In this second part of my three-part series reviewing the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea, I'm going to review how NBC and its co-owned cable and satellite television channels, such as NBCSN, CNBC, and USA Network, covered the Pyeongchang Games. While I'm normally very critical of NBC's Olympic coverage, including their coverage of the Pyeongchang Games, NBC didn't do as terrible of a job as I expected them to do, and there were even some aspects of their coverage that I liked. Criticism of NBC's coverage (and, in one instance, of how a NBC affiliate handled NBC's Olympic coverage) will appear in bold text, praise of NBC's coverage will appear in underlined text, and aspects of NBC's coverage that I have mixed thoughts about will appear in italic text.
As a general rule, NBC's coverage, particularly during the primetime block on NBC itself during the Games, tends to be overproduced and overhyped, and NBC seemed more interested in allowing its affiliates to air local news and airing Olympic coverage at traditional times of day than airing as much of the Olympics as possible live and on NBC. NBC's coverage was split into three time blocks: daytime, primetime, and primetime plus. The daytime coverage aired for 2-3 hours in the mid-to-late afternoon each day of the Games after the day of the Opening Ceremony, all of it was on a long tape delay (by necessity, since 2 P.M. U.S. Central Time corresponds to 5 A.M. the next day in South Korea), and very little of the NBC daytime coverage was actually first-run, since the vast majority of the events that aired during NBC's daytime coverage, which focused mainly on sports like cross-country skiing, biathlon, etc., aired earlier in the day on NBCSN, usually on a shorter tape delay and not as edited down for time. NBC's primetime coverage aired in a 3-5 hour block starting at 7 P.M. Central Time on most nights and 6 P.M. Central Time on the Sunday before the closing ceremony, and it focused mainly on three sports: figure skating, alpine skiing, and snowboarding, with much of the coverage of those sports being live, as 7 P.M. U.S. Central Time corresponded to 10 A.M. the following day in South Korea. Later on in the Games, tape-delayed coverage of skeleton and bobsled aired during primetime. Because of NBC successfully lobbying the Pyeongchang Olympic organizers into scheduling figure skating and alpine skiing at times of day corresponding to American primetime hours, figure skating and alpine skiing events often took place at the same time, causing logistical nightmares for NBC, and the weather (which forced multiple alpine skiing postponements and resechedulings) didn't help NBC in that regard. Primetime plus coverage aired following a 30-35 minute local newscast in the Central Time Zone, and typically ran until midnight or 1 A.M. Central Time, although the conclusion of the women's gold medal hockey game, which NBC started airing during the overtime period, overran the scheduled off-time of Olympic primetime plus and NBC stuck with hockey until the conclusion of the game, which was won by the American team (NBCSN aired the game live in its entirety). Because of local news, at least one medal final that was aired on NBC west coast affiliates, which did not have a local news break following Olympic primetime, was not aired on NBC affiliates in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, and that was the women's big air snowboarding final, where an American, Jamie Anderson, won a silver medal, although, if I recall correctly, NBCSN aired the final in all time zones. Because affiliates had other opportunities to air local news, particularly in the midday slot, the local news break during Olympic coverage was completely unnecessary, and the NBC affiliate in my area advertised their local newscasts as being "after the Olympics", even though the newscast actually aired between Olympic primetime and Olympic primetime plus coverage. I'm surprised that NBC executives didn't complain about that, since that could have driven a lot of viewers away from the primetime plus coverage. After primetime plus coverage, NBC re-aired the Olympic primetime show instead of airing more live or otherwise first-run Olympic coverage in the overnight hours; this resulted in the men's gold medal curling match being aired live on NBCSN instead of on NBC. NBC's coverage seemed to focus a rather large amount of attention on a handful of popular athletes, such as alpine skiers Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, as well as snowboarder Shaun White, even going as far as to air some of the women's downhill training runs when they could have aired a medal final in another sport either live or tape-delayed.
NBC's Olympic daytime host was Rebecca Lowe, and NBC's Olympic primetime and primetime plus host was Mike Tirico. I didn't watch enough of NBC's daytime coverage for me to give an opinion on how well Lowe did hosting NBC's daytime coverage. I thought that Tirico did an excellent job hosting Olympic primetime and primetime plus coverage and seemed like someone who was very knowledgeable about the Winter Olympics, although I'm not going to forgive Tirico for having sexually harassed someone while employed by a previous employer.
NBCSN aired nearly wall-to-wall coverage of the Pyeongchang Games, focusing mainly on ice hockey, curling, and other sports that usually didn't air on NBC's primetime or primetime plus coverage. Much of their ice hockey coverage was live, and the men's gold medal curling game (which was won by the American rink skipped by John Shuster) was aired live as well and, as NBCSN gave it the production value that one would expect from a regular-season NFL game on NBC, it was one of the best-ever American telecasts of a single Olympic sporting event. However, most of NBCSN's coverage was on a relatively short tape delay, including the women's team sprint cross-country skiing event that was won by Americans Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall, and some of NBCSN's coverage consisted of re-runs.
CNBC aired a curling match of the day on a long tape delay in the late afternoon/early evening on some days, and USA Network aired some ice hockey and curling matches, with ice hockey typically being aired live and curling typically being aired between ice hockey matches on a tape delay. CNBC could have aired some of the curling matches live, but opted not to do so for some reason.
NBC aired the opening and closing ceremonies on a 14-hour tape delay with no live coverage on one of NBC's cable networks, even thought NBCSN or MSNBC could have been used for live coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies, but were not. During the opening ceremony, Joshua Cooper Ramo made an offensive remark about Korea on-air as the Japanese team was entering the Olympic Stadium during the Parade of Nations, and Cooper Ramo was fired by NBC after the opening ceremony. Additionally, NBC edited the closing ceremony so heavily that a segment featuring Lindsey Vonn didn't air on American television!
NBC assigned commentary teams to each sport, and the curling (Jason Knapp and Kevin Martin), cross-country skiing (Steve Schlanger and Chad Samela), and biathlon (Bill Seward and Chad Samela) commentary teams were fantastic. However, NBC's alpine skiing commentators, Dan Hicks and Bode Miller, were downright awful. For example, Bode Miller made a sexist remark about Austrian alpine skier Anna Veith on-air, and Dan Hicks, as NBC was cutting away from the women's super-G event to go to figure skating, claimed that Veith had won the event, despite the fact that many skiers had not yet started their runs. After NBC cut away from alpine skiing, unheralded Czech skier Ester Ledecka posted a faster time than Veith, and Ledecka went on to win the gold medal in a shocking upset. NBC did go back to alpine skiing to air Ledecka's run on a tape-delay, but Hicks and Miller couldn't agree on whether to call Ledecka's run in the past tense or the present tense. While NBC's decision to cut away from alpine skiing was understandable, nobody at NBC should have declared Veith, Ledecka, or anyone else the winner until the event was complete.
As a general rule, NBC's coverage, particularly during the primetime block on NBC itself during the Games, tends to be overproduced and overhyped, and NBC seemed more interested in allowing its affiliates to air local news and airing Olympic coverage at traditional times of day than airing as much of the Olympics as possible live and on NBC. NBC's coverage was split into three time blocks: daytime, primetime, and primetime plus. The daytime coverage aired for 2-3 hours in the mid-to-late afternoon each day of the Games after the day of the Opening Ceremony, all of it was on a long tape delay (by necessity, since 2 P.M. U.S. Central Time corresponds to 5 A.M. the next day in South Korea), and very little of the NBC daytime coverage was actually first-run, since the vast majority of the events that aired during NBC's daytime coverage, which focused mainly on sports like cross-country skiing, biathlon, etc., aired earlier in the day on NBCSN, usually on a shorter tape delay and not as edited down for time. NBC's primetime coverage aired in a 3-5 hour block starting at 7 P.M. Central Time on most nights and 6 P.M. Central Time on the Sunday before the closing ceremony, and it focused mainly on three sports: figure skating, alpine skiing, and snowboarding, with much of the coverage of those sports being live, as 7 P.M. U.S. Central Time corresponded to 10 A.M. the following day in South Korea. Later on in the Games, tape-delayed coverage of skeleton and bobsled aired during primetime. Because of NBC successfully lobbying the Pyeongchang Olympic organizers into scheduling figure skating and alpine skiing at times of day corresponding to American primetime hours, figure skating and alpine skiing events often took place at the same time, causing logistical nightmares for NBC, and the weather (which forced multiple alpine skiing postponements and resechedulings) didn't help NBC in that regard. Primetime plus coverage aired following a 30-35 minute local newscast in the Central Time Zone, and typically ran until midnight or 1 A.M. Central Time, although the conclusion of the women's gold medal hockey game, which NBC started airing during the overtime period, overran the scheduled off-time of Olympic primetime plus and NBC stuck with hockey until the conclusion of the game, which was won by the American team (NBCSN aired the game live in its entirety). Because of local news, at least one medal final that was aired on NBC west coast affiliates, which did not have a local news break following Olympic primetime, was not aired on NBC affiliates in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, and that was the women's big air snowboarding final, where an American, Jamie Anderson, won a silver medal, although, if I recall correctly, NBCSN aired the final in all time zones. Because affiliates had other opportunities to air local news, particularly in the midday slot, the local news break during Olympic coverage was completely unnecessary, and the NBC affiliate in my area advertised their local newscasts as being "after the Olympics", even though the newscast actually aired between Olympic primetime and Olympic primetime plus coverage. I'm surprised that NBC executives didn't complain about that, since that could have driven a lot of viewers away from the primetime plus coverage. After primetime plus coverage, NBC re-aired the Olympic primetime show instead of airing more live or otherwise first-run Olympic coverage in the overnight hours; this resulted in the men's gold medal curling match being aired live on NBCSN instead of on NBC. NBC's coverage seemed to focus a rather large amount of attention on a handful of popular athletes, such as alpine skiers Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, as well as snowboarder Shaun White, even going as far as to air some of the women's downhill training runs when they could have aired a medal final in another sport either live or tape-delayed.
NBC's Olympic daytime host was Rebecca Lowe, and NBC's Olympic primetime and primetime plus host was Mike Tirico. I didn't watch enough of NBC's daytime coverage for me to give an opinion on how well Lowe did hosting NBC's daytime coverage. I thought that Tirico did an excellent job hosting Olympic primetime and primetime plus coverage and seemed like someone who was very knowledgeable about the Winter Olympics, although I'm not going to forgive Tirico for having sexually harassed someone while employed by a previous employer.
NBCSN aired nearly wall-to-wall coverage of the Pyeongchang Games, focusing mainly on ice hockey, curling, and other sports that usually didn't air on NBC's primetime or primetime plus coverage. Much of their ice hockey coverage was live, and the men's gold medal curling game (which was won by the American rink skipped by John Shuster) was aired live as well and, as NBCSN gave it the production value that one would expect from a regular-season NFL game on NBC, it was one of the best-ever American telecasts of a single Olympic sporting event. However, most of NBCSN's coverage was on a relatively short tape delay, including the women's team sprint cross-country skiing event that was won by Americans Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall, and some of NBCSN's coverage consisted of re-runs.
CNBC aired a curling match of the day on a long tape delay in the late afternoon/early evening on some days, and USA Network aired some ice hockey and curling matches, with ice hockey typically being aired live and curling typically being aired between ice hockey matches on a tape delay. CNBC could have aired some of the curling matches live, but opted not to do so for some reason.
NBC aired the opening and closing ceremonies on a 14-hour tape delay with no live coverage on one of NBC's cable networks, even thought NBCSN or MSNBC could have been used for live coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies, but were not. During the opening ceremony, Joshua Cooper Ramo made an offensive remark about Korea on-air as the Japanese team was entering the Olympic Stadium during the Parade of Nations, and Cooper Ramo was fired by NBC after the opening ceremony. Additionally, NBC edited the closing ceremony so heavily that a segment featuring Lindsey Vonn didn't air on American television!
NBC assigned commentary teams to each sport, and the curling (Jason Knapp and Kevin Martin), cross-country skiing (Steve Schlanger and Chad Samela), and biathlon (Bill Seward and Chad Samela) commentary teams were fantastic. However, NBC's alpine skiing commentators, Dan Hicks and Bode Miller, were downright awful. For example, Bode Miller made a sexist remark about Austrian alpine skier Anna Veith on-air, and Dan Hicks, as NBC was cutting away from the women's super-G event to go to figure skating, claimed that Veith had won the event, despite the fact that many skiers had not yet started their runs. After NBC cut away from alpine skiing, unheralded Czech skier Ester Ledecka posted a faster time than Veith, and Ledecka went on to win the gold medal in a shocking upset. NBC did go back to alpine skiing to air Ledecka's run on a tape-delay, but Hicks and Miller couldn't agree on whether to call Ledecka's run in the past tense or the present tense. While NBC's decision to cut away from alpine skiing was understandable, nobody at NBC should have declared Veith, Ledecka, or anyone else the winner until the event was complete.
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