why nobody wants to watch the olympics
Honestly, they're really just hard to watch. Has anyone actually tried? It's almost painful, NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics is so bad. They can't keep my attention for even five minutes with fun, interesting sports. It's sad, really. Here's why:
1. Too many commercials. This is one of the biggest problems; the network never seems to go more than four (!) minutes between commercial breaks, and the breaks aren't any shorter for their frequency, either. I keep flipping between basketball on ESPN and NBC, yet NBC always seems to be on commercial, and on the rare occasion it isn't it almost immediately goes to break. How can they seriously expect to show two one-minute bobsled runs, then five or six commercials, and keep everyone's interest? It's absurd.
2. Too much figure skating. Maybe this would be a little different if I had other channels to watch the Olympics on, but NBC's nightly coverage always seems to be minimum 50% figure skating. And manly sports-loving men like me really can't find interest in figure skating because dancing isn't a sport, and no, being on ice doesn't give it a pass. When the night's schedule lists bobsledding, hockey, figure skating, and multiple varieties of skiing, the least interesting sport of the entire group should not receive the largest amount of screen time. I don't understand.
3. The commentators are awful. With the noted exception of Al Micheals' hockey crew, because they actually know what they're doing. A lot of the time it's easier to watch with the TV muted, just to silence their shrill grating voices, and what they say almost never seems to be in any way interesting. Don't tell us about the back-story of every athlete participating, tell us about the sport, what to look for, what's happening, that sort of thing. We don't care what got these obscure people to the games, we care about the games! We don't know the sports are the athletes, and understanding of the sport helps us more than understanding of the person. Also, all but one of the color commentators needs to be fired immediately.
4. TOO MANY FUCKING COMMERCIALS.
When I'm more entertained by a moderately competitive college basketball game between teams I don't care about than by games that I can only see once every four years and are played by some of the top athletes in the world, something's wrong. And it's not the sports themselves, I'll tell you that. NBC's presentation of these Olympics has been absolutely dreadful.
1. Too many commercials. This is one of the biggest problems; the network never seems to go more than four (!) minutes between commercial breaks, and the breaks aren't any shorter for their frequency, either. I keep flipping between basketball on ESPN and NBC, yet NBC always seems to be on commercial, and on the rare occasion it isn't it almost immediately goes to break. How can they seriously expect to show two one-minute bobsled runs, then five or six commercials, and keep everyone's interest? It's absurd.
2. Too much figure skating. Maybe this would be a little different if I had other channels to watch the Olympics on, but NBC's nightly coverage always seems to be minimum 50% figure skating. And manly sports-loving men like me really can't find interest in figure skating because dancing isn't a sport, and no, being on ice doesn't give it a pass. When the night's schedule lists bobsledding, hockey, figure skating, and multiple varieties of skiing, the least interesting sport of the entire group should not receive the largest amount of screen time. I don't understand.
3. The commentators are awful. With the noted exception of Al Micheals' hockey crew, because they actually know what they're doing. A lot of the time it's easier to watch with the TV muted, just to silence their shrill grating voices, and what they say almost never seems to be in any way interesting. Don't tell us about the back-story of every athlete participating, tell us about the sport, what to look for, what's happening, that sort of thing. We don't care what got these obscure people to the games, we care about the games! We don't know the sports are the athletes, and understanding of the sport helps us more than understanding of the person. Also, all but one of the color commentators needs to be fired immediately.
4. TOO MANY FUCKING COMMERCIALS.
When I'm more entertained by a moderately competitive college basketball game between teams I don't care about than by games that I can only see once every four years and are played by some of the top athletes in the world, something's wrong. And it's not the sports themselves, I'll tell you that. NBC's presentation of these Olympics has been absolutely dreadful.