NBC Pucks Up, Yet Again...

Please, tell me something NBC. You and I have had our disagreements in the past, and we all know my stance on the Olympics. And then there's the matter of me dissing the NHL by excluding them when I make broad statements about major sports (NFL, MLB, NBA). But how, could you take the USA-Canada game, and put it on MSNBC where nobody is likely to look. People flipping through channels tonight who want to check out what's on the Olympics will likely flip to whatever channel your main network is on in their area, and if nothing entertaining is on...they'll move past it.


Well, tonight...nothing entertaining is on...because you took one of your most exciting and marketable events and decided to put it on a different channel (MSNBC). Now maybe you did this because you thought the event would draw enough buzz of its own that people would scour your family of networks to find it. Or maybe you overlooked the fact that it is an all-star grudge match between neighboring countries featuring the most recognizable names taking part in the Olympics. Or maybe Jay Leno decided he wanted to watch men in full-body spandex suits skate around in large white ovals over and over again.



And for that matter...how many different speed skating competitions could they possibly have? It seems like every day, the only event ever on is speed skating. I respect what they do, but watching people glide over a plane of white is pretty boring. Even watching it on an HD where you can see the reflections of people in the audience yawning it gets tiresome. And if it isn't speed-skating on...it's a taped skiing race, whose outcome has already been broadcasted all over the world on ESPN for the past seven hours.




But here you have a live competition (an actual head to head event, rather than people competing against a clock), and you figure "Eh...let's give our prime time spot on Sunday night to the same damn event we've been showing for the past ten days straight."

You continue to exceed my expectations NBC (my expectations are for you to make exceedingly unintelligent programming decisions.)

-- Steve Creswick
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