Announcers we love and/or hate

[selkie]

3 hours ago, friendperidot said:

Darn it, seems like the starter for the short track skater is now an English speaker. He just says "ready." The other one, sounded like maybe he was Korean, drew out the word, I just liked listening to him. I guess it's because they are down to all the finals.

English is a pretty common language used for starter's commands in a number of sports when it gets multilingual. From what I remember hearing, it's also used in track & field, swimming  and mountain biking. 

[meep.meep]

On 2/21/2018 at 8:25 PM, Lilac2000 said:

I love the CBC snowboard guys. They've been totally great together. And the snowboarding lingo is hilarious. We started making up our own moves and my favourite was from my sister, "the flew-flew boom-boom--awww he missed that last boom." It wouldn't have surprised me if that was real. 

My daughter is ready to kill me for referring to the required element for  pairs figure skating as the dinner roll.

"It's a twist!  You know it's a twist!  Stop calling it that!"

[mledawn]

On 2/22/2018 at 12:12 PM, kili said:

Loving CBC's Craig McMorris commenting on Big Air and Slopestyle. The guy is obviously having so much fun watching the competition, he can't help but drag the viewers in with his his passion. He does a great job of explaining what is going on, what the tricks are and what all those crazy snowboarding terms mean.

I just learned tonight that the "expert" was Craig McMorris - Mark McMorris' brother! He's been doing some fun spots with the athletes that CBC has aired. I've seen him playing shinny with Scott Moir, and taking a tae kwan do class with Spencer O'Brien... They're available online, too.

[Love]

On February 22, 2018 at 12:12 PM, kili said:

Loving CBC's Craig McMorris commenting on Big Air and Slopestyle. The guy is obviously having so much fun watching the competition, he can't help but drag the viewers in with his his passion. He does a great job of explaining what is going on, what the tricks are and what all those crazy snowboarding terms mean.

Also he's done a great job of staying objective considering his brother is one of the competitors he's commenting on.

[friendperidot]

Selkie, I know that, it wasn't that they said "ready" in English, it was how the first starter pronounced it, it was very slow, something like "red dee", I just thought it was fun to hear, then they changed the starter and it was plain ole "ready" very flat, very normal, not at all fun.

But then tonight it seemed like the first guy was back. Didn't draw out the word so much, but it wasn't the flat "ready."

[galaxygirl76]

9 minutes ago, friendperidot said:

Selkie, I know that, it wasn't that they said "ready" in English, it was how the first starter pronounced it, it was very slow, something like "red dee", I just thought it was fun to hear, then they changed the starter and it was plain ole "ready" very flat, very normal, not at all fun.

But then tonight it seemed like the first guy was back. Didn't draw out the word so much, but it wasn't the flat "ready."

The starter of the 1000m event was Norwegian according to my friends on the Dutch live stream. 

[friendperidot]

thank you, I really have no idea of what nationality any of them are, just made an assumption (yes, I know what assume means) that they were Korean because the Olympics are in Korea. But what do I know? I just enjoyed the slow pronunciation of ready and intend to say it that way from now on.

[Silver Raven]

The guy doing the ski announcing has what sounds like an English accent.

[MaKaM]

The final rundown (American Version):

Liked:

The Australian lady on the figure skating stream (Belinda something?). Knowledgable and steady. The guy with her was a waste of a paycheck and he can gladly never do this again. He couldn't get Medvedeva's name right consistently and filled his time telling us how much time had passed in every damn routine. Utterly useless.

Mike Tirico. A bit bland, yes, but he clearly studied how to correctly pronounce everyone's name, no matter what their nationality and I really appreciated that.

Bode Miller. Yeah, soporific at times, but he clearly respects everyone out there and only had good things to say about them personally, and if they were doing something wrong, still willing to point it out.

Rebecca Lowe. Nice and friendly and kind in interviews.

Tanith Belbin. Classy and informative and maybe a bit too forgiving and tongue bathy of her favorites but kept it to a reasonable amount.

 

Did NOT Like:

The halfpipe snowboard guy. Holy shit, if he said one more time that that move was named after a Canadian boarder, I was going to shove a frickin' michalchuk down his gd throat.

Al Trautwig. SHUT UP AL

The other guy announcing cross country skiing who seemed like he was going to stroke out from excitement (or was that during Biatholon? Whichever. Awful)

Andrea Joyce. OMG, NBC, FIRE HER. Put her out to pasture, Johnny and Tara have shown you can take some risks with some new blood. She doesn't know how to interview anyone and especially anyone who is English as a second (or fifth) language, she is completely insensitive and lacking in basic human empathy, and her questions are often mean and/or inane. Adam Rippon's schtick was getting tiresome but if he was trolling Andrea, hire him. He can't be worse.

 

I was Okay with:

Johnny and Terry with Tara as okay once in a while. They didn't do too badly, too biased toward the Russians but it was clear they did their studying and prep for this. And some of their google home commercials are frickin' cute. I almost wish they were still the second string because they were much more relaxed and natural but they are still better than Hammond/Hamilton/Bezic that we were stuck with for far too long.

Tom Hammond is okay when he is doing track and field and speed skating. Never let him near  figure skating again and I'll be at peace with him.

Apolo Ohno. He didn't seem to add much but I also don't think I saw nearly as much short track as in previous Olympics so maybe he was better than what I saw.

Edited February 24, 2018 by MaKaM

[Iseut]

I could just never get behind Bode's announcing. Knowledgeable for sure, but just so joyless. You can talk all you want about the technical aspects, but please still remember to express some modicum of interest in the human side of the sport.

I think it's funny that his broadcast partner Dan Hicks does the swimming events in summer with Bode Miller's polar opposite, Rowdy Gaines. Rowdy practically strokes out with excitement at every single race. I wonder if we got Bode because Dan Hicks was like "Ok, NBC, I'll announce the skiing for you, but can you give me someone QUIET to work with please?" 

[mtlchick]

On 2/23/2018 at 9:07 PM, mledawn said:

I just learned tonight that the "expert" was Craig McMorris - Mark McMorris' brother! He's been doing some fun spots with the athletes that CBC has aired.

I had that light bulb moment last night too.  I will never understand snowboard lingo but from the little I've seen in the overnights, I need him back for Tokyo. He's so endearing in a slightly bizarre way.

 

I need to find out what happens to Peter Mansbear though.  

[Ohwell]

Ok, I swear, this is my last hit on Bode Miller but I thought this AP article was interesting in that it addressed the issue of his commentating (bolding mine):  

"The Alpine skiing team was the weak link. Dan Hicks is a pro, but embarrassingly called a race over when it wasn't. Despite his considerable knowledge about skiing, Bode Miller had trouble as a rookie analyst. His monotone made an exciting sport seem clinical. And he compounded his blooper about marriage hurting a woman skier's career with an apology that shrugged it off as a bad attempt at humor.

It will be up to Miller to decide if he wants to put the same energy into being a broadcaster that he did to becoming a world-class athlete."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/winter-olympics/what-went-right-wrong-for-nbc-at-the-olympics/ar-BBJx1SI?li=BBnb7Kz&OCID=msnHomepage

[MaKaM]

4 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

Ok, I swear, this is my last hit on Bode Miller but I thought this AP article was interesting in that it addressed the issue of his commentating (bolding mine):  

"The Alpine skiing team was the weak link. Dan Hicks is a pro, but embarrassingly called a race over when it wasn't. Despite his considerable knowledge about skiing, Bode Miller had trouble as a rookie analyst. His monotone made an exciting sport seem clinical. And he compounded his blooper about marriage hurting a woman skier's career with an apology that shrugged it off as a bad attempt at humor.

It will be up to Miller to decide if he wants to put the same energy into being a broadcaster that he did to becoming a world-class athlete."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/winter-olympics/what-went-right-wrong-for-nbc-at-the-olympics/ar-BBJx1SI?li=BBnb7Kz&OCID=msnHomepage

I don't think anyone who watches skiing can hold the calling the the race. The people outside the top 20 in the world cup almost never (i'd even say never) hit the podium much less win. Skiing just isn't something you suddenly become fast at (especially if you lack the equipment technicians and course reporters of the top people). So the article already is pretty stupid for holding that against them. But whatever, Bode was always going to be a polarizing figure and I didn't mind him and I thought from the start it was an attempt at humor that Dan failed to pick up the ball on.

[tanyak]

One final obevation about Mike Tirico.  He seems to be back on the "ski lodge" set...wearing a suit. He cracked me up the couple of other times I saw him there because he had on a zip-up sweater with his suit pants and jacket.  Dude. If you're supposed to be in this more relaxed setting, just wear a nice pair of pants with a sweater. You'll still look professional but like you didn't wander in off the street. 

[torqy]

As some of my fellow curmudgeons have said above, I remember and still miss the Jim McKay-style ABC coverage of Olympics. Heck, I remember when there WAS an ABC Sports....

[AuntieDiane6]

Quote

As some of my fellow curmudgeons have said above, I remember and still miss the Jim McKay-style ABC coverage of Olympics. Heck, I remember when there WAS an ABC Sports....

Surely, they archival Olympic coverage.  I remember a couple of years ago, a channel--probably ESPN--showed the 1972 gymnastics competition with Olga Korbut. Why not pull that archival footage out of the vault?  Ditto CBS with Lillehammer.

[mtlchick]

9 hours ago, torqy said:

As some of my fellow curmudgeons have said above, I remember and still miss the Jim McKay-style ABC coverage of Olympics. Heck, I remember when there WAS an ABC Sports....

I chuckle about that as the last time I saw some "archival footage" of ABC Sports was during last summer's Battle of the Network "Stars." 

[mledawn]

The Olympic Broadcasting Service had (has?) its own YouTube channel. It's really neat for those who want to see events *without* commentary. I had the full USA v CAN men's gold medal hockey final from Vancouver saved on my work laptop. Sadly I didn't think to transfer it before I left that job, but the videos are out there and unfortunately, I think the OBS channel is now "private".

The IOC and the various Olympic Organizing Committees also have their own channels and I was able to find my beloved 2010 women's and men's gold medal finals without commentary. Obviously we're not at ABC's Wide World of Sports dates, but if anyone is interested in old-ish Olympic coverage sans-voice over, that's my suggestion.

[proserpina65]

On ‎02‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 9:17 PM, tanyak said:

Is Alpine skiing finished? I got to say, I did complain about Bodie's voice after the first or second day, but after listening more I agree that he's pretty insightful and seems to show The same enthusiasm for all the racers and not just Michaela Shifrin Michaela Shifrin Michaela Shifrin Lindsey Vonn Michaela Shifrin.

I actually think he didn't show enthusiasm for anyone else.  And I watched one skier get halfway down the course before he stopped talking about Michaela Shifrin long enough to acknowledge that someone else was skiing.

[Cindyluwho]

Fellow  Canadians, did you see Colleen Jones interview Rachel Homan after they were eliminated? Colleen was a true bitch!

[roamyn]

7 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I actually think he didn't show enthusiasm for anyone else.  And I watched one skier get halfway down the course before he stopped talking about Michaela Shifrin long enough to acknowledge that someone else was skiing.

I caught him doing this once or twice.  Part of the reason, IMO, is because he’s not a natural commentator, so he doesn’t have the timing down pat, hence his commentary bled from one skier into another.  I also thought he showed quite a bit of enthusiasm for other countries participants - especially Hirschel and Goggje (sic).   And he was very excited once they came back in the middle of Ledecke’s run.  

[Quof]

Quote

Colleen was a true bitch!

Colleen is a true bitch.  At all times.

[blackwing]

I enjoyed Mike Tirico's performance overall, he had that air of "sagacious one in the ski lodge".  In my futile quest to wean myself from obsessing over the Olympics, I clicked on his Wikipedia bio.   I was surprised to learn that he claims he is not black.  Wait, what?

I had been thinking that the Winter Olympics is almost always has a fairly lily white representation from the U.S. (and Canada), and that along with the increasing number of black athletes (Maame, Erin Jackson, bobsledders, hockey player) and Asian-American athletes (Chloe Kim, figure skating, short track), seeing a black host of NBC's coverage might inspire more young minority kids to want to participate in winter sports.   Now I learn that he says he isn't black?  He was raised by a single mom but he says he has seen a picture of his father and he was white.

Um?

[Ohwell]

Maybe his parents didn't have the heart to tell him he was adopted?

[roamyn]

3 hours ago, blackwing said:

I enjoyed Mike Tirico's performance overall, he had that air of "sagacious one in the ski lodge".  In my futile quest to wean myself from obsessing over the Olympics, I clicked on his Wikipedia bio.   I was surprised to learn that he claims he is not black.  Wait, what?

I had been thinking that the Winter Olympics is almost always has a fairly lily white representation from the U.S. (and Canada), and that along with the increasing number of black athletes (Maame, Erin Jackson, bobsledders, hockey player) and Asian-American athletes (Chloe Kim, figure skating, short track), seeing a black host of NBC's coverage might inspire more young minority kids to want to participate in winter sports.   Now I learn that he says he isn't black?  He was raised by a single mom but he says he has seen a picture of his father and he was white.

Um?

I think that's odd, too.  But maybe he means culturally?

Regardless, hopefully many kids turning in saw him and didn't read anything he claims about his heritage.  Especially for younger generations, sight has more impact than verbal or the written word.  To them, he looks African American, so they too can aspire to good language skills and being the top dog in front of a camera.

[biakbiak]

Mike has a history dating back to the 90s of sexual harassment and stalking complaints so I dont think he should be a role model for anyone.

Edited March 1, 2018 by biakbiak

[roamyn]

13 hours ago, biakbiak said:

Mike has a history dating back to the 90s of sexual harassment and stalking complaints so I dont think he should be a role model for anyone.

Really?  And NBC still used him even after the Matt Lauer debacle?

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, roamyn said:

Really?  And NBC still used him even after the Matt Lauer debacle?

They said because the allegations were in the past and he was punished it wasn't an issue.

[Passepartout]

ABC Sports really was the network for the Olympics. Now McKay, Schinkel, Gifford, Jackson are gone. Only Al Michaels is still here and now with NBC

MIss Bob Costas but they NBC Sports are prepping Mike Tirico for being the face of the network. Since Michaels only has a few good years left in him.

CBS kind of ruined the Olympics with Tim McCarver and Paula Zahn but corrected it with Greg Gumbel as the prime time host.