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"Shut up, Al!": Announcing Voices We Love and Hate

selkie

By selkie
in 2016 Olympics

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photo fox
photo fox

They just interviewed the U.S. women's team who took silver in one of the swimming relays. Announcer: "Lead-off swimmer, what was your plan for the race?" Swimmer: "Get in the water and swim

KFC
KFC

Not that I ever had a high opinion of Al, but that's SUCH a strange and dickish thing to dig in your heels about. My word, Al, are you really challenging her on who she gets to call her parents? Good

Rick Kitchen
Rick Kitchen

One NBC announcer just said, "Katey Ledecky is considered the most dominant female swimmer in the world today.  Michael Phelps held that position for the past four Olympics."  No, I don't think he has

Brattinella

Brattinella

1 minute ago, photo fox said:

They just interviewed the U.S. women's team who took silver in one of the swimming relays.

Announcer: "Lead-off swimmer, what was your plan for the race?"

Swimmer: "Get in the water and swim as fast as I could."

Me: "Bahahaha!"

Seriously, what did they expect her to say?"

I KNOW!  I was laughing so hard it woke hubby up!  "Swim Fast".

  • Love 1
kalystia1983

kalystia1983

(edited)

Wow.  That just seems like a bad idea for Al.

shoutout to the Archery announcers who got me understand how the team competition works and explained some of the technicalities very quickly and plainly in a way a new viewer can understand, but not belaboring the point. 

Edited by kalystia1983
Archery announcers were good :)
  • Love 8
legaleagle53

legaleagle53

55 minutes ago, greendog78 said:

Has anyone at NBC sat down with Al Trautwig and had that talk about what not to do on social media? His twitter just confirms all the bad things I've thought about him over the years. He may be playing a "role" while commenting on gymnastics, but real life Al isn't so hot either.

Yikes.  He makes Donald Trump's Twitter feed look like Mother Teresa's.  Shut up, Al!

  • Love 1
Minneapple

Minneapple

Normally I like the commenters on the livestream of the gymnastics, but I nearly reached through my tablet to punch them today. Not to mention the camera people for the stream. I was watching the general women's gymnastics qualification feed, and they just randomly skipped Simone's bars routine! They were just showing gymnasts hanging about and stretching. Then the commenters were like, "oh, well, there was a mixup, we missed Simone's routine, hopefully we get to it later. Here's this Venezuelan gymnast on vault." I was all, "WHAT NO WHERE'S SIMONE?!"

I have no doubt Al and Tim will make me grind my teeth tonight.

  • Love 2
photo fox

photo fox

4 hours ago, Rick Kitchen said:

One NBC announcer just said, "Katey Ledecky is considered the most dominant female swimmer in the world today.  Michael Phelps held that position for the past four Olympics."  No, I don't think he has ever been the dominant female swimmer in the world.

Because God forbid they talk about swimming and NOT mention Michael Phelps. SMDH

  • Love 11
candall

candall

7 hours ago, kalystia1983 said:

shoutout to the Archery announcers who got me understand how the team competition works and explained some of the technicalities very quickly and plainly in a way a new viewer can understand, but not belaboring the point. 

I just said the same thing on the Archery thread--extremely informative commentary.   The action would probably be too low-key and repetitive for some people, but the announcers kept it interesting.  (One was a former Archery Olympian.)

  • Love 1
SnideAsides

SnideAsides

The Australian archery commentators have been the highlight of our coverage as well. And then it was all ruined when the network showing the games deigned to give our men's team archery bronze medallists an interview and the interviewer chastised them for not being excited enough by their win in the interview, even though (1) it's a bronze, (2) they have medals and he doesn't, (3) the interview was literally hours and hours after the win and they'd already celebrated, as opposed to the swimmers they'd probably break into coverage of a state funeral to interview, and (4) shut up.

  • Love 4
Aliconehead

Aliconehead

(edited)

The Al thing is ridiculous. 

 

Also so is it possible to interview a swimmer not named Phelps WITHOUT mention a swimmer named Phelps?  I know he is great but give the others their time in the spotlight with out mentioning him.  

I mean I would start a drinking game with drinking with every phelps mention but my liver could not take that much drinking. 

Edited by Aliconehead
  • Love 8
Dots And Stripes

Dots And Stripes

(edited)
11 minutes ago, kalystia1983 said:

Al deleted his tweet.  Probably has to do with the fact that Simone's coach Aimee responded to him that "they are her parents". Go Aimee!

He was getting a lot of criticism for that tweet, and rightfully so. Deleting is step 1, apologizing is step 2. 

Edited by Dots And Stripes
  • Love 5
Minneapple

Minneapple

4 minutes ago, KFC said:

Not that I ever had a high opinion of Al, but that's SUCH a strange and dickish thing to dig in your heels about. My word, Al, are you really challenging her on who she gets to call her parents? Good fucking grief.

Seriously. This is Simone's shining moment. Why does he care if she calls them her parents or not? Why is he crapping all over her moment? I just. I can't.

  • Love 12
katisha

katisha

(edited)
8 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

The Australian archery commentators have been the highlight of our coverage as well. And then it was all ruined when the network showing the games deigned to give our men's team archery bronze medallists an interview and the interviewer chastised them for not being excited enough by their win in the interview, even though (1) it's a bronze, (2) they have medals and he doesn't, (3) the interview was literally hours and hours after the win and they'd already celebrated, as opposed to the swimmers they'd probably break into coverage of a state funeral to interview, and (4) shut up.

I didn't see this but it sounds like typical Seven. And speaking of the swimmers, why can't the poolside commentators just let them walk off in peace when they are obviously really upset, like Emma McKeon was after the 100m butterfly? We didn't need to hear her tearfully telling us she was disappointed in her swim. The red eyes and sad face kind of gave that away.

Edited by katisha
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EVS

EVS

(edited)

I don't know if it will make any difference, but I did see a petition asking NBC to remove Al from gymnastics coverage.  

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/633/135/129/remove-al-trautwig-from-nbc-gymnastics-coverage/

Eta:  I know this is an old story about Al, but it made me laugh.

http://deadspin.com/if-you-insult-al-trautwig-on-twitter-hell-call-your-m-1464105302

Edited by EVS
  • Love 2
Indy

Indy

On 8/6/2016 at 10:59 PM, photo fox said:

They just interviewed the U.S. women's team who took silver in one of the swimming relays.

Announcer: "Lead-off swimmer, what was your plan for the race?"

Swimmer: "Get in the water and swim as fast as I could."

Me: "Bahahaha!"

Seriously, what did they expect her to say?"

No kidding!
"Well, originally my plan was to knit a sweater first but then I figured what the heck, just get in the water and swim real fast and see what happens."

Idiots...all of them...

  • Love 6
catray

catray

Because Al is so terrible (and I have no love for Tim), I'd really love to have them ousted in favor of Jon Horton, who's doing commentary on the NBC streaming right now for the men's gymnastics final. His commentary is thoughtful and also insightful and he does things like crunch numbers to see where teams could possibly improve over their qualifying rounds to make it onto the podium. So already more work than Tim and Al put into their commentary. Plus, he doesn't seem like a giant douchebag (shut up AL!!).

  • Love 6
Indy

Indy

6 minutes ago, catray said:

Because Al is so terrible (and I have no love for Tim), I'd really love to have them ousted in favor of Jon Horton, who's doing commentary on the NBC streaming right now for the men's gymnastics final. His commentary is thoughtful and also insightful and he does things like crunch numbers to see where teams could possibly improve over their qualifying rounds to make it onto the podium. So already more work than Tim and Al put into their commentary. Plus, he doesn't seem like a giant douchebag (shut up AL!!).

ITA! I'd like to replace Tim and Al with Jon Horton and whoever this Jim Watson guy is that is doing the live coverage.  Jon is very informative and Jim doesn't seem like a complete an total asshole.  I'm also really enjoying Courtney Kupets too, much more personality than Nastia.  Al has me so pissed about his "not her parents" comments that I'm not sure I can even listen to him anymore. 

  • Love 1
Quilt Fairy

Quilt Fairy

1 hour ago, pivot said:

I actually don't know why we need a US male gymnast doing commentary for gymnastics.

Because they use different apparatus? (Except for FX.) Today was my first day watching the live streaming and I thought Horton was fine, as was the main commentator, whoever he was. He was giving the names of the moves, which is more than we're getting from Tim Daggett. Horton was able to talk about how the PBs really beat you up, for example. A female gymnast couldn't do that.

  • Love 1
Muffyn

Muffyn

(edited)

Al, under pressure, says he regrets tweet about Simone Biles' parents:  http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/olympics/nbc-announcer-says-he-regrets-tweet-about-biles-parents/ar-BBvombt?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

So he regrets that people were upset but he hasn't really apologized.  So, he is not a good announcer, often belittles the sport he is announcing and is a dick to the viewers.  Why does Al have a job?

Quote

"To set the record straight, Ron and Nellie are Simone's parents," Trautwig said Monday.

Edited by Muffyn
typo
  • Love 5
Arynm

Arynm

I really enjoyed Horton. I thought he was informative and animated without being a complete asshole. He brought personal stories that really added something to the commentary. I liked when he pointed out how much it hurt when you hit the pb with your biceps and then pointed out the bruises on the Chinese      athlete. Much better than the evening announcers by a mile.

  • Love 3
Daisy

Daisy

7 minutes ago, Muffyn said:

Al, under pressure, says he regrets tweet about Simone Biles' parents:  http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/olympics/nbc-announcer-says-he-regrets-tweet-about-biles-parents/ar-BBvombt?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

So he regrets that people were upset but he hasn't really apologized.  So, he is not a good announcer, often belittles the sort he is announcing and is a dick to the viewers.  Why does Al have a job?

He sounds so sincere. 
shut the ever loving hell up, Al.

  • Love 8
Daisy

Daisy

Just now, ExplainItAgain said:

Not to mention, the article says NBC made him delete the tweet, it's not like he realized he made a mistake.

Right? 
and honestly, I bet you if it wasn't Simone Biles - like say it was Sally May Smith from Dunedin Florida, who isn't about to break out to be a star, would NBC make Al (or any commentator) delete it? I mean Al was flat out wrong  but still. 

I watched the swimming where Hosszu won, and Hicks was like "and there's the guy who helped her career. and they got got married." i don't know why people got mad about that, - that was true and it wasn't really said malicious or anything. Al's comment was way offside, and so was his reaction. 

 

talk about a classless human being. 

  • Love 2
SnideAsides

SnideAsides

Australia has Liz Chetkovich doing commentary for both men and women, and she seems to do it fine. Maybe because she's a coach rather than an athlete?

I also want to give a special shoutout to our new equestrian commentators Vicki Roycroft and Martin Gostelow. They're hitting the balance between analysis, explanation, and sarcasm PERFECTLY, and considering (1) they're both athletes rather than sportscasters and (2) they're stepping into the shoes of equestrian great Lucinda Green, it's really quite incredible.

15 hours ago, katisha said:

I didn't see this but it sounds like typical Seven. And speaking of the swimmers, why can't the poolside commentators just let them walk off in peace when they are obviously really upset, like Emma McKeon was after the 100m butterfly? We didn't need to hear her tearfully telling us she was disappointed in her swim. The red eyes and sad face kind of gave that away.

It was the awful, awful Hamish Maclachlan, who I am about 85% sure is only managing to keep his job at Seven/get all the good gigs because his brother runs the AFL and Seven don't want to piss him off.

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