News and Media Coverage of the Winter Games

[Athena]

Your media and news thread for all things 2018 Winter Olympic Games. 

[legaleagle53]

And just to kick things off, here's a peremptory "SHUT UP, AL!"

[mojoween]

I didn’t see a ratings/scheduling thread so I’m not sure if this is the right place, but I’m curious how the ratings are going to play out for over-the-air TV.

I know for me, and I know it’s only been three days, but I'm not watching very much, because in order to see an event finish, I have to stay up to past 11 eastern. I’m turning it on, but not getting any resolution because I gotta sleep.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the media.  I have seen some grumbling about the tape delay, though.

[galaxygirl76]

I can't even watch NBC, the main channel doesn't stream in our area because I'm not in a big en Ugg marketing guess. We were able to watch the Superbowl just fine though. I can watch most events on the other NBC channels through Vue and watch events live on the Dutch public television live stream.

[blackwing]

So Mike Tirico just brought Natalie Morales into the studio to talk about how well women are doing for the U.S.  She talked about how women drove the team in Rio and noted here that women have won 2 of the 4 gold medals.  By my math, that's 50%.  Since there is a counterpart women's version for every men's event, wouldn't that make sense?  Just struck me odd that she seemed to think "hey women are putting in their fair share" is something extraordinary.

[SnoGirl]

28 minutes ago, blackwing said:

So Mike Tirico just brought Natalie Morales into the studio to talk about how well women are doing for the U.S.  She talked about how women drove the team in Rio and noted here that women have won 2 of the 4 gold medals.  By my math, that's 50%.  Since there is a counterpart women's version for every men's event, wouldn't that make sense?  Just struck me odd that she seemed to think "hey women are putting in their fair share" is something extraordinary.

On the Olympic Website, there is a sport which does not have woman listed under it for the competitions, and that’s the Nordic Combined. It only has Men individual, sprint, and team and then a mixed event. I’m by no means an Olympic expert, I was just planning an activity for class and I noticed as I went through their website. I dont know if its a mistake or not...

Also, a lot of the events have different competitions where they’re not the same for men and woman (mainly the length of the races are shorter for women, or how there’s no four woman team for Bobsled). So, not 100% equal. I dont mind the comment because woman athlete’s still have to deal with comments like “Ledecky, the Phelps of Woman’s Swimming,” or how Chloe Kim was called the “female Shaun White” last night. Can we be awesome without the comparison?

Edited February 14, 2018 by SnoGirl

[voiceover]

NBC just ran a "100 Gold Medals" montage of all 100 U.S. (winter) gold medalists.

And it was: AWESOME!!

[InsertWordHere]

54 minutes ago, voiceover said:

NBC just ran a "100 Gold Medals" montage of all 100 U.S. (winter) gold medalists.

And it was: AWESOME!!

Crazy to see Kelly Clark at number 60 (right behind number 59 Tara Lapinski) and realize she is on the same team as the number 99 winner and almost shared the podium with her. 

Edited February 14, 2018 by InsertWordHere

[blackwing]

12 hours ago, SnoGirl said:

On the Olympic Website, there is a sport which does not have woman listed under it for the competitions, and that’s the Nordic Combined. It only has Men individual, sprint, and team and then a mixed event. I’m by no means an Olympic expert, I was just planning an activity for class and I noticed as I went through their website. I dont know if its a mistake or not...

Also, a lot of the events have different competitions where they’re not the same for men and woman (mainly the length of the races are shorter for women, or how there’s no four woman team for Bobsled). So, not 100% equal. I dont mind the comment because woman athlete’s still have to deal with comments like “Ledecky, the Phelps of Woman’s Swimming,” or how Chloe Kim was called the “female Shaun White” last night. Can we be awesome without the comparison?

 

I get what you are saying, and I thought of doubles luge as another event for which there is no women's equivalent.  But for the most part, these events are exceptions.  

As for the modifications in distance, it doesn't matter to me, because the women are competing against other women.

If the US women were winning 75% of the golds or 80% of the total medals for the US, I could understand Morales gushing about how well the women are doing.  But to effusively praise them for winning medals as the men are struck me in a patronizing Stuart Smalley "you're so special" manner.  If she is trying to advocate for women's equality and point out the strength of women, perhaps she should start by not treating women as some kind of special flowers that need pats on the back to remind them how great they are.  "You went to work today?  OMG you're such a rock star!"

Edited February 14, 2018 by blackwing

[mtlchick]

12 hours ago, SnoGirl said:

On the Olympic Website, there is a sport which does not have woman listed under it for the competitions, and that’s the Nordic Combined. It only has Men individual, sprint, and team and then a mixed event.

I believe that is the only event left that is "men only."  Women's event will be added for Beijing. 

[leopardprint]

Has there been decidedly less “Lindsey Vonn in 1 day 3 hours 47 minutes and 43 seconds*” type stuff on NBC or does it just seem that way because I am using streaming more than broadcast and also Lindsey Vonn’s events are later? It was sooooooo annoying last time. 

(I am getting the NBC sports app alerts like every three minutes but I did that to myself so...)

[Stuffy]

I haven’t noticed them talking about Vonn excessively. They are spending all their time talking about Mikaela Shriffin because the ski events keep getting cancelled. 

[InsertWordHere]

NBCSN did another U.S. gold medal montage in their overnight coverage. They had different categories of the golds like the most (speedskating), the youngest (Tara Lapinski), the miraculous (1980 hockey team), and the legendary (I think they showed Vonn and Ono). They ended it with a montage of our gold medal winning snowboarders. 

[Silver Raven]

At Shaun White's press conference, the person calling on reporters studiously avoided calling on any female reporters.  They are not happy about it.

[blackwing]

I'm still at a loss as to why NBC cut away from the live men's Super G.  American Ryan Cochran-Siegel was next, and Ted Ligety three after him.  All so Mike Tirico could show us taped clips of what else has been happening.  And then spend 15 minutes on skeleton, an event with no American medal contenders, just because the leader was Korean.  

On the one hand, good for NBC for showing us something other than Americans.  But this is Ted Ligety, a double gold medalist and the star of the US men's ski team.  Couldn't they have stuck around for 5 more minutes?  An odd decision.  

[Silver Raven]

Gay skier Gus Kenworthy announced that he broke his thumb in practice, but, silver lining, he won't have to shake Mike Pence's hand.

https://sports.yahoo.com/gus-kenworthy-uses-broken-thumb-take-shot-mike-pence-011535271.html

[xaxat]

An Oral History of Bob Costas Having Pink Eye at the Olympics

Quote

The decision to take him off air was … not difficult. 

[galaxygirl76]

That was a fun read, I especially enjoyed the tweets :D

[walnutqueen]

2 hours ago, xaxat said:

An Oral History of Bob Costas Having Pink Eye at the Olympics

 

51 minutes ago, galaxygirl76 said:

That was a fun read, I especially enjoyed the tweets :D

Hilarious - especially the pics included in those tweets.

[Souris]

Just saw Mary Carrillo for the first time. I'd been wondering where she was -- or has she been around and I've just not seen her pieces?

[greyhorse]

47 minutes ago, Souris said:

Just saw Mary Carrillo for the first time. I'd been wondering where she was -- or has she been around and I've just not seen her pieces?

As it's Saturday, and I'm watching the afternoon (taped) coverage, this is also the first time I've seen Mary Carrillo.  Maybe she is doing her segments on the less watched afternoon broadcasts and not primetime?  I enjoyed her piece on Elise Christie and hope we see more of her.

 

Has there been any segment on how sparsely attended these events seem to be?  I guess it's nothing new, as the Rio games often times featured empty stands.  Some of the Alpine events look like the stands are barely 1/3 full.  Is it because it's freaking cold to sit outside for hours?  Is it because the South Koreans aren't good at skiing?  Even the snowboard halfpipe or Slopestyle didn't seem well attended.  I'm going to guess that short track is a very popular and hard to get ticket.

[walnutqueen]

1 hour ago, greyhorse said:

1 hour ago, Souris said:

Just saw Mary Carrillo for the first time. I'd been wondering where she was -- or has she been around and I've just not seen her pieces?

As it's Saturday, and I'm watching the afternoon (taped) coverage, this is also the first time I've seen Mary Carrillo.  Maybe she is doing her segments on the less watched afternoon broadcasts and not primetime?  I enjoyed her piece on Elise Christie and hope we see more of her.

I've been watching most of the afternoon broadcasts, and this is the first time I've seen Mary, too.

[Irlandesa]

5 hours ago, greyhorse said:

Has there been any segment on how sparsely attended these events seem to be?  I guess it's nothing new, as the Rio games often times featured empty stands.  Some of the Alpine events look like the stands are barely 1/3 full.  Is it because it's freaking cold to sit outside for hours?  Is it because the South Koreans aren't good at skiing?

It has been talked about in other threads but it's usually because of the way Olympics tickets are allocated.  The best seats are given to sponsors who don't always use them.  So when you watch something like skating where the crowd is often in the background, it looks like no one is there but you can see more people in the nose bleed seats.

[Silver Raven]

NBC just reported that over 90% of the tickets have been sold.

[greyhorse]

3 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

NBC just reported that over 90% of the tickets have been sold.

I find that amazing and unbelievable.  Unless, as said up above, that the sponsors are given tickets.  But then that would suggest that the sponsors get over half the tickets, if the half empty seats at the Alpine events are any indication?  That's sad.

[galaxygirl76]

I saw a short segment last night on NBCSN about a Zamboni driver who is in charge of the crew at the figure skating/short track rink. I found it very informative, he was telling about how long it takes to prepare the ice for either event, the difference between the ice for both events. I really enjoyed it.

[absnow54]

12 hours ago, greyhorse said:

But then that would suggest that the sponsors get over half the tickets, if the half empty seats at the Alpine events are any indication?  That's sad.

Haven't the Alpine events all been delayed due to wind? It's possible that they sold the tickets but people didn't show up because the day and time kept getting moved, and it was really cold and windy. I will say the stadium whenever there is speed skating is PACKED. You can tell which sports the South Koreans are good at by the crowd size. 

[galaxygirl76]

I can't believe I'm actually seeing alpine downhill training runs on NBCSN right now and I don't mean that in a good way.

[Sandiscot]

Are they showing any of the medal ceremonies? I hoped they'd show the ice dance one, but...nothing.

[Minneapple]

2 hours ago, Sandiscot said:

Are they showing any of the medal ceremonies? I hoped they'd show the ice dance one, but...nothing.

They hold all the medal ceremonies of the day at the same time. Tonight's (or this morning's) medal ceremony will be at 5 a.m. Eastern time, streamed live on the NBC app, I guess. 

[redpencil]

They've also been showing the whole ceremony on the Olympic Channel, for anyone who gets that.

[Quiet1ne]

Is anyone else have trouble accessing videos on the app or nbcolympics.com?   When it tries to authenticate my xfinity plan, it says I need to upgrade to a plan with the USA Network even though my current plan includes that network.  Reloading the app did not help. I can get around it 30 min at a time via incognito mode but that really annoying and I shouldn't have to resort to workarounds given how much I pay xfinity every month. Any suggestions?

[Sandiscot]

Thanks for the info, doesn't really help all that much. Maybe if the talking heads talked less, they'd have time for more stuff. 

Edited February 20, 2018 by Sandiscot
Spelling is important.

[blackwing]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2018/02/24/what-went-right-wrong-for-nbc-at-the-olympics/110783186/

 

This is a good article about NBC's coverage of these Olympics.  I think they are spot on about praising NBC for their use of NBCSN to show the entire figure skating so people who aren't interested in it can at least see something else on the home channel.  As well as the use of the late night coverage.  I think in the past, these late night slots were used for replays of the big events of the day.  With the time difference, they were able to use it for live coverage.

The article also calls out Bode Miller, says that he is knowledgeable but monotone.  Which is exactly what we said here, that he adds a lot to the coverage with his observations but that the dull monotone is hard to listen to.

And the article also points out about the lack of local culture stories.  These Olympics almost could have been set anywhere... I guess there was so much happening live in prime time that they didn't really introduce us to Korea.   Maybe all of that happened on the Today show or afternoon coverage, but I feel like Mary Carrillo got sidelined.   I vaguely remember feeling the same way about Sochi, from the lack of local culture stories it felt like they could have been anywhere.

[Mittengirl]

I am rather surprised at how little mention has been made of the Russian “ban” and why it was implemented in the first place.   Does NBC not want to piss off the IOC or do they simply not want to raise the specter of doping?