Bulgarian TV or some Korean live stream (thank goodness for that!) while NBC had coverage of 12 different kinds of skiing. :mad:
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
I don't know about you, Joe, but I did see the last group without any commercials/interruptions/et al. I couldn't believe it, I was in awe that there were *no* commercials. Shock! Lol, seriously it was good to see. As regards the other groups I didn't bother to watch, so I don't know if they showed them. I only tuned in during the last 1.5 hours of coverage wanting to see the final group.

Hope you get what you're looking for. :)
Nadine - My point was BIG Deal to see the last group without commercial interruptions. (No commericals for the last group was ALWAYS a part of the broadcast) It was not a big deal. We always had that on TV, Were you watching at 11:15pm when in the past it was on at 8 pm? It was done to allow a tape of Skiing,etc. to begin at 7:30 pm and with full coverage. I don't know how much interest you have in Figure Skating but some of us fans, want to see the whole event - not just 3 skaters to separate the skiing from short track and from Cross Country Skiing, and finally 6 skaters leaving out 3 groups.

I presume your interest in figure skating is limited to the last group only and so you got what you were looking for. Lucky for you - not for me.
 

Nadine

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 3, 2003
To answer your question, Joe, yes I've always watched every Olympics that has ever been on t.v. since Dorothy Hamill. I still have my old rotting tapes from the 70's/80's/90's, and not just figure skating. *smile*

And, yes, I will watch the whole dang thing from 8PM till midnight to catch the oddball figure skating routine thrown in there haphazardly, if I'm interested enough. It just so happens that this time I'm not, thus I couldn't give a damn (oops pardon my french, lol).:laugh:

Oh yes, the NBC website has what you're looking for, Joe, you just have to look around. :)
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
I have to say I was disappointed and the whole thing felt disjointed to me.
I missed more than a few favorites as well as the chance to see some of the rising stars of the future.

With such limited coverage I never was able to get a feeling for the competition. Some said Laura was overscored - I wouldn't know because I didn't get to see her skate. Others felt Rachael was judged too harshly. Again, without seeing the skaters before her I had no idea or feel for how the judging was which makes it hard to consider her marks.

What is surprising is that between NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC/Universal and USA there appeared to be enough stations available to offer better coverage. Although I would like to have seen most of the event - even showing the last two groups could have given viewers a better chance to see how the competition was unfolding.
 

seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
I m really surprised to read this after all poor in sponsors greek tv showed all groups in all disciplines while 1/3 of greeks dont even know Winter Olympics exist and the other 1/3 know but dont even care.
Anyway EBU page , http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/olympics/, has all channels that broadcast in real time, many are without commenting, and many of them will show the gala. It is also has many hightlights of sports with english comments. I m not sure if it can be seen outside europe.
 

demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
My cable subscriber is Comcast and they have all of the figure skating disciplines up on "On Demand". The ladies LP was added today.
So I will get to see the complete ladies Competition without any interruptions.
 
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