- Joined
- Feb 27, 2012
Have now read through the entire transcript. Some of the parts pertaining to skating:
~ Someone had the b_lls to ask Hamilton about Weir as a possible successor:
~ Per Jim Bell: " ... we think [team skating] has a chance to be a really cool breakout event right at the start of the Games."
~ Regarding a question relevant to some speculation about Wagner's selection for Sochi:
~ BTW, Bell and Zenkel discussed the topic of security in Sochi.
~ Mary Carillo spoke at length about her documentary on Kerrigan and Harding. Excerpt:
Q: Are you sensing that maybe there’s the person after Scott Hamilton with NBC hiring Johnny [Weir]?
Scott Hamilton: Oh I don’t know, I like Johnny. He’s a good guy and nothing lasts forever. We’ll see, I’ve been blessed to do the last seven Olympics and if I do the next one or the next two, I’ll feel even more blessed. Those decisions will be made leading up to the next Games and however it goes, I hope Johnny and Tara do extremely well in their coverage and I’ll be excited to see it and hear it.
Scott Hamilton: Oh I don’t know, I like Johnny. He’s a good guy and nothing lasts forever. We’ll see, I’ve been blessed to do the last seven Olympics and if I do the next one or the next two, I’ll feel even more blessed. Those decisions will be made leading up to the next Games and however it goes, I hope Johnny and Tara do extremely well in their coverage and I’ll be excited to see it and hear it.
Among a number of other topics addressed by Hamilton were (a) the team skating event; (b) Jason Brown.
~ Per Jim Bell: " ... we think [team skating] has a chance to be a really cool breakout event right at the start of the Games."
(The only athlete he mentioned by name as a possible breakout star of the Games was Mikaela Shiffrin. Of course, he added that NBC always is excited when an unknown grabs everyone's attention.)
Regarding the combination of NBCSN and primetime viewing (pertaining to figure skating, as it happens), Bell said:
... the billion dollar lab from London definitely informed the macro decision to put all the figure skating live on cable. I mean that was a big decision, thinking that not only would it not cannibalize our audience, but to the contrary, we hope it will help build interest.
We hope that…not that we want to hurt the productivity of the workplace here, but we hope that people are gathered around watching the figs (figure skating) and talking about it and then going home and gathering around the tube with their family to watch it in primetime.
We hope that…not that we want to hurt the productivity of the workplace here, but we hope that people are gathered around watching the figs (figure skating) and talking about it and then going home and gathering around the tube with their family to watch it in primetime.
~ Regarding a question relevant to some speculation about Wagner's selection for Sochi:
Someone asked about another reporter's inference that NBC was influential in the selection of Lolo Jones for the Olympic bobsled team -- the idea being that NBC would benefit from her established name recognition and popularity. Bell's and Gary Zenkel's reactions to the inference: "utterly ridiculous" and "preposterous."
~ BTW, Bell and Zenkel discussed the topic of security in Sochi.
~ Mary Carillo spoke at length about her documentary on Kerrigan and Harding. Excerpt:
I think what we tried to do, and there were a couple of false narratives I think in the story…we wanted to talk to Nancy about it because Nancy Kerrigan had been portrayed by so many people, including and still Tonya Harding, as some kind of ice princess.
Scott can tell you better than I can; she’s anything but that. She understood how to play the game and she understood the value of that and of being more artistic and of wearing the right kind of clothing and all of that. But she was never that.
I think the other sort of phony narrative that has existed for a long time is that Tonya never had a chance because of her perception of where she came from. But the fact is she went two Olympics. She went to two of them and she had her shot.
She got fourth in ‘92. Two years later in the wake of all this stuff, Nancy getting clubbed on the knees six weeks earlier. She got to that Olympics. She sued the USOC to get there. And after the short program, she came in tenth. And after the long program she finished eighth.
In the meantime, Nancy Kerrigan came within one tenth of one point of winning Gold.
Scott can tell you better than I can; she’s anything but that. She understood how to play the game and she understood the value of that and of being more artistic and of wearing the right kind of clothing and all of that. But she was never that.
I think the other sort of phony narrative that has existed for a long time is that Tonya never had a chance because of her perception of where she came from. But the fact is she went two Olympics. She went to two of them and she had her shot.
She got fourth in ‘92. Two years later in the wake of all this stuff, Nancy getting clubbed on the knees six weeks earlier. She got to that Olympics. She sued the USOC to get there. And after the short program, she came in tenth. And after the long program she finished eighth.
In the meantime, Nancy Kerrigan came within one tenth of one point of winning Gold.
