Standing in Windsor with my beloved Detroit over my shoulder.Yesterday, in my preamble before the Weekend Roundup, I mentioned that people have been grumbling about NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
I’ve heard people in Seattle, who are in the same time zone as Vancouver, bemoan the fact that they are on a tape delay. People all around the country have been complaining about which events are being shown, finding out the results ahead of time, the announcers, and missing crucial moments.
Here in Detroit we’ve been a bit spoiled over the years. One of the perks of sharing a border with Canada is that when we don’t like the coverage on the American TV stations we can flip over to CBET, the CBC station out of Windsor.
Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for these Olympics. The CBC lost the contract to broadcast the Olympics to CTV. So, us Detroiters are stuck with NBC just like the rest of the country.
All of this reminded me of the 2004 Summer Olympics. I had just moved to the UK and was a bit confused as to why certain events were covered over others. I didn’t expect them to pay special attention to the American athletes but I wasn’t prepared to watch endless coverage of what some might call minor events.
This is an email I sent my friends and family back in 2004:
Watching the Olympics here in England is an odd thing. Great Britain won their first medal of the games (silver) in the ‘Jump Into The Water At The Same Time’ event. Synchronized diving? Who knew? Worse, it's MENS synchronized diving!
Other events Great Britain has won medals in thus far: equestrian, badminton, archery, and canoe. Is this the Summer Olympics or summer camp? I'm not making this up.
They did win a medal in swimming; I’ll give them that. Their next major chances for medals, and probably even gold ones, are sailing and rowing. Ah... it's a very posh summer camp!
But not to worry, track and field is coming up. The husband says their best events are the egg and spoon, the sack race, and the three-legged race. God Save the Queen!
So, I guess we could be subjected to hours of curling coverage. Oh wait, we are.
(To the curling lovers throughout the world, please don't hate on me, it was just a good analogy. And I don't like sweeping. It's a lot like housework.)